SOUTH DAKOTA STATE UNIVERSITY
RABBIT TRACKS VOLUME 16 NO. 2 \ FALL 2011
FACILITY FLASHBACK
coughlin alumni stadium est. 1962
Living By The Jackrabbit Way As I reflect on our ambitious goals for growth in our athletic program, I am reminded that our future success depends on our ability to continue to follow the Jackrabbit Way. To me, this means hustle, determination, ethics, sportsmanship, commitment to academics and staying true to short- and long-term strategic plans. Recently, we’ve been hearing a lot of stories about conference re-alignments, large money television contracts and unethical conduct in “big time” college athletics. I want our supporters to know that we do things differently here and we are proud of that fact. We will not cut corners or try to be something that we are not. We understand that one game does not make a season, one season does not make a year, and one year does not make a program. We are striving for high level academic and athletic results year after year after year. With your continued support of the Jackrabbit Way, we have a chance to do some special things in the years to come. While we are in a long-term process to build success, I am very proud of the direction the program is heading. Our coaches continue to recruit outstanding student-athletes and do a great job of providing a high quality experience during their collegiate careers and beyond. In my opinion, we have the best student-athletes in the country! We have a 3.23 cumulative GPA, with women’s basketball ranked number one in the nation! Wrestling and football are at the top of their conferences and eighteen out of nineteen programs carry a team GPA above a 3.0. Our student-athletes are great role models as evidenced by our community service and winning the Summit League Sportsmanship Award. We have also performed very well on the fields of play, which led to our first ever Summit League All Sports Trophy! We have reached all time highs in donations, ticket sales, and corporate sponsorships. In addition, we have developed an outstanding facility master plan, which is critical to long-term growth for Jackrabbit athletics. Finally, I want you to know how much all of us in the athletic department appreciate being part of a something bigger. Our institution is growing, we have outstanding university leadership and we are fortunate to work with terrific faculty. But perhaps most important, we have the best fans, donors and support base that I have ever been around. Without the vision and support of thousands of people over the past eight years, we wouldn’t have had a chance to achieve greatness in the academic and athletic arenas. On behalf of Jackrabbit athletics, I hope you take some pride in knowing how important you are in this process. We are part of a large family…one that lives by The Jackrabbit Way!
Go Big. Go Blue. Go Jacks. JUSTIN SELL DIRECTOR OF ATHLETICS
SOUTH DAKOTA STATE UNIVERSITY
RABBIT TRACKS VOLUME 16 NO. 2 \ FALL 2011
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CONTENTS 2 THE TOP FIFTY Who are the 50 best Jackrabbits to have played at Coughlin-Alumni Stadium in its first fifty years? 4 MAKING THE GRADE W’s and L’s aren’t the only letters that SDSU athletes are judged by. For many, the standards are As and Bs. 6 FRESH FACES FILL OFFICES Five sports have new head coaches and three sports now have their first full-time assistant coaches. 8 FACILITY FLASHBACK Coughlin-Alumni Stadium has been the home of 163 SDSU football victories since 1962, and many are still etched in the minds of fans and coaches. 11 LIGHTS, CAMERA CHANGE ACTION AT COUGHLIN-ALUMNI Lighting, a scoreboard with video capabilities, and the Dykhouse Center have given the stadium a new look.
8 FACILITY FLASHBACK — A SERIES
Athletic facilities then and now, and plans for the future.
PRESIDENT David L. Chicoine DIRECTOR OF ATHLETICS Justin Sell ASSISTANT ATHLETIC DIRECTOR, SPORTS INFORMATION Jason Hove SDSU SPORTS INFORMATION ASSISTANT DIRECTOR Ryan Sweeter SENIOR ASSOCIATE AD/EXTERNAL AFFAIRS Leon Costello EDITOR Andrea Kieckhefer, University Relations CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Dave Graves, Dana Hess, Kyle Johnson, University Relations DESIGNER Nina Schmidt, University Relations PHOTOGRAPHER Eric Landwehr, University Relations Athletic Department South Dakota State University Box 2820, Brookings, SD 57007 1-866-GOJACKS Fax: 605-688-5999 www.gojacks.com
ABOUT THE COVER Army ROTC cadets retire the colors before the start of a game in 2007. This year marks the 50th season of football at Coughlin-Alumni Stadium.
Rabbit Tracks is produced by University Relations in cooperation with the SDSU Athletic Department at no cost to the State of South Dakota. Please notify the Athletic Department office when you change your address. 1,400 copies printed by the SDSU Athletic Department at no cost to the State of South Dakota. PE069 10/11
12 FACILITIES OF THE FUTURE A new stadium and an indoor practice facility and human performance facility are in the planning stages. 13 WHERE ARE THEY NOW? For Dave Lane, Stan Opp, Jeff Tiefenthaler, and Audrey (Stavrum) Riggs, the answer is the Jackrabbit Sports Hall of Fame. 14 COACH SPOTLIGHT Rod DeHaven claimed a personal and team title in his years of running at State, but some of his biggest races didn’t end with him earning gold. 16 A FIRST BY FIEGEN Kelli Fiegen made SDSU history when she was selected to play in the U.S. Open Volleyball Championships. 17 FROM BROOKINGS TO BURLINGTON Blake Treinen left Brookings in May. Within a few weeks he was pitching for the Class A Burlington (Iowa) Bees. 18 SPONSOR SPOTLIGHT: AVERA The health-care provider considers itself a partner with SDSU. 19 SOME SERIOUS GOLF The event is fun, but serious cash is raised at a Miller golf tournament.
50 BEST
From Abel to Wahl Fans, experts choose best 50 players to have played at Coughlin-Alumni Stadium est quarterback ever to play at CoughlinAlumni Stadium? Best running back to ever race down the SDSU home field?
B
Such questions make great tailgating debates before the next Jackrabbit game. To stimulate a few of those arguments and to celebrate the fiftieth season of South Dakota State football at Coughlin-Alumni Stadium, a fifty-player Coughlin-Alumni Stadium All-Time Team was announced August 11 in conjunction with Fall Media Day. The list includes the obvious—NFL Hall of Famer Jim Langer, future NFL Hall of Famer Adam Vinatieri, and two-time all pro Adam Timmerman—as well as some who are only remembered by classmates and the most avid of Jackrabbit fans. Players had to be an all-conference selection to be eligible. Twenty-four of the selections were determined by online voting of fans between the spring game in April and June 30. The other twenty-six were chosen by a ten-member panel of SDSU football experts who met via conference call and voted via e-mail. As might be expected with online voting, players from recent years fared much better among fan voting. Of the twenty-four fan selections, thirteen finished their career in the past decade and another seven finished in the 1990s. Only four picks finished their careers in the 1980s, ’70s or ’60s. Sports Information Director Jason Hove, who chaired the committee, says some selections were cut and dried, such as Lynn Boden, the only first-round draft pick in SDSU history.
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Those on the bubble were put on a list, which was e-mailed to the committee to vote on the final selections, Hove says. NFL experience wasn’t a ticket to the Coughlin-Alumni Stadium All-Time Team. Eight SDSU players with NFL experience didn’t make the team. On the other hand, twenty-three of the fifty members do have pro experience and the vast majority of that in the NFL.
Timmerman’s memories Timmerman ’94 had twelve years of NFL experience—four seasons in Green Bay and eight years in St. Louis. The former Iowa farm boy felt at home playing at frozen Lambeau Field. At CoughlinAlumni, “I thought it was awesome to play outside in the elements, sometimes they were plowing the snow,” he says. The offensive lineman also was a freshman on the team that split the 1989 Hobo Day game into two days. Lightning and heavy rain forced the game to be halted with 9:01 remaining. The teams reassembled the next afternoon to finish the game, which SDSU won 13-12 thanks to a blocked extra-point attempt. Jim Langer
“The second day was kind of hard to get re-energized for. Warm-ups took longer than the actual playing of the game,” Timmerman notes. However, he was used to going to the stadium on Sundays. “When I was a freshman we had to clean up the stadium after the games on Sunday as part of our meal program,” Timmerman recalls. Their foreman was Kevin Tetzlaf ’91, a defensive line selection to the all-Coughlin team. He also recalls Jerry Busick ringing the cowbell, the band playing in the stands, and packed stands for games with Augustana and the University of South Dakota. But he also has attended some recent Beef Bowl games and says, “I wish we had the atmosphere they have now. The atmosphere when I played was good and exciting for USD and Augie, but other games it wasn’t too much. “Now it’s an event with tailgating, pregame events, and bigger crowds. It makes it more exciting for the football game.” The selections will be honored at halftime of the October 22 game against North Dakota State.
Adam Timmerman
Adam Vinatieri Players with an asterisk (*) were selected by fan voting. Number listed represents final season to letter.
