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BASEBALL A FAMILY TRADITION FOR MOGENS
6/20/2020 8:30:00 AM | Baseball
By Jason Hove
SDSU Sports Information
Whenever a Mogen has headed to the mound for the South Dakota State University baseball team, there's been a good chance the Jackrabbits will come out on top.
Bruce Mogen, who pitched for the Yellow and Blue from 1983-86, has seen his son, Brett, carve an impressive career of his own the past four seasons in Brookings. For the Dell Rapids duo, the baseball diamond has always been a place to strengthen their father-son bond.
"I think I was always one of his coaches – from peewee, midgets, teeners and Legion. As he got older I would ask him do you want me to be the coach or would you like me to be dad in the stands," Bruce said, noting that Brett always opted for coaching. "It was important to me that it became something he owned, something he wanted to do, not play baseball just because dad wanted him to play baseball."
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Originally from Mobridge, Bruce Mogen played for the two winningest coaches in Jackrabbit baseball history. His collegiate career began in what was Erv Huether's final season in a 34-year tenure as the SDSU baseball boss.
"He was just really a kind person, he was really good to the players," Mogen said of Huether. "A lot of talent was arriving at that time and you could just see success was coming."
In 1984, Bruce's sophomore season, Mark Ekeland took over as head coach and led the Jackrabbits to a storied season that ended with SDSU's lone appearance in the NCAA Division II College World Series. Bruce took on the role of closer that season, compiling a 2-0 record with three saves in 11 appearances.
"We just kept getting better," Bruce Mogen said of the 1984 team. "We had starting pitching that was probably second to none in the country and then you paired that with really solid defense, some speed and power hitting, we just got some confidence as the season went on and really believed that we could compete with anyone. To win the conference tournament and then host the regional and win that was really special."
He would go on to finish his career with a 7-2 record and a then-school-record 11 saves. His saves total, which stood as the Jackrabbit standard for 20 years until surpassed by Gary Olechoski in 2006, now ranks fifth in program history.
"I turned into the closer, I think, because I was a strike-thrower and was actually a change of pace to the starters. They were generally hard-throwing, dominant strikeout pitchers," Bruce said, referring to teammates such as Greg Kallevig, Rich Morehouse, Daryl Deneke and Mark Hofer. "I was more of a control pitcher -- hit the ball at my fielders, let's get an out and get out of here. I didn't get a lot of innings because they didn't need me, and that was great. We played seven-inning games (in conference play) and our starters quite often had complete games."
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When it came time for Brett Mogen to make his college choice, he says he didn't have to look much farther than his bedroom closet, which was filled with Jackrabbit apparel. Although he considered a couple other area schools and baseball programs, the opportunity to play close to home at the Division I level and for a program for which he had always rooted was too good to pass up.
Despite the family connection, which includes mom, Bonnie, being an SDSU graduate, both father and son say the decision was left up to Brett.
"They always made it clear that wherever I wanted to go that the first priority would be academics, but I knew the campus, I knew the town and I had always wanted to be a Jackrabbit," Brett said.
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Like his dad, Brett Mogen has pitched primarily out of the bullpen during his time as a Jackrabbit. After pitching a career-high 49 1/3 innings as a freshman in 2017, he took a step backwards as a sophomore as he struggled with his command – and his confidence.
However, he bounced back in a big way as a junior with a memorable 2019 season. His 1.67 earned run average in 32 1/3 innings marked the sixth-lowest by a Jackrabbit pitcher tossing at least 30 innings in a season.
"I had a full year to refresh and got my head right," Brett said. "It was just building that confidence over time and getting more comfortable with my team and how we operate at SDSU. Then all I had to do was compete."
The exclamation point on his junior campaign came at the Summit League Baseball Championships as he threw a combined 4 2/3 scoreless innings in two relief appearances on the same day. After tossing 1 2/3 scoreless frames versus Oral Roberts to open the day, he came back a couple hours later with three shutout innings, striking out five en route to earning the victory in an elimination game against Western Illinois. His performances were rewarded with a spot on the all-tournament team.
"I think we're similar in that we both are strike-throwers and neither of us ever like to walk a batter," Bruce said. "Brett has his own way of pitching; he's bigger, stronger and throws harder than I did."
