Craig Mattick:
Welcome to another edition of In Play, I am Craig Mattick. Today's guest has been a football coach on the high school and the collegiate level. He was a three-sport athlete in high school and had great success as a quarterback in Northern State, and a 22-year career as a high school football coach. In fact, he took two different schools to the State Championship Games. He's also in five different Hall of Fames in South Dakota. The Tyndall South Dakota native, Mick Wysuph. And Mick, welcome to In Play.
Mick Wysuph:
Well, Craig, it's a pleasure to be here.
Craig Mattick:
You were a three-sport athlete in high school there in Tyndall, the old Tyndall Panthers.
Mick Wysuph:
It was the Panthers at the time.
Craig Mattick:
Yes, you were in football, basketball and track. Of course, this would've been the early to mid-sixties, and no playoffs for football at the time.
Mick Wysuph:
No playoffs at that time, no.
Craig Mattick:
Tyndall did though make it to the boys basketball tournament back in '36. That was well before you.
Mick Wysuph:
I didn't know that.
Craig Mattick:
Yeah, and 1969, after you left.
Mick Wysuph:
Okay, I remember that one.
Craig Mattick:
You didn't make it to the state tournament, but how close did you make it though when you were at Tyndall?
Mick Wysuph:
Well, our basketball teams weren't the best. But I think my senior year, we ended up with a record of 19 and 5, but got beat by a real good Tripp team that had Mike Fidell and I can't remember the other player. But I think it was in the district finals that year and stuff like that. But we had really good track teams back then. I don't know if you remember the name Howard Kaplan, but he was a renowned track coach from way back when. And Tyndall had that rectangular cinder track and the big Tyndall relays at the time, where I heard as many 1500, 1600 kids would show up that day in little Tyndall and have a track team. But we had some great track teams at that time.
Craig Mattick:
Yeah, I miss those old cinder tracks. Why don't we run on cinder anymore, Mich?
Mick Wysuph:
Because when you fall it takes a while to get healed up.
Craig Mattick:
It was Tyndall, and then it was Tyndall-Tabor for a while, and then of course the school district became Bon Homme, right there in Tyndall. What area towns were in your conference at the time, and had some pretty good rivalries?
Mick Wysuph:
Well, we did, Springfield was a big rivalry, we played Avon. Scotland had some good athletic teams and traditions back then, we played Tripp. Some basketball, we went out, we even played, I think, as far west as Burke. So those are basically the local ones around there that were the big rivalries at the time.
Craig Mattick:
I'm guessing football was your favorite sport?
Mick Wysuph:
Well, it was. I really liked track, I was a pole vaulter and low hurdler in track and stuff like that. I ended up getting second in the State Track in pole vault when I was a senior. So I really enjoyed that season and stuff like that, but yet, football was my favorite.
Craig Mattick:
And I assume you were the quarterback?
Mick Wysuph:
I was, I didn't really set the world on fire as a high school quarterback. In fact, it's an interesting story. Everybody assumed that I would go to Southern since Springfield was 10 miles away. And it was rather ironic, but the head coach at Southern at the time, which later on became University of South Dakota-Springfield, but Jack Martin was the head coach there. They didn't have a Catholic Church in Springfield, and so he came to Tyndall to our church and sat just a few pews away from my family, for many years. And I don't know if everybody assumed I was just going to go play football there. I was just a young naive kid, didn't know much about what was going on or what the process was.
And Jack Neeson was my high school football coach, and he called me into his office one day and he said, "Mich, have you thought about playing college football?" And I said, "Well, a little bit." He says, "Well, I think you could play." And he said, "The coaches from Northern..." where he was from, "The coaches from Northern are going to be in Sioux Falls and they would like to meet you, and I've talked to them about you." So my mom and dad and I drove up to Sioux Falls and we met Coach Clark Swisher at the time. And he said, "Well, I don't know." He says, "I haven't heard a lot about you." But he says, "If Jack Neeson thinks you're going to be a good football player," he said, "we'd love to have you." And so I said, "Well, that sounds good to me." And at that particular point in time, I decided that that's where I was going to go to school.
Craig Mattick:
Well, the great Clark Swisher, of course, the all time winningest football coach at Northern.
Mick Wysuph:
Yeah.
Craig Mattick:
And of course, you gave him a bunch of wins when you were there as the quarterback.
Mick Wysuph:
That was so much fun. In fact, Craig, just last year was my senior year there at Northern and stuff like that. And we had some great teams, in fact, went undefeated that year and went to the NAIA Playoffs. So yes, some really fond memories of those times.
