Sports

Ziegler offered position in DCB athletics

By Tyler Ohmann

07/17/2012

Denny Ziegler has recently been offered a position at the Dakota College at Bottineau to fill the spot vacated by former assistant football coach and assistant athletic director Andre Mooney. While Ziegler will not officially hold the position until he signs his contract and passes a background check, he has verbally agreed to accept the position.

Ziegler, who hails from the Cleveland, Ohio area cited family as a major factor in the move to Bottineau, especially his wife’s family.

“She is from the area. She grew up in Valley City,” Ziegler said of his wife. “She has relatives all over the area, and that’s what brought me to Bottineau.”

Ziegler is a 2005 graduate of Otterbein College in Ohio, where he played football and baseball for three years.

From there he went on to grad school at Marietta College, also in Ohio. He graduated with a masters in leadership management and was a graduate assistant football coach and a dorm resident advisor.

Ziegler then moved on to coach for a year at Valley City State University in Valley City, N.D.

Family brought him back to Ohio after a year at VCSU, where he stayed for four years at Kenyone College. There he was a linebackers coach and assistant coach and was a baseball coach for three years.

His most recent position was for a year at Carleton College in Minnesota, where he moved to be near his wife, who was teaching in Minnesota.

Ziegler is excited to have the chance at DCB to become an assistant athletic director, a position that he says will help him reach career goals in the future.

“One of my goals personally is to be an athletic director, so this is a perfect opportunity to get my foot in the door that way,” Ziegler said. “And not only that, but still be able to coach.”

“For me to do both of those things and still be close to family it was a no-brainer for us,” Ziegler added.

Ziegler will become part of the staff of the DCB football program, which is coached by Tim Pfeifer. The DCB football program began in 2008.

Ziegler is looking forward to helping spearhead a young football program.

“I like challenges. That was one of the big things about the position that I liked,” Ziegler said. “I like to challenge myself. I like to challenge the people that I’m working with.”

As far as coaching young kids in a recently began program, Ziegler bases his coaching technique on two principles: fundamentals and discipline.

“For me personally, starting with a group of young guys and teaching them the fundamentals, I think that with any new program you have to start with the fundamentals,” Ziegler said. “Then you slowly have to build off those fundamentals and start with a very solid discipline.”

On the assistant athletic director side of things, Ziegler hopes to strive for student-athlete graduation and academic success.

“One of the big things I like to do is see student-athletes succeed,” Ziegler said. “That is something that I’ve seen, and that is a big goal of mine is to make them see that and show them the value of that education.”

Ziegler also believes he will be able to handle the administrative duties that come with the position.

“For me that is something that I’ve had was administrative responsibilities,” Ziegler said about those duties. “For the past four years I’ve been in charge of some team camps and game day administration, and I’ve been in charge of fund raising activities.”

Ziegler previously worked at only four-year colleges, but thinks that being at a two-year school won’t be much different.

“I don’t think there will be that much difference,” Ziegler said. “The only thing I see right now is being able to get those kids from a two-year into a four-year placement if they want to.”

“I’m still helping students achieve their goals and helping students get to be in their life, so I don’t know if there is too much of a difference,” Ziegler added.

DCB is equally excited to have Ziegler on board.

“We are happy to be able to hire someone with his athletic experience,” said Scott Johnson, DCB Athletic Director and head of the hiring committee. “He will be an asset to the athletic program.”

The Lumberjacks went 4-4 last season, and sent their first player on to a Division I school following the season. They also sent players to Division II, Division III and NAIA schools as well.
DCB football practice begins on August 9.