Jay Larson's Journey from the Mavericks to the Golden Bears

 

Jay Larson (second from the right) with 

some of his Maverick

 

teammates.

Like many people coming into college, it’s hard figure out where you’ll be in five years or what it is that you want to do with your life.Jay Larson, senior associate athletics director and administrator, at University of California was in a similar position.

Larson hails from Saint Francis, Minn., and when it came time to decide where to attend college in 1997, he chose to stay in-state and attend Minnesota State University, Mankato. Receiving a scholarship to play basketball was his primary motivation for attending MSU.His scholarship wasn’t the only factor which led him to Minnesota State. At the time of his decision, his father was a successful high school basketball coach and his brother was attending the University of North Dakota. His desire to play basketball at the highest level he could, along with Mankato’s close proximity to his family, were a few other factors that lead him to the Mavericks.

 “The proximity to my hometown factored in, to be able to enable my parents and family to travel around the upper Midwest and watch me compete,” said Larson.

 Due to an injury, Larson redshirted his freshman year but was able to get back on the court 1998-02. When it came to academics, Larson had a tough time choosing which direction to take. After changing his major six times, he eventually landed on a major in marketing and minor in political science. It wasn’t until his junior year in college that he decided he wanted to pursue a law degree.

 “I was a son of a coach, so I always had an interest in athletics, but I wasn’t sure whether I wanted to coach. I just kind of found myself reading more and more about the law and the sports law and the business of sport,” Larson said.

 Mentioning further that it all came together and decided to get his business degree at Minnesota State and then pursue his law degree, where he would eventually receive after his time at the University of Minnesota.

After graduating in the spring of 2002, Larson jumped right into studying law at the U of M in fall of 2002 and completed his degree in 2005. After one year at law school, he landed an internship at the University of Minnesota’s athletic department in their athletic compliance office for two years.

Despite having a fulltime job at a law firm lined up for after graduation, he decided to not take the job and follow his passion. “I had a job lined up to work at a midsized law firm in the Twin Cities, where I also had done a clerkship,” said Larson. “I just decided to follow my passion I guess and I took a 50 percent pay cut by taking the job in the athletic department at the U and spent three years there working in the compliance office.”

After spending three years in the compliance office post-graduation, he was able to land a job at San Diego State University. Larson has always been a big proponent in following your passion and hasn’t regretted his decision.

When he was hired at SDSU, he was hired on as an assistant AD for compliance and eventually received the associate AD of compliance. With a lot of the people in NCAA having a law degree, Larson credits his law degree that has helped him in the compliance department.

One thing Larson notes that was rewarding during his time at SDSU was playing a role in helping the sport’s program. Naming Kawhi Leonard and Stephen Strasburg as a few athletes that was a spark in the right direction.

After spending about seven years at San Diego State, Larson landed a job at University of California working as a senior associate athletics director and administrator.

When talking about his time at Cal, Larson said, “University of California is a special place, it’s the No. 1 public school in the world,” Larson said. “We’re combining elite athletics, the highest level of college athletics, at an elite academic school and there are not that many in the country that are able to say that.”

Larson doesn’t like to put a timeframe on his future but said that working as an athletics director in the future would be something he would enjoy doing.

“I have a young family, three young boys and we really enjoy living here and I enjoy our football program is on the rise,” said Larson. “It’s been fun to be a part of and we’ll ride this out and just see what develops.”

The most important thing lessons he gained from his time with Dan McCarrell, who coached the Mavericks from 1984-2001, were learned by being a student-athlete. He explained that being a teammate is what helped get him where he is today.

“Be a good teammate really first and foremost, right? All great things in life are accomplished by teams,” said Larson. “To really learn how to be successful as an individual within the context of the team to help the team succeed is something that I really take away from as my time as a college student athlete.”

There were many people in Larson’s network that helped him be where he is now, whether that be coaches, boosters or friends.

Larson is excited to be where he is now in life and is looking forward to what’s to come.

“It’s been a fun five years for me personally, you know sometimes I still have to pinch myself.”

Contributed by Andrew Neururer, Athletic Communications intern

Center of Things

Dan Donovan was an All-NCC
center for the Mavericks in 1989

Former Minnesota State football offensive lineman Dan Donovan played for the Mavericks from 1985 to 1989. In 1987 Minnesota State finished with an 9-3 record, 8-1 in the NCC finishing first and claiming North Central Conference champions and in doing so, became a part of the first Maverick football team to make an NCAA tournament appearance.

A 1985 graduate of Burnsville (Minn.) High School and a First Team All-North Central Conference selection for the Mavericks in 1989, Donovan went on after college graduation to get his master’s degree from Georgia Tech while serving as a graduate assistant coach for the Georgia Tech football team. After graduating from Georgia Tech, Donovan worked on the event side of sports. He ran sports technology for the 1996 Summer Olympic local committee in Atlanta. Dan continued to work Olympic games being the Head of Sport Competition in the Sydney 2000 Olympics. Then in Athletes 2004 and Beijing 2006 he was the Consultant for Venue and Games readiness. 

 Now Donovan is the founder and managing partner for Stratoscope security and crowd management.

MavBlog: Talk about your playing days here at Minnesota State, what do you remember the most?

Dan Donovan (DD): I enjoyed all five years I was with the Mavericks! The 1987 North Central Conference championship and NCAA playoff year was a special team to be a part of. Beating North Dakota State in Fargo that season was a real highlight! I happened to have had mono leading up to that game and It was my first game back, so it was a huge win that led us to believe we could be NCC Champions!

MavBlog: How would you describe winning the NCC and being the first Minnesota State football team to make the NCAA tournament?

DD: The experience is hard to describe given the growth of the program and how quickly the pieces came together. Alot of the credit goes to those who laid the foundation before our ’87 team. I came in with the ’85 class and we had great upper-class leadership. We lost our starting QB, Greg Von der Lippe, in the middle of the year and fortunately Mike McDevitt did a great job stepping for Greg.

MavBlog: Do you still keep in touch with any of your former teammates?

DD: We have a group that stays connected (Darryl Wills, Von der Lippe, Chad Gossard, Ken Otto, Dain Jeppson, Ron Dorf and Drew Ekstrom) communicate regularly. We each have others that we are connected to that keeps us all together.

MavBlog: How much pride do you take in the success of the Minnesota State football team now?

DD: I follow as much as possible. I live in Palm Beach, Fla., now so I am not as connected as I could be, but our group keeps us all informed. I am closely watching the Mavericks in the Frozen Four this week given the NCAA is a major client of my company.

MavBlog: Talk about how head coach Dan Runkle had an impact on your life?

DD: Coach Runkle led the effort building the foundation to get to the ’87 Championship. Coach Krohn, Schlichte, Roach and others were great mentors. As a center I was closest to Coach Krohn, he did a great job balancing the personalities!

MavBlog: Tell us about your family.

DD: I have two great kids, Sydni (22) and Chance (21) who were born in Sydney, Australia while I was in charge of the sports department for the Sydney Olympics. Sydni plays college basketball and Chance works for a division of my company.

MavBlog: What are you doing now and how did you get to do that?

DD: I own and run two companies, Stratoscope and Ingressotek, in the sport & entertainment industry. Our typical clients are teams, leagues, stadiums and major events. I began in the event industry, after leaving Georgia Tech as a grad assistant in 1994, starting with the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. I have been fortunate to work with 7 Olympic Games, 13 Super Bowls, 4 NBA All-Star weekends, numerous engagements with the NCAA and many stadiums and arenas over the past 20+ years. 

 My Stratoscope team is currently working with the NCAA on the delivery of all the 2021 Championships. We have a full time Operations Center in NCAA HQ in Indianapolis staffed by our team and staff at each round of every event operationalizing the Resturn to Championships Protocols we wrote in 2020. My leads at the Di Hockey Regionals were very busy dealing with issues with the Notre Dame and Michigan hockey teams and their COVID results onsite. With the completion and Men’s and Women’s Final Fours we have completed over 50 events in the past 6 weeks.

MavBlog: What is it like working during the Super Bowl?

DD: Super Bowls are a unique experience! Our engagement started after they had multiple challenges with the game in Houston, streaker, ingress challenges and a halftime wardrobe malfunction that included Justin Timberlake and Janet Jackson. We were hired as the “what if” operational readiness team and helped the NFL develop contingencies and more robust NFL Control centralized operations on game day. Our first Super Bowl in Jacksonville, the service level of the stadium basically flooded during pre-game, just a few operational challenges! Was involved in the lights going out in New Orleans, train problems in NY/NJ and a variety of issues along the way. It’s a great event to be a part of working alongside a large team of experts.

MavBlog: What is it like working the Olympics? And what is the most memorable one?

DD: International events are completely different beast. From language challenges to various funding models the objectives for each organizing committee vary. Bringing 28 Olympic sports together during a two-week event in one city is a significant challenge. My most memorable was the 2000 Sydney Olympics! I was essentially the Athletic Director responsible for the delivery of all 28 sports. I had the opportunity to travel the world attending events and International Federation meetings while leading a team for 400 staff and 8,000 volunteers dedicated to providing the best events we could for the athletes. All of the politics aside that is what we the Olympics are there for. I also had the opportunity to be an Olympic Torch runner that year which is one of the most memorable experiences from the Games.

MavBlog: Do you still come back for some Football games or any Mavericks athletics?

DD:  The last game I was able to attend was the national championship game in McKinney, Tex. We had a great group of alumni at that game. Prior to that it was the reunion of the 1987 team in 2017. We had a great turnout there and it was fantastic to catch up with a number of our former teammates.

                       Contributed by Tanner Johnson, Minnesota Athletic Communications intern

Rushing Ahead

 

Minnesota State has been one of the most dominant NCAA Division II football programs of the last decade and a case could be made that one of the key reasons for the success starts with the Maverick offensive line.

These things are cyclical, of course and long-time followers of the program will point to the Bob Otto-era of the 1950s and 1960s when the likes of Hall of Fame running back Bernie Maczuga rambled for 3,129 yards along the ground from 1967-69. The program had All-Americans in the trenches with the likes of Scott Annexstad and Duane Goldammer in the late 1980s when the Mavericks featured an option-oriented offense, but it's only been recently that the program's rushing numbers from those times have been surpassed in the school's record books.

Todd Hoffner was named head coach of the Mavericks before the start of the 2008 season and he transformed a team that finished 4-7 the year before into a team that finished 9-3, won the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference South Division and qualified for the NCAA tournament for the fourth time in school history. 

In 2007, Minnesota State finished 4-7 while throwing the ball for 376.4 yards a game and rushing for 41.5 yards a game. Hoffner changed the narrative to running the ball. In his second season in 2009, Minnesota State finished with a 10-2 record and were NSIC South Division Champions. The Mavericks qualified for their second straight NCAA Tournament  and hosted the first playoff game at Blakeslee Stadium for the first time. That year, they ran for 216.8 yards per game and 34 total rushing touchdowns while throwing the ball for 180.8 yards per game and putting up 23 touchdowns through the air. Hoffner quickly turned that pass-first offense around with a win-in-the trenches mentality where his team ran the ball through opponents unrelentlessly.

Chad Henning, a Sun Prairie, Wis., native who played on the Minnesota State offensive line from 2007-11, now is a coach with the Mavericks where he serves as the program's offensive line coach. He had been a part of two completely different offensive schemes while at MSU.

“Well, my freshman year we were a 95% passing offense,” Coach Henning said. “When Coach Hoffner got here, we changed that completely. We ran the ball about 60% of the time and had some really good luck doing so. The size of the offensive line helped run block for sure.”

You cannot run the football without a great offensive line. Over the course of history, Minnesota State football has had 18 All-American offensive linemen, dating back to 1974 when Dan Miller was the first offensive linemen to receive All-American honors. Minnesota State’s Evan Heim, who was named an All-American in 2018 and 2019, was the last Maverick lineman to be honored before he graduated in the fall of 2019. Heim, who started in all 54 games at left tackle during his career at MSU, was the anchor in the offensive line while the Mavericks made a run at the national championship in 2019 - group of offensive linemen that refer to themselves The Hogs.

“Being a hog offensive lineman just meant about being something bigger than yourself and offensive line is one of the only positions in sports where all five guys need to do their job in order for us to be successful,” Heim said.

As successful as they were, in the 2019 season the Mavericks set a program record 4,246 total yards along with the single-season rushing yards record, the Mavericks also set records in points scored (712), rushing attempts (713) and rushing touchdowns (59) and ranked fifth in the nation for rushing offense.

“We were very dominate up front but the offensive line only gets you so far like ten yards but all runs more than that is thanks to offensive line sustaining blocks and caring about the team and doing it for the team and wide receiver downfield blocking where most schools wide receiver don’t care about blocking and normally wide receiver are very selfish but not at Mankato,” Heim said. “Also helps to have great tight end (Tyler Schmidt) and an All-American running back (Nate Gunn). Having a great offensive line is just part of the equation.”

Minnesota State takes pride in its offensive line and bringing in the best linemen every year. The Mavericks rushing offense had made the top 20 in the nation seven out of the last nine years. Those two seasons they did not, were the only two seasons they lost more than one game, one was in 2015, they finished 10-2, with 227.7 rushing yards per game, 25th in the nation for rushing offense. The other was in 2016 where they finished 8-3, with only 169.5 rushing yards per game, 60th in the nation for rushing offense.

 Colin Prosser joined the Minnesota State staff as offensive line coach in 2017 and now serves as the program's offensive coordinator. Under his leadership the Maverick offensive line led a third-ranked rushing offense in the nation with 4,036 rushing yards on the year for an average of 288.3 rushing yards per game in his first year. The Mavericks set a program single-season rushing yards record with 4,246 yards on the ground in 2019. MSU also set records in points scored (712), rushing attempts (713) and rushing touchdowns (59) and ranked fifth in the nation for rushing offense.

“Coach Prosser has done a great job of holding everyone accountable and getting the most out of his players,” said Henning. “We are a lot better now than we were back then when I played, not only as a talent level but also from a depth perspective. We have a lot more pride in the offensive line room now.”

 Contributed by Tanner Johnson, Minnesota State Athletic Communications student intern

Checking in with Rachel Shumski

Rachel Shumski is averaging 13.6 points
per game as a senior for Minnesota State

A senior forward (and a graduate student academically) with the Minnesota State women’s basketball team, Rachel Shumski is a three-time member of the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference All-Academic Team.  She's also president of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee.  MavBlog took a moment to check in with the Granada, Minn., native to see how she and and head coach Emilee Thiesse are doing in this challenging season. 

MavBlog: How is the season going?

Rachel Shumski (RS): The season is going well as we can play and have the opportunity to get better each day. Not many teams have that opportunity, and I (we) are so grateful.

MavBlog:  What are some challenges you see when displaying leadership to a young team?

RS: Some challenges that I see when displaying my leadership style or leadership (in general): creating the understanding that the expectations are the same for everyone - no matter your age, etc.

MavBlog:  How stressful is COVID testing protocols and why?

RS: COVID testing protocols are not stressful for the student-athletes as it has created the opportunity for us to play. I can see this being stressful for others involved - trainers, athletic administration, coaches, etc.

MavBlog:  How frustrating is it when there are schedule changes to your games?

RS: It may be frustrating at the moment, as we love to plan - everyone loves to plan! But, again, we must look back and understand that this an opportunity that we can play rather than dwell on the changes that we can't control.

MavBlog:  How do you feel about how this season is going so far?

RS: The season has contained some highs and lows, but it sure has been fun to compete with my best friends beside me. We have four games left before the conference tournament. Taking and applying the learning lessons from the lows throughout the season will help us as a team have success as we move forward.

MavBlog:  Can you tell me about a time that Rachel demonstrated leadership skills?

Emilee Thiesse (ET): Rachel is a natural born leader. Rachel has gone above and beyond to keep our team connected. At times when we have had players in quarantine, she has been a true servant leader in reaching out to her teammates, checking-in regularly, offering to help anyone in need of supplies, etc. She truly cares about her teammates and their overall wellbeing. She has always had the natural ability to lead both in her communication and in her effort. As a sophomore Rachel experienced a season ending injury which can be hard to manage physically, but almost more of the battle during injuries is the emotional and mental toll it can take. Rachel handled her situation with an incredible amount of poise, maturity, and selflessness. She never felt sorry for herself and always put the team first! She would do her injury rehab around practice time, then during practice she was as engaged as the healthy players. She was consistently bringing energy and positivity, staying involved in drills and huddles, coaching younger players between reps, etc.

It made a significant impact on our team that even if Rachel wasn’t out on the court competing, we still felt her leadership and presence day in and day out. When she was cleared to return to basketball activities it was such a natural transition back to the chemistry on the team because of the involvement and leadership she brought while she was out.

MavBlog:  How does she hold her teammates accountable?

ET: She is so caring for those around her, always bringing positivity and lifting others up. She has a great balance of holding her teammates accountable by knowing what each teammate needs in a given situation and how to get through to them. Her teammates know that she cares for them and wants them to be their best.

 Contributed by Mason Tonsager, Athletic Communications student intern