OFFENSE QB: *Ryan Berry ’08, Mike Busch ’85, Gary Maffett ’79, Ron Meyer ’65, Ted Wahl ’88 RB: *Kyle Minett ’10, *Josh Ranek ’01, Darwin Gonnerman ’69, Dan Sonnek ’87, Les Tuma ’72 WR: *Josh Davis ’05, *Jeff Tiefenthaler ’86, Mike Ethier ’83, Lionel Macklin ’79 TE: *Steve Heiden ’98, Colin Cochart ’10, Clyde Hagen ’69, Monte Mosiman ’77, Dennis Thomas ’86 OL: *Matt Berry ’99, *Mitch Erickson ’07, *Jim Langer ’69, *Ryan McKnight ’10, *Adam Timmerman ’94, Lynn Boden ’74, Chuck Loewen ’79, Jerry Ochs ’63
DEFENSE DL: *Danny Batten ’09, *Bill Matthews ’77, *Eric Schroeder ’08, *Kevin Tetzlaff ’91, Joey Abell ’04, Zach Carter ’98, Phil Engle ’72, Tim Roth ’69 LB: *Derek Domino ’10, *Doug Miller ’92, *Jimmy Rogers ’09, Chris Coauette ’04, Bruce Klostermann ’85, Rick Reese ’78 DB: *Cole Brodie ’10, *Scott Connot ’03, *Conrad Kjerstad ’10, *Wayne Rasmussen ’63, Dan Dummermuth ’81, Charlie Clarksean ’73, Dave Peterson ’92
SPECIAL TEAMS
• Darwin Gonnerman, Ottawa (CFL) 1969-70 • Steve Heiden, drafted by San Diego in the third round, 1993; San Diego, 1999-2001, Cleveland, 2002-09 • Bruce Klostermann, drafted by Denver in the eighth round, 1986; Denver, 1986-89, Los Angeles Raiders, 1990-91 • Jim Langer, Miami, 1970-79, Minnesota, 1980-81 • Chuck Loewen, drafted by San Diego in the seventh round, 1980; San Diego, 1980-84 • Bill Matthews, drafted by New England in the fifth round, 1978; New England, 1978-81, New York Giants, 1982-83, Denver Gold (USFL), 1984 • Ron Meyer, drafted by Chicago in the seventh round draft, 1966; Pittsburgh, 1966 • Doug Miller, drafted by San Diego in the seventh round, 1993; San Diego, 1993-94 • Wayne Rasmussen, drafted by Detroit in the ninth round, 1964, Detroit, 1964-74, • Josh Ranek, Dallas, 2002, Ottawa (CFL) 2002-05, Hamilton (CFL) 2006, Edmonton (CFL), 2007 • Tim Roth, drafted by Oakland in the 16th round, 1970; Saskatchewan (CFL), 1971-77, • Adam Timmerman, drafted by Green Bay in the seventh round, 1995; 1995-98, Green Bay, St. Louis, 1999-2006 • Adam Vinatieri, Amsterdam (WFL), 1996, New England, 1996-2005, Indianapolis, 2006-present
K: *Adam Vinatieri ’94, Parker Douglass ’07 P: *Adam Vinatieri ’94, Tom O'Brien ’98
Honorable mention:
Selections who played in the pros:
• Casey Bender ’09, offensive lineman, Cleveland, 2010, Indianapolis, 2011, Detroit, 2011 • Dean Herrboldt ’94, receiver, British Columbia (CFL), 1995-96 • Bob Gissler ’75, defensive end, drafted by Miami in the 14th round, 1976 • Chris Johnson ’09, linebacker, Arizona/Chicago, 2010, Chicago, 2011 • Jerry Lawrence ’74, tackle, drafted in the eighth round by Houston, 1975 • Ed Maras ’65, end, drafted by Green Bay in the 20th round, 1966 • Todd Simonsen ’75, tackle, drafted by Houston in the sixth round, 1976 • Brian Sisley ’86, nose guard, New York Giants, 1987
Draft information and pro experience. Free agent unless otherwise noted.
• Danny Batten, drafted by Buffalo in the sixth round, 2010; Buffalo 2010-present • Lynn Boden, first round draft pick of Detroit, 1975; Detroit, 1975-78, Chicago, 1979 • Cole Brodie, Jacksonville Jaguars, 2011 • Mike Busch, New York Giants, 1987 • Colin Cochart, Cincinnati, 2011 • Scott Connot, Kansas City, 2004-06 • Derek Domino, Denver, 2011 • Parker Douglas, California (UFL), 2008, Las Vegas (UFL), 2009 • Phil Engle, drafted by Green Bay in the 11th round, 1973; Birmingham (WFL), 1973 • Mitch Erickson, Denver, 2008-09, Seattle, 2010
Number listed represents final season to letter.
SELECTION COMMITTEE MEMBERS: • Jim Booher, athletic trainer, 1967-2009 • Mike Daly, head coach, 1991-96; defensive coordinator, 1975-79 • Harry Forsyth, athletic department administrator, 1955-90 • John Gregory, head coach 1972-81 • Wayne Haensel, head coach 19821990, assistant coach 1973-82 • Steve Imming, football broadcaster, 1992-2010 • Jason Hove. sports information director, 2006-present • Ron Lenz, sports information director, 1977-2006 • Jerry Oster, football broadcaster, 1979-2008 • John Stiegelmeier, head coach 1997-present, assistant coach 1988-97 DAVE GRAVES
FALL 2011
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ACADEMIC SUCCESS
Student-athletes expected to be successful in classroom thletic Director Justin Sell called it a rare alignment of the stars that allowed coaches from three of the university’s top sports to take part in the SDSU On the Road Tour’s northern swing through the Black Hills in May. During the tour, women’s basketball coach Aaron Johnston, men’s basketball coach Scott Nagy and head football coach John Stiegelmeier spoke to two groups of alumni and friends in Spearfish and Piedmont. SDSU fans and friends who were expecting Xs and Os from the coaches were probably disappointed, as the recurring theme they spoke about was academics. Johnston’s teams have enjoyed remarkable success on the basketball court and in the classroom. His teams set a record by earning their way to the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament in each of their first three years
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Women’s basketball coach Aaron Johnston speaks about his team’s commitment to academics during a West River gathering in May.
of eligibility and they’ve distinguished themselves by consistently finishing among the top teams in the nation in team grade point average.
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For the 2011 season, Johnston’s team led all of Division I with a 3.666 grade point average and they finished second in the all divisions race. (See related story.) Johnston credits SDSU’s faculty for attracting talented players who enjoy success in the classroom. According to Johnston, when prospective players visit campus, one of the most important aspects of their trip is talking with a member of the faculty.
High grades for basketball, football Nagy’s men’s basketball team set a record this past year with nineteen wins, something they accomplished while earning a cumulative 3.0 grade point average. Nagy, who has been with SDSU for sixteen seasons, says he stays in Brookings because he enjoys the team feel of the Athletic Department and the University. “It is a family atmosphere, without question,” Nagy says. While introducing Stiegelmeier, Sell said it was “unheard of ” for a Division I football team to earn a 3.03 cumulative grade point average like the Jackrabbits did in the past year. Stiegelmeier gave credit to the faculty, noting ideas brought to him by College of Pharmacy Dean Dennis Hedge about how that college could better accommodate studentathletes and a letter he read from College of Engineering Assistant Dean Rich Reid to a prospective student outlining in specific detail how that student could tackle the rigors of an education in engineering while still competing on the football team. “That is common at South Dakota State,” Stiegelmeier says. “The faculty at South Dakota State is unbelievable.”
Academic excellence starts with recruiting Faculty members aren’t the only ones to stress academics. Coaches have a role in it too, according to Laurie Melum, assistant athletic director for academics. The emphasis on recruiting young men and women who are top students as well as top athletes can be seen in the wide range of majors
in which SDSU’s student-athletes are enrolled. Melum says the most popular majors for SDSU studentathletes are biology; economics; health promotions; journalism; and health, Laurie Melum physical education and recreation. Student-athletes can also be found majoring in pharmacy, nursing, and engineering. “We have student-athletes in all of them,” Melum says. “That makes the GPA more impressive.” In the last spring semester, student-athletes earned a cumulative grade point average of 3.23. For the entire academic year their grade point average was 3.174.
Grade checks help measure student-athlete success No matter what the major, arranging an academic schedule for a student-athlete is no easy chore. “The student-athlete has to work hard to make it fit with their practice and travel schedule,” Melum says. “The professors have been wonderful helping student-athletes get those things done.” To help ensure student-athletes’ success, a variety of mechanisms are used by the Athletic Department. Twice each semester student-athletes have grade checks. They visit each of their professors to have a form filled out that lets the student-athlete and their coach know their grade at that point in the semester and their progress in the class. “It helps us pay attention to where they are academically,” Melum says, “and it gives them a chance to visit with their professors.” When a student-athlete’s sport is in season, there are more visits with professors. They’ll meet at the beginning of the semester to go over the student-athlete’s travel schedule and discuss any missed class time so they can find out about tests, assignments, or labs that will need to be made up.
ACADEMIC SUCCESS
ACADEMIC SUCCESS RUNS THROUGH SDSU SPORTS The Jackrabbits set a record by reaching the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament in each of their first three years of eligibility. However, before they started schooling ESPN’s Trey Wingo about the fact that there was another SDSU, they were leading Division I in academics in the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association’s Academic Top 25 Team Honor Roll.
The 2010-11 women’s basketball team led Division I teams with a 3.66 grade point average. It is the fourth time in seven seasons of DI play that the team has had the best GPA in Division I.
According to Melum, the Athletic Department also makes sure that student-athletes are all aware of SDSU’s tutoring services. Another of the department’s academic strategies is the study table. Each sport has a study table that at the very least requires freshmen and other students who may be struggling in a course to log significant time hitting the books. “Each sport has their own study table guidelines,” says Melum, who explains that the study table requirements are up to each sport’s head coach. “It gives the studentathletes a dedicated study time and it helps show that academics are stressed.”
Time management one of the keys to success There’s little time wasted in a studentathlete’s day during the season. The morning and early afternoon are for classes. Then it’s off to the gym for weight training and practice. NCAA rules dictate how much time studentathletes can practice. For most sports it’s twenty hours per week during the season. After practice, it’s an evening of study. A schedule that full requires careful time management. Time
management is important for all, not just student-athletes, Melum says. “Students who don’t do very well in college probably don’t do very well with time management,” Melum says. One studentathlete who carries a 4.0 grade point average, women’s basketball player Ashley Eide, knows the importance of time management. Ashley Eide “In order to get everything completed and done to the best of my ability, I need to be very organized,” Eide says. “It is crucial to have good communication with professors and coaches in order to plan ahead and stay on top of everything.” DANA HESS
Since the start of SDSU’s Division I era in 20042005, the women’s team has led Division I in academics four times, the latest in the 20102011 season with a 3.666 grade point average. During that time they have never finished lower than third and three times led teams from all divisions in grade point average. The classroom performances turned in by athletes in other SDSU sports make it clear that the challenge to achieve academic excellence runs throughout the Athletic Department. Other recent academic awards include: Golfer Brian Wynia was one of ten studentathletes named to the Capital One Academic All-District VII Men’s At-Large Team. He earned his spot on the team with a 3.93 grade point average while majoring in biology/ pre-medicine. Another biology/pre-medicine major, wrestler Aaron Pickrel, earned a slot on the National Wrestling Coaches Association Individual AllAcademic team with a 3.92 grade point average. His squad’s cumulative 3.23 grade point average placed it fourth among Division I wrestling programs behind Harvard, American, and Columbia. The men’s and women’s track and field squads were named to the list of Division I All-Academic Track and Field Teams in 2011, the fifth year that both squads have received that honor. Individuals earning All-Academic honors were Ben Janinski, Luke Leischner, Jennifer Mack, Kali Olson, and Mary Wirth. Janinski, an electrical engineering major, earned a $7,500 scholarship from the NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship Committee, one of 174 postgraduate scholarships awarded nationwide to student-athletes who excel academically and athletically.
SPRING 2011
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NEW COACHES
Fresh expertise hits SDSU coaching scene ome arrive fresh, some move up the chain of command, and others return to the fold. Whatever the situation, there are new and familiar faces dotting the SDSU coaching landscape with the start of the 2011-2012 school year.
