September 2012 – Dustin Monke

SB Nation’ feature on Jamie Kuntz

Here is the nearly 11-minute feature from SBNation.com on former Dickinson High football player Jamie Kuntz, who was dismissed from the North Dakota State College of Science football team days after lying to his coach that he had brought his 65-year-old boyfriend into the press box and was seen kissing him — and more, NDSCS athletic director Stu Engen said — and later admitted to his coach that he was gay.

It’s an interesting watch, in which we learn a few new things about Kuntz, hear from Engen, a handful of NDSCS football players and students and one very supportive person from Wahpeton who did not know Kuntz before he came out.

This is not the only on-camera interview Kuntz has conducted in recent days. He sat down with ESPN Outside the Lines reporter Tom Farrey last Friday.

Momentous victory: Hawks rally to beat Lights, help Biesiot tie NAIA wins record

Hank Biesiot wanted to go left. Dave Velasquez insisted he go right.

Velasquez got his way and threw a touchdown pass that helped write another page in his head coach’s chapter in college football’s history books.

Dickinson State’s senior quarterback threw two of his three touchdown passes in the fourth quarter, including a 3-yard strike to Presley Straