SOUTH DAKOTA STATE UNIVERSITY
RABBIT TRACKS VOLUME 16 NO. 1 \ SPRING 2011
FACILITY FLASHBACK
HUETHER FIELD AND THE
JACKRABBIT SOFTBALL STADIUM
Reflections Reveal
Vast Success
Greetings to the Jackrabbit family! We have had another great year, and I can really feel the momentum of our success as a program and a University. As I reflect on this year, here are some noteworthy achievements of our student-athletes and our department: • Our student-athletes have a cumulative GPA of 3.21. In the fall we had sixty-two perfect 4.0s, 172 at 3.5 or higher and 310 with a 3.0 or better. Perhaps more impressive is that we are spread over seventy majors, with many in biology, engineering, pharmacy, nursing, and economics. • SDSU won the Summit League Academic Achievement Award for the 2009-10 academic year. Football received a second consecutive Missouri Valley Team Academic Award. • Our men’s cross country team brought home a second consecutive men’s Summit League Championship and Rod DeHaven was named Coach of the Year. • Volleyball and soccer qualified for the Summit League Tournament. Kelli Fiegen was named the Summit Player of the Year in volleyball and Danni Healy was named the Summit Offensive Player of the Year in soccer. • Ten Jackrabbit football players were named to the All-Missouri Valley Football Conference Team. Kyle Minett and Ryan McKnight were All-Americans. • Women’s swimming placed second and men’s swimming placed third (an all-time high) at the Summit League Championships. Brad Erickson was named Women’s Coach of the Year. • Women’s basketball won the Summit League Tournament and made a third straight appearance in the NCAA Tournament. SDSU is the only school in NCAA history to make the tournament three times in its first three years of eligibility. • Men’s basketball had nineteen wins, its best Division I showing. • Men’s indoor track and field placed second (an all-time high) at the Summit League Championships. • The baseball team had four players establish new school records: Billy Stitz (most hits), Jesse Sawyer (most home runs), Trever Vermeulen (most saves), and Joel Blake (most doubles). • Jackrabbit student-athletes spearheaded and/or contributed to more than forty-five community-service activities during the past year. • We rebranded the Stan Marshall Scholarship Auction and secured a matching donation to generate some $300,000 for athletic scholarships. • We partnered with Learfield Sports to complete a ten-year, $13 million contract for exclusive marketing rights as well as adding six new radio affiliates and six new corporate sponsors. • We started the Letterwinners Club to recognize and connect with former student-athletes. • We completed the Athletic Facilities Master Plan (October 2010) and completed a “key projects” update to the master plan (March 2011). These are a few of the highlights from the past year. We are continually making plans for the future to ensure the success of our program for years to come. Lastly, I want to thank all of you, the best fans in the nation, for your support of Jackrabbit athletics. There are countless numbers of people who are contributing to the success of our wonderful student-athletes on a daily basis. Our future is bright because of you! We are proud to represent SDSU and the state of South Dakota!
Go Big. Go Blue. Go Jacks. JUSTIN SELL DIRECTOR OF ATHLETICS
SOUTH DAKOTA STATE UNIVERSITY
RABBIT TRACKS VOLUME 16 NO. 1 \ SPRING 2011
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CONTENTS 2
WHY GO ELSEWHERE?
Brookings High School grads say “There’s no place like home” when it comes to choosing a college.
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JACKS ATTEND SPORTS ENTERTAINMENT SUMMIT
Alexandra Hoffman and Teddy Shonka attend a star-studded career fair in L.A.
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FOOD FIGHT!
Student-athletes go to the public for help with their food fight and get a pie in the face in return.
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COACH SPOTLIGHT: RITCHIE PRICE
Baseball mentor developed a bluecollar reputation while playing for his father at the University of Kansas.
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SARGENT SETS SHOOTING RECORDS
Clint Sargent breaks the career threepoint mark set by his assistant coach.
10 SEAN BURNS THROWING RECORDS
16 FACILITY FLASHBACK — A SERIES
Athletic facilities then and now, and plans for the future.
PRESIDENT David L. Chicoine DIRECTOR OF ATHLETICS Justin Sell SENIOR ASSOCIATE AD/EXTERNAL AFFAIRS Leon Costello ASSISTANT ATHLETIC DIRECTOR, SPORTS INFORMATION Jason Hove SDSU SPORTS INFORMATION ASSISTANT DIRECTOR Ryan Sweeter EDITOR Andrea Kieckhefer, University Relations CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Dave Graves, Dana Hess, Kyle Johnson, Cindy Rickeman, 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 Jackrabbit shortstop Ashley Durazo, left, completes a play at the Jackrabbit Softball Stadium. Durazo, a senior from Mission Hills, California, was a second-team, all-conference pick last year and is leading the team in almost every offensive statistic this season. All her home games are played on campus. That hasn’t always been the case. See page 18 for a history on the team’s home fields.
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. 1450 copies printed by the SDSU Athletic Department at no cost to the State of South Dakota. PE069 5/11
Former high school soccer goalie eyes 200-mark in the hammer throw.
12 BEHIND THE SCENES: TIM DEWITT After twenty-six years, equipment manager has become a fixture.
14 WHERE ARE THEY NOW? THE EBNETS Sisters Rose, Annie, and Joan carve a unique spot in SDSU volleyball history.
16 FACILITY FLASHBACK: HUETHER FIELD In a new location, the campus field still bears the former coach’s name.
18 FACILITY FLASHBACK: SOFTBALL COMPLEX Since 2007, softball has been back on campus, and in a prime location.
20 DONOR SPOTLIGHT: O’CONNERS Ryan O’Connor and his father, Bob, are funding a wrestling scholarship.
22 SPONSOR SPOTLIGHT: DAKTRONICS The $3 million scoreboard package brings fans more than just the score.
STAYING HOME
Why go elsewhere? Brookings grads see advantages of staying home for college rookings is the fourth-largest city in South Dakota and home to the largest university in the state. For city high school graduates seeking to extend their education and athletic dreams, that kind of size means social amenities are in place like shopping, dining, and entertainment. Of course, the most important is obtaining a quality degree and competing athletically at a high-level Division I institution. With so many superlatives, more and more grads are electing to stay home. After all, why go anywhere else when everything they need is right here in their own backyard? There are currently seventeen former Brookings Bobcats on the SDSU campus who are enjoying the comforts of home. What follows is a sampling of the benefits they are enjoying:
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Why did you want to stay in Brookings and attend college at SDSU as opposed to going elsewhere? What motivated you to play for the Jackrabbits? BRAYDEN CARLSON: “In comparison with the other colleges I was looking at, SDSU had many advantages. It’s a Division I college with a historically successful basketball program that is on the rise. They also had a great coach, great facilities, and tremendous academics. A unique advantage SDSU had was being in my hometown. In the end, I was motivated by the challenge that Division I athletics had to offer.” ELLIE HENDRICKS: “SDSU was a natural fit for me. I have grown up watching Jackrabbit athletic events with my family—swimming, football, basketball, baseball, track—and I had always looked up to SDSU athletes with great respect. SDSU has a great pharmacy school and I was motivated by the opportunity to pursue a doctor of pharmacy degree while competing in swimming at the college level.” ALEX PARKER: “The chance to compete and win at a high level was the first draw for me to stay in Brookings. The football team was having good success since moving to Division I, and I wanted to be part of it. 2
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BRAYDEN CARLSON
(basketball, redshirt freshman)
ELLIE HENDRICKS (swimming, junior)
“Also, having my dad (Jay, 1984-’87) play here made me want to do the same. During the recruiting process you get the opportunity to meet many coaches, and there are no other coaches like Coach Stig and his staff. You won’t find a better administration and coaching staff around.” MASON WINTERBOER: “IT WOULD HAVE BEEN HARD TO “It would have been PLAY FOOTBALL SOMEWHERE hard to play football ELSE HAVING GROWN UP somewhere else NEVER MISSING A HOME GAME, having grown up never missing a home TAILGATING IN THE BACKYARD, game, tailgating in The HOBO DAY PARADES, AND, IN MY Backyard, Hobo Day YOUTH, BEING A JUNIOR JACK.” parades, and, in my MASON WINTERBOER youth, being a Junior Jack. It only made sense to trade in my Bobcat Red and Black and put on the Yellow and Blue that I grew up loving. “I was still considering all my options, looking at a few different places, when I sat down in a one-on-one meeting with Coach Luke Meadows and he asked me, ‘Wouldn’t it be neat if you finished your football career at the place where it started, playing all your home games at Coughlin-Alumni Stadium? Not many players have that choice.’ I remember thinking this is really where I am supposed to be, and now here I am pursuing my dream and loving being a Jackrabbit everyday.”
What are the advantages of staying close to home for college? BRAYDEN CARLSON: “The support I receive from my family could not be matched if I went to college away from Brookings. For me, it’s a quick trip home to spend time with my family. Being with my family refreshes my body, mind, and spirit. My family’s support keeps me going during hard times throughout the year.”
COURTNEY HIGGINS (soccer, sophomore)
ALEX PARKER
(football, redshirt freshman)
ELLIE HENDRICKS: “South Dakota schools offer a great education for the cost, and many out-of-state students come here because of the high-quality education and great value. “Another advantage is having a close connection to community members outside of campus. I have been involved in teaching and coordinating a swimming lessons program in Brookings, and I’ve really enjoyed staying connected with those parents and children in the Brookings community. Community service projects I participated in as a Jackrabbit athlete and Student-Athlete Advisory Committee member are extremely meaningful and enjoyable because I have personal connections to people and organizations we support.” COURTNEY HIGGINS: “Some of the advantages are getting to go to church with my family on Sundays, going home for a meal or laundry if I want to, and having a short drive home whenever I want to go visit my family.”