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VOLLEYBALL After serving as head volleyball coach at Drake University the last three years, Phil McDaniel returns to head the Jackrabbit program. He takes over for Nanabah Allison-Brewer, who stepped down due to family priorities. From 2005-07, McDaniel was an assistant volleyball coach at SDSU, helping guide the Jacks through the transition from Division II to Division I. SDSU increased its win total each season with McDaniel on the staff, improving from 16-19 in 2005, to 22-12 in 2006, and 25-11 in 2007. McDaniel took over the program in February, arriving in Brookings just in Phil McDaniel time for the spring season. He went right to work getting the Jackrabbits ready to make another run in the Summit League. “I came in at a crucial time,” he says, “because we needed that time on the court to learn about each other. The players needed to learn my style of coaching, my expectations for each of them, and I needed to discover what makes each of them tick on the court.
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“I’m looking forward to working with the young ladies in this program. The relationship between campus and the Brookings community is incredibly supportive, and I’m ready to do my part to move that relationship forward.” In his final season as an assistant coach in 2007, the Jacks were in their first season of Summit League play and they won the league regular-season title (13-3), and later defeated IPFW in the league championship match to become the first SDSU team to earn a Division I postseason appearance. At Drake, McDaniel directed a dramatic turnaround. Inheriting a team that won seven matches the previous season, he led Drake to a 12-20 record in 2008. He continued to build the program, notching consecutive 20-win seasons and a pair of Missouri Valley Conference Tournament appearances, going 22-12 in 2009 and 23-11 in 2010. McDaniel’s first Division I coaching tenure was at New Mexico State from 2002-04, where he was part of a program that accumulated a record of 86-15 in three seasons and two NCAA tournament berths. A native of Decatur, Illinois, McDaniel earned a bachelor’s degree from Culver-Stockton College (1996), and a master’s degree from the University of Wisconsin-Platteville (1998).
BASEBALL A man only four wins shy of reaching 600 for his career takes over the reins of the SDSU baseball program. In twenty-three seasons as a collegiate head coach, Dave Schrage has averaged more than twenty-five wins per season, including five campaigns with thirty-two or more. He has coached players who have earned all-conference honors fifty-eight times and thirty-eight of his former student-athletes have gone on to play professionally. “I’m very humbled and appreciative for this chance,” says Schrage. “I was so impressed with the quality of people when I visited campus. There is so much growth and excitement happening here. My family and I are looking forward to joining the Jackrabbit family and getting involved in the Brookings community.” Schrage replaces Ritchie Price, who returned to be an assistant coach at his alma mater, Kansas. Schrage tabbed Brian Grunzke as the Jacks’ first full-time assistant coach. The new head coach inherits a program that has averaged thirty-eight wins during the past two seasons, tying the school record for wins with a 39-21 mark in 2010.
The Jacks have advanced to the Summit League championship series three straight years. “Coach (Reggie) Christiansen and Coach Price did a super job building this program into a winner,” cites Schrage. “I expect to keep that momentum going.” Prior to SDSU, Schrage was at Notre Dame for four years, 2007-10, leading the Fighting Irish to a 119-104-1 record, including marks of 33-21-1 in 2008 and 36-23 in 2009. He had a four-year stint (2003-06) at Evansville, Indiana, where he compiled a 130108 slate. He earned Missouri Valley Conference Coach of the Year honors in 2006 as Evansville won both the regular season and tournament conference titles, earning a berth in the NCAA Tournament. A Chicago native, Schrage led a major turnaround during a three-year run, 2000-02, at Northern Illinois. Inheriting a team that was 4-51 the year before, Schrage turned in a twenty-game improvement going 24-33 in his first season, earning runnerup National Coach of the Year honors. The next year he directed the Huskies to a winning season at 28-27. Schrage spent nine seasons as head coach at Northern Iowa, where he was named Missouri Valley Conference Dave Schrage Coach of the Year in 1995 and 1997. His first head coaching job was at Waldorf College, where he logged a 61-66 record from 1988-90. Schrage was an all-conference outfielder at Creighton, graduating in 1983 Brian Grunzke with a degree in finance. Grunzke has coached at the college level for nearly thirty years. Most recently he served as the first baseball coach at the University of Illinois-Springfield. In 1990, he succeeded Schrage at Waldorf College. In sixteen seasons, Grunzke compiled a 388-344-1 record, leading the Warriors to eight appearances in the National Junior College Athletic Association region finals.
NEW COACHES
EQUESTRIAN Megan Rossiter is the new equestrian coach,
replacing Joe Humphrey (interim in 2010-11) and Megan McGee, the program’s first coach. Prior to taking the SDSU post in June, Rossiter spent four years at Drake Johnson Reining Horses in Wray, Colorado, where she assisted in instructing riders, training, and showing reining horses. She says she’s looking forward to getting started. “I’m excited for the opportunity to work with the young women on the equestrian team and be involved in a program with such great support from the administration, staff, and community.” Rossiter began her collegiate coaching career at Oklahoma State University, where she helped coach the western team as a graduate assistant from 2001-2003, before accepting an assistant coaching position at the school. During her time there, the Cowgirl western team won the 2003, 2004 and 2006 varsity equestrian national championships. In addition to varsity equestrian, the Cowgirls had Megan Rossiter success in the Intercollegiate Horse Show Association. Rossiter helped coach thirty-three individual zone champions, eighteen regional champions, and seven national champions. A native of DePere, Wisconsin, Rossiter graduated from Murray State in 2000 with a degree in agriculture with a concentration in equine science. She earned a master’s degree in animal science with an emphasis in equine nutrition from Oklahoma State in 2008. Kamerra Brown was named the program’s assistant coach. She joins the equestrian staff full time after serving as a graduate assistant for the Jacks last season. Prior to SDSU, she had a successful riding career at Delaware State University.
SOFTBALL Moving from the West Coast near the Pacific Ocean to the Midwest is Kim Aggabao, the new head coach of the SDSU softball program, replacing Joanna Lane. Before arriving in Brookings, Aggabao was an assistant coach at the University of San
Diego, where she served as the hitting coach, infield coach, and recruiting coordinator. “It’s great to be able to lead the next chapter for South Dakota State softball,” she says. “I’m so grateful to be part of this University and firstclass athletic environment. I’m also looking forward to working with the team and helping it achieve great things.” A native of Walnut, California, Kim Aggabao Aggabao played at San Diego, where she earned a biology degree in 2004. A four-year starter in the middle infield, she earned first-team all-California Collegiate Athletic Association honors three times. She was named the Carla Shepherd conference’s most valuable player and all-west region second-team as a senior. Carla Shepherd was named the program’s full-time assistant coach. She joins the staff after spending last season as the pitching coach at Occidental College in Los Angeles, California. Prior to that, she was the pitching coach at Louisiana State University at Eunice.
TENNIS After ten years, SDSU has a new men’s and women’s tennis coach, following the retirement of Don Hanson. Michael Engdahl takes over after serving as an assistant coach for the last two years. He focused primarily on the men’s team and coached them to their most successful season in team history in 2009-10. He coached three all-Summit League players as an assistant. In addition to Michael Engdahl SDSU, Engdahl
spent time as the director and head tennis instructor for Michael Engdahl Tennis, which he founded in 2006. He also worked as the director and head tennis instructor at the St. Cloud, Minnesota, Country Club. Engdahl was the head tennis coach at the Boy’s and Girl’s Club in Sartell, Minnesota, in 2005-06, and was an assistant in 2004. He also was an instructor at Gold’s Gym in Sartell and at Set Point Tennis in St. Cloud from 2003-06. A 2008 SDSU graduate, Engdahl played both No. 1 singles and No. 1 doubles as a senior captain. The St. Cloud native moved to SDSU from St. Cloud State, where he competed in the NCAA Division II national tournament twice. He was a two-time all-conference selection with the Huskies.
WRESTLING For the first time in its history, SDSU wrestling has a full-time assistant coach. Serving under Head Coach Jason Liles will be former Iowa Lakes Community College head coach and University of Iowa wrestler Ty Eustice. A Blue Earth, Minnesota, native, Eustice has experience at every NCAA level. In two seasons at Iowa Lakes, the team had a 14-11 dual record and two top-ten Ty Eustice national tournament places. Seventeen wrestlers qualified for nationals, including a two-time national champion, six allAmericans, and two academic all-Americans. Before Iowa Lakes, Eustice was an assistant wrestling coach at Cornell College. He came to Cornell after two years as a graduate assistant at Minnesota State University in Mankato, where he earned a master’s degree in sports management. Eustice had a 111-29 dual record at the University of Iowa, including a 28-3 mark as a senior. As a prep at Blue Earth, he won four individual state titles. KYLE JOHNSON
FALL 2011
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A SERIES
FACILITY
FLASHBACK
HAPPY 50TH!
Gridiron memories fill Coughlin-Alumni’s golden season Roll out the birthday cake, but put a hold on the black crepe paper. 8
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Coughlin-Alumni Stadium is marking its fiftieth season of play this fall, but there will be a few more candles on the cake before a new facility replaces what is only the University’s second football stadium in its 130 years of existence. Plans for a new stadium are still in preliminary stages, but 2011 is for celebrating and reflecting. In the 261 games played at Coughlin-Alumni Stadium before the start of the 2011 season, South Dakota State has a .621 winning percentage, has won eight of its last ten Hobo Day games, and has seen more than 1.5 million fans go through the turnstiles since the first game Sept. 22, 1962.
FACILITY FLASHBACK COUGHLIN-ALUMNI STADIUM
OPPOSITE PAGE: Don Huls (76) looks to flatten an Augustana defender in an October 6, 1962, game during the first season at Coughlin-Alumni Stadium.
That game pitted Ralph Ginn’s future conference cochampions against Arkansas State and the visitors won 9-7. The next week the Jackrabbits tried again for their first win in the new stadium and were beaten by Montana State 14-10. The third time was the charm as SDSU then whipped Augustana 28-7. The losses were the only ones of the 7-2-1 season. The following year was even better. SDSU went 9-1 and won the first of its two conference titles during the Coughlin-Alumni era.
Bison beaten, title captured After the 1963 North Central Conference crown, State wouldn’t gain a conference title again until 2007, when John Stiegelmeier’s squad beat North Dakota State 29-24 in the final game of the year to win the Great West Football title and the Dakota Marker trophy. The game is regarded among the top victories in SDSU history, and Stiegelmeier certainly holds it in that regard.