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Under normal circumstances, Brett's collegiate career would have come to a close during the 2020 season. He was off to another strong start, leading the team in earned run average (2.14), appearances (8) and innings pitched (21) when the COVID-19 pandemic forced the remainder of the season to be canceled in mid-March, just before the start of the Summit League play. His final appearance of 2020 came at Kansas State on March 10, pitching the final two innings in a 4-0 shutout victory.
Current Jackrabbit head coach Rob Bishop said he has seen Brett grow not only as a hurler, but as a leader the past two seasons.
"I think he has figured out who he is as a college pitcher," said Bishop, who completed his fourth season at SDSU in 2020. "He's gone back to relying on his fastball and cut fastball; he'll throw occasional off-speed pitches, but he's not trying to trick guys, he's not trying to be cute. He just goes out and tries to execute his pitch and he's really aggressive."
With the NCAA granting spring sport student-athletes an additional year of eligibility, Brett has decided to return for a fifth season. As he completes a major in exercise science, the extra time in the classroom will allow him to pursue related minors in nutrition and health science before furthering his education in physical therapy school.
Brett says he has been able to apply the lessons he has learned in the classroom and exercise science laboratory at SDSU to make him a more effective pitcher.
"I'm super interested in how the body works and performs physically so exercise science is the perfect major for that," Brett said. "The biggest thing I've taken away from my major is how to train. I take pride in how I perform every set in the weight room and how I perform at practice and what it means to refuel and recover properly. I have that added benefit as an exercise science major because I understand how those little things can surely affect your performances."
Brett said his success can be further attributed to teamwork that extends beyond his teammates and coaches.
"What I think a lot of people don't realize is the amount of time I actually spend with my athletic trainer and how he's just as important as any coach on the team," Brett said. "I think that people don't understand the amount of time that I'm with the athletic trainer in the hotel afterwards and we're doing rehab exercises and we're icing and we're using (electric) stim … we're doing all these things so that I don't just have one good outing, but I have a good outing every time so I have to ready whenever I get the call from the head coach."
Along the way his velocity, which topped out around 84-85 miles per hour his first three seasons, saw a dramatic rise heading into the 2020 season.
"Something switched over the winter," Brett said. "All of a sudden, I came back from winter break, the season was about to start and I was hitting higher numbers. I got out and had some adrenaline in me in my first outing and then all of a sudden I was touching 89. That just kind of persisted throughout the season."
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Thirty-four years after walking off the mound for the final time as a Jackrabbit, Bruce Mogen's baseball odyssey continues. He and Brett are once again teammates this summer on the Dell Rapids PBR amateur team – a club with which Bruce played a key role on nine state championship teams from 1991-2007, helping him earn induction into the South Dakota Amateur Baseball Hall of Fame in 2015. His role these days is primarily as a coach, although he will still lace up the glove and cleats when needed.
"I just have loved playing baseball and being part of the team, Bruce said. "I'll have people ask me, 'when did you quit playing baseball?' and then I'll say, 'I'm still on the roster.' "
As Brett has progressed in his career, the baseball-related discussions between father and son have shifted from the physical aspects to the more cerebral parts of the game.
"Brett is his own player, he knows what he wants to accomplish so there isn't much coaching now, it's just more of a relationship as teammates and talking about the game," said Bruce, who works as a financial adviser. "He really likes to compete on the mound. He doesn't ever care if he plays in the field or swings a bat – that's how we're different."
Still, the similarities between the two outweigh their differences.
"The understated thing, which in my opinion is more important, is the mentality aspect. It's not something you can really teach, it's something you have to be around for a long time," Brett said. "I've been lucky that my dad is super level-headed, he's super easy-going and that transfers out to the mound. It's his opinion, and my opinion, too, that emotions are good, but when you're pitching you have to stay level. A lot of guys, when they have bad outings, it's because one thing goes wrong and then it kind of snowballs and they just let the mental aspect get away from them. Something he has instilled in me from a very young age is you've got to compete on the mound, but you can't get too high, you've got to stay level-headed throughout your entire outing."