MASON WINTERBOER (football, redshirt freshman)
they will never go there again with you because they don’t like having to stop and talk to twenty different people when you are there just to buy toothpaste.”
Do you feel staying in Brookings to attend SDSU will motivate Brookings High School students to also stay in town and someday compete for the Jackrabbits and earn a degree from SDSU? BRAYDEN CARLSON: “Because of the success of SDSU’s studentathletes who are from Brookings, I do believe it will motivate more students from Brookings to come to SDSU. I believe that many students from Brookings High School will realize that there is everything they need to succeed right in their backyard.”
MASON WINTERBOER: “I go home a couple times during the week to play with my dogs, and best of all, I get a good home-cooked free meal. Although it’s sad to admit, my mom spoils me and does my laundry every week. I am twenty years old and still have never done my own laundry. I think it’s just her way of making me come home a few hours a week so she gets to see me, which I don’t mind at all.”
ELLIE HENDRICKS: “I have shared my positive experience at SDSU with many students starting to look into colleges. Several of my former teammates have been more interested in SDSU because of my involvement in Jackrabbit athletics. I have shared with them how it really is a great experience to stay in Brookings to attend SDSU and still be able to have an entirely different experience than in high school.”
What are the disadvantages of staying in Brookings for college?
COURTNEY HIGGINS: “By seeing Brookings athletes playing for the Jacks and being successful, they’ll be more interested in staying home to do the same.”
COURTNEY HIGGINS: “For me, there are no disadvantages of staying in Brookings for college, I love it!” ALEX PARKER: “There really isn’t a disadvantage. Sometimes you wonder how you would react going to school in a different state and not being so close to home.” MASON WINTERBOER: “One disadvantage is going to Wal-Mart with teammates who are not from Brookings and hear them say
ALEX PARKER: “It helps having Brookings kids stay in town and compete for the Jacks. I remember growing up and watching Chris Wagner, Chris Doblar, Nash Simet, Jordan Paula, and Tyler Duffy in high school, and then watching them have great success for the Jacks. “Seeing that, you can’t help but want to follow and do the same. Going to SDSU you can play at a high level and get a great education. I think that’s enough to sell a kid to stay in Brookings.”
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STAYING HOME
By staying in Brookings for college, do you feel it affects your fan following in one way or another?
COURTNEY HIGGINS: “I think SDSU has good support from the fans overall, but it’s definitely nice that fans know who you are from high school and may have seen you compete before.”
BRAYDEN CARLSON: “Since the SDSU student-body is so diverse, I actually believe that there is no difference in fan following with students. However, I do believe that SDSU’s adult fan base is more aware of Brookings athletes attending SDSU. Regardless, if you are a successful student-athlete at SDSU, people will notice.”
ALEX PARKER: “The fan following at Brookings High School was tremendous when I played, and to have the same fans keep cheering you on in college is great. It’s great seeing those familiar faces at Jacks events after growing up and having them support you at all the high school sporting events.”
ELLIE HENDRICKS: “I have several family members and friends who are consistent followers of SDSU swimming, and the other athletics programs due to my involvement with the team. My parents, younger sisters, and other friends are excited to have me here in Brookings, where they can easily attend all my home swim meets.”
MASON WINTERBOER: “The “SDSU IS A GREAT UNIVERSITY fan following is a little TO ATTEND AND COMPETE FOR. bit larger than say IT IS VERY GRATIFYING TO BE your typical kid not from Brookings. ABLE TO PLAY DIVISION I Younger kids in the ATHLETICS IN THE SMALL-TOWN community came to ATMOSPHERE THAT I’VE GROWN all my high school UP IN.” COURTNEY HIGGINS games and know I play for State, and when I see them out in the community they almost always come up and ask all sorts of questions about being a Jackrabbit. I can only hope that I am a positive role model to them.”
JUMPING TO THE JACKRABBITS FROM BROOKINGS HIGH SCHOOL MEN’S BASKETBALL Brayden Carlson, guard, Redshirt freshman, Economics FOOTBALL Tyler Duffy, running back, Senior, Electrical Engineering Alex Parker, offensive line, Redshirt freshman, Pre-economics Mason Winterboer, running back, Redshirt freshman, Pre-economics WRESTLING Tyler Palmer, 149 pounds, Sophomore, Nursing MEN’S TRACK AND FIELD Evan Bunkers, sprints, Junior, General Studies Justin Carson, sprints/hurdles, Freshman, HPER Dustin Gibbons, sprints, Junior, Mechanical Engineering Ryan Jorgenson, jumps, Freshman, Mathematics Ryan Schaefer, pole vault, Freshman, Pre-Nursing WOMEN’S GOLF Morgan Fitts, Sophomore, Psychology SOCCER Courtney Higgins, forward, Sophomore, Health Promotion WOMEN’S SWIMMING AND DIVING Ellie Hendricks, freestyle, sprints, Junior, Pharmacy Melissa Mielke, distance freestyle, Sophomore, Pre-medicine WOMEN’S TRACK AND FIELD Ashley Odegaard, Jumps, Freshman, Consumer Affairs VOLLEYBALL Erinn Osborne, outside hitter, Freshman, General Studies Ellyce Youngren, outside hitter, Junior, Journalism
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Generally speaking, how rewarding and gratifying is it for you to stay in Brookings and be enrolled in the largest college in the state and be a Division I athlete at the same time? BRAYDEN CARLSON: “Attending school here is most gratifying for me because I can continue to build old relationships with friends and family, find new friends and acquaintances, work for a degree at a well-respected university, and reach goals athletically all at SDSU. “When I was looking at schools two years ago, SDSU became an opportunity that included great challenges in the future, while allowing me to build off of relationships and achievements of the past.” ELLIE HENDRICKS: “The College of Pharmacy is one of the highest-rated pharmacy schools in the nation, and I am honored to be a professional student, and at the same time, swim with a Division I athletic program. I have enjoyed growing up in Brookings, and I’m grateful for the opportunity to continue my education in this great community as a student-athlete.” COURTNEY HIGGINS: “SDSU is a great University to attend and compete for. It is very gratifying to be able to play Division I athletics in the small-town atmosphere that I have grown up in.” COMPILED BY KYLE JOHNSON
SUMMIT EXPERIENCE
Alexandra Hoffman, center, joins with other athletes at a community-service project at the Los Angeles Expo Center. The athletes played games with kids from Los Angeles and the surrounding area, and then formed teams to build bicycles for underprivileged kids.
Sports, entertainment summit eye-opening experience for two Jacks tar-studded isn’t usually a word used to describe a career fair. But that’s just one word for the inaugural NCAA Sports and Entertainment Summit held in Los Angeles in March. Two of SDSU’s student-athletes were among the 100 selected from across the nation to attend the event where professionals involved in sports marketing and events, social media, sportswriting, television and radio sports reporting, and the music and motion picture industries spoke about the realities of what it takes to break into a career in sports and entertainment. Senior swimmer Alexandra Hoffman and junior wide receiver Teddy Shonka attended the weekend event, chosen based on the strength of the resumes they submitted. They came away enlightened about the possibilities for their future careers.
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“I learned important lessons about networking, interview skills, resume tips, and landing the job of your dreams,” Hoffman says. “It was one of my most treasured memories as a student-athlete at SDSU.” The summit got high marks from Shonka as well. “It was great meeting so many people who are just like you from all over the country,” Shonka says. “I made 100 new best friends there.” Offering guidance to the student-athletes was a Who’s Who of sports and entertainment figures including ESPN correspondent Shelley Smith, Sports Illustrated senior writer Lee Jenkins, music producer Harvey Mason, motion picture executive Shannon Gans of New Deal Studios, and ESPN columnist J.A. Adande. With the NCAA picking up the studentathletes’ expenses for the summit, they were free to concentrate on finding out as much as they could about careers in sports and entertainment.
Career-shaping messages “The thing that really resonated with me was to find out what you are passionate about in life, and then find a way to make a career out of it,” says Hoffman, a former Miss South Dakota who’s majoring in broadcast journalism and sociology. Shonka, a health promotions major with minors in business and Spanish, was as surprised as he was delighted by the way the summit put a detour in his career path.
He was drawn to Mason, a former student-athlete who played on Arizona’s 1988 basketball team that made it to the Final Four. During his music career, Mason produced the soundtrack for the motion picture Dreamgirls and wrote and produced songs for Aretha Franklin, Elton John, Whitney Houston, and Justin Timberlake. After a standout collegiate basketball career, Mason was looking forward to playing in the NBA when an injury changed his plans. “He kind of fell into the music industry and worked his way up,” Shonka says. “Now it’s exactly what I want to do. Something in the entertainment field.” If Shonka has his way, he’ll be interning for Mason this summer, meeting people in the music industry and developing contacts.
Community service a highlight Included in the summit’s packed agenda of meetings and workshops was a community-service project that had studentathletes working alongside urban young people as they made bicycles for underprivileged children. Organizers had the student-athletes and the youngsters play a game to break the ice. Shonka admits to being intimidated at first. “Half the kids were bigger than us,” says Shonka, who’s listed in the Jacks’ media guide as 6-1, 195. Once the project started, however, bonds were quickly formed. “I feel like I made an impact on them,” Shonka says. “It was one of the best experiences of my life.” Hoffman agrees. “In my opinion, the best event was the volunteer opportunity that we participated in,” Hoffman says. “It was an eye-opening experience and something I will never forget.” DANA HESS
SPRING 2011
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COMMUNITY SERVICE
Student-athletes help the hungry with
D O FO ! T H G I F
ere’s some good advice: If you’re ever thinking about starting a food fight like the one in Animal House, look around carefully to make sure that Jill Fritz isn’t in the room. When it comes to food fights, Fritz measures her arsenal in tons. That’s right, tons. As a track athlete and president of the Student-Athlete Advisory Council, Fritz is leading SDSU’s effort to repeat as champion of the Summit League Food Fight. In the Food Fight, each of the Summit League’s ten schools has a designated time during the basketball season to collect donations for a local food bank. SDSU won last year’s contest by collecting nearly 6,900 pounds of food for the Brookings Food Pantry. According to Laurie Melum, assistant athletic director for academic advising, collections in the Food Fight can take two forms: nonperishable food items or monetary donations. For this year’s contest, student-athletes collected 3,698.2 pounds of food and $1,794.81 in donations. In the contest, every $5 counts as thirteen pounds of food, so those donations were the equivalent of 4,666.51 pounds of food. The 8,364.7 pounds collected this year is significantly more than last year. Part of SDSU’s ongoing success may be due to the nature of the people doing the collecting. “I think that with all of us athletes’ competitive nature, it gave us the motivation
• At Hillcrest Elementary School, where participating students were awarded free tickets to a basketball game. • During an Athletic Department staff contest. • At a Fast Break Basketball Clinic for younger children where the price of admission was a can of food. • At Mickelson Middle School, where winners in a homeroom contest won a pizza party and an ice cream party. “After the competition,” Fritz says, “they throw a pep rally and the winning class gets
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Golf Coach Jared Baszler takes a pie in the face. Volleyball player Emily Palmer (Page 1) was among those who also took a shellacking with whipped cream for a good cause.
to win,” says Fritz, a senior health promotions major from Colman. Collecting the equivalent of more than four tons of food took quite a bit of effort. During a two-week period, January 18-31, collections took place: • At men’s and women’s basketball games. • During door-to-door collections in the Brookings community conducted by student-athletes.
to pie their teachers and some of our SDSU athletes and coaches in the face.” For Fritz and the council’s other members, a pie in the face is a small price to pay for knowing that hungry people in the community are benefiting from their efforts. “The food we gather helps people right here in our own community,” Fritz says. “It’s a good way for us to give back to our fans and local supporters.” DANA HESS
COACH SPOTLIGHT
RITCHIE PRICE Price’s playing days shaped approach to coaching aseball is a sport top-heavy with statistics. With a player’s every action recorded in a box score or a record book, over time the numbers can add up to a definitive portrait. Consider the University of Kansas baseball career of Ritchie Price, the Jacks’ head baseball coach. Price was all over the Jayhawks’ record book, setting career highs in games played, 255; at bats, 1,022; hits, 312; runs scored, 204; and sacrifices, 35. Two other numbers, however, add some clarity to Price’s statistical portrait. In a stat-happy sport like baseball, for some reason the NCAA doesn’t keep track of consecutive game streaks, but Price’s 252 consecutive games played at shortstop is likely among the best in college baseball. The other number that distinguishes Price is 53—his most painful school record—the number of times in his collegiate career that he was hit by a pitch. Price explains the numbers this way: “I’m a blue-collar guy. I learned to play through the injuries.” That attitude is one that Price brought to his coaching career, hoping to instill it in his players. He found that philosophy isn’t a hard sell at SDSU. “South Dakota State is the kind of school that attracts those kinds of kids, anyway,” Price says.
Ritchie Price makes a snow cone grab while playing for Kansas.
Following family lines to Lawrence
On to the minors
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Family ties attracted Price to Kansas where his father, Ritch, was and still is the coach. His younger brother, Ryne, a power-hitting utility player, joined Price on the team. Ryne went on to play in the San Francisco Giants organization and currently plays professionally in Australia. Their youngest brother, Robby, followed them to Kansas and now plays in the Tampa Bay Rays organization. Sons and a father on the same team can be a recipe for disaster, but Price calls his time in his father’s line-up “a positive experience.” The shortstop’s ability on the field quieted any critics who might have wondered about favoritism. “No one was asking, ‘Should he be playing?’” Price recalls. Displaying an aptitude for understatement he adds, “We had some success as well.” Price’s graduating class owns the most wins in Kansas history including a Big 12 Conference title in 2006. Price was a four-time allBig 12 selection and Baseball America designated him the conference’s top defensive shortstop in 2004. While he was excelling as a player, Price was learning how to be a coach. From his father’s example, he learned the importance of patience and the value of a positive attitude. “You have to stay positive,” Price says. “There’s so much failure in this game.”
Photo by Jeff Jacobsen/Kansas Athletics.
Price’s stellar collegiate career led to another highlight, getting drafted by the New York Mets. He played rookie ball with the Kingsport Mets of the Appalachian League before a stint with the Class A Brooklyn Cyclones of the New York – Penn League. While in the minors, Price learned about another side of the game he loves. “It’s definitely a business,” Price says. “You’re paid to play.” More than just a fond memory from his playing days, Price’s experience in the minors still serves him well. “I think it makes me a better coach,” Price says, noting that his experience can allow him to prepare players for what they’ll encounter in the minors. As he heads into his third year as head coach, two of Price’s players have already made the trip to the minors. Pitcher Caleb Thielbar was taken in 2009 by the Milwaukee Brewers and pitcher Blake Treinen was drafted in 2010 by the Florida Marlins. As happy as Price was to be drafted, he harbored no expectations about a long career in the pros. He chose his career path when he was 10 years old. “I knew at an early age that I wanted to be a coach,” Price says. DANA HESS
SPRING 2011
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RECORD SETTER
Natural shooter
SARGENT sets Jacks’ longdistance mark he moment the ball ripped through the net in a career filled with a host of successful long-range bombs, Clint Sargent instantly realized he had the record. The only problem was he had just a second or two to savor the moment as he went back on defense during SDSU’s 102-73 rout of Summit League foe Centenary February 5 in Shreveport, Louisiana. “I knew I broke it, that was basically the extent of it,” says Sargent, recalling the night when he became the Jackrabbits’ all-time champion in three-point field goals made. Sargent, who finishes his career with 252 three-pointers, surpassed the record previously held by SDSU Assistant Coach Austin Hansen. “Coach Hansen helped me so much with my shooting since he’s been here, so I give a lot of the credit to him,” says Sargent. “It’s quite an honor to have a record like that and it means even more just because he had it. I’ve been blessed to work with not just him, but this entire coaching staff.” Hansen, who works on all aspects of the game with the Jacks’ perimeter players, notched 235 three-pointers from 1999 to 2003 when SDSU was a Division II school in the old North Central Conference. “I think it’s kind of neat for Clint to break the record against some of the top teams in all of Division I in the country,” says Hansen. “It says a lot about how good of a player he is and what he has been able to do against that type of competition.”
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Sargent the one to do it Hansen was an assistant coach at Minnesota State-Mankato prior to SDSU, and his recruiting list included Sargent, who was
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starring for Bishop Heelan High School in Sioux City. He says, without hesitation, that if he had to pick someone to break his record, it would be Sargent. “Clint is very deserving of the record, and he’s worked very hard for it,” cites Hansen,
who points to his growth as a player during the last four years. “When he came in as a high school kid, he really didn’t understand the work ethic and commitment that it takes to be a great player at this level.
“Clint turned himself into a very good college basketball player, and one of the alltime greats at SDSU through just his hard work and drive to become better,” Hansen adds. A four-year starter, the 6-foot-4 native of South Sioux City, Nebraska, stood the test of time, missing only five games during his SDSU career, that being as a sophomore with a sprained ankle. “Clint’s one of the best shooters I’ve ever coached,” says Head Coach Scott Nagy. “He’s a tremendous player who has done it against the best competition SDSU has ever played against. “When you watch him shoot, he’s one of those guys where it looks just effortless. It looks like it’s going in.”
“It isn’t so much with my shooting technique, but a matter of finding a place to score on the court,” he says. “I grew up in a basketball family so I’ve always been around the game. “As I grew up, I got stronger and developed more of a jump shot. It evolved since I got to college because I’ve really put in a lot of time in my shooting and my game overall.” Sargent will graduate in May with a degree in psychology. He eventually would like to teach and coach basketball, but first he has his sights set on playing professionally in a league overseas, pointing out, for example, that Kai Williams, a former teammate, is playing for a league in France.
opportunity,” he says. “His game fits some of those international leagues, and I think he will get a shot.”
Leaves on winning note Sargent not only leaves on a personal high, he was a key figure in leading SDSU to a 1911 record, the most wins for the Jacks at the Division I level and their first winning season since making the move. “It’s been a gradual building process and a learning experience,” he says. “We went through some tough times, but we managed to keep it going. The program has established a winning mentality. “I’ve been very blessed that I ended up at SDSU. I have improved myself not only as a
SARGENT’S NUMBERS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES • Finishes SDSU career with a record 252 three-pointers in 659 attempts, also a school record. His eighty-three three-pointers this year is the secondbest single-season mark behind Austin Hansen’s eighty-five in 2003 and equaled by Andy Moeller in 2004. • Ranks fifth all-time with 1,505 points, which is the most by any Jackrabbit player to score all their points at the Division I level. • Nationally this season, ranked thirtyseventh in three-pointers per game (2.7) and thirty-ninth in three-point percentage (.397). • As a freshman, led the Jacks in assists with eighty-one. Hit sixty-eight threepointers as a sophomore, and as a junior again made sixty-eight, while topping the 1,000-point mark and earning all-conference honors.
With Assistant Coach Austin Hansen, whose three-point record Sargent broke.
Continue career overseas While Sargent credits Hansen for impressing on him how to “find shots on the floor and ways to be a better and smarter basketball player,” history indicates his work ethic during the years has been the true source of any achievement.