Craig Mattick:
Well, I did notice that you threw 35 touchdown passes in your four years when you were there.
Mick Wysuph:
Really?
Craig Mattick:
You weren't throwing the whole spread offense at Northern as the quarterback there.
Mick Wysuph:
No. And I wasn't real tall, and so we had to devise a lot of stuff where there were roll-outs and play acts for me to get the ball across the line. But yeah, that was interesting.
Craig Mattick:
I think you went 17 and 2, your last two years in Northern. Why was Northern good those last two years that you were there?
Mick Wysuph:
Craig, I mean, that was one of my things. I wasn't anything where I was that outstanding of an athlete or quarterback. But we had such great personnel, and I mean on the defensive side of the ball and the offensive side of the ball. In fact, offensively, I don't know if you remember a guy by the name of Dick Weary from Falkland, South Dakota. I mean, he was 6.1 and he was so quick and had great hands. In fact, he ended up getting drafted by the Minnesota Vikings. But it was just a matter of being surrounded, I could tell you, guys like Dave Pashtun and Sutton and those kinds of guys, just surrounded by a bunch of great players.
Craig Mattick:
While you were at Northern, was your goal to become a teacher and then eventually coach football? Was that in your mind?
Mick Wysuph:
Yes, it was. In fact, when I first started, I told everybody I knew what I wanted to do from an early onset. But later on people said, "Well, you got to teach or whatever in order to coach." I said, "Okay, so that's how it works."
Craig Mattick:
Well, 1973, your first job out of Northern, you get a job down at Todd County, here in Mission. So what was those first years like for you at Todd County?
Mick Wysuph:
Well, it was really interesting. I graduated in the middle of the year, and so there weren't a whole lot of jobs to apply for. And Todd County High School Mission happened to be one of them, and that I qualified for as a teacher. And there was an assistant football coaching position open with it. And the other one was a middle school position, I think in Herrin high school, if I remember right. But anyway, I ended up interviewing at Todd County. And this is rather interesting, but Marlon Goldhammer, who again was the executive secretary of the Association for so long, he was the principal at that time and he was the one that hired me and gave me my first job out of college.
Craig Mattick:
Nice. While you were at Todd County, you eventually became the football coach, I think maybe in the last three years you were there.
Mick Wysuph:
Yeah.
Craig Mattick:
Were you ready to be a head football coach at that time?
Mick Wysuph:
Well, no, not really. So I went as an assistant that first year, Marv Chihok was the head coach, and he was really good and he knew both sides of the game. I didn't really know too much about the offensive line or defense at that time, and I learned a tremendous amount from him. I was the assistant under him that one year, and he came up to me and he says, "You know what? I'm ready to retire." And he says, "I think you can do it." And of course, that was my goal. It came a little bit quicker than what I figured it would happen, so I jumped at the opportunity.
Craig Mattick:
Who did you bounce off ideas from? After a day of practice or something and you're confused or frustrated, that there was someone to call.
Mick Wysuph:
Yeah. Marv, I said, was just unbelievable as far as the amount of knowledge that he had about the game of football. And then he was so good with his relationship with players, so I learned a tremendous amount from him. And I had another guy by the name of John Stowey, who had graduated from Yankee College. And he was one of my line coaches and a very knowledgeable guy, and I was very fortunate to have him. And then later on, Jim Schleckoway came as the head basketball coach at Todd County, and he was one of my assistant football coaches. So surrounded by a lot of good people.
Craig Mattick:
Four years at Todd County, then all of a sudden you decide you want to go to the University of South Dakota. What were your ambitions at that point?
Mick Wysuph:
Well, it's funny. I started going to a couple of coaches clinics at the University of South Dakota, and we actually then had Vermillion High School on our schedule when I was at Todd County. And I don't don't know if you remember the Seibels brothers, but they were playing at that time.
Craig Mattick:
Yeah, and the Kirkend-
Mick Wysuph:
And they were great football player from Vermillion High School. And so that was my tie there, and that's where I got to meet Beanie Cooper and the rest of the Coyo coaching staff. And I got this phone call from Beanie and he said, "We've got a graduate assistantship opening up, would you be interested?" And golly, all of a sudden after just coaching for three years and then having the opportunity to go college, that was really enticing for me. Even though the money wasn't that good at that time or whatever, but it was just an opportunity that I couldn't turn down.
Craig Mattick:
Right, you coached offensive backs one year, you did the offensive line one year. So what is a successful quarterback at Northern State know about coaching the offensive line?