“THOSE THAT HAVE PLAYED AT COUGHLIN-ALUMNI AND THOSE THAT HAVE GONE TO GAMES AT COUGHLIN-ALUMNI KNOW IT’S A GREAT STADIUM AND WE SHOULD REALLY CELEBRATE THAT IT HAS BEEN FOR FIFTY YEARS.” COACH JOHN STIEGELMEIER
Top-ranked North Dakota State came in unbeaten with its 10-0 record including a victory over Minnesota. But with the Great West Conference title at stake, the Jackrabbits prevailed in front of a Coughlin-Alumni Stadium record crowd of 16,345, winning their first conference title since 1963. Stiegelmeier recalls, “The crowd came out on the field, which is always fun. And to see the expressions on the players’ faces is just really satisfying.” Superfan Keith Jensen has been going to SDSU games since 1971 and says that not a
lot of them stand out. That November 17, 2007, win against NDSU does. “Beating North Dakota State down here was a heck of a game and a heck of crowd. The Bison helped that. They brought a lot of people down. If I have any games that I remember, that one would top the list and the Hobo Day win over the U back in the Division II games,” Jensen says. The win over the University of South Dakota that Jensen is recalling is a 26-21 Hobo Day win in 1979, when senior Lionel Macklin caught a game-winning pass in front of a standing-room-only crowd.
Upsetting top-ranked USD The most famous win over USD came October 19, 1985, when the Coyotes traveled north for Hobo Day with a No. 1 ranking in the nation. SDSU was 3-3 and had already lost by fifteen to the University of South Dakota in the second game of the year. A record crowd of 16,193 knew that records are meaningless when it comes to playing USD. SDSU built a 22-0 lead, before Jackrabbit reserves gave up two fourth-quarter touchdowns. SDSU ended the game with a safety when USD fumbled into the end zone with thirty-nine seconds to play. The Jackrabbits held USD to 260 yards while gaining 433 yards on eighty-six plays.
Game day isn’t just football But a trip to Coughlin-Alumni Stadium isn’t just the game; it is the atmosphere. It is tailgating before the game, the aroma of barbecue during the Beef Bowl, the replays seen on a 121-foot wide scoreboard, a rowdy, face-painted student section, and the Pride of the Dakotas marching band bringing the crowd to its feet with Ring the Bells. “The band was great. They really added to the flavor of the game,” says former coach Mike Daly. In earlier days, the band would march out to the tailgate area. “That always for me got things started,” Jensen says. And once Jensen gets started, he’s ready to play the full sixty minutes. His season tickets are now nine rows from the top above the fifty-yard-line.
REMEMBER WHEN? 1962 – Coughlin-Alumni Stadium opens in defeat. Arkansas State beats the home team 9-7 on Sept. 22. The next week Montana State edged SDSU 14-10. On its third try, South Dakota State won in its new confines, beating Augustana 28-7. 1963 – In the largest margin of victory ever on Hobo Day, SDSU pastes USD 61-0 during the Jackrabbits conference championship season. Eight different ’Rabbits find paydirt with running back Reed Sanderson double dipping. SDSU outgained USD 516-74. 1968 – Conference MVP Darwin “Go-Go” Gonnerman rushes for 177 yards and five touchdowns in a 47-27 win against Augustana. Future SDSU coach Mike Daly was playing safety for the Vikings. “I made about fifteen tackles. I joke I came in at 5-10- and went out at 5-8 because he ran so low,” Daly says. Admission back then was $3 for reserved seat, $2 for general admission, and 50 cents for grade-school students with an adult. 1972 – Crowds shout “Tuma, Tuma, Tuma” as Les Tuma runs for what was then a single-season, school record of 1,061 yards. 1975 – Coaches noticed something sparkly on the wrist of kicker Dan DeLaHunt before the game’s opening kickoff. Turns out he had forgotten to take off his wristwatch. 1975 – SDSU wins a Hobo Day nailbitter over the University of South Dakota 24-22. The Coyotes seem poised to spoil State’s homecoming after taking a 22-21 lead with 5:35 left. USD scored a touchdown and twopoint conversion after intercepting SDSU in the end zone. But DeLaHunt, known to teammates as DeLaFoot, capped a 14-play drive with a 25-yard field goal with 18 seconds left to play. 1979 – In a memorable Hobo Day battle, USD grabbed a 14-13 fourthquarter lead. But SDSU answered with consecutive touchdowns by Lionel Macklin and Jerry James to take a 26-14 lead with 6:40 remaining. SDSU held on to win 26-21, and later that season played in its first playoff game. To read more highlights from fifty years of games at Coughlin-Alumni Stadium, go to gojacks.com.
FALL 2011
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FACILITY FLASHBACK
“I like where I sit because a lot of parents are above me. They’ll get up and yell with me. I don’t have to be down in the sit-inyour-seats crowd down below. I seem to be kind of the leader. They seem to get up when I get up,” says Jensen, who also used to clang the cowbell before it was outlawed. While cowbells are a big part of SDSU’s tradition, the NCAA has outlawed them as artificial noisemakers.
More popular than ever So that puts the burden on the lungs of the fans, and the more the better, Coach Stiegelmeier says. “What’s really impacted game day is the increase in the crowds; people being willing to buy a ticket and be part of the 13,000 to 15,000,” he says. During its 8-4 2009 season, SDSU averaged 13,265 fans per game in five games with each topping 10,000. Ron Lenz, the former sports information director, says, “We had a lot of years when, other than Hobo Day, we were lucky to have 5,000 people here. Once Hobo Day was over, as far as fans were concerned, football season was over. ‘Let’s get ready for basketball.’”
The answer to that in 2011 is to move Hobo Day to November 5, the final home game of the season. Athletic administrators are hoping to rebound from the 2010 attendance dip (an average of 9,987 for five games) and have had made 578 additional prime seats available for season-ticket holders by moving the band to new aluminum bleachers beyond the south end zone.
Built in an era before luxury All of the 10,000 seats in the stadium are pretty generic, though season-ticket holders do get a portable chairback. There are no luxury boxes. That wasn’t even a dream when former Athletic Director Jack Frost announced a fund drive for a 14,000-seat stadium in fall 1957. It was the first time that the University turned to public and students to fund a building. The Stadium for State Committee was forced to punt a couple times during the fund-raising effort. Three times students voted “no” to adding fees to help build the stadium. On November 15, 1960, the committee opted to scale back the project. In April 1961, the Board of Regents approved a winning bid of $180,000 for a 6,384-seat stadium. Charles Coughlin made a $50,000 gift to the effort and later made a “substantial gift” for a 4,000-square-foot dressing room.
The Dykhouse difference So while in the late 1950s, students balked at paying an additional fee of $2.50 per quarter and entire stadium could be built for $180,000, in 2008 donations of $6 million came in from two men to build the Dykhouse Student-Athlete Center beyond the north end zone. Stiegelmeier says, “The Dykhouse has made a huge impact on our football team, ... on our staff being able to do its job.” The 30,000-square-foot center with a unique butterfly roof has meeting rooms, student study rooms, coaches’ offices, a first-class weight room, a customized football locker room, and an upper-floor deck where guests can watch the game. The center, the giant scoreboard, and the bigger crowds have come since SDSU became a Division I school. Former Athletic Director Harry Forseth says, “To a lot of people, there’s a magic with being Division I. You’re big time now, and it’s true. There’s more prestige.” The team’s nonconference road has included Iowa State, Minnesota, Nebraska, and Illinois in the past four seasons. It makes Mankato State, St. Cloud State, and Nebraska-Omaha seem like another era, one in which a massive concrete slab with wooden benches was impressive. “At the time they built it, the press box was unreal. Nobody had anything like it. Now it’s obsolete,” Lenz says.
‘We need to upgrade’ He adds, “We need to do something. There’s no ifs, ands, or buts about it. The stadium has done well for us. . . . [But] if you travel around to the teams we’re playing, it’s obvious we need to upgrade our facilities. SDSU’s stadium is well behind. “There are a number of schools that have already built new stadiums and done major renovations.” Stiegelmeier also would like to see a new stadium, but adds, “I think those that have played at Coughlin-Alumni and those that have gone to games at Coughlin-Alumni, know it is a great stadium and we should really celebrate that it has been for fifty years. “Game day has obviously changed by a lot of different faces in the stadium. We want to keep that going.” DAVE GRAVES
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RABBIT TRACKS
The Jackrabbits enter the field from the north end zone after leaving the locker room in the Dykhouse Student-Athlete Center in 2010, the first year for the facility.
Lights, scoreboard, Dykhouse changes face of stadium hree major improvements in the past decade have given Coughlin-Alumni Stadium a new image. Lighting was added in 2001, a huge scoreboard with video capabilities was installed in 2005, and the Dykhouse StudentAthlete Center was dedicated in 2010. For the first forty years of the stadium’s history, all games were played in the afternoon. The first night game was Sept. 1, 2001, a 34-24 win over Ferris State of Michigan. A fireworks display capped off the Cereal Bowl victory. It was the first night game at SDSU since Oct. 1, 1960, when SDSU was playing at State Field (now Sexauer track). At Coughlin-Alumni Stadium, a total of fifty-eight 1,500-watt fixtures are mounted on four poles ninety feet above the ground, producing 88.5 foot-candles on the field. A foot-candle is how bright the light is one foot away from the source. Typically, the lighting over a kitchen stove or sink or in a bathroom is seventy to eighty foot-candles. So it is brighter on the field of Coughlin-Alumni Stadium than it is in a typical bathroom. The work cost $235,000, but Brookings School District made a $170,000 contribution so it could play high school games at Coughlin-Alumni.
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Scoreboard provides feel of a big stadium The 121-foot wide and fifty-six-foot high Daktronics scoreboard was added in the summer of 2005 with the new Frost Arena scoreboard being erected in early fall. In the center of the football scoreboard is a seventeenby twenty-nine-foot video display board. The video and audio capacity not only enhance the fans’ experience during the game, but also helps energize the crowd before the game and during breaks. Combined, the scoreboards cost $3 million. The projects were a combined effort of Daktronics, SDSU, and the SDSU Foundation, which made an investment in the project through private gifts made in support of the Athletic Department. The south end zone scoreboard replaced a simple, twenty-eight-year-old board that offered little more than down, distance, time and score.
The Dykhouse difference The Dykhouse Center was built primarily through the donations of $1 million by the family of alum Dana Dykhouse and $5 million by T. Denny Sanford. Groundbreaking was September 13, 2008, with dedication April 24, 2010, making last fall the first year that the Jackrabbits emerged onto the Coughlin-Alumni turf from the north end. The original locker room was built just beyond the south end zone with a donation from Charles Coughlin. That was an era when there were forty to fifty players on a team with many of them playing offense and defense. So both SDSU
and the visitors used the 4,000-square-foot locker room. Two-platoon football became common in the mid- to late-1960s, so squad sizes expanded. With the 1973 opening of Frost Arena, the visitors began dressing in the HPER building, which takes a few minutes to reach. “It was always enough to make the opponents mad,” says Mike Daly, who coached for and against the Jacks in his twenty-five-year career. Recalling the old SDSU locker room, which is now used for officials and to sell Jackrabbit apparel, Daly says, “I think I still smell the locker room. That was dingy in the 1970s and when I came back [as head coach in 1991] it hardly looked any different. The aroma still sticks with me. That was caused by how small it was.” That certainly can’t be said of the Dykhouse Center.
