“Mr. Micah” is a hero on and off the field

Senior defensive end Micah Roane has a football side to him and it’s a great story. He showed up at the University of South Dakota after a year at Minnesota and has come to embrace the small town feel of his surroundings while also establishing himself as a team leader for the Coyote defense.

He has a real-world side, too, which he also dives into headfirst with his work with the Yankton Boys & Girls Club. It’s not about padding the resume or making the honor roll or boosting the GPA, it’s about helping kids. There is something refreshingly authentic about that.

“I’m proud to say I think I’ve helped change some kids’ lives and made an impact,” said Roane, who started college as an elementary education major. “I’ve always loved working with kids and trying to make a difference in their lives. We’ve done a lot as a team working with the Boys & Girls Club and I want to keep that going after the season.”

Eden Schanzenbach is the executive director at the Yankton Boys & Girls Club and has witnessed Roane’s summer work with the kids. Like the Coyote football coaches, she’d like to keep him around her program.

“Micah looks big and tough but he’s really good at tapping into that emotional side with them,” Schanzenbach said. “He’s built some healthy relationships. Obviously, he’s been great in the gym and he’s outside with them a lot – he actually ran a football club for us here. But he’ll also sit and color with them. They love to sit and talk with him. To this day we have kids come in and ask where Mr. Micah is and wonder why he’s not here.” 

“Mr. Micah” began on a path to helping others using his own family as an example. His parents were missionaries in the Dominican Republic when he was born and he was living in India when his family decided – Roane was 7 then – that it was time to come home. He grew up in Chaska, Minn., where the family still lives.

He was a young soccer player when he got here. Hanging out with his cousins back in Minnesota made him a football and hockey player.

He’s now a 6-4, 255-pound defensive end with 21 tackles, three tackles for loss and two sacks after five games for the Coyotes, who are ranked No. 10 in the FCS Stats Perform poll after posting impressive wins over North Dakota State on the road and Murray State at home the last two Saturdays. 

He has played in 32 games over his career at USD with incremental improvement now part of what he brings to Coyote football. He’s not just a nice guy who likes to help kids. He’s a nice guy who sacks quarterbacks and pulls down running backs behind the line of scrimmage.

“I can’t say enough about Micah,” said defensive line coach Rob Snyder. “He’s an incredible leader, an extremely hard worker, he does more than we ask him to do and we’re really fortunate to have him.”

It’s clear that Snyder, in his first season at USD with time on the football staffs at LSU and Missouri, would like the opportunity to coach more players like Roane in the future.

“He was raised really well and that shows up in the way he does everything,” Snyder said. “There’s a saying, ‘The way you do one thing is the way you do everything,’ and he really takes that approach to just about everything with 100% sincerity and focus.”

When Snyder began working with the Coyotes last spring, he inherited a position group that was still recovering from several offseason surgeries. It would be a test for the coach and several of his linemen to make progress without actually getting on the field. Instead of real reps, Roane and others had to take mental reps.

Roane would ask a lot of questions and kept taking those mental reps. With availability not a possibility, he still had reliability and dependability to work with.

“He’s one of those guys who will start dyeing Easter eggs if you tell him it’s Easter,” Snyder said. “He does things for this team that are going to be difficult to replace, especially from a leadership perspective.”

Roane is essentially a big city kid. Chaska is a Twins Cities suburb and the University of Minnesota has an enrollment of more than 50,000. It was with guarded optimism that he decided South Dakota is where he should go to school and play football.

“I wasn’t really sure what to expect,” Roane said. “But everyone here really welcomed me with open arms. The community is so great – I’ve met some of my best friends here, people who will be my friends forever. The community aspect has been one of my favorite parts. It’s such a tight-knit group that will stay in my life.”

Roane will have a master’s degree in sports management in December. He envisions becoming a recruiting coordinator for a college football program and is already looking into possibilities. The idea of talking with high school kids about their college and athletic futures would make for a great career.

In the meantime, there is a season to think about. USD, with a 4-1 record, will go into its contest at the DakotaDome with Youngstown State with all its preseason goals intact and reachable.

“It’s been fun to see guys come together on both sides of the ball and work together toward that goal,” Roane said. “A lot of guys on this team remember what it was like last year when things weren’t swinging our way as often as we would have liked. We don’t think about the future too much, we try to win every practice and try to win every week and we hope that means something down the road.”

It’s a philosophy where “every practice” could easily translate to “every kid.” Whether Roane is at practice or spending a day at the Boys & Girls Club in Yankton, it’s about paying attention, listening and doing what you can.

At the Club, leaders conduct “kid committee” meetings where they survey the members – the kids who spend a lot of time there – about things they’d change if they could.

“One of the requests repeated on a lot of surveys was ‘Bring Mr. Micah back,’” Schanzenbach said. “So if Micah wants to come back, we’d love to have him.”