Mick Wysuph:
Well, I tell you, that's happened to me a lot in my career, I guess. I've just been two things, been surrounded by some real good people and just really fortunate to be in the right place at the right time, I don't know. During my graduate assistant year, one of the coaches decided, Joe Dederman, that he was going to retire from coaching. And Beanie asked me if I wanted to coach the offensive line. And I go, "Man, are you sure?" I said, "I don't know anything about this." And he said, "Well, I just know how you coach and how you teach people." And he says, "I really think you can do it, I want you." And I said, "Well, yeah. Without a doubt, I'll do it."
And I'll tell you one thing I did do, Craig. I bought a lot of books and I looked at a lot of film for a couple of months trying to learn as much as I could in a very short period of time. But you know what? I learned very fast that in football, especially on the offensive side of the ball, if you don't have things going right up front with those offensive linemen, not many things are going to go right. And it was just a whole lot of fun, and I learned so much about football those few years when I was at the University of South Dakota. Just for the fact that you were around and surrounded by football minds, other people that loved the sport and did as much as they could to learn everything about it. And I mean, that was a great experience for me.
Craig Mattick:
Yeah, about four years there at USD. But then 1981, by golly, Sturgis needs a football coach out west and you decided to head out to Sturgis, to the Scoopers. Why did you think about maybe going back to high school football?
Mick Wysuph:
Well, it was funny, if you remember Beanie Cooper retired as the head football coach and just stayed on as the athletic director, hired Dave Kribblet. And Dave of course, eventually wanted to bring in all his own coaches. So most of us that were under Beanie were gone within a couple of years. And Chuck Wolski was an attorney from Sturgis, and he heard about me and knew that there was an opening for football at Sturgis and he called me. And this was in the middle of July of that summer, I was selling insurance and having a miserable time, probably one of the most miserable years of my life. But anyway, I was selling insurance and I went down and interviewed for the job and two weeks later bought a house and moved to Sturgis, and all of a sudden I was there in Scooper land.
Craig Mattick:
Well, you had some talent to work with. Because you go undefeated in the Black Hills Conference, what, three years in a row?
Mick Wysuph:
Yeah, it's like I alluded to before, just walking into a situation that was really unbelievable. They had been through some turbulent times and hadn't had real good records up to that point, but they had some great athletes coming. I was just in the right place at the right time and lit the fire under them, and just had a great three years there.
Craig Mattick:
1983, at that time, the South Dakota High School Football Playoffs were only like three years old. And you take Sturgis to the championship game, the 11AA Championship, you have to go up against Brookings. The Bobcats won the game 23 to 8, but what do you remember from that time in that championship game?
Mick Wysuph:
Well, I'll tell you. Here's what I remember most about that, is we beat Mitchell in the semi-final game to go to the Dome. And one of the things when I interviewed for the job, and one of the things I told our players, one of our goals was to get to the Dome. And Craig, you're going to love this. But we win that game, that semi-final game in Mitchell to go to the Dome. And we got back to Sturgis in the town, and the school are just going crazy and we have pep assemblies and all that stuff, and we're just reveling in the fact that we're going to the Dome. And then our coaches, we looked at each other, we go, "Wait a minute, we've got another game to play."
And so what I learned about that situation was that when you set goals, make sure that they're actually what you want to accomplish in the long run. And we had set a goal of getting to the Dome, we reached it. And so I don't think we were really prepared, as a coaching staff or a team, to play in that championship game. And it was a lesson hard learned. I mean, we were 11 and 0 going into that game. And Don Campbell and Brookings had a great crew also, they played an outstanding game. We were beat up and stuff, but that's what I take away from that one.
Craig Mattick:
So it's 1984, Mich, and at that time you get the football job at Rapid City, Stevens. And then overall, you're there 16 years and curious with high school football. Todd County to Sturgis and then off to Rapid City, Stevens. How much, if anything, did your coaching philosophy change?
Mick Wysuph:
Well, I don't know so much that my philosophy changed, but I found and I soon realized that what you had to do, at that level, was do the things that those players were capable of doing. I mean, we had such great athletes at Sturgis, it was just a matter of implementing an offensive scheme or a defensive scheme that best showed their capabilities, and just let them go and do it. When I went to Stevens, it was a little bit different. Just for the fact that Stevens and those kids are not the old farmer type, strong, hardworking stuff.
Craig Mattick:
Sure.