A big locker room, and much more The 30,000-square-foot center rises from the same ground that previously supported thirty-foot pine trees that were planted as seedlings by people like former Athletic Director Harry Forsyth and former coach and intramural director Warren Williamson. Gone too are the three modular homes that lined up near the east bleachers to serve as meeting areas for coaches and players. Within the Dykhouse, in addition to coaches’ offices and meeting rooms, are a 2,540-square-foot locker room with 110 individual wooden lockers plus an 800square-foot shower room. On the first floor of the two-story center is a 4,600-square-foot strength and conditioning room. Coach John Stiegelmeier says, “The Dykhouse has made a huge impact on our football team, on our staff being taken care of, and on our staff being able to do its job.” The Dykhouse Center hasn’t really made a difference in the fans’ perception of the game, but other improvements to CoughlinAlumni Stadium have. One example is this year’s change—the addition of 1,000 seats in permanent aluminum bleachers in front of the scoreboard beyond the south end zone. CONTINUED NEXT PAGE >>
FALL 2011
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FACILITY
PLANS PROGRESS FOR NEW STADIUM, INDOOR PRACTICE CENTER
FLASHBACK >> CONTINUED
Built with a donation from an anonymous donor, Athletic Director Justin Sell says the new bleachers will provide seating for the band and students. That makes an extra 578 seats available for season-ticket purchases in the main grandstand.
Brats build better boosters A change that has transformed the gameday experience is tailgating, which developed in an area north of the stadium. Superfan Keith Jensen says, “There were a couple years there where eight or ten vehicles would go out north of the trees and we would tailgate. That went on three or four years until the department encouraged tailgating [2001]. “Now it’s packed. That whole area is packed. At least a thousand or 1,500 come to the big games.” Initially restricted to a half-mile circumference area north of the stadium, tailgating has expanded to the parking lot just outside of the stadium as well as lots across the street. Tailgating begins five hours before kickoff on night games. “Tailgating has now made football not just a game but a day,” Stiegelmeier says.
Other improvements Among smaller improvements made at Coughlin-Alumni Stadium: • East side bleachers were added, circa 1970. • Underground sprinkling was installed, circa 1990. • Seating was upgraded. Original wood planks were later painted blue and yellow. Blue and yellow fiberglass covers were put on the planks in 1980. The covers were replaced and renumbered in 1992. About ten years ago portable chairbacks were provided for seasonticket holders. • The parking lot west of the stadium was paved, 2000. • The concession and restroom area and the ticket booth were expanded, 2001. DAVE GRAVES
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RABBIT TRACKS
ome wasn’t built in a day, so SDSU fans shouldn’t expect to see a new coliseum in the next couple of seasons. But Athletic Director Justin Sell hopes the Jackrabbit empire shares in his vision for a new stadium and an indoor practice facility and human performance facility. Sell, in his third season at the helm of the Division I Athletic Department, says he talked with President David Chicoine about facility improvements early in his tenure. In June, the Board of Regents gave South Dakota State permission to plan for a new stadium and indoor facility. While the University has some concepts in mind, the specifics of what the new venues will include are to be developed by an architectural/engineering firm. Sell says the THIS PAGE goal was to select a firm by early October. STILL COMING He adds that there may be a different firm for eachFROM project, and that their MIKE financing plans will be separate. As directed by the Regents, financing won’t include tax dollars or student fees. Even the funds for the preliminary detailed plans will come from the SDSU Foundation.
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Costs, financing being studied SDSU officials haven’t released any ballpark estimates on the Athletic Department’s proposed facilities. That will be derived through the design process. Different models for financing the stadium also will be studied. Among the revenue sources will be season-ticket sales, the sale of luxury suites, and stadium naming rights. For the indoor facility, it will simply be a matter of soliciting donations. Because the projects will carry separate funding plans, the current plan is for both facilities to move ahead together, he adds. The human performance center would be attached to the Dykhouse Student-Athlete Center with the indoor facility north of it. The projects fit within the 2025 Master Plan for Athletics Facilities, which can be seen at gojacks.com. DAVE GRAVES
WHERE ARE THEY NOW?
Enshrined in
School records, all-America laurels, and national titles are good starting points when discussing qualifications for placement in the Jackrabbit Sports Hall of Fame. However, those credentials and more only touch the surface of the latest to be enshrined in the elite hall. Indeed, Dave Lane, Stan Opp, Audrey (Stavrum) Riggs, and Jeff Tiefenthaler easily meet the requirements for admission. The inductees bring Jackrabbit Sports Hall of Fame membership to fifty-nine. The new members were recognized during on-campus ceremonies October 15 when SDSU played host to Northern Iowa in the Jackrabbits’ Hall of Fame football game.
Jacks’ Hall of Fame
Dave Lane Lane put together a record-setting baseball career, starting all four years at shortstop. He was named the most valuable player of the 1984 NCAA Midwest Regional, which the Jackrabbits won to secure their only appearance in the College World Series. A two-time all-North Central Conference selection, Lane was a .339 career hitter in league play and
Stan Opp Opp earned All-America honors three times at 118 pounds, finishing his wrestling career as SDSU’s alltime leader in wins with a 94-19-1 record. The Aberdeen native was national runner-up in 1971 and 1973, earning berths in the Division I meet both times. Opp went a combined 35-0-2 in duals during his junior and senior seasons. He won a conference
Jeff Tiefenthaler Tiefenthaler rewrote the Jackrabbit record book in football and track during the mid-1980s. An Armour native, he set nine school records and seven North Central Conference receiving marks, finishing his football career with 173 receptions for 3,621 yards and thirty-two touchdowns. A two-time All-American and a finalist for the 1986 Harlon Hill Award as the top player in Division II, Tiefenthaler set Division II records
the conference southern division most valuable player as a senior in 1986 when he led the league in runs scored and triples. The Shakopee, Minnesota, native set career records for hits (132), runs scored (135), walks
(123), and tied the school record for triples (eleven)—all of which have since been broken. However, his seventy-five career stolen bases remain a Jackrabbit standard. Lane is currently a partner for Edward Jones Financial and resides in Toronto, Ontario. He and his wife, Shari (Weeks), a former SDSU volleyball player, are the parents of three children: Amber Everson, David II, and Grant.
individual title in 1973 en route to being named conference most outstanding wrestler in leading the Jacks to the league team title. Opp has spent most of his professional career teaching and coaching in Washington State. He
served as head wrestling coach at Eastern Washington University (1978-1982) and has taught mathematics at Wenatchee High School since 1982. He was head wrestling coach at Wenatchee (1982-2004) and is now the boys’ golf coach. A resident of Malaga, Washington, Opp received the Ralph Ginn Award for Coaching Excellence in 1999.
with fourteen consecutive games with a touchdown reception and twenty-five career games with a touchdown catch. He later became the first SDSU player selected for the Senior Bowl. Tiefenthaler earned all-America honors, setting three indoor track school records that still stand: 300
meters, 400 meters, and 500 meters. He also ran on the record-setting 4x800 relay team that still stands. A 1986 graduate, Tiefenthaler coached football for twenty-one years and now serves as head boys’ track coach, and health and physical education instructor at Sioux Central High School in Sioux Rapids, Iowa. He and his wife, Brenda, have five children: A.J., Trevor, and stepchildren Anthony, Jessica, and Paige. Trevor is a member of the Jackrabbit football team.
Audrey (Stavrum) Riggs Riggs holds the distinction of being the first SDSU female student-athlete to win an individual title when she claimed the 10,000 meters at the 1982 Division II outdoor track and field championships. She went on to earn All-America honors five other times in cross-country and track. A native of Eden Prairie, Minnesota, Riggs won three conference titles in the 10,000 and posted three top-five finishes at league cross-country championship meets. A 1985 graduate, Riggs resides in Portland, Oregon, with her husband, Joel. They have two children: son, Tyler; daughter, Allison. After working twenty years for the State of Oregon Department of Human Services, she is currently employed as a regional director for Big Brothers Big Sisters Columbia Northwest.
FALL 2011
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COACH SPOTLIGHT
Rod DeHaven Not every triumph took track star to winner’s circle EDITOR’S NOTE: Coach Spotlight is a standing feature in Rabbit Tracks. Rod DeHaven had an impressive postcollegiate career, including running the marathon in the 2000 Olympics, but this article focused strictly on his SDSU running career.
ven as a 10-year-old, Rod DeHaven found success in running, covering a 15.2-mile race in two hours and forty-one minutes. When he got into track, his promising career took off. By the time he was in eighth grade, he was running the mile in 4:40. Four years later he was running the mile in 4:09. By the time he enrolled at SDSU, the Huron resident was already a known commodity. Enrolling at State in fall 1984, the diminutive mid- and longdistance runner made an immediate impact. “Maybe I didn’t have a really polished high school career. So when I started doing college workouts with better runners, it seemed like it wasn’t that hard to make the next level,” says DeHaven, who has coached the SDSU track and cross country programs since July 2004. As a true freshman, DeHaven finished fifth in the Division II national cross country championships and the team was fourth.
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Finishing first as a freshman In the winter of 1985, the first Division II indoor track and field national championship was held in Fargo, North Dakota. “The NCAA didn’t fund teams to go to the national meet. There definitely wasn’t the same level of competition you’d see outdoors,” DeHaven explains. Nonetheless, he ran a “decent” time of 3:51 in the 1,500 meters to become State’s first national track champion since Garry Bentley won the three-mile outdoor run in 1974.
A cross country team title The following fall, DeHaven was in the winner’s circle again. This time for a team photo. The SDSU men won its first national cross-country title since 1973, easily beating top-ranked Edinboro (Pennsylvania) University 60 to 108 after the Fighting Scots had topped the Jackrabbits in a meet earlier in the season at the University of Notre Dame. Although the sophomore DeHaven lead the SDSU runners, he was disappointed with his ninth-place finish. DeHaven was hoping to place in the top two so he would qualify for the Division I championship. The two-loop course included a steep hill and DeHaven started out at an aggressive pace. “By the second time through the course I was dead,” he recalls. His teammates took a more conservative approach and chipped away at the fast-starting Edinboro runners. Joining DeHaven in scoring points for SDSU were Jeff Massman, seventeenth; Bob Wilson, eighteenth; and Todd Stevens, twentieth;
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RABBIT TRACKS
Rod DeHaven, foreground, finishes the 5K in impressive fashion at the 1987 conference meet at Howard Wood Field in Sioux Falls. DeHaven, a junior, actually lapped his teammate, Craig Cassen, a freshman who would become a two-time national champion in the steeplechase.
and Rob Beyer, twenty-fourth. Their placings allowed them to earn All-American certificates, which went to the top twenty-five Americans. DeHaven says, “That team could run at the Division I level today. It was a very solid bunch.”
‘Twenty-nine years out of thirty’ While DeHaven wouldn’t be a national champion again, he wasn’t through running thrilling collegiate races.
In fact, he said his most memorable race was at the 1987 national outdoor championships. Competing in the 1,500 meters in 94-degree weather at humid Cape Girardeau, Missouri, DeHaven ran a school record 3:40.1 and finished third. “Twenty-nine years out of thirty, that will win the national meet. That converts to a 3:57 mile,” he says. But the field included a couple Kenyans running for Mount St. Mary’s (Maryland) that had goals beyond Division II. The following year Peter Rono won the Olympic 1,500 meters and Kip Cheruiyot finished seventh. At Cape Girardeau, DeHaven was two seconds behind Rono and one second behind Cheruiyot. DeHaven’s time was four seconds better than his previous personal record, set at the 1985 national meet, where he was second. In 1987, the field realized that the Kenyans were the ones to beat. “I knew I was in decent shape and wasn’t going to let myself be cheated to fifth or sixth by going slow. My best chance, considering the shape I was in, was to run as hard as I could; that included the first lap,” DeHaven says.
That was DeHaven’s plan, and he was soon battling South African Jean Verster, who ran for UNL, and a rabbit who would drop out after 1,200 meters. It was the last event of the night. The UNL athletes got caught up in the drama, and crowded onto the backstretch of the track. Soon, lane one and part of lane two was all that was open. “I ran through a wall of noise,” says DeHaven, adding there were only a few Jackrabbits on hand. DeHaven was never able to catch Verster, finishing second by three-tenths of a second. DeHaven’s 4:00.95 remains the school record, holding a comfortable three-second
“All five lanes were full. I sure wasn’t going out to lane five, so I tucked in right behind Freddy. Then Freddy had a burst of speed and I went with him. It’s almost like he carried me through,” says DeHaven, who placed second. “It was pure luck. It might have looked like good strategy, but it wasn’t. “Those other guys didn’t realize Freddy was just playing with them.” To illustrate the impressiveness of DeHaven’s mark of 1:48.67, no other SDSU runner has gone below 1:50. The secondplace mark is 1:50.05 set by Burrow in 1998.
That’s Kenyan for . . . He and the Kenyans covered the first 400meters in fifty-six seconds. “Then those guys jumped me,” DeHaven says. But he caught his competitors, running 60-second laps the next two times around the track. He covered the last 300 meters in 44 seconds, but that wasn’t fast enough. “With 300 to go they said something in Kenyan and took off. I don’t think it would have made a difference if they had said it in English. I think it was something like ‘He’s still with us,’” DeHaven speculates. Never again would DeHaven run that pace in the 1,500 meters. “The fast pace helped most of the field to a personal best,” he says.
His most memorable mile In 1986, DeHaven had impressive marks in the indoor mile and the outdoor 800 meters. He ran a 4:00.9 on a 200-meter track at the Devaney Center at the University of Nebraska’s Husker Invite. The Division I standard for qualifying for the national meet was 4:03. There would be no Division II indoor national championship in 1986 because no school wanted to host it. Therefore, Division II runners could compete at the Division I nationals if they met Division I standards.
Battling future Olympians, Rod DeHaven, far left, chases Kip Cheruiyot, center, and Peter Rono in the 1,500-meter run at the Division II nationals in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, in 1987. DeHaven finished third to the Kenyans, who placed seventh and first, respectively, in the Olympic 1,500-meter run in 1988.
margin over 1999 national champion Nick Burrow. Before DeHaven’s run, the record was Garry Bentley’s 4:07 set in 1974.
‘Pure luck’ places second DeHaven’s name also remains atop the SDSU record book in the outdoor 800 meters. At the 1986 nationals at California State-Los Angeles, DeHaven dropped his personal best from 1:51 to 1:48.67. His old mark had him in a virtual tie with Dean Bjerke, who had held the school record with 1:51.6 set in 1967. The man to beat in 1986 was Freddy Williams of Abilene Christian. How good was Williams? As the 1985 Division II champion, he was eligible to run in the Division I nationals. Williams did so and also won at that level. “He very much controlled the race,” DeHaven says. When Williams didn’t put away the field on the first lap, other runners tried to go around him.
Stoking the fuels of passion, tradition In summary, DeHaven set seven school records on the track, four of which remain, and won the conference cross country title an unprecedented four times. Now back at his alma mater as a coach, DeHaven tries to continue the tradition established in the generations before his era. Part of that is fueling a passion for running. “If you’re not passionate, you’re a jogger,” DeHaven says. “You need to have the ability to run through pain, whether it be the temporary pain or the little nagging injuries. Waking up every morning and expecting to feel great is not going to happen.” Even having your name on the record book doesn’t make that happen. DAVE GRAVES
FALL 2011
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STUDENT-ATHLETE FOCUS
FIEGEN FIRST JACK PICKED for US National Volleyball Program ttending a USA volleyball tryout camp isn’t major news for college players. For SDSU’s Kelli Fiegen, though, her participation was history in the making. The redshirt junior from Parkston was one of thirty-six players from eighty-one colleges across the country selected for the U.S. Women’s National A2 Program. The group held practices, May 23-27, and then competed in the U.S. Open Volleyball Championships, May 28-June 4 in Dallas. Players at the open championships are evaluated for U.S. National Team consideration—in other words future Olympic looks. Fiegen, a six-foot-three middle blocker, is believed to be the first player in SDSU history chosen for the elite A2 program. “My entire experience of trying out, being selected, and competing in the U.S. Open Championships was an honor and a blessing,” she says. “Tryouts were an exhilarating opportunity getting to play with other athletes from some very competitive and high level of play.” Ironically, when Fiegen left the tryout camp in Colorado Springs in February she felt that she hadn’t played particularly well. However, a statistics report showed otherwise and she received an e-mail invitation in March that she had been picked for the program out of 204 players who tried out. “After leaving Colorado Springs I was so thankful for the chance to be part of such a great program,” she says. “I was so shocked weeks later to receive an e-mail informing me that I was one of thirty-six players across the nation to be on the A2 team.” SDSU Volleyball Coach Phil McDaniel is quick to point out that Fiegen is one of her own toughest critics. “Kelli had a quality tryout and the selection committee found that her work ethic, drive, and physical skills ranked high enough to invite her to the camp,” he says. “Having Kelli represent SDSU, as well as the state of South Dakota, is an honor and she made all of us proud with her play in the tournament. She came back to South Dakota fired up and reenergized for the fall season.”
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Training with the best The A2 players trained under coaches from Ohio State, Louisiana State, and Dayton. The players were split into three squads in the U.S. Open Championships, an event that features former college players trying to advance to the national and professional level. The thirteen days in Texas literally “flew by” for Fiegen, whose volleyball expertise went up a few notches after working with players and coaches from other top-flight schools. “The U.S. A2 training and play was one big learning experience and getting to play in the U.S. Open Championships was a blast,” she says. “There were so many great players. It was a great time getting to train and play with each of them.” Fiegen’s selection to the A2 Program shouldn’t come as a big surprise to SDSU fans. She was a key figure in leading the Jacks to the Summit League Tournament in 2010. She notched the twenty-
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third best attack percentage in the country hitting .377, and ranked forty-sixth in the nation with 1.21 blocks per set.
“You’re from where?” When it was all said and done, Fiegen, who was named Summit League Female Athlete of the Month in October 2010, was crowned Summit League Player of the Year—SDSU’s first player of the year recipient since 2001, when Shauna Sturm was named North Central Conference most valuable player and Division II Player of the Year. One particular outcome of Fiegen’s selection to the A2 Program was a lesson in geography. “I’m hoping that it puts South Dakota and South Dakota State University on the map in volleyball,” she says. “When I first arrived in Texas, people’s jaws kind of dropped when I told them where I was from and where I played. It was all pretty funny, actually. I hope that I represented South Dakota State in a way that people will know and remember.” KYLE JOHNSON
Kelli Fiegen, shown competing for the Jacks in 2010, was one of thirty-six players nationwide chosen to play on the U.S. Open teams.
ATHLETE FOCUS
TREINEN LOOKS FOR NEXT CHAPTER after starring for Jacks
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uick, what do Baseball Hall of Famers Paul Molitor and Billy Williams have in common with Blake Treinen? Answer: the Burlington Bees. The major league affiliate of the Oakland Athletics, the Bees—based in Burlington, Iowa—have produced their share of major league stars dating back to their inception in 1889. The twenty-three-year-old Treinen hopes to follow in the footsteps of Molitor, a 3,000hit achiever whose last team was the Minnesota Twins, and Williams, a home run and runsbatted-in force with the Chicago Cubs. “I’m working hard now and I’m excited for the next chapter in my life,” says Treinen, a six-foot-four, 215-pound right-handed pitcher from Osage City, Kansas. The latest chapter began in June when he was selected by Oakland in the seventh-round of the Major League Baseball Draft following a stellar two-year career at SDSU. “I was so pumped and super excited,” he says of being drafted. “I’ve worked so hard to give myself this chance. It’s rewarding to be selected and it’s gratifying to know that people believe in me and my abilities.” A possible rise to the big leagues is nothing new for Treinen, who was just the second player in school history to be drafted twice, joining pitcher Dick Barnes (1966, 1968). During the 2010 draft, he was taken in the twenty-third round by the Florida Marlins, but opted to return to the Jacks for his senior season. Treinen finished strong, going 7-3 with a 3.00 earned-run-average, and consistently threw in the ninety-mile-per-hour range. The two-time all-Summit League pick was rated as the 190th best prospect in the three-day draft.