If history is any indication, there are many more successful outings ahead for the Mogen family.
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SDSU Sports Information
Whenever a Mogen has headed to the mound for the South Dakota State University baseball team, there's been a good chance the Jackrabbits will come out on top.
Bruce Mogen, who pitched for the Yellow and Blue from 1983-86, has seen his son, Brett, carve an impressive career of his own the past four seasons in Brookings. For the Dell Rapids duo, the baseball diamond has always been a place to strengthen their father-son bond.
"I think I was always one of his coaches – from peewee, midgets, teeners and Legion. As he got older I would ask him do you want me to be the coach or would you like me to be dad in the stands," Bruce said, noting that Brett always opted for coaching. "It was important to me that it became something he owned, something he wanted to do, not play baseball just because dad wanted him to play baseball."
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*****
Originally from Mobridge, Bruce Mogen played for the two winningest coaches in Jackrabbit baseball history. His collegiate career began in what was Erv Huether's final season in a 34-year tenure as the SDSU baseball boss.
"He was just really a kind person, he was really good to the players," Mogen said of Huether. "A lot of talent was arriving at that time and you could just see success was coming."
In 1984, Bruce's sophomore season, Mark Ekeland took over as head coach and led the Jackrabbits to a storied season that ended with SDSU's lone appearance in the NCAA Division II College World Series. Bruce took on the role of closer that season, compiling a 2-0 record with three saves in 11 appearances.
"We just kept getting better," Bruce Mogen said of the 1984 team. "We had starting pitching that was probably second to none in the country and then you paired that with really solid defense, some speed and power hitting, we just got some confidence as the season went on and really believed that we could compete with anyone. To win the conference tournament and then host the regional and win that was really special."
He would go on to finish his career with a 7-2 record and a then-school-record 11 saves. His saves total, which stood as the Jackrabbit standard for 20 years until surpassed by Gary Olechoski in 2006, now ranks fifth in program history.
"I turned into the closer, I think, because I was a strike-thrower and was actually a change of pace to the starters. They were generally hard-throwing, dominant strikeout pitchers," Bruce said, referring to teammates such as Greg Kallevig, Rich Morehouse, Daryl Deneke and Mark Hofer. "I was more of a control pitcher -- hit the ball at my fielders, let's get an out and get out of here. I didn't get a lot of innings because they didn't need me, and that was great. We played seven-inning games (in conference play) and our starters quite often had complete games."
Â
*****
When it came time for Brett Mogen to make his college choice, he says he didn't have to look much farther than his bedroom closet, which was filled with Jackrabbit apparel. Although he considered a couple other area schools and baseball programs, the opportunity to play close to home at the Division I level and for a program for which he had always rooted was too good to pass up.
Despite the family connection, which includes mom, Bonnie, being an SDSU graduate, both father and son say the decision was left up to Brett.
"They always made it clear that wherever I wanted to go that the first priority would be academics, but I knew the campus, I knew the town and I had always wanted to be a Jackrabbit," Brett said.
Â
*****
Like his dad, Brett Mogen has pitched primarily out of the bullpen during his time as a Jackrabbit. After pitching a career-high 49 1/3 innings as a freshman in 2017, he took a step backwards as a sophomore as he struggled with his command – and his confidence.
However, he bounced back in a big way as a junior with a memorable 2019 season. His 1.67 earned run average in 32 1/3 innings marked the sixth-lowest by a Jackrabbit pitcher tossing at least 30 innings in a season.
"I had a full year to refresh and got my head right," Brett said. "It was just building that confidence over time and getting more comfortable with my team and how we operate at SDSU. Then all I had to do was compete."
The exclamation point on his junior campaign came at the Summit League Baseball Championships as he threw a combined 4 2/3 scoreless innings in two relief appearances on the same day. After tossing 1 2/3 scoreless frames versus Oral Roberts to open the day, he came back a couple hours later with three shutout innings, striking out five en route to earning the victory in an elimination game against Western Illinois. His performances were rewarded with a spot on the all-tournament team.
"I think we're similar in that we both are strike-throwers and neither of us ever like to walk a batter," Bruce said. "Brett has his own way of pitching; he's bigger, stronger and throws harder than I did."
