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South Dakota State University Athletics
Jackrabbit roots run deep for Tetzlaffs
6/21/2020 8:30:00 AM | Football
By Jason Hove
SDSU Sports Information
For some, following in the footsteps of a successful family member can be a heavy burden.
For others, like the father and son tandem of Kevin and Preston Tetzlaff, walking along a familiar path can present an opportunity to add chapters to a family legacy or mark the fulfillment of a lifelong dream.
*****
By the time Kevin Tetzlaff arrived on the South Dakota State University campus in August 1986 for his first fall camp as a member of the football team, the Tetzlaff surname had become synonymous with Jackrabbit Athletics. About 17 months earlier, Kevin's older brother, Mark, had led SDSU to the title game of the 1985 NCAA Division II Men's Basketball Championship and had closed his career with a then-school-record 1,931 points, earning All-America honors.
Night after night, the Tetzlaff family would trek the 50 miles from their rural Hayti home south and east to Brookings to attend Mark's games. Those trips made an impression on Kevin and when it came to his own recruitment in football, SDSU had a leg up on the competition.
"All through my high school career I was going down to the Jackrabbit basketball games and got pretty acclimated with SDSU at that point. I had a number of different offers to play elsewhere, but I just think the familiarity of the Jackrabbits and where my loyalties were growing up, relatively close to home, that was important for my family to be able a part of gamedays," said Kevin, who joined Mark as a member of the Jackrabbit Sports Hall of Fame in 2015. "From an academic standpoint, SDSU was on the top of the list there, as well. It really checked all of the boxes and it just felt comfortable."
Also making an impression on the Hamlin High School standout was the Jackrabbit football coaching staff.
"Coach Wayne Haensel and Donnie Charlson were the two coaches – head coach and defensive coordinator – and I was really impressed with their style and coaching attributes and the way they really cared for their players," he said.
It wouldn't be until the 1988 season when Kevin would finally see the field. He backed up at defensive tackle, but still managed to share the team lead with 6.5 quarterback sacks. He took another step forward as a junior, tallying 120 tackles, including a team-best six sacks, en route to earning all-North Central Conference honors and putting him on the radar of pro scouts.
During fall camp of what was supposed to be his senior season in 1990, Kevin was sidelined by an ankle injury. Initially thinking he would be out only a couple weeks, he never played a down that season – one in which the Jackrabbits scuffled to a 3-8 mark and led Haensel to step down as head coach.
"It was tough for me to have the coach who recruited me and played under all of those years go out under a tough situation like that and then not be able to participate."
Still, Kevin had a desire to play and applied for – and received – an injury hardship for a sixth year of eligibility under new head coach Mike Daly. His defensive coordinator that season was current Jackrabbit head coach John Stiegelmeier.
"In my 33 years at State, Kevin would be ranked as one of the most athletic defensive linemen we have had. He was a great student athlete," said Stiegelmeier, who took over head coaching duties in 1997. "Preston would be ranked as one of the hardest workers I have coached. He too is a great student-athlete. Like father, like son."
When Kevin returned to the field in 1991, his stellar play on the interior of the Jackrabbit defensive line helped initiate a turnaround 7-3 season. Individually, Kevin was honored on the all-NCC squad for a second time, while earning first-team Division II All-America honors of his own from The Associated Press and Football Gazette. In addition, he was selected to the GTE Academic All-America Team and was named the recipient of the Stan Marshall Award as the NCC's top male scholar-athlete for the 1991-92 academic year.
Adding to his accolades was a rare invitation for a Division II player to the Blue-Gray Classic, a college football all-star game played in Mobile, Alabama.
"There were a lot of bigger school guys there and you have an opportunity to show the scouts what you can do against a higher level of competition," Kevin said. "It was really fun – while it lasted."
After holding his own the first few days of the week-long training camp, his professional aspirations were basically wiped away in the blink of an eye during a scrimmage as he suffered a severe injury to the same knee that had hindered his performance the second half of the 1991 season.
"I can kind of replay in my mind in slow motion even yet today where I was making a move and pivoted, was braced up against an offensive lineman, pivoted inside and as my knee collapsed I could hear it pop," he said. "I can remember thinking that before I hit the ground that I'd torn my ACL."