“I’ve always thought that if there is an opportunity, I’d like to try it,” he says. “I have to start the process of finding an agent for help in getting my name out there.” According to Hansen, it’s a good niche for a program to bring in players who look to extend their playing careers beyond SDSU. “It tells you that you have a pretty good player, and I think Clint will have that
basketball player, but also as a person, I’m thankful for Coach Nagy and what he’s been able to do for me. “I’m also thankful for this whole University because I feel everything is done the right way,” adds Sargent. “There are so many good people—all the ones in administration are so friendly—they look out for the student-athletes, and for us, we are first in line.” KYLE JOHNSON
SPRING 2011
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RECORD SETTER
Tossing the record book Burns hammers at state collegiate mark in his final season n today’s college campus, video junkies are as common as the iPod. But there aren’t many video junkies like Sean Burns. For starters, the senior health, physical education, and recreation major is six-foot, eight-inches tall and weighs 311 pounds. Plus, you should see the things he watches, like the world-class throwers from Europe. Not many of his classmates get excited about watching Yuriy Sedykh spin three times in the hammer throw circle. Burns, however, “studies harder than anybody I’ve coached,” says SDSU throwing coach Tyg Long. “It’s a good thing YouTube is free because Sean would have quite a bill. He doesn’t leave many stones unturned when he is trying to learn about his event.” His events are the hammer and weight throws and the shot put. In the weight throw, an indoor event, competitors grab a handle that is attached by a six-inch chain to a thirty-pound weight that looks like an oversized shot put. His throw of 64-8 ¾ at Vermillion January 15 set a school and South Dakota collegiate record. He upped the school mark to 65-7, reaching the distance twice in two weeks at Ames, Iowa,—January 29 and February 12. In the hammer throw, an outdoor event, competitors grab a handle that is attached by a four-foot wire to a sixteen-pound shot put. Last spring, he won the hammer throw six times and broke the SDSU outdoor record five times, the final time being 188-9 at the Summit League championship. In the shot put (sixteen pounds) his indoor mark is sixth in school history and his outdoor mark ranks ninth.
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Goals go beyond college His favorite throw is the hammer throw, and his goals for his final season stretch the measuring tape. He wants to repeat as Summit League champion and place in the top twelve at the NCAA regional meet so he can compete at the NCAA national championships. Distancewise, Burns wants to first break the 200-foot mark and then top the state record of 215 feet held by Eric Flores. Will he be able to add more than twenty-six feet to break the mark? If anybody would be able to offer an educated answer, it’s Coach Long. He mentored Flores when the Custer thrower was at Black Hills State and now is in his second year at SDSU. “I don’t know who is ultimately going to be the best. Sean is catching up to him in a hurry. I would say even he is surprised how fast it is coming. This is an event that they say takes ten years to learn. Sean is really on year two of learning the technique of the event,” Long says. When Burns’ throwing days are over at State, he hopes his throwing days at State aren’t over. Burns has applied for graduate school here and wants to be a volunteer coach, training and competing unattached in an effort to
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Sean Burns competes in the hammer throw (top) at the 2010 Summit League Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Toledo, Ohio, and in the shot put at the SDSU Twilight meet in 2009 in Brookings.
qualify for the USA Track and Field championships in 2012, which also will serve as the Olympic trials that year. “That’s a far goal to shoot for,” he admits.
A soccer goalkeeper? But it’s not near as far as it was when he enrolled at State in fall 2006 from Rapid City Central, where he was on the basketball and track teams. His favorite sport was soccer. The Cobblers took advantage of his 6-8, 240pound frame to guard the goal. In track, he finished fourth at state in the discus his senior year, but he didn’t have college track in his sights. “My friends came here. (Jumper) Ben Jasinski said there were only a couple throwers out and I should try out,” Burns recalls. Jessica Summerfield, the throwing coach then, gave him permission to walk on “and I’ve been fighting for every foot I could since then,” he says. His first year he was a smorgasbord thrower—trying a little of everything: shot, discus, hammer, javelin, and discus.
Combining strength, technique In 2008, his sophomore season, Burns improved his shot put by two feet and his weight throw by twelve feet during the indoor season. But an injury kept him from competing during the outdoor season. The turning point was his third season. His weight throw set a school mark of 58-10 ¾ while he also made big gains in the hammer and shot. “My freshmen and sophomore years, we were constantly tweaking things. There was no stability,” he says. By his junior year, he had settled on a technique and focused on improving that movement.
“I definitely use my height to my advantage, and I’ve slowly become stronger through the strength and conditioning program here. I’ve always been patient enough with the hammer to let it follow me rather than just pull it and muscle it. “The hammer throw takes a while for you to understand how fast you can go without messing up the throw,” Burns says. As an example of his improvement in strength, Burns says in high school he squatted 350 pounds. Last year that was up to 465 pounds. This year, doing a safety squat, which includes an attachment for the hands and requires less balance, he squatted 700 pounds. “Sean is just a massive guy. A thirty-fivepound weight doesn’t slow him down much,” Long says.
SEAN BURNS FILE Position: Thrower Year: Senior
Overcoming adversity
Height: 6-8
Even reinjuring his knee at the Summit League Indoor Championships in Fargo, North Dakota, February 27 wasn’t enough to knock him off the winner’s platform. He originally injured the knee when throwing in December. He came back strong and was seeded No. 1 for the conference meet. But during warm-ups, his knee gave out and he fell backwards. Burns wanted to continue, but couldn’t do a three-turn spin. “I had to one-turn to win. . . . I said to myself, ‘I want this.’ That one turn was probably more brute strength than technique, but it got the job done,” Burns says of his first-place, 62-11 ½ throw. Even with a gimpy leg, he was within three feet of his personal mark. The next day, with his knee still ailing, he finished second in the shot put with a personal best of 53-4 ¾. Adversity also propelled Burns at the Summit League Outdoor Championships at
Weight: 311 Major: HPER Records: Hammer throw (outdoors), 188-9; weight throw (indoors) 65-7. Also ranked sixth (indoor) and ninth (outdoor) in the shot put.
High School: Rapid City Central Family: Parents, Mike and Margie Burns; sister, Samantha, 24; Steven, 20.
Southern Utah in 2010. After a disappointing third-place finish in the hammer throw, Burns finished second in the shot by breaking his personal best by five feet. “I got a little angry at the hammer and just vented it through throwing the shot put,” the normally mild-mannered Burns says. Fans will be able to watch Burns’ defense of the league honors when the conference meet is held in Sioux Falls May 12-14. DAVE GRAVES
CONFERENCE TRACK TO BE IN SIOUX FALLS SDSU, in conjunction with the Sioux Falls Sports Authority, will serve as hosts for the 2011 Summit League outdoor track and field championships May 12-14 at the Sanford Health Sports Complex’s Lillibridge Track, which is the home track for the University of Sioux Falls and is located at the intersection of Cliff Avenue and 69th Street. More than 350 student-athletes are expected to compete in the track and field championships as seven men’s squads and eight women’s teams will vie for titles in the three-day event. North Dakota State is the defending champion in both the men’s and women’s divisions. “We are looking forward to hosting the Summit League Track and Field Championships in Sioux Falls,” SDSU track and field coach
Rod DeHaven says. “It will feature some of the top athletes in Division I track and field. Our student-athletes are anxious for the opportunity to compete for The Summit League championships on South Dakota soil.” Because the event is the same weekend as the Brookings Marathon, holding the event in Brookings would have created a motel room conflict. Howard Wood Field in Sioux Falls was considered as a venue, but it also had a scheduling conflict and it lacked the javelin amenities required by NCAA Division I. Ticket prices are $5 per day or $10 for all three days.
SPRING 2011
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BEHIND THE SCENES
A look behind the scenes
Tim DeWitt – equipment manager im DeWitt is so far behind the scenes that in the comprehensive, 140-page football media guide, the only reference to him is the two-word title equipment manager. But the players and coaches know this long-time equipment manager, who has been handing out jocks and jerseys since 1985. His responsibilities extend far beyond keeping the Jackrabbits in clean clothing, and, with twenty-one varsity sports, that in itself makes every day a laundry day.
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The equipment manager also orders every single item used by a varsity sport, and makes sure all equipment preparations are in place for practices and games. Consequently, DeWitt’s post at the HPER Center makes him like a one-man tollbridge operator, always on duty. He claims a weekly schedule of forty hours to sixtyfive hours (when hosting a tournament) with a lot of fifty-hour weeks during seasons. Of course, with sports from August through May, most of the year is in season.
Not that you will find DeWitt complaining. “I’m enjoying what I’m doing. I’m enjoying the people I have around me. To have the opportunity I’ve had here at South Dakota State is far and above anything I could imagine,” says DeWitt, who grew up in the Brookings area. He started as a teacher and a coach, spending three years in Groton and two in Kimball after graduating from Dakota State in 1975.
DeWitt began work at SDSU in 1980 at the research farm and then spent three years with the physical plant until the equipment manager post opened up, giving DeWitt a chance to be involved with athletics again.
An unparalleled personality Obviously, every athletic department has an equipment manager. What makes DeWitt unique, other than his twenty-six years in the position, is his personality. While he could hide out behind the computer or not lift his gaze from folding clothes, that just isn’t DeWitt’s personality. Whether it was the star player or a community member using the locker room [in the days before the Wellness Center], a smile and a “how ya doin,’ man?” is as guaranteed as the sunrise. “I’ve been told so much, ‘I don’t know how you maintain your smile.’ He explains the key: “Enjoy each day when you have it, and the next day, enjoy it again.” Football coach John Stiegelmeier says it is an expression of DeWitt’s servant attitude. “He’s truly happy when he’s serving rather than being served.”