Mick Wysuph:
It's more of the blue collar families and that type of thing. And at that time, I really was becoming interested in the passing game and motions and that type of thing. And that really fit with those type of kids, and I think that's what helped. It wasn't necessarily a philosophy change, but more of an adaption to the kids that you had or the philosophy of the school.
Craig Mattick:
You took Sturgis to the Dome, 1983. Now it's 1987 and you're back in the Dome for the 11AA Championship, it's Stevens against Washington and it was a classic. You had a loss to Washington in double overtime before the playoffs even started. Really, Washington wasn't even favored to be there in the Dome.
Mick Wysuph:
No, exactly.
Craig Mattick:
They beat the number one seed, they beat the number two seed. So what were you thinking when you found out that it was going to be Washington who you were going to face?
Mick Wysuph:
Well, it scared the heck out of us. Because, I mean, they were just huge upfront and they had a great offensive and defensive front. And then they had guys like John Legal at quarterback and some running backs that could really run, and so multifaceted. I mean, it was a scary situation going into. Glenn Sowold is a good friend of mine, and in fact, he lives here in Rapid City. And I run into him every once in a while and we talk about that day, he still swears the field goal wasn't good. But I go, "Well, I don't know what else to say." But anyway, it was a great game.
At that time, it was unbelievable, Craig. We didn't have anybody playing both ways at that time, it was just one of the things. We had, I think, 64 kids out for football. One of the things that we had about talked about right away when I got there was that we wanted them to be involved in other sports. 51 of those 64 kids on that team played other sports, and we had such an abundance of good athletes. And I mean, like I said, we'd had nobody going both ways. Which you don't hear about in high school very often, even let alone at that big school level. But we never had any drop-off at any position, skill-wise either. I mean, they were just that good of a bunch of players. So we knew we were a pretty good football team, and we were really starting to gel and play well towards the end of the season. So I really thought we could move the ball against them a little bit better than what we did. But it ended up being such a defensive struggle in a field position game-
Craig Mattick:
It was.
Mick Wysuph:
... that it took us a while to get out of the hole and even get into field goal range.
Craig Mattick:
All right, let's relive that '87 championship game here a little bit. Washington's first drive, they took it all the way down to your ten-yard line, and then they missed a twenty-seven-yard field goal. You dodged a bullet right out of the chute, Mich.
Mick Wysuph:
Right, and then even after they missed that, they were down inside the ten one other time and they fumbled the ball, and we ended up recovering in there. So we had dodged a couple of bullets early, and then there were different circumstances. But before we just had, like I said, poor field position. A part of our playbook was a wide open, a lot of motions, throwing the ball. Troy Ward was our quarterback and he was an excellent thrower and stuff like that, and we had Mike Jones who went on as a receiver at the University of Wyoming as a tight end. So we had some people that could run and catch the ball too, and so we knew we were going to be tough. But in that game, we just never had the field position where we could feel comfortable in opening it up. And we ended up going to a two and three back set and ended up just trying to grind it out to get out of our own territory. And it was true, it took almost three quarters or four quarters of football to get to that position.
Craig Mattick:
Yep, you are absolutely right. In fact, both teams had a couple of turnovers in the game. The stats of the game, whether it was rushing or passing, was almost the same, first downs about the same.
Mick Wysuph:
Yeah.
Craig Mattick:
So there's five minutes left in the game, there's still no score in the game. Washington has to punt the ball, you get the ball on your own 21. And again, there's about five minutes to go. Chance for you to keep the ball all the way and score late, what were you thinking on that last drive?
Mick Wysuph:
Well, I thought we had to do something to give us some momentum, everything was just stuck there. And it was really an interesting game, I don't know about how the fans enjoyed it or whatever, but it was really interesting. And you know how you get into those so-called chess matches with other coaches, and that was what it was. And we had finally got the ball out to about the 30 or 35 yard line, and we had put in this play a couple of weeks before and we had another quarterback that was backing up Troy Ward by the name of Mike Greene, and he was a great thrower. And so we ran this play where Mike rolled out and then he throws back to Troy Ward, and it ends up being a big play for us.
Craig Mattick:
Huge.
Mick Wysuph:
And it got us into that field goal position.
Craig Mattick:
Yeah, that halfback pass gets you to the Washington 33. And then you have Tomlinson, runs a couple of plays and you're down to the 13 yard line of Washington. Field goal try with a minute to go, there's no score in this championship game. And you've got Sean Cohen as your kicker. I understand, Sean, you had to talk him into coming out for football.