Upon returning to South Dakota, he underwent surgery on Christmas Eve and ended up watching the game from his hospital bed the next day.
"It was a tough Christmas that year where things were looking pretty promising going forward and then to end up in the hospital early on Christmas Day watching a game that you were supposed to be a part of to hopefully launch a bigger opportunity down the road."
*****
Ironically, Kevin Tetzlaff's sense of unfinished business with the Jackrabbits ultimately launched what has been a successful business career. In order to preserve a sixth and final year of eligibility after receiving his injury hardship, the ag business major had to drop out of school for the spring semester until returning in the fall of 1991.
He filled that time out of the classroom and away from the field by serving an internship at First Bank & Trust. Nearly three decades later, he has moved up the ranks to currently serve as the organization's president and chief operating officer, returning to Brookings in 2008 after a 10-year run in Milbank.
"Obviously, I was hoping to go a different path, but when it didn't happen that way First Bank and Trust was here to support me. They allowed me to train for a while, gave me a lot of flexibility, but really provided a launching pad … and it's where I've been for 29 years since. There's always doors that you may not always see at the time when adversity hits, but you have to kind of play through it."
*****
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According to Kevin Tetzlaff, Preston's path to a collegiate athletic career was mapped out long ago.
"Even at an early age he wanted to play college football at the Division I level and have a scholarship," Kevin said of his eldest son. "He had a methodical process; he would set goals along the way and would check them off as he accomplished them. Some were harder than others, but he just never gave up and that persistence has really carried him forward."
Throughout Preston's childhood, it was Kevin who was often his coach, whether it be football, soccer, baseball – whatever was in season at the time.
"The dedication, the persistence and the commitment that he had, even as a young kid, to just get better … whether it was from me or from his coaches as he got older, he's really absorbed what they were saying and in such a respectful and professional way. I couldn't be happier as a dad on how he approaches the game and really life from that perspective."
When it came time for Preston to make his college choice, he needed only to look up the street. An all-state linebacker, he played his home football games for Brookings High School on the same Coughlin-Alumni Stadium field his dad played in college and now plays on the exact same site at Dana J. Dykhouse Stadium, which opened his freshman season with the Jackrabbits in 2016.
"It's just a tremendous feeling, overwhelming pride, to be able to watch your son compete out on the same field that you had the opportunity to compete on so many years prior," Kevin said.
Football wasn't the only factor in the equation, however.
"Both my parents have always stressed academics so that's something I've always taken very seriously," said Preston, who has been honored on Missouri Valley Football Conference All-Academic Team twice as a business economics major. "Hopefully, after football ends for me, I'll go to law school and see where that takes me."
Still, both father and son said the decision on whether to attend SDSU or forge a different path ultimately rested with Preston.
"He and I have a very special relationship," Kevin said. "He knew that I would have a sense of pride and joy of having him as a Jackrabbit, but I truly made it very clear that this is your decision – don't walk in my steps because this is your future, not mine. He had other opportunities to go play elsewhere, as well, but I think at the end of the day he just really felt at home, like I had a special connection with Coach Haensel and Coach Charlson, I think he found a special connection with Coach (Jimmy) Rogers – his position coach – and with Coach Stiegelmeier. I think it became an easy decision for him at the end."
Preston said he felt connected to the Jackrabbit football program at an early age through his father.
"I saw how much the program meant to him as I was growing up," Preston said. "He was pretty close to the program so I got to see a lot of things that I'm sure a lot of other kids didn't get to see, but I felt like a had a pretty good idea what the program stood for. It's pretty awesome to have this kind of dream come to fruition. A lot of my buddies, they all wanted to be in my spot when we were younger -- that was all our dream to be a Jackrabbit. It's pretty cool it's played out the way it has."
*****
That's not to say that Preston hasn't experienced some adversity of his own in his years of wearing the Yellow and Blue. After redshirting his first season, Preston was forced to sit out the entire 2017 season due to injury.
Besides drawing on the lessons from his father, Preston says it was his teammates who kept him going through some tough times.
"You get to meet those guys that become your best friends," he said. "You don't want to give up on those guys you start a journey with and with relationships like those, there's never been a thought in my mind that I wouldn't get through it."