Â
*****
Under normal circumstances, Brett's collegiate career would have come to a close during the 2020 season. He was off to another strong start, leading the team in earned run average (2.14), appearances (8) and innings pitched (21) when the COVID-19 pandemic forced the remainder of the season to be canceled in mid-March, just before the start of the Summit League play. His final appearance of 2020 came at Kansas State on March 10, pitching the final two innings in a 4-0 shutout victory.
Current Jackrabbit head coach Rob Bishop said he has seen Brett grow not only as a hurler, but as a leader the past two seasons.
"I think he has figured out who he is as a college pitcher," said Bishop, who completed his fourth season at SDSU in 2020. "He's gone back to relying on his fastball and cut fastball; he'll throw occasional off-speed pitches, but he's not trying to trick guys, he's not trying to be cute. He just goes out and tries to execute his pitch and he's really aggressive."
With the NCAA granting spring sport student-athletes an additional year of eligibility, Brett has decided to return for a fifth season. As he completes a major in exercise science, the extra time in the classroom will allow him to pursue related minors in nutrition and health science before furthering his education in physical therapy school.
Brett says he has been able to apply the lessons he has learned in the classroom and exercise science laboratory at SDSU to make him a more effective pitcher.
"I'm super interested in how the body works and performs physically so exercise science is the perfect major for that," Brett said. "The biggest thing I've taken away from my major is how to train. I take pride in how I perform every set in the weight room and how I perform at practice and what it means to refuel and recover properly. I have that added benefit as an exercise science major because I understand how those little things can surely affect your performances."
Brett said his success can be further attributed to teamwork that extends beyond his teammates and coaches.
"What I think a lot of people don't realize is the amount of time I actually spend with my athletic trainer and how he's just as important as any coach on the team," Brett said. "I think that people don't understand the amount of time that I'm with the athletic trainer in the hotel afterwards and we're doing rehab exercises and we're icing and we're using (electric) stim … we're doing all these things so that I don't just have one good outing, but I have a good outing every time so I have to ready whenever I get the call from the head coach."
Along the way his velocity, which topped out around 84-85 miles per hour his first three seasons, saw a dramatic rise heading into the 2020 season.
"Something switched over the winter," Brett said. "All of a sudden, I came back from winter break, the season was about to start and I was hitting higher numbers. I got out and had some adrenaline in me in my first outing and then all of a sudden I was touching 89. That just kind of persisted throughout the season."
Â
*****
Thirty-four years after walking off the mound for the final time as a Jackrabbit, Bruce Mogen's baseball odyssey continues. He and Brett are once again teammates this summer on the Dell Rapids PBR amateur team – a club with which Bruce played a key role on nine state championship teams from 1991-2007, helping him earn induction into the South Dakota Amateur Baseball Hall of Fame in 2015. His role these days is primarily as a coach, although he will still lace up the glove and cleats when needed.
"I just have loved playing baseball and being part of the team, Bruce said. "I'll have people ask me, 'when did you quit playing baseball?' and then I'll say, 'I'm still on the roster.' "
As Brett has progressed in his career, the baseball-related discussions between father and son have shifted from the physical aspects to the more cerebral parts of the game.
"Brett is his own player, he knows what he wants to accomplish so there isn't much coaching now, it's just more of a relationship as teammates and talking about the game," said Bruce, who works as a financial adviser. "He really likes to compete on the mound. He doesn't ever care if he plays in the field or swings a bat – that's how we're different."
Still, the similarities between the two outweigh their differences.
"The understated thing, which in my opinion is more important, is the mentality aspect. It's not something you can really teach, it's something you have to be around for a long time," Brett said. "I've been lucky that my dad is super level-headed, he's super easy-going and that transfers out to the mound. It's his opinion, and my opinion, too, that emotions are good, but when you're pitching you have to stay level. A lot of guys, when they have bad outings, it's because one thing goes wrong and then it kind of snowballs and they just let the mental aspect get away from them. Something he has instilled in me from a very young age is you've got to compete on the mound, but you can't get too high, you've got to stay level-headed throughout your entire outing."
If history is any indication, there are many more successful outings ahead for the Mogen family.
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