University of South Dakota Athletics

Shane Van Diest is poised to begin his second season as safeties coach at USD. He returns a pair of senior starters in Aaron Swift and Devin Taverna, two of the top three leading tacklers for the Coyotes during the 2012 season.

Van Diest arrived in Vermillion by way of Helena, Mont., where he played football for his father, Mike, at Carroll College from 2005-09 and after graduation, returned to Helena High School to help lead the Bengals to the 2010 state AA championship game.

As a player at Carroll, Van Diest finished his career with 92 tackles. He had 64 - fifth on the team - his senior year after moving from defensive back to linebacker. Van Diest was a part of five conference championship teams and won two NAIA national championships as a player. During his 14 years as Carroll's coach, his father has led the Fighting Saints to six national titles and won 12 straight Frontier Conference championships from 2000-11.

Shane earned his bachelor's degree from Carroll in 2010 with majors in both biology and mathematics. He is pursuing a master's degree in mathematics at USD.