The relationships Preston has built have extended beyond the football field and locker room. He served this past academic year as vice president of the SDSU Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, helping spearhead a number of community service endeavors at the team and department level.
Giving back to the community is just another part of the Tetzlaff family culture that includes Kevin serving on the SDSU Council of Trustees and the SDSU Foundation's Board of Governors.
"It's just a sense of pride that I have for the university and the great things that it does. Over the years, then to have a connection with First Bank & Trust which has always been such a strong supporter of not only athletics but academics and the arts, as well, and to be able to kind of be that face of the organization, I've been blessed in that perspective."
*****
When he was able to return to the field in 2018, Preston Tetzlaff made an impact on the Jackrabbits' special teams units. Of his 17 total tackles that season, 14 came as a member of the kickoff and punt coverage teams. He also blocked a kick.
After seeing his reps at linebacker increase during his junior season to the tune of 24 tackles, Preston expects to vie in 2020 for the starting middle linebacker spot vacated by the graduation of career tackles leader and All-American Christian Rozeboom.
"It's not Christian's old spot -- I've got to look at it as my spot, that I've got to go chase that spot and just continue to work on special teams and get people excited about the defense and see where we can go," Preston said. The Jackrabbits have made eight consecutive appearances in the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs, reaching the semifinals in both 2017 and 2018.
Even though the 2020 season remains shrouded in uncertainty due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Preston has not let that hinder his preparation for one final go. Â
"Everybody had to figure out their own workout program. Everybody was in the same boat across college football so I think it will show who was working through the spring, come fall," he said. "You'll be able to see who was really invested on their own. Everybody that's back at workouts is eager to get back on the field and get geared up for the season."
*****
As Preston has matured in his football career, the postgame father-son discussions have taken on a different tone, according to the younger Tetzlaff.
"It's always fun to hear him after the game," Preston said. "He gets excited just like I do when I'm out there and it's always fun to hear the whole family's excitement after the game. It's not as much coaching anymore as it was when I was growing up, it's more of 'good job' and 'way to hustle out there', that sort of thing."
Those discussions may also include some good-natured ribbing, especially when the topic turns to who has had the better facial hair during their collegiate career.
"I'm sure he would say him, but I think a lot of people would differ on that opinion," Preston said. "His was a little darker, but I would say mine has a little more style."
Â
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SDSU Sports Information
For some, following in the footsteps of a successful family member can be a heavy burden.
For others, like the father and son tandem of Kevin and Preston Tetzlaff, walking along a familiar path can present an opportunity to add chapters to a family legacy or mark the fulfillment of a lifelong dream.
*****
By the time Kevin Tetzlaff arrived on the South Dakota State University campus in August 1986 for his first fall camp as a member of the football team, the Tetzlaff surname had become synonymous with Jackrabbit Athletics. About 17 months earlier, Kevin's older brother, Mark, had led SDSU to the title game of the 1985 NCAA Division II Men's Basketball Championship and had closed his career with a then-school-record 1,931 points, earning All-America honors.
Night after night, the Tetzlaff family would trek the 50 miles from their rural Hayti home south and east to Brookings to attend Mark's games. Those trips made an impression on Kevin and when it came to his own recruitment in football, SDSU had a leg up on the competition.
"All through my high school career I was going down to the Jackrabbit basketball games and got pretty acclimated with SDSU at that point. I had a number of different offers to play elsewhere, but I just think the familiarity of the Jackrabbits and where my loyalties were growing up, relatively close to home, that was important for my family to be able a part of gamedays," said Kevin, who joined Mark as a member of the Jackrabbit Sports Hall of Fame in 2015. "From an academic standpoint, SDSU was on the top of the list there, as well. It really checked all of the boxes and it just felt comfortable."
Also making an impression on the Hamlin High School standout was the Jackrabbit football coaching staff.
"Coach Wayne Haensel and Donnie Charlson were the two coaches – head coach and defensive coordinator – and I was really impressed with their style and coaching attributes and the way they really cared for their players," he said.
It wouldn't be until the 1988 season when Kevin would finally see the field. He backed up at defensive tackle, but still managed to share the team lead with 6.5 quarterback sacks. He took another step forward as a junior, tallying 120 tackles, including a team-best six sacks, en route to earning all-North Central Conference honors and putting him on the radar of pro scouts.
