March 8, 2001

VERMILLION, S.D. - Featuring three of the most successful high school coaches in the area, The University of South Dakota football program will host a Coaches Clinic March 23-24 at the USD campus. Featured speakers will include Vermillion High School Coach Gary Culver, Sioux City Each High School 's Walt Fiegel and Papillion/La Vista High School's Gene Suhr as well South Dakota head football coach John Austin and his staff.

South Dakota will also offer a strength on conditioning seminar at the DakotaDome and sessions on the Coyote offense and defense on Saturday (see schedule below) at the Vermillion High School as well as a USD scrimmage at the Vermillion High School field.

Registration costs are $20 for coaches who pre-register and $25 at the door. The costs include lunch, t-shirt and clinic note pad. For more information, please contact the USD football office at 605-677-5309 or rforsyth@usd.edu

Football Coaches Clinic Schedule

Friday, March 23

Old Main Building:

6:30 p.m. - Registration

7:00 p.m. - Welcome and Coyote Football Highlight Tape

7:30 p.m. - Gary Culver, Vermillion High School, "Implementing Motion in Your Offensive Scheme"

8:15 p.m. - Gene Suhr, Papillion/La Vista High School, "The Jet Sweep"

9:00 p.m. - Walt Fiegel, Sioux City East High School, "Paychecks and Lessons from a Lifetime of Coaching."

9:45 p.m. - Social and Coaches breakout session

Saturday, March 24

DakotaDome - Coyote Weight Room:

8:30 a.m. - Strength and Conditioning Seminar

Vermillion High School (1001 E. Main Street):

10:00 a.m. - USD Football Staff - featuring offense and defense presentations

11:30 a.m. - Lunch

12:30 p.m. - USD Scrimmage, Vermillion High School Field

Bios On Presenters

Walt Fiegel, The "Dean of Coaches in Iowa," will begin his 37th year this fall coaching high school football in the fall of 2001. Fiegel has coached at Sioux City East High School since 1963 where he also served as athletic director until 1994. Perhaps the highlight of his career was the 4A-state title won by the 1984 team. His brilliant coaching career began at Tripp(S.D.) H.S. where he was teacher and coach from 1959-63. A Marine veteran, Fiegel's Sioux City East teams have qualified for the Iowa playoffs every year from 1983 through 1992 and again in 1999. His teams won Sioux Interstate Conference championships from 1983-1986 and 1991-92. Fiegel was named Sioux Interstate Coach of the Year in 1991, He was the Sioux City Journal Siouxland Coach of the Year in 1983 and Des Moines Register Coach of the Year in 1984. Fiegel, who received a Distinguished Service Award from the Iowa Football Coaches Association in 1985, was inducted into the Iowa Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 1992. Three times (1983, 1984, 1999) he was the Iowa Football Coaches Association District Coach of the Year. Fiegel, who received a B.S. degree from Northern State University in 1956, earned a master's degree from USD in 1965.

Gene Suhr has served as head football coach at Papillion/LaVista for the past 17 years. Suhr directed his 1990 and 1996 teams to state championships. His team football team has made 16 consecutive state playoff appearances and also has earned three state runner-ups finishes. Those teams include his squads from 1985, 11995, and 1997. Previously, he was head coach at Ord High School for five years and he was an assistant coach at Daniel Gross High School for three years. Both the Omaha World Herald and Lincoln Journal Star named Suhr High School Coach of the Year in 1997. He was also the Nebraskaland Prep Coach of the Year in 1997. Suhr, a 1975 graduate of Nebraska-Omaha, was the Metro Coach of the Year in 1998 and the Nebraska Coaches Association Coach of the Year in 1990. He received an Omaha Sportscaster Special Award in 1997.

Gary Culver has brought championship football to Vermillion High School. Culver, who played on three North Central Conference championship teams at USD from 1972-74, has won five state championships during his 24 years at Vermillion High School (since 1977). Culver, who has served as Vermillion Athletic Director since 1994, has compiled an overall record of 152-90 (.628) including an amazing 31-12 (.721) record in South Dakota playoff games. From 1990-92, Culver helped lead Vermillion to three-consecutive football titles. A 1972 graduate of Sioux City East, Culver played for the Iowa "Dean of Coaches" Walt Fiegel. He has coached 51 first-team all-state players and three all-Americans (Kevin Seibel, 1976, Jason Leber, 1992, and Ben Leber, 1996). One of them, Ben Leber, is a starting linebacker and team captain at K-State. Culver has been named the 1990 Siouxland Coach of the Year by the Sioux City Journal, Region Six Coach of the Year by the South Dakota Football Coaches Association in 1991, Head Coach of the South Dakota All-Star Football Team in 1993. An honorable mention all-NCC selection in 1975, Culver lettered three years while playing for Joe Salem and Beanie Cooper at USD. Two of his assistant coaches, Jim McGuire and Roger Heirigs, have twice earned 11A assistant coach of the year honors.