Mick Wysuph:
It's a great story, Craig. We did not have a kicker going into that season, we just didn't have any. And so I, at a team meeting, asked the players, I said, "Hey, do any of you have a friend or know of anybody that can kick the ball?" And a couple of them right away said, "Hey, Sean Cohen could do it." And it's funny, so I said, "Have him come out, I want to talk to him or whatever." He came out and I had my back to him the first time he kicked the football. And you know, Craig, that good kicker has that sound when his foot comes off the ball. And I'm like, "Geez." and I turned around and looked. I said, "Oh, my gosh. You're the one." And what a fitting story, or an ending to that story, with him kicking that field goal at the end of that game?
Craig Mattick:
How was he during the regular season? How many opportunities did he have?
Mick Wysuph:
I do not know right off the top of my head, but I don't think he had missed them. I knew he didn't miss an extra point, and there were a couple of other games where he had kicked some pretty good field goals. He was riding 35, 40 yards and so we knew he was well within his range or whatever. And I felt pretty comfortable, actually, when we sent him out and said, "Field goal try."
Craig Mattick:
Well, from 30 yards out, it cleared the left upright. That head official who is standing behind Cohen, lifted both arms to say it was good. And with all of the excitement going on, here you are leading by three with a minute to go in the game, was there chaos on the sidelines at that time because you wanted to get your defense ready?
Mick Wysuph:
Yeah, it was. But our defense then really rose to the occasion. And I mean, they never let the Washington guys get a snip of a first down or whatever, and they really came up big and cemented the game really well at that time. It's rather interesting on that kick, and you talk about the referee at that time was behind the kicker, and he was the one that made the call whether or not it was good or not. And it was shortly after that, that they decided to take the two officials and put them underneath the goalposts and have them be able to look straight up the uprights and see if it was inside or not. But yeah, that official, he had a tough time for a few months after that in Sioux Falls.
Craig Mattick:
Yeah. My assumption was, the rule at the time in high school was that the officials did not go underneath the crossbars or the uprights-
Mick Wysuph:
Correct.
Craig Mattick:
... if the ball was going to be placed beyond the 25 yard line.
Mick Wysuph:
Yeah, I think you might be right. But I think at that time, if I remember right, I don't think they ever went down underneath the goalposts. And I may be wrong on that, but I know it was shortly after that that they put them back there all the time.
Craig Mattick:
So eventually Washington gives the ball up on downs, only a couple of seconds left, and you just have to take a knee to win the title. You get the Gatorade bath and you get a couple of players who carry you on their shoulders to midfield to celebrate. What was going through your mind at the time?
Mick Wysuph:
I don't think people realize how hard it is to get there, let alone win the championship. And after, you're in coaching and you're doing something and you have those goals, you talk about it and then all of a sudden it's realized, it's a hard feeling to describe. And the only thing I kept thinking about is, I was watching our underclassmen, and I wanted them to suck it in as much as they could. Because I was thinking, "Well, let's come back. Let's keep doing it." You know what I wanted to do? This is funny, Craig, but I wanted to be the O'Garmon of the West. O'Garmon at that time was just one of those powerhouses in high school football all the time, and the ones you feared to play and stuff. And I wanted Stevens to be that type of a program. And so a lot of that was going through my mind right after the game.
Craig Mattick:
Well, you did have another chance for a state football title. You took Stevens there in 1994 against Yankton, and this was no three-to-nothing ball game, Mich. Two overtimes, and unfortunately you lose it, 34-31. But what was the big difference in that game?
Mick Wysuph:
Well, I think back about that game, and it was Max Hawks last game as a coach at Yankton High School. And Max and I had gone back many years, even back to when I was playing and he was coaching in Scotland, and I was at Tyndall. But anyway, a lot of times it's never personal between coaches, but I wanted to win that game. If there was a game I ever thought about that I wanted to win, that was the one. And of course, we had Peter Martin and we were throwing the ball all over the place. We had great receivers and that type of thing, we were using a lot of motion. We were doing a lot of college level stuff, at that time, offensively. And he was still that ground out, three yards with a cloud of dust type of football. And the ironic thing about that game is, they scored on a pass at the end of the overtime to beat us. And I kept joking about that with him after, I said, "See, Max, you had to throw the ball to beat us." We had a good chuckle about that.
Craig Mattick:
Well, then you left Rapid City, Stevens. What were your thoughts when you decided to get out of football?
Mick Wysuph:
Well, I wasn't ready to get out of football at that time, and of course that's another story in itself. But I did end up going the next year, the indoor football league came to Rapid City.