During fall camp of what was supposed to be his senior season in 1990, Kevin was sidelined by an ankle injury. Initially thinking he would be out only a couple weeks, he never played a down that season – one in which the Jackrabbits scuffled to a 3-8 mark and led Haensel to step down as head coach.
"It was tough for me to have the coach who recruited me and played under all of those years go out under a tough situation like that and then not be able to participate."
Still, Kevin had a desire to play and applied for – and received – an injury hardship for a sixth year of eligibility under new head coach Mike Daly. His defensive coordinator that season was current Jackrabbit head coach John Stiegelmeier.
"In my 33 years at State, Kevin would be ranked as one of the most athletic defensive linemen we have had. He was a great student athlete," said Stiegelmeier, who took over head coaching duties in 1997. "Preston would be ranked as one of the hardest workers I have coached. He too is a great student-athlete. Like father, like son."
When Kevin returned to the field in 1991, his stellar play on the interior of the Jackrabbit defensive line helped initiate a turnaround 7-3 season. Individually, Kevin was honored on the all-NCC squad for a second time, while earning first-team Division II All-America honors of his own from The Associated Press and Football Gazette. In addition, he was selected to the GTE Academic All-America Team and was named the recipient of the Stan Marshall Award as the NCC's top male scholar-athlete for the 1991-92 academic year.
Adding to his accolades was a rare invitation for a Division II player to the Blue-Gray Classic, a college football all-star game played in Mobile, Alabama.
"There were a lot of bigger school guys there and you have an opportunity to show the scouts what you can do against a higher level of competition," Kevin said. "It was really fun – while it lasted."
After holding his own the first few days of the week-long training camp, his professional aspirations were basically wiped away in the blink of an eye during a scrimmage as he suffered a severe injury to the same knee that had hindered his performance the second half of the 1991 season.
"I can kind of replay in my mind in slow motion even yet today where I was making a move and pivoted, was braced up against an offensive lineman, pivoted inside and as my knee collapsed I could hear it pop," he said. "I can remember thinking that before I hit the ground that I'd torn my ACL."
Upon returning to South Dakota, he underwent surgery on Christmas Eve and ended up watching the game from his hospital bed the next day.
"It was a tough Christmas that year where things were looking pretty promising going forward and then to end up in the hospital early on Christmas Day watching a game that you were supposed to be a part of to hopefully launch a bigger opportunity down the road."
*****
Ironically, Kevin Tetzlaff's sense of unfinished business with the Jackrabbits ultimately launched what has been a successful business career. In order to preserve a sixth and final year of eligibility after receiving his injury hardship, the ag business major had to drop out of school for the spring semester until returning in the fall of 1991.
He filled that time out of the classroom and away from the field by serving an internship at First Bank & Trust. Nearly three decades later, he has moved up the ranks to currently serve as the organization's president and chief operating officer, returning to Brookings in 2008 after a 10-year run in Milbank.
"Obviously, I was hoping to go a different path, but when it didn't happen that way First Bank and Trust was here to support me. They allowed me to train for a while, gave me a lot of flexibility, but really provided a launching pad … and it's where I've been for 29 years since. There's always doors that you may not always see at the time when adversity hits, but you have to kind of play through it."
*****
Â
"Even at an early age he wanted to play college football at the Division I level and have a scholarship," Kevin said of his eldest son. "He had a methodical process; he would set goals along the way and would check them off as he accomplished them. Some were harder than others, but he just never gave up and that persistence has really carried him forward."
Throughout Preston's childhood, it was Kevin who was often his coach, whether it be football, soccer, baseball – whatever was in season at the time.
"The dedication, the persistence and the commitment that he had, even as a young kid, to just get better … whether it was from me or from his coaches as he got older, he's really absorbed what they were saying and in such a respectful and professional way. I couldn't be happier as a dad on how he approaches the game and really life from that perspective."
When it came time for Preston to make his college choice, he needed only to look up the street. An all-state linebacker, he played his home football games for Brookings High School on the same Coughlin-Alumni Stadium field his dad played in college and now plays on the exact same site at Dana J. Dykhouse Stadium, which opened his freshman season with the Jackrabbits in 2016.