From recruit to lifelong friend Michael Torrence ’99/’01 started a friendship the day he met DeWitt in July 1996, and they continue to connect. Torrence had spent three years in the military and was looking to play college basketball when he made a recruiting visit to campus that supported 8,350 students. But during the summer, SDSU “was pretty barren” of student activities. “All the students were gone,” recalls Torrence. “No one was on campus except coach and (fellow player) Jason Sempsrott.” Of course, DeWitt also was there. Meeting with DeWitt was like talking to “someone like you’ve known them all your life. You just pick up a conversation and talk about your interests,” Torrence says. In that initial conversation, Torrence recalls DeWitt saying, ‘We’re going to be really good. You’ll be a good addition,’ and he asked about my family. I’d been on several recruiting visits before and no one had asked about my family. I found that warm. “I thought, if there is one person like that in Brookings, there is probably going to be more.”
‘Someone I confided in’ Torrence says that hunch proved right as did his assessment of DeWitt.
“Tim was a great sounding board for me. Tim was someone I confided in. He kept my comments and his comments to himself. In today’s world, that’s really hard to find. “Sometimes a guy just needs a pat on the back, a hug or a good ribbing. Tim was always good on that,” says Torrence, who is an academic dean at Lehigh-Carbon Community College in Allenstown, Pennsylvania. Part of DeWitt’s success in enjoying each day at work can be attributed to the family feeling within the Athletic Department. “The total support of the administration and the Athletic Department is incredible. We are one large family that helps each other every day. If you don’t have the support of the administration, it’s hard to do the job. I look forward to coming to the job every day,” DeWitt says. An important part of his family is fulltime assistant Sonja Anderson and his student helpers.
Favorite memories His job puts him in contact with sportspage headline makers as well as allowing sideline glimpses of all the home games. One of his strongest memories also is one of his first as equipment manager—the 24-12 1985 defeat of the No.1-ranked University of South Dakota at CoughlinAlumni Field on Hobo Day. “The atmosphere and the crowds [16,193] and the anticipation were just amazing,” DeWitt says. He also fondly recalls the Division II national wrestling championship in 2000. “We had tremendous crowds. To be able to visit with coaches from all those other teams, the athletes, the fans, was an uplifting experience. Time just flies. “I thought, ‘This is great talking to these people,’” DeWitt says.
“WORKING WITH THE ATHLETES DAY BY DAY, YOU GET A CLOSE RELATIONSHIP AND MUTUAL RESPECT.” TIM DEWITT
‘A great ambassador’ His cordiality extends to the game officials. Stiegelmeier notes, “He takes care of the officials. He’s got to meet them Friday night. You drive up to the HPER center and he’s waiting on the bench for the officials
to come. That’s their impression of South Dakota State. “I can’t tell you enough how officials have praised him about his care of them. He’s a great ambassador.” The confidence and twenty-five-year relationship he has with some officials is an example of “another relationship that many people may not get to have,” DeWitt says. Stiegelmeier, who has worked with DeWitt since 1988, adds, “He loves to hear what’s going on in your program and have an opportunity to share what’s going on his life. He’s an avid hunter. I’m jealous about all his stories of geese and pheasants.”
INSIDE DEWITT’S LOCKER
TIM DEWITT Age: 58
Family: Wife: Deb. Children: Brandon, of Colton; Derrick, of Sioux Falls; Shondra, of Burnsville, Minnesota; three grandchildren. Years at SDSU: thirty-one Years as equipment manager: twenty-six Number of people overseen: Twelve, ten of which are part-time student workers. Number of athletes working with annually: about 500
And the future? DeWitt’s demanding job hasn’t left him married to his job. He enjoys hunting, fishing, and being with his grandchildren. “I’m a 100 percent family man. Married thirty-eight years. I want to be at [the grandchildren’s] birthday parties and games as much as I can,” he says. The 58-year-old DeWitt has been eligible for state retirement for several years and admits he has thought about it, “maybe three or four years down the road.” He notes that his job will make it more difficult to make the grandkids’ games as they age. “Right now, with the change in the economy and how I enjoy my job and the support I have from the Athletic Department, retirement is only in the back of my mind. “It’s hard to quit something you enjoy.” DAVE GRAVES
SPRING 2011
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WHERE ARE THEY NOW? THE EBNETS
Ebnets play big roles in Jacks’ volleyball lore he “E” section of the all-time letterwinners’ page of the SDSU volleyball media guide contains a unique piece of history. That’s because the three people listed are sisters! Yes, the Ebnets of Pequot Lakes, Minnesota, have a special place all to themselves in the Jackrabbit record book. Rose starred from 1997 to 2000, while Annie lettered in 2001 and 2002, and Joan in 2002. “That’s very interesting, I didn’t know that,” replies Annie, when told of the trio’s letterwinner distinction. What’s not strange is their role in SDSU volleyball lore and their place in a program that traces its beginning back to 1966. For Rose, she probably put together the finest individual season ever by a Jackrabbit. In 2000, she earned North Central Conference most valuable player honors, leading the league in kills, while setting SDSU single-season and career records for kills as the Jacks advanced to the regional finals. She is one of the most decorated volleyball players in school history, too. In addition to most valuable player honors, she received the following honors as a senior: • NCAA Post-Graduate Scholarship. • Daktronics Division II All-America first team. • Daktronics All-Region first team. • Successful Farming All-America Farm Team. • American Volleyball Coaches Association Division II All-America first team. • American Volleyball Coaches Association All-North Central Region. • GTE/Verizon/CoSIDA Academic All-District. • NCC All-Academic Team. • American Volleyball Coaches Association/Sports Imports Division II National Player of the Week (two times). • NCC Player of the Week (three times).
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Milestones achieved Rose tallied her 1,000th kill against Nebraska-Omaha as a junior— a number that didn’t register at the time, she recalls. “I didn’t know I was close to getting it. It was a pretty cool feeling.” It was “real neat” to break the all-time record as a senior, remembering the congratulations letter she received from Wendy Windschitl, who held the record since 1988. She has three engraved volleyballs that are “my wall plaques,” referring to the game ball when she broke the record, one showing 1,724 career kills, and a third indicating 564 season kills.
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Fittingly, Rose’s e-mail address opens with Jacksspiker12, which appropriately refers to her skill set and uniform number. “I could put the ball down if I needed to!” Indeed, she could. Rose’s record stood for seven years, before Kristina Martin (2004-’07) accumulated 1,765 kills. In addition, Rose is one of only five players in SDSU history with 1,000 kills and 1,000 digs. A three-time all-conference performer who led the Jacks to three regional tournaments, Rose admits the competitive fire still burns, indicating workouts
Rose Ebnet ’00, inset and below
these days consist of keeping up with her two young boys, Shane, 4, Wyatt, 2 and maintaining household chores. “I’m a very competitive person,” she says. “Volleyball is such a mental game. I miss the competition.”
Returns when she can Rose earned a degree in health promotions and a minor in chemistry. After SDSU, she enrolled in the College of Chiropractic at Northwestern Health Sciences University in Bloomington, Minnesota, where she graduated in 2004 with a doctorate of chiropractic. She lives in Mobridge with her husband, Josh Henderson, whom she married January 1, 2005. A doctor of internal medicine, he earned two degrees at SDSU, range science in 1997 and biology in 2002. He went to Denver for medical school and Ohio for his residency. Rose, who will be doing part-time chiropractic work in Mobridge, played for Coach Mary Byrne, starting as a right side hitter before moving to the left side. “I loved SDSU, it’s a great school,” she says, mentioning that she gets back to campus as often as she can. “I played in the spring tournament last year. It’s fun to come back and see boosters, who cheered you on as a player, and they still remember you.”
History-making season Annie’s time was memorable, especially the 2001 season. The Jacks captured their first region title to earn a berth in the NCAA Division II Elite Eight Tournament in Allendale, Michigan, where they claimed a national runner-up finish. The region championship was sweet, according to Annie, because it came in Fargo. After outlasting Augustana in the opening match, three games to two, SDSU upended North Dakota State in the title match in five games on NDSU’s home floor in the Bison Sports Arena. It was even more special for the Jacks, who were swept twice by NDSU during the regular season. “That was an awesome year,” recalls Annie, who was a junior outside hitter. “We had a great time and a great team. Beating the Bison to go to nationals was something I’ll never forget.” Annie again led the Jacks to the regional tournament as a senior in 2002, earning all-academic and all-conference honors. She was also named to the CoSIDA Academic All-District third-team. Looking forward to college and playing volleyball after high school, Annie elected to attend Jamestown College in North Dakota. Calling Jamestown a stepping-stone to a bigger school, she transferred two years later to SDSU. “SDSU was a good educational move for me, and I wanted to go to that next level of volleyball,” she explains.
Sister comes, nursing career During Annie’s last year it became a true sister tandem when Joan, who ended up transferring to Minnesota-Crookston after one season with the Jacks, arrived as a freshman.
Annie Ebnet ’02 inset and above
“It was fun as sisters to play on the same team at the same school,” she relates. “We had another good team and it was good to experience it with Joan.” Annie graduated in 2003 with a degree in biology, followed by a nursing degree in 2006 from Johns Hopkins School of Nursing in Maryland. She took her first job in Annapolis, Maryland, at Anne Arundel Medical Center, where she worked in the emergency room. Two years later, she was on the oncology cancer floor at Franklin Square Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland. After eight months in Baltimore, Annie and her husband Phil Gilotte, whom she met in Maryland, moved to Pequot Lakes. She is a school nurse in nearby Crosby, Minnesota, while he is a physical education teacher and runs an Elite Performance Sports Camp during the summer. They have two daughters, Alexis, one and one-half years old, and Samantha, five weeks. KYLE JOHNSON
SPRING 2011
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A SERIES
FACILITY
FLASHBACK
Huether Field
Home of SDSU baseball for generations ettling in for a spring baseball game in Brookings, South Dakota, can be an act of bravery—for players and fans.
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It’s not like squeezing into the Barn or stretching out in Frost Arena for heated hardwood action, or basking in a golden fall afternoon to cheer the home team at old State Field or Coughlin-Alumni Stadium. No, making plans to attend a spring baseball game here is like planning a visit to an estranged sibling, you’re never sure if it will take place or what it will be like when you’re there. Despite the uncertainly, there’s something mystical about stitched cowhide popping into a leather ball glove, and men no bigger than their fans turning a fastball into a home run.
wanted to play baseball. We gathered in the Barn and started playing catch, and pepper” in late fall 1946, Wingen says. Games at the Hillcrest field had a sandlot feel to them. Instead of a fence, there was shrubbery. Beyond that was a farm field.
1947: “Play ball” Since 1947, SDSU student-athletes and loyal fans have been observing the local practice of Abner Doubleday’s creation. For the vast majority of those sixty-four years, that has taken place at Huether Field. Through the years it’s gone from an unnamed ball field and moved locations. But throughout the decades, it has connected campus with the “Boys of Summer,” even when it felt more like an extension of winter. Hurler Bob Ehrke ’54 remembers that it was 29 degrees for the opening-day game his senior season. That was actually when State played on the city field at Hillcrest Park. That was the only baseball field in town and it was then the edge of town. Ernest Wingen was on that first team when baseball arrived at South Dakota State in 1947. He recalls being part of a large contingent of veterans that came back to college in 1946 after serving in World War II. “A bunch of us 16
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April 2, 1962, and there’s snow on the field when Coach Erv Huether (with jacket) has his team out practicing on what would become known as Huether Field. Before Huether Field, State played its games at Hillcrest Park, such as this game in 1952 against Gustavus Adolphus College. Note the lack of dugouts or helmets. Right page: Huether Field during pregame warmups in the mid-1990s.
A home of their own But by 1957 the game had moved to campus. A field was built at what now is the parking lot north of Frost Arena. In 1957 that area was open space with the nearest buildings being married student housing units that were just north of where Caldwell Hall is now. The diamond didn’t become known as Erv Huether Field until 1974, when it was
named for the man who coached SDSU baseball from 1950 to 1983. The well-manicured diamond hosted SDSU baseball games through the 2001 season. Construction of the Performing Arts Center to the east of the field meant a need for additional parking, and SDSU players found themselves hosting games at Bob Shelden Field, a municipal field on South Medary Avenue with better seating than at Huether Field.
Erv Huether Field II But SDSU administrators wanted the Jacks to play on campus. A field was identified northeast of the football practice field. Sitework was begun in spring 2006. The outfield walls and backstop were constructed in fall 2007 with the batting cages and dugouts completed in spring 2008. Tiny Presentation College in Aberdeen gains a footnote in SDSU baseball history as the first opponent to play on the field, a 22-3 win for the Jackrabbits April 21, 2008. In three seasons at the new Erv Huether Field, the Jackrabbits have a 28-13 record, including a win over Minnesota. SDSU has had its way with the Gophers in recent years, winning five out of the last seven meetings in the three prior seasons. But the 12-11 win April 20, 2010, was the first time the Big Ten school had traveled to Brookings since 1962. A 2009 game scheduled for Brookings was cancelled.
Snow a common bond for decades For years, Jackrabbit teams headed south for nonconference games during spring break with the hope of being able to play at Huether Field upon their return. Sometimes it required extraordinary effort. “I remember getting back from that southern trip and our conditioning was to shovel the field,” recalls Dean Krogman ’72. “My freshman year and my junior year we got all the games in because we had great weather.
My senior year we played ten conference games. The weather was bad the whole season.” While weather patterns have always been hit and miss, the direction of the SDSU baseball program has been one direction since becoming a Division I school in 2005. The team plays more games—sixty in 2010. That means starting earlier—mid- to late February—with a schedule that has a lot more road games than home games. When the team does get a chance to put on the white uniforms and host a team at Huether Field “The players really enjoy getting to play on campus at Erv Huether Field. It gives them the opportunity to play in front of their friends and fellow students,” Coach Richie Price says.
Field a work in progress The home confines are to become even more comfortable in the future. The Athletic Department master plan calls for construction of a grandstand, a permanent press box, and storage facilities. However, there is no timetable for the work. In 2011, the Jacks have twenty-one home games scheduled from April 5 to May 21. Many of those days figure to be cold and blustery, an undeterred north wind leaving the game to only the most hardy. But at some points during those seven weeks, the sun will shine, the earth will offer the smell of spring, the cowhide will pop in leather gloves, and Huether Field will be the place to be. Hope, and baseball, spring eternal.
HISTORIC GAMES AT HUETHER FIELD First game – 1957* – Omaha University 5, State 4 First win – 1957* – State 9, Augustana College 5 First postseason game – May 15, 1961, a 5-1 NCC Northern Division playoff loss to North Dakota. First win over a Big Ten school – April 13,1962, a 6-3 win over Minnesota. First time to host an NCAA Division II Midwest Regional playoff game – May 1975,* a 16-10 loss to Missouri-St. Louis. First NCAA Division II Midwest Regional playoff wins – May 18-19, 1984, winning two of three versus Missouri-St. Louis to advance to the Division II World Series. Host for the NCC Tournament – 1985, 1987, 1989, 1991, 1993. First game and win at new Huether Field – April 21, 2008, a 22-3 win over Presentation College. First win over a Big Ten team at new Huether Field – April 20, 2010, a 12-11 win over Minnesota. *Dates not available
DAVE GRAVES
SPRING 2011
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FACILITY FLASHBACK
SOFTBALL STADIUM
A work in progress The new field will be amazing when it’s done.” Those are the words of softball alumna Jessica JonesSitzman, who played during a much different era at SDSU and now is the softball coach for Morningside College in Sioux City, Iowa.
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The field where SDSU has played since 2007 is dubbed Jackrabbit Softball Stadium. The facility now has one set of bleachers and
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a listed capacity of 500, making it a work in progress. But the vision is there. When completed, the stadium will have permanent seating, concession stands, bathrooms, and an on-site locker room with meeting space. SDSU Coach Joanna Lane says the facility already has the best playing surface in The Summit League. There are two batting cages—one beyond the left-field line and one beyond the right-field line. Metal outfield fencing with blue screening provides a good hitting background, and decorative block dugouts twice as large as other fields.
On top of that, the field is on campus, just northeast of Coughlin-Alumni Stadium. “The commitment of the University to bring the field back on campus was huge,” says Lane, who became coach for the 2008 season. “It helped us not only in fan support with students being able to walk over to games, but the proximity to the Dykhouse Student-Athlete Center is important.”
Part of a larger complex The Dykhouse Center, which contains locker rooms, a weight room, and coaches’ offices, is directly north of the football field.
FIELD HISTORY May 14-15, 1971 — First SDSU softball games. May 9, 1972 — First home game, a 14-3 win over Dakota State. 1993 — Began playing games at SouthBrook Park on South Main. April 27-28, 1996 — First postseason tournament held in Brookings, the North Central Conference tournament. May 10-11, 1996 — First (and only) NCAA tournament held in Brookings, the Division II Central Regional. Spring 1997 — Using SouthBrook Park for all practices and games. April 20, 2007 — First game at Jackrabbit Softball Stadium on campus. 2008 — Dugouts added to stadium.
An architect’s drawing of how the Jackrabbit Softball Complex is to look like when finished. Inset, Dana (Fay) Jurgensmeier, circa 1990.
A long throw from the outfield can connect the Dykhouse Center, the softball stadium, Erv Huether baseball field, which is right across the road from the softball field, and the football stadium, for which there are plans to build a replacement stadium on site. Having the softball stadium in easy viewing distance of the general public is a plus for the program, Lane says.
SouthBrook Park days That wasn’t the case before 2007, when SDSU played softball at SouthBrook Park, the City of Brookings complex on South
Twenty-Second Avenue. The five-field facility is three and one-half miles south of where the team now plays and practices. Its isolated location was its biggest drawback. As a playing venue, “Based on the field itself and amenities, SouthBrook was a fantastic place to play games,” says Shelly (Tiltrum) Bayer, who played at State from 1991 to 1994 and coached the team from 1996 to 2001. When she played, the second baseman took ground balls on a different campus field.
Before SouthBrook The unnamed field was by the intramural fields east of an area between the HPER Building and Binneweis residence hall. The field and nearby tennis courts have now become expanded parking for the adjacent residence halls. The field could be described as simple, or primitive, depending on one’s perspective. “There was one set of wooden bleachers right behind the backstop,” Bayer recalls. “No dugouts, just bare benches. One scoreboard that showed the inning and the score. Very simple. Nothing with hits and errors. “It was very low [in elevation]. That was one of the reasons we moved. The parking lot had increased. When they did the snow removal, the snow was pushed right to the edge of the field. So even when other parts of campus were dry, it was still wet on the softball field.” Kristine (Drake) Storhaug got a taste of both fields. She practiced on the campus field in fall 1996. By spring, practices had moved to SouthBrook, where games were already being played. “It was nice to have the field on campus because you didn’t have to drive anywhere, but the fields at SouthBrook were better quality,” Storhaug says.
SouthBrook: Envy of the NCC Shane Bouman, who coached the team from 2002 to 2007, says, “From the lines in the fields to banners to concessions, I think we did as good a job as any team. The caretaker took a lot of pride in that facility, making sure everything was tip top.” Bayer adds, “A lot of the NCC [North Central Conference] schools thought the complex was excellent, especially for tournament play.”
Bouman says it’s typical for Division II schools to play in municipal softball complexes, but in 2005 SDSU began play at the Division I level. Division I fastpitch usually is played at an on-campus stadium, says Bouman, who guided State in its first year at the new field.
A new era begins In their first season on the new field, the Jackrabbits compiled a 4-5 record with the first game a 3-0 loss to North Dakota State April 20, 2007. Wintery conditions that extended in March and April rainstorms limited SDSU to two home games in 2008. Other homes games were played in Nebraska and Sioux Falls. In 2009, the team was 3-10 at home while the Jacks finished 10-4 at home in 2010. The first home games scheduled for 2011 was a March 23 doubleheader with South Dakota, but wet grounds made that doubtful. Like coaches before her, Lane takes her team to the Barn for practice until it can get outside. “We can stay on it [Jackrabbit field], usually, until the end of November. When we run into trouble is now. There are teams that have been outdoors for weeks. We haven’t yet been able to be outside,” Lane says in mid-March.
Donors needed to step to plate An indoor practice facility for all outdoor sports is another part of the SDSU Athletic Department facility plan. In the meantime, Lane waits for the sun to do its work and is thankful for the progress that has been made. Bayer says that Jackrabbit Softball Stadium “is certainly what I dreamed about as a player and a coach. Initially, I was frustrated when we moved off campus because I thought it was a step in the wrong direction. But now I can see it gave them time to develop a plan to bring what they have now.” Completion of the softball stadium is dependent on donor interest, Lane says. DAVE GRAVES
SPRING 2011
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DONOR SPOTLIGHT
Back in action
Scholarship benefactors Bob, left, and Ryan O’Connor.
Father-son benefactors O’Connors fund scholarship
hen Ryan O’Connor came to State in 1996 to study mechanical engineering, he was a wrestler with a dream. “My number one goal since high school was to be All-American,” he says. “I only got beat fourteen times in four years in [Huron] high school. I expected that success to continue in college.” But it didn’t, at least not at first. “You go to college, everybody in the wrestling room was a state champ.” O’Connor says. “I hadn’t adapted to that level as well as I was expecting to and it got me in a bit of a rut, really. His first two and a half years, he wrestled behind Chad Wickman, a good friend and roommate. “Not being a starter was hard,” O’Connor says. “I went from star to workout partner.”
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But after a year away from the sport, O’Connor was healed and his studies were back on track. So when Coach Liles called just before Christmas break and asked him back, O’Connor accepted. In his first match back against a returning All-American from the University of Northern Colorado, O’Connor proved he still had potential. He won the match with a takedown in overtime. For O’Connor, college wrestling was full of ups and downs, but his career ended perfectly in 2001 when he earned his dream title after beating two returning All-Americans at the national wrestling tournament and placing sixth, finally achieving All-American status. “When I won my second match to guarantee placing” O’Connor recalls, “there was a huge SDSU contingency and everybody went nuts. I felt like I’d just won the Olympics. It was an incredible, emotional moment and it was awesome to see those SDSU fans embrace my success the way they did. Everyone knew I as a fifth year senior and this was my last shot, so it was something special.” O’Connor graduated in 2001 and joined his father in the O’Connor Group, a heating, ventilation and air conditioning firm in Sioux Falls. Today he is a sales engineer and part owner. Bob O’Connor retired in January 2011. Together, they have begun a wrestling scholarship for mechanical engineering majors. “The wrestling program was pretty good to Ryan,” Bob O’Connor says. “It was an important, informative extension of his high school athletic experience. The program really won’t grow and develop unless people like Ryan and I step up and give it the financial fuel to have it grow.”
A family tradition The power to go forward is fueled by a long line of wrestlers. Bob O’Connor wrestled for O’Gorman High School in 1967-68. His father, Gratton “Irish” O’Connor wrestled at University High
Sidelined In his third year, O’Connor pinched a nerve in his neck. That, coupled with the need to devote more time to his studies, prompted him to pack it in. “I went over to Coach Liles’ house at 7:00 at night to tell him,” O’Connor says. “I opened his front door and his son, Walker, who was probably 6 years old at the time, looked at me and said, ‘Why are you quitting?’ Obviously, coach suspected the reason for my visit, which made it easier to tell him.” The telling made a lasting impression on the coach. “Fifty percent of your quitters don’t ever tell you,” Liles says. “They just disappear, just don’t show up. And the others are probably going to tell you in the locker room or your office. It shows a lot of character on his part on how he handled it.” When he walked away, O’Connor thought it was for good. “I had no intentions of ever going back out,” he says. “I had to come to terms with the fact that I hadn’t accomplished the goals I set. It was a difficult decision. I remember coach telling me he hadn’t ever had anyone quit, then come back and get it done, I really thought it was over.”
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Ryan O’Connor made All-American in wrestling at State in 2001.
School in Vermillion back in the 1930s. And then there was Patrick O’Connor, Ryan’s great grandfather, who farmed in the Vermillion area during the worst part of the Depression. “Times were hard back then.” Bob O’Connor tells the tale with just a hint of Irish brogue. “Of course, grandpa didn’t want to hire anyone who couldn’t take the hard labor. So he’d hire these transient workers but he wouldn’t hire them until they wrestled him. They’d grapple between the house and the barn until one of them said ‘uncle.’ “Great Grandpa Pat didn’t lose a match until he was 42 years old and hired a young man from Sioux City who broke two of his ribs. That was the end of that program.”
PLANNED GIVING
CHARITABLE GIVERS expand possibilities outh Dakota State’s nationally recognized equestrian team can thank good riders, good coaches, and help from a 1937 alumna from Brookings for its success. Nathelle DeHaan was a former horsewoman who died recently at age 96. She pledged the funds that allowed construction to start on the DeHaan Equestrian Facility north of campus, a structure that got the team off to a fine start a few years ago. She arranged for the funds to be transferred quickly to the University following her death by employing a “transfer on death” arrangement on an investment account. It was simple to arrange with a beneficiary form from the investment company and did not require additional legal work. “Charitable gifts that can be easily arranged and easily changed have grown in popularity in recent years as donors learn how uncomplicated and inexpensive it is to make a current or future gift via a change of beneficiary form,” says Jeff Nelson, senior gift planning advisor in the SDSU Foundation. Gifts from retirement plans took off, he says, when plan owners learned that individual heirs have to pay income taxes to inherit money from an IRA or another qualified pension plan, such as a 401(k) plan or a Keogh plan. But charities are tax exempt and receive the full value of the intended bequest.
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“I wanted to use my IRA to arrange something for State,” says Ginny Bunkers Ford, a 1973 French graduate now residing in Phoenix. Learning from an advisor about the tax aspect sealed Ginny Bunkers Ford the deal. “It was a good incentive for me,” Ford adds.
The DeHaan Equestrian Center, made possible by Nathelle DeHaan, shown left on horseback.
Larry Stitt of Citrus Heights, California, gets philanthropic double duty from his IRA. Like many State friends, he makes taxfree distributions from his account for current gifts to a scholarship Larry Stit fund in honor of his parents. With a simple change in the beneficiary form, Stitt’s IRA also will bolster that scholarship after he’s gone.
State friends are using the change in beneficiary form in a variety of creative ways: Karen Pearson (’72
Family and Consumer Sciences), from Rapid City, recently used her insurance company’s change form to transfer an existing insurance policy to SDSU. It will provide funding for the Karen Pearson Jackrabbit Guarantee scholarship program she sponsors.
Lonita Gustad Corothers
Jeff Schumacher, of Brookings, a longtime SDSU employee who recently retired from the Computer Center, made the SDSU wrestling program the beneficiary of his 403(b) pension plan assets. Such plans, like an IRA, can make non-taxable bequests to charitable organizations. He found it equally easy to add SDSU as a beneficiary on a mutualJeff Schumacher fund holding in a brokerage account. Bill Larson (’64 Animal
and Range Science), of Fowler, Colorado, is among the donors who have inserted bequests to the University in their wills by using a singlesheet codicil, allowing Bill Larson most estate planning documents to be amended quickly and cheaply.
To get your helpful copy of
Lonita Gustad Corothers (’50
THE THREE EASIEST WAYS TO LEAVE YOUR LEGACY
pharmacy), of Sioux City, arranged for an eventual transfer of a bank savings account to the SDSU Foundation for the benefit of pharmacy and microbiology programs.
email giftplanning@sdsufoundation.org To learn more about flexible gift options that allow for changes by the donor, contact Jeff Nelson at the SDSU Foundation at 888-7477378 or jeff.nelson@sdsufoundation.org.
SPRING 2011
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C O R P O R AT E S P O T L I G H T
That’s Entertainment!
Daktronics adds video pizzazz to fan entertainment ans can spot Justin Swanson in the press box during football games and courtside during basketball, but they can’t see who he’s talking to via headset because Eric Ray is tucked away in a control room in the HPER Center. The results of their coordinated efforts, however, are clearly visible in the video boards, the highlight reels, the kiss camera— all the videography that takes fan entertainment to the highest level possible. “We’re in constant communication, from twenty minutes before the game to the final whistle and the crowd’s left,” says Swanson, assistant athletic director – marketing and promotions. “Everything is scripted down to the minute, from time outs to when the band plays. Nothing happens by chance. “We have to know what’s going on at that second, but also A, B, and C that’s coming up. We have 5,000 people at a basketball game and 15,000 at a football game. Fifteen seconds of dead air is a lifetime. “We want to give people a good show. They’ve spent their hard-earned dollars, and we want them to be entertained.” Ray, an event producer for Kayframe, a division of Daktronics, is assigned to SDSU, so from August through March, he builds the graphics and creates the animation for sports in Coughlin-Alumni Stadium and Frost Arena as well as commencement— “any event in Frost arena,” he says. This year, included the April 30 Jackrabbit Athletic Scholarship Auction, being held separate from the golf tournament for the first time this year and, also for the first time, held on campus.
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Daktronics is the word people see when they look at the scorer’s table or the scoreboard. What they don’t see is the control room deep inside the HPER Center. Pictured in the control room are Eric Ray, left, a Daktronics employee, and Justin Swanson, assistant athletic director.
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When he’s not working his SDSU gig, Ray trains customers. “At eighty-five to ninety percent of the places we serve, it’s their facilities people who run the equipment,” Rays says, “so we have to teach them to run it.” Besides SDSU, Daktronics has on-site event producers at the universities of Auburn, Florida, Georgia, Iowa State, Minnesota, and Augustana College for football.
“OF ALL THE DIVISION I SCHOOLS, ONLY ONE CAN HAVE DAKTRONICS IN THEIR HOMETOWN AND THAT’S SDSU. IT’S A PRETTY NEAT DEAL FOR US.” JUSTIN SWANSON ASSISTANT ATHLETIC DIRECTOR – MARKETING AND PROMOTIONS They also have an event producer in New York, serving the Jets and the Giants. “We take care of everything on the video side,” Ray says, “so their marketing staff just doesn’t have to worry about it.” Daktronics, Swanson says, is “the best in the business. They do a fantastic job.” Having them right down the road doesn’t hurt, either. “Of all the Division I schools, only one can have Daktronics in their hometown and that’s SDSU,” Swanson says. “It’s a pretty neat deal for us.” Daktronics and the University have been scoreboard partners since 2005, with the football scoreboard going up in late summer and the basketball scoreboard being installed in the fall. It was a $3-million project paid for by current and future gifts. The scoreboard package has four corporate sponsors: Avera McKennan and the Orthopedic Institute, Coca-Cola, Daktronics, and First Bank and Trust. CINDY RICKEMAN
FUNDRAISING EVENTS
AUCTION, GOLF TOURNEY
highlight spring fund-raising events eading into its thirty-first year, the Stan Marshall Golf Tournament was in need of a makeover. It got one. Big time. The golf tournament has traditionally included an auction. That event has been split off from the tournament to create the Jackrabbit Athletic Scholarship Auction, which was held April 30 at Frost Arena. “This was a first-class event,” says Alex Kringen, assistant athletic directordevelopment. “We were excited to give our fans an experience like this.” That experience included a social, a meal, live and silent auctions, and a short program. SDSU’s student-athletes played a prominent role at the auction— working at the event, serving as greeters, and mingling with guests. “We have great student-athletes who are very approachable,” Kringen says, noting that all sports were represented at the event. “Jackrabbit backers got to see firsthand why we say we have the best student-athletes in the country.”
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Auction items include Jackrabbit collectibles, trips The $50 admission fee included the meal and beverages. Event sponsors were Orthopedic Institute, First Premier Bank, J. Lohr Vineyards and Wines, and Beal Distributing. An anonymous donor pledged a dollarfor-dollar match for the money raised at the event. The goal was to raise $150,000, which would actually bring in $300,000 for athletic scholarships. Among the 250 items at the auction were a charter trip with the football team to an away game, dinner and an outing with the athletic director and coaches, select J. Lohr wines, and various trips and Jackrabbit collectibles. “The event drew a sell-out crowd of more than 450 people,” Kringen reports.
Brookings auctioneers Scott Peterson, left, and Jim Peterson solicit bids at the 2008 Stan Marshall auction. This year a scholarship auction was held April 30 with the Stan Marshall Golf Tournament June 4.
Four men and a goat A crowd is also expected at the Stan Marshall Golf Tournament Saturday, June 4, at the Brookings Country Club. A social and heavy hors d’oeuvres will be held Friday night at the country club as part of the event. Each player will receive a Jackrabbit gift. The tournament will be limited to thirtytwo five-man teams. The teams can choose between playing “Texas scramble,” which has been used in the past, and “four men and a goat.” In this format, the four members of the team compete in a best-ball format while one member of the team will be designated to play the course in the normal fashion, recording a score based on the participant’s handicap, Kringen explains. “It makes it a little more competitive,” Kringen says, “a little more strategic.” The format requires all five members to have a handicap registered with the USGA. Prizes will be offered in both formats and any team can opt to play Texas scramble.
The strategy that called for splitting the auction from the golf tournament had been under consideration for a while, prompted, in part, by some confusion over who was eligible to take part.
SEE YOU THERE! Stan Marshall Golf Tournament
Saturday, June 4
at the Brookings Country Club A social and dinner will be held for golfers at the country club June 3. Admission to both events can be arranged by calling 1-866-GOJACKS.
“People thought they had to golf to be part of the auction,” Kringen says. “Some people weren’t coming because they weren’t golfers.” Splitting the auction from the tournament should clear up that confusion and make both events better.“We’re putting more time and effort into each event,” Kringen says. DANA HESS
SPRING 2011
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JACKRABBITS TO HOST SUMMIT BASEBALL TOURNEY SDSU, in conjunction with the Sioux Falls Sports Authority, will host the 2011 Summit League baseball championship May 26-28 at Sioux Falls Stadium. It is the first time the Summit League baseball championship will be held at an offcampus facility. The stadium is the home field for the Sioux Falls Pheasants, who compete in the independent American Association. The top four teams in the Summit League standings will advance to the conference baseball tournament. The tournament will follow a double-elimination format with two games played on the opening day, three games
on the second day and up to two games to decide the title and an automatic bid to NCAA postseason play on the third and final day. “I know our players are looking forward to the atmosphere of playing in a professional stadium and getting the chance to earn an NCAA Tournament berth here in South Dakota,” says SDSU baseball coach Ritchie Price. The Jackrabbits earned the right to host the baseball tournament after earning a share of their first Summit League regular season title and securing the top seed for the 2010 Summit League championship.
While Erv Huether Field on campus is a great field, it lacks permanent stands, press facilities, or restrooms. Ticket prices: $6 per session; age 12 and under, $4 per session; reserved seats, lower level from dugout to dugout, $10 per session or $45 for all sessions. Youth team package: $45 per session for fifteen general admission tickets. NOTE: Because the event coincides with the state track meet, fans are encouraged to park in Lots 1 and 2, those closest to the stadium.
THANK YOU TO ALL OUR CORPORATE SPONSORS!
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Welcome Jackrabbit Sports Properties SDSU Athletics entered into a ten-year partnership with Learfield Sports January 31, 2011, to manage all aspects of sponsorship sales. Learfield Sports, a division of Learfield Communications, manages the multimedia and sponsorship rights for more than fifty collegiate institutions, conferences and associations, including Southern Illinois, Montana, Minnesota, Iowa, Iowa State, the Big Ten Conference, and the Missouri Valley Conference. At SDSU, Learfield Sports operates under the name Jackrabbit Sports Properties and coordinates the sales of all the athletic facility signage as well as game-day sponsorships and promotions. Additionally, Jackrabbit Sports Properties assists efforts to enhance the exposure of the SDSU athletic programs by increasing opportunities for television and radio broadcasts. These opportunities may include live games, coaches’ shows or a combination of both. The relationship first started during the 2010-11 school year as SDSU Athletics and Learfield Sports partnered to increase the number of radio network affiliates. As a result, we added five new stations to the Jackrabbit family.
Partnership benefits You may be wondering how this benefits Jackrabbit Athletics. First and foremost, Jackrabbit Sports Properties operates with two full-time staff members with plans to add interns and students. This allows current Athletic Department staff to focus on other key revenue areas like ticket sales and Jackrabbit Club memberships. With other facility projects on the horizon and the need to increase revenue, adding staff and maximizing current revenue streams only helps in those efforts. Secondly, not only does Jackrabbit Athletics benefit from full-time staff additions, Learfield Sports employs more than 200 full-time staff members that support their overall mission of a multimedia rights partner. For instance, Learfield integrates its national sales executives in key markets around the country to sell sponsorship inventory for all partners. Radio executives in Jefferson City, Missouri, provide support for all radio broadcasts produced by Learfield schools. Sales support staff in Dallas ensures that sponsors receive exceptional customer service. Lastly, this partnership also guarantees substantially greater annual revenue to the Athletic Department compared to the current sponsorship revenue. Even in the current economic climate, this partnership shows growth now and sustained growth for years to come.
Goal: More viewers, more listeners, more fun As you can see, this partnership not only provides financial stability to the Athletic Department but an industry-leading, multimedia rights partner in Division I college athletics. The ultimate goal is to provide Jackrabbit fans everywhere with the ability to listen and watch Jackrabbit athletics on a more frequent basis, and to provide a more entertaining atmosphere at all Jackrabbit home games, all while increasing revenue. To say the possibilities excite us would be an understatement. We look forward to a long and prosperous relationship.
Go Big. Go Blue. Go Jacks. LEON COSTELLO SENIOR ASSOCIATE ATHLETIC DIRECTOR EXTERNAL AFFAIRS
SOUTH DAKOTA STATE UNIVERSITY Athletics Department Box 2820 Brookings, SD 57007-1497
NON-PROFIT US POSTAGE PAID BROOKINGS SD PERMIT 24
RETURN SERVICE REQUESTED
31ST ANNUAL
June 3-4, 2011 BROOKINGS COUNTRY CLUB FRIDAY, JUNE 3
12-3 p.m. Tee times blocked off for golf 6 p.m. Social hour 7-9 p.m. Heavy hors d’oeuvres
SATURDAY, JUNE 4
8 a.m. Registration table opens 9:20 a.m. Announcements 9:30 a.m. Shotgun start Barbecue and trophy presentation to follow.
Entry fee: $250, includes golf, cart rental, food both days. Registration limited to first 32 teams. Deadline: May 15. Contact: Alex Kringen, 605-688-5988, alex.kringen@sdstate.edu.