Craig Mattick:
The Black Hills Red Dogs.
Mick Wysuph:
Right.
Craig Mattick:
Yeah.
Mick Wysuph:
And there was a guy by the name of Jeff Hamilton, who I'm not sure where he's from, but played football at Chatham, and he was named the head football coach of the Red Dogs. And he gives me a call and wants to know if I'd be the offensive coordinator for the Indoor Football League team. And Craig, I've never seen an indoor game, I didn't know anything about it. And then he said something about, "Well, you can put three guys in motion on one time." My eyes just got big, I thought, "Oh, my God, that sounds like fun." And so I took the offensive coordinator job. And then a friend of mine, Don Lyon, took the defensive coordinator job with it.
And it was funny, I'll never forget that. We went to Bismarck to play the first game, and Don and I looked at each other, and neither one of us had any idea what to expect, it was just crazy. But Jeff had done a great job of bringing in some good athletes, and we ended up, I think, 15 and 1 in the regular season that year and went to the playoffs. The one thing I learned about Indoor Football League is that you're playing in such confined spaces, that spacing and timing were of the ultimate importance. So that was a fun time, I really enjoyed that game also.
Craig Mattick:
I know it's been frustrating to follow Rapid City Central and Stevens football recently. They just have not been able to get a good season going recently. Everybody is pulling for the Cobblers and the Raiders to turn the programs around, but what's it going to take? They got a big win during the season this year as Central broke a 29 game win-streak.
Mick Wysuph:
Yeah, I had seen Central play earlier in the Rushmore Bowl and they played Spearfish. And Central had dominated Spearfish that whole football game. And then just made a couple of little mistakes here and there towards the end, and Spearfish ends up scoring with 27 seconds left in the game to beat them. And I really thought that it was so unfair at that time, that was a loss that was probably really hard for the coaching staff at Central to take. So I was glad to see them finally get the monkey off the back with their win over Washington last week. The story of Stevens is a little bit different. I don't know if you've heard now, but the head coach is gone and there's been some problems there. And there was a lot of talk, a guy that gave me call and said, "Are you ready to come back?" It's just going to take somebody that's got a tremendous amount of energy and a lot of patience.
Craig Mattick:
But all of us across the state are pulling for the Cobblers and the Raiders.
Mick Wysuph:
Yes, without a doubt.
Craig Mattick:
You were the co-founder and the first president of the South Dakota Football Coaches Association.
Mick Wysuph:
I was, yeah.
Craig Mattick:
What was the reason you got involved with that organization?
Mick Wysuph:
Well, it's hard to say. Basketball had just started their own association, I think the wrestling coaches had their own association. And one evening at the State Coaches Convention, Verge Bullock from Watertown and I, and Jerry Miller from Sioux Falls, we were sitting down and we were having a beer and we started talking and said, "Why don't we get our own association going?" And that's how it happened. Verge says, "Well, will you be the first president?" I said, "Well, sure." So that's how that happened.
Craig Mattick:
And how has that helped coaches today, all across South Dakota?
Mick Wysuph:
Well, tremendously. Because first of all, it got all the coaches together. I really loved the clinics that we had at that time, the speakers. And maybe not everybody's like this, but I was one that went to every clinic that I could. I always went somewhere and learned something new that I thought could benefit my program. And so I think that association was a way to bring coaches in football a little bit closer together. It gave us a voice too, as far as talking to the association, as far as playoffs we're going. So it has really meant a lot. One thing that surprises me, Craig, and I don't know if you knew it, but I see the Coaches Clinic was called off this summer due to a lack of interest, and that's a killer for me. These young guys have got to realize what the strength of those type of organizations are and what they can do for you overall.
Craig Mattick:
Last one for you here, Mick. I know you're in five different hall of fames, whether it's football and coaches. But what are you most proud of what you did for high school football in South Dakota?
Mick Wysuph:
Gosh, it's hard to pinpoint one thing. But what I love more than anything right now, is when I run into old players and we sit and start talking about things that happened during games and practices and trips. Of course, the older you get, the better the stories get. But that to me, walking down the street or in the mall or something like that, and somebody goes, "Hey, Coach!" And it's just that association that you have with those kids and the things that they remember. And I've always told them when I was coaching, I said, "Do this and have fun, because it's one of the things that you will never ever forget, for the rest of your life." And I said, "Don't ever regret or have to say, 'Golly, I wish I would've.'" And so it's just those type of little things.