"It's just a tremendous feeling, overwhelming pride, to be able to watch your son compete out on the same field that you had the opportunity to compete on so many years prior," Kevin said.
Football wasn't the only factor in the equation, however.
"Both my parents have always stressed academics so that's something I've always taken very seriously," said Preston, who has been honored on Missouri Valley Football Conference All-Academic Team twice as a business economics major. "Hopefully, after football ends for me, I'll go to law school and see where that takes me."
Still, both father and son said the decision on whether to attend SDSU or forge a different path ultimately rested with Preston.
"He and I have a very special relationship," Kevin said. "He knew that I would have a sense of pride and joy of having him as a Jackrabbit, but I truly made it very clear that this is your decision – don't walk in my steps because this is your future, not mine. He had other opportunities to go play elsewhere, as well, but I think at the end of the day he just really felt at home, like I had a special connection with Coach Haensel and Coach Charlson, I think he found a special connection with Coach (Jimmy) Rogers – his position coach – and with Coach Stiegelmeier. I think it became an easy decision for him at the end."
Preston said he felt connected to the Jackrabbit football program at an early age through his father.
"I saw how much the program meant to him as I was growing up," Preston said. "He was pretty close to the program so I got to see a lot of things that I'm sure a lot of other kids didn't get to see, but I felt like a had a pretty good idea what the program stood for. It's pretty awesome to have this kind of dream come to fruition. A lot of my buddies, they all wanted to be in my spot when we were younger -- that was all our dream to be a Jackrabbit. It's pretty cool it's played out the way it has."
*****
That's not to say that Preston hasn't experienced some adversity of his own in his years of wearing the Yellow and Blue. After redshirting his first season, Preston was forced to sit out the entire 2017 season due to injury.
Besides drawing on the lessons from his father, Preston says it was his teammates who kept him going through some tough times.
"You get to meet those guys that become your best friends," he said. "You don't want to give up on those guys you start a journey with and with relationships like those, there's never been a thought in my mind that I wouldn't get through it."
The relationships Preston has built have extended beyond the football field and locker room. He served this past academic year as vice president of the SDSU Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, helping spearhead a number of community service endeavors at the team and department level.
Giving back to the community is just another part of the Tetzlaff family culture that includes Kevin serving on the SDSU Council of Trustees and the SDSU Foundation's Board of Governors.
"It's just a sense of pride that I have for the university and the great things that it does. Over the years, then to have a connection with First Bank & Trust which has always been such a strong supporter of not only athletics but academics and the arts, as well, and to be able to kind of be that face of the organization, I've been blessed in that perspective."
*****
When he was able to return to the field in 2018, Preston Tetzlaff made an impact on the Jackrabbits' special teams units. Of his 17 total tackles that season, 14 came as a member of the kickoff and punt coverage teams. He also blocked a kick.
After seeing his reps at linebacker increase during his junior season to the tune of 24 tackles, Preston expects to vie in 2020 for the starting middle linebacker spot vacated by the graduation of career tackles leader and All-American Christian Rozeboom.
"It's not Christian's old spot -- I've got to look at it as my spot, that I've got to go chase that spot and just continue to work on special teams and get people excited about the defense and see where we can go," Preston said. The Jackrabbits have made eight consecutive appearances in the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs, reaching the semifinals in both 2017 and 2018.
Even though the 2020 season remains shrouded in uncertainty due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Preston has not let that hinder his preparation for one final go. Â
"Everybody had to figure out their own workout program. Everybody was in the same boat across college football so I think it will show who was working through the spring, come fall," he said. "You'll be able to see who was really invested on their own. Everybody that's back at workouts is eager to get back on the field and get geared up for the season."
*****
As Preston has matured in his football career, the postgame father-son discussions have taken on a different tone, according to the younger Tetzlaff.
"It's always fun to hear him after the game," Preston said. "He gets excited just like I do when I'm out there and it's always fun to hear the whole family's excitement after the game. It's not as much coaching anymore as it was when I was growing up, it's more of 'good job' and 'way to hustle out there', that sort of thing."
Those discussions may also include some good-natured ribbing, especially when the topic turns to who has had the better facial hair during their collegiate career.
"I'm sure he would say him, but I think a lot of people would differ on that opinion," Preston said. "His was a little darker, but I would say mine has a little more style."
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