Much different than college After reporting to the Athletics’ spring training facility in Arizona, where he got a physical and pitched in three games, Treinen’s tenure with the Bees of the Midwest A League has so far been a time of learning. “It’s been a blast,” he says. “I’m enjoying picking the brains of these great athletes and the things they have learned. Our pitching coach is a great guy. He has been both a catcher and pitcher, so he’s seen both ends of
the spectrum. It’s been great meeting different people and developing as a player.” Treinen finished the year with a 1-1 record and two saves in eighteen appearances for the Bees, who went 76-62 for second-place in the Western Division. In twenty-seven innings of work, he notched twenty-nine strikeouts while posting a 3.67 earned-run-average. When Treinen takes the mound, he indicates there is a big difference between collegiate hitters and those in the minor leagues.
“I HOPE I CAN CONTINUE TO MAKE THEM PROUD AND BRING A NAME BACK TO SOUTH DAKOTA STATE THE BEST THAT I CAN. I’M EXCITED TO HAVE PLAYED FOR SOUTH DAKOTA STATE. THEY GAVE ME A GREAT OPPORTUNITY, AND IT’S PAID OFF IN SO MANY WAYS.” BLAKE TREINEN “Everybody here has the ability to put it out if you make a mistake. It’s fun and challenging, because you are forced to be a pitcher, reading the batter, and hitting your spots. “College teams have two or maybe five guys who are studs and can pitch around them. At this level everybody here is good. You just have to push yourself as a player and compete.”
Leaves marks at State In two seasons with the Jackrabbits, Treinen posted a 14-4 career record with 166 strikeouts in 159 innings. In addition to his won-lost record in 2011, his eighty-four strikeouts was the third-best single-season total and his 166 career strikeouts is fourth all-time. Treinen’s seventh-round selection was the highest by an SDSU player since Wade Adamson was taken in the fourth-round by the Minnesota Twins in 1978. Originally arriving at SDSU as a walk-on, Treinen intends to give the school that gave him a chance something to cheer about.
Blake Treinen, shown competing for the Burlington Bees this summer, pitched his junior and senior seasons at SDSU before being drafted by the Oakland A’s.
“I hope I can continue to make them proud and bring a name back to South Dakota State the best that I can,” he says. “I’m excited to have played for South Dakota State. They gave me a great opportunity, and it’s paid off in so many ways.” KYLE JOHNSON
FALL 2011
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SPONSOR SPOTLIGHT AVERA
AVERA MCKENNAN SEES BENEFIT to ‘partnership’ with SDSU fficially, the relationship between Avera McKennan and SDSU is a sponsorship. Unofficially, it’s a partnership. “Sponsoring a team, event, or organization implies that Avera would write a check and have our logo printed on posters or promotional materials,” according to Michelle Lavallee, senior vice president of strategic marketing and communication at
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Avera McKennan. “Partnership, on the other hand, implies involvement.” The involvement between Avera McKennan and SDSU takes many forms. As an example, Leon Costello, senior associate athletic director for external affairs, notes Avera McKennan’s help with the annual Paint the Falls Blue event held in August in Sioux Falls. During the event, student-athletes visit local schools, nursing homes, and hospitals.
Brad Poe, far right, general manager of Jackrabbit Sports Properties, presents the sponsorship game ball to Brookings medical doctor Merritt Warren, center, and Chuck McCullough, physical therapist at Avera Brookings Medical Clinic, September 3.
“Avera has always graciously set aside time for our student-athletes,” Costello says, noting that Avera McKennan helps direct them toward patients to visit and places in the community where they can volunteer their services. “When asked for help on these types of endeavors,” Costello says, “they’ve always been willing to step up and help us.” As Lavallee explains, for Avera McKennan, the sponsorship is far more than just writing a check. “We like to partner with SDSU and the community in promoting health and prevention,” Lavallee says. “We involve members of our Avera family at the local level. For example, staff from Avera Medical Group Brookings provide medical care for SDSU athletes. Avera and SDSU partner in many ways—in academics, clinical experiences for health science students, internships, research, and more.” Lavallee and Avera McKennan are well aware of the benefits of being a sponsor of SDSU athletics. “This association provides the Avera brand increased visibility in the Brookings community,” Lavallee says. “It also gives our staff at Avera Medical Group Brookings the opportunity to get involved. And, there are also workforce development benefits as we hope that SDSU graduates will remember the Avera name when they apply for career positions and internships.” DANA HESS
A NEW WORLD OF SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES Ask Leon Costello about SDSU’s relationship with Avera McKennan, and he calls it a partnership. Costello, senior associate athletic director for external affairs, is always on the lookout for the next great SDSU partner as each year the Athletic Department has to meet the challenge of funding sports for at least 450 student-athletes and administering 225 scholarships. “We need to raise more revenue to support the growing needs of the department,” Costello says. A new partnership of a different sort is allowing SDSU to offer more sponsorship opportunities. In January, SDSU entered a ten-year agreement with Learfield Sports to offer sponsorship opportunities to the business
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community. Operating on campus as Jackrabbit Sports Properties, the new partnership has resulted in a modification of sponsorship opportunities. “Now we’re able to customize those opportunities,” Costello says. “Now anybody will be able to get involved with the Athletic Department.” The ability to customize a sponsorship for a specific business has added flexibility to the department’s fund-raising approach. “This new arrangement has helped us do that,” Costello says. Anyone interested in exploring sponsorship opportunities should contact Costello at (605) 688-6294 or Brad Poe, general manager of Jackrabbit Sports Properties, at (605) 691-0023.
DONOR SPOTLIGHT GOLF AT MILLER
Miller group takes fund-raising TO THE NEXT LEVEL s alumni gatherings go, the one they used to have in Miller was pretty typical. Alumni and friends of the University would gather for some golf. SDSU coaches would talk some football. At the end of a fine summer day, everyone could agree that they couldn’t wait for fall so the Jacks could get back on the gridiron. Then SDSU athletics went Division I and folks in Miller thought it was time for their event to go to the next level, too. Former Jackrabbit football player Greg “WITH A VERY PASSIONATE Niederauer checked GROUP, A VERY COMMITTED after one of the golf gatherings and found GROUP, THEY REALLY that no fund-raising TRANSFORMED THAT EVENT mechanism was in place for the University. TO WHAT IT IS TODAY. IT’S LIKE THEY TOOK THEIR EVENT FROM “The University would lose money,” DIVISION II TO DIVISION I.” MIKE Niederauer says. “We BURGERS, ASSOCIATE ATHLETIC thought that was kind DIRECTOR FOR DEVELOPMENT of messed up.” The former Jackrabbit captain and his father, Miller businessman John Niederauer, decided that if SDSU athletes could take their game to the next level, so could the golf tournament. Major changes turned the event into a fundraising mechanism for student-athlete scholarships. After two years, the event has endowed one scholarship and more are certainly on the way. “With a very passionate group, a very committed group, they really transformed that event to what it is today,” says Mike Burgers, associate athletic director for development. “It’s like they took their event from Division II to Division I.” So far, organizers have managed to make a significant contribution to SDSU with just a small group.
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John "Stein" Niederauer, one of the organizers of the Miller golf tournament, gets chauffeured around the course by head football coach John Stiegelmeier.
Big bottom line despite small field The 2011 tourney on July 15 had twenty golfers and six coaches. But what the group lacks in size, it makes up for in generosity. It costs $1,000 to play, but there are ways to share that price tag. Bring a guest who’s never golfed in the tournament before and it costs $500 each. Bring three newcomers and it’s $250 each. With those prices, the money for scholarships adds up fast. But, according to one the golfers, that’s just part of the event’s allure. “The money is secondary,” says head football coach John Stiegelmeier. “It’s really about the heartbeat, the spirit of the people that are there. The power of that outcome far outweighs a perpetual scholarship, but both will endure.” If organizers have their way, the tournament will not only endure, but grow. Niederauer says the tournament field is bound to increase once word gets out about the fun that’s to be had that weekend. With the golf tournament traditionally on a Friday, the weekend is open for even more events. This summer fourteen of the tournament’s golfers spent the weekend in Pierre for more golf and some walleye fishing.
Jackrabbit bonds overcome distance
Showing off the “Stein,” the trophy for the Miller golf tournament are, from left, quarterback coach Eric Eidsness, former Jacks safety and graduate assistant Jason Melcher, Rhonda Rowen, Erik Dahl, former Jacks cornerback Casey Hillman, wide receiver coach Josh Davis, and head coach John Stiegelmeier.
It’s no surprise to Niederauer that the Miller Country Club is the home of a golf tournament that raises so much money for SDSU. He notes that although Hand County is 118 miles from Brookings, it has produced its share of Jackrabbit football players and that area farmers have a keen interest in SDSU’s role as a land-grant school. “We’ve got pretty strong ties, actually,” Niederauer says. Developing more ties like those that have formed in Miller would be good for SDSU athletics, especially if other alumni groups work to emulate what’s happening there. DANA HESS
FALL 2011
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Basketball team members, from left, Rachel Walters, Leah Dietel, Hannah Strop, and Jill Young load sandbags in Pierre in the hometown of teammates Steph Paluch and Katie Lingle. A total of thirty-five athletes and four adults joined in the June 2 activity. (Photo courtesy of Chris Mangan, Pierre Capital Journal)
Community service by the bag Student-athletes do their part for flood relief hen a busload of SDSU athletes rolled into Pierre on June 2, the scene that greeted them was described by one coach as “very eerie.” “You just hardly saw anybody on the streets except for the National Guard on every corner,” says assistant women’s basketball coach Emilee Thiesse. “It was like a war zone.” At the time that war was only about a week old as the citizens of Pierre and Fort Pierre battled what could best be described as a slowmotion flood that threatened communities on both sides of the Missouri River. Having the river spill over its banks was a regular springtime occurrence prior to the creation of the Oahe Dam. Dedicated in 1962, the dam seemed to tame the river, and residents of Pierre and Fort Pierre came to see it as a source of recreation. In the summer of 2011, they were reminded that the river was also a force of nature. Fed by double the usual snowpack in the Rockies of Montana and Wyoming and torrential spring rain along its tributaries, the usually complacent river turned surly. With the U.S. Army Corps of
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Engineers releasing water through the dam in record increments that grew each day, residents of Pierre and Fort Pierre watched the river slowly spill out of its banks. Levees seemed to spring up overnight along the river, and homeowners turned to creating walls of sandbags around their houses. That’s where the SDSU athletes came in, helping with the sandbagging effort.
A simple assignment When they got to town about 11:30 a.m., the Jacks got their marching orders. Half went to Fort Pierre to help build a sandbag wall around the post office and then on to help homeowners sandbag in the Marion’s Garden neighborhood along the river. Half went to the recycling center in Pierre that was the hub of sandbagging activity. “We filled sandbags pretty much that whole afternoon,” Thiesse says. Among the athletes who made the trip was the entire women’s basketball team, helping out the hometown of two teammates from Pierre, Steph Paluch and Katie Lingle.
C O M M U N I T Y S E RV I C E
“I was just overwhelmed with pride,” Paluch says about her teammates’ efforts. “They all genuinely cared about the situation at hand and the people affected and worked hard to provide protection.” For their part, community members were happy to see college athletes ready to lend a helping hand. “It was almost a sense of relief we were there,” Paluch says of the welcome the athletes received. “The community had been sandbagging for about a week at this time and to see fresh, young, strong bodies was like a breath of fresh air. They were all very gracious for our work and couldn’t thank us enough.” There were thirty-five athletes on the bus as well as Thiesse, men’s assistant basketball coach Austin Hansen, “THE THANK YOUS, THE HIGH head football coach John FIVES DON’T LAST. HELPING Stiegelmeier, and his son. SOMEONE ELSE MARKS YOU It turns out that after a week of nonstop sandAND HAS THE CHANCE TO bagging, most folks were CHANGE YOU PERMANENTLY.” ready to talk about sports. HEAD FOOTBALL COACH “They wanted to talk about the season,” Thiesse JOHN STIEGELMEIER says. “It’s great that the student-athletes built a connection to the people who had been following them.” Building those personal connections is only one of the benefits of community service.
“The thank yous, the high fives don’t last,” Stiegelmeier says. “Helping someone else marks you and has the chance to change you permanently.” That lesson isn’t lost on the student-athletes. Paluch says community service has given her a chance to grow as a person. “We are fortunate to have different volunteer opportunities presented to us, and it’s a chance for us to see a different aspect of life,” Paluch says. “It keeps you humble and reminds us how lucky we truly are.”
Lasting memories With a mountain of sand still waiting to be bagged, at 5 p.m. the Jackrabbit contingent had to get back on the bus for the ride home. “The hardest part was leaving,” Thiesse says. “This job isn’t done, and we have to leave.” For many who made the trip, the memories will linger. Stiegelmeier recalls the lady of the house at a home where he and the student-athletes helped her build a wall of sandbags. “She had duct tape on her fingers because they were blistered,” Stiegelmeier recalls. “I’ll remember that for a long time.” DANA HESS
Community service lets athletes give back to community Thiesse, who also serves as the recruiting coordinator for the women’s basketball team, explains that in addition to talent on the court and in the classroom, she wants to recruit student-athletes who see the importance of giving of themselves as members of a team and as members of a community. It doesn’t take an historic flood to get athletes involved in community service. The women’s basketball team gives back in a variety of ways including work with Habitat for Humanity, visiting patients at the children’s hospital in Sioux Falls, packaging meals for Haiti relief, and conducting a free basketball clinic. “We feel that community service is an important piece to the student-athlete experience,” Thiesse says. “We provide an avenue for them to give back, but ultimately it is up to them to volunteer their time. I think the players have a sense of pride in giving back and building relationships with the members of the community and that makes their experience more valuable.” Student-athletes who spent half a day hauling and filling sandbags might disagree with his assessment, but Stiegelmeier says, “It’s easy to give back.” All student-athletes need to bring with them for community service is their work ethic, and, according to Stiegelmeier, “That’s their deal.”
A character building experience In exchange for their work and the personal connections that grow out of it, community service gives student-athletes an opportunity for personal growth.
SDSU head football coach John Stiegelmeier assists with sandbagging in Pierre as a part of a group of athletes and coaches that made the trip June 2 during historic flooding there. (Photo courtesy of Chris Mangan, Pierre Capital Journal)
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B E H I N D T H E S C E N E S N AT E M O E
A look behind the scenes Nate Moe – strength and conditioning coach
ate Moe doesn’t claim to be a cowboy, but he’s willing to saddle up to help out the SDSU equestrian program. In April, in a nearly vacant riding arena, Moe and full-time assistant, Brad Schmidt, mounted horses for forty-five minutes of basic equestrian rides. When they were done, the muscular weightlifters were sorer and smarter than when they started. “It’d been probably twenty years since I’d been on a horse,” says Moe, the SDSU strength and conditioning coach since 2005. He didn’t finish the ride wanting to trade his sweat pants for chaps, but he learned which muscles the Jackrabbit equestrian riders use. Kamerra Brown, a graduate assistant on the team then, says, “I can guarantee you once Nate was done riding, he was a little sore himself. You can really tell the muscles you’re using.” The current assistant coach says Moe’s time on a horse proves his commitment to his job.
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21 sports, 480 athletes, 2 weightrooms As head strength and conditioning coach, Moe is responsible for seeing that players on all twenty-one sports are physically prepared. That includes equestrian, where the physical demands aren’t as great as some other sports, but still put a demand on the legs and core muscles to stay in proper position and keep the horse in control. So the women riders train twice a week under his staff ’s supervision. Training a coed to ride a horse is completely different from training a linebacker to make a tackle. But that’s part of the challenge for Moe, Schmidt and two part-time assistants. They work with 480 athletes. Whether they’re a long-distance runner or a lug of a lineman, they each have workouts that are overseen in one of two University weightrooms. “They’re coached on the field, on the court. We’re going to coach them in here,” he says from his office in the Dykhouse weight room. Nate Moe works out football captain Jake Steffen, a senior defensive end, during a morning session in the top floor of the Dykhouse Student-Athlete Center.
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An unseen contributor While Jackrabbit fans may be able to quote a coach’s win-loss record or a player’s stats, few know Moe. His behind-the-scenes work comes out on Saturday when the line controls the line of scrimmage in the fourth quarter and when a center is still outjumping his opponent late in the game. Sometimes the evidence of Moe’s work is seen by what is not seen—like a lengthy injury list. An aspect of the SDSU program that Moe says he is particularly pleased with is the low rate of knee injuries. Women athletes are up to eight times more likely to suffer ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) injuries than their male peers in sports requiring jumps or quick turns. In Moe’s six years at SDSU, there have been two soccer players, one basketball player, and no volleyball players suffering ACL injuries.
Injury prevention—there’s a science to it Aaron Johnston, entering his twelfth season as women’s basketball coach, says, “Our strength and conditioning staff is top notch. They have done a great job of incorporating injury prevention exercises into the workout plan for our team. “It is impossible to prevent all injuries, but their efforts have helped to greatly reduce the occurrence of preventable injuries.” Moe doesn’t claim to have written the book on ACL injury prevention, but he does have a good formula. It involves proper warm-ups, strength training, landing mechanics, and proper jump training. “Jumping and agility drills help with their muscle response times so they can stabilize their joint with the muscle. That means the force never gets to an end range, putting stress on the ligament,” Moe explains. The other part of the formula involves developing lower-body strength, particularly the hamstring and glutes. Strength training and injury prevention certainly require a lot of science—Moe has a master’s in exercise science—but there’s also
Hard work, fun not mutually exclusive
“THEY’RE COACHED ON THE FIELD, ON THE COURT. WE’RE GOING TO COACH THEM IN HERE.” NATE MOE, STRENGTH AND CONDITIONING COACH
a need for psychology. That’s what’s behind the Iron Jacks and lifter-of-the-month awards.
Iron Jacks—It’s more than just the T-shirt The monthly awards are based on work ethic and attitude. Iron Jacks is performance based. For most sports, the four measures for Iron Jacks are power cleans, squats, bench, and vertical jump. Standards are set in each sport and based on a player’s weight. For example, a volleyball player must squat 1.35 times her weight while an offensive lineman must squat 1.65 times and a linebacker two times his weight. “We want it to be very difficult to get into. Typically, 10 percent of the student-athletes achieve it,” he says. Iron Jacks is an annual award, but Moe says he tries to bring competition and motivation into the weight room on a daily basis. “If I say you’re going to run five thirtyyard sprints, they’re going to moan. But if I say, you’re racing this guy, it tricks them to work harder and I think they enjoy it more,” says Moe, who also creates teams and then awards team points for motivation. “It’s competitive. They’re athletes. You’ve got them trying to one up each other,” Moe explains.
Amidst the hard work, there’s room for fun—whether that be a verbal jab at one of the athletes or wearing 1980s clothing for a workout during retro days. During the volleyball team’s fall camp, the staff created flannel Friday and flamboyant Friday. In addition, the strength and conditioning coaches will ask a question of the day, such as, “If you wrote an autobiography of your life, what would the title be?” Were Moe to answer that question, it might be, “Unplanned Opportunity.” When Moe was a senior exercise science major at Moorhead (Minnesota) State University in 1996-97, he was being trained for a career in corporate fitness or personal training. He liked the idea of coaching, but he didn’t want to teach. Then he went to hear a lecture by Rock Gullickson, a Moorhead alumnus who had become strength coach at the University of Texas. Moe wasn’t previously aware that there were such jobs. “As soon as I heard him speak, I knew that’s what I wanted to do,” says Moe, who followed Gullickson to Austin, serving two years as a graduate assistant. From there it was Rice and Eastern Illinois Universities.
Feels like home He arrived at State in August 2005, replacing Lee Munger, the first full-time strength coach at SDSU. “When I took the job, I thought it was a level I really liked,” Moe says. “The community is a great place to raise a family... The work ethic of the student-athlete makes my job easier, and the support from the community and the administration makes it feel like home.” In fact, Moe says although he may saddle up again, don’t expect him to ride off into the sunset anytime soon. DAVE GRAVES
FALL 2011
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South Dakota State University SDSU Letter Letterwinners winners Club
2011 SDSU LETTERWINNERS LETTERWINNERS REUNION SDSU vs. NDSU Battle for the Dakota Marker SATURDAY, SATURDA SA TURDAY, Y, OCTOBER 22 Reunion Tailgate, Tailgate, 11am - 1:30pm Kickoff, Kickoff, 2pm
THANK YOU TO ALL OUR CORPORATE SPONSORS!
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Proceeds eeds benefit benefit student-a studen student-athlete t-athlet t-a thlete thlet e scholarships and the Water Wa Waterfowl erfowl er fowl Legacy Legac Legac egacy Research Resear ch Endowment Endowmen Endowmen wmentt in the SDSU Departmen Depar Department tmentt of Wildlife tmen Wildlif ildlife ildlif e and Fisheries. Fisheries Fisheries isheries. FALL 2011
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SOUTH DAKOTA STATE UNIVERSITY Athletics Department Box 2820 Brookings, SD 57007-1497
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South Dakota State captains John Stone (45), Roger Eischens (15) and Dean Koster (88) lead the team onto the field for the October 13, 1962, Hobo Day game against North Dakota University during the first season of play at Coughlin-Alumni Stadium. See stories Page 8-12 marking fifty years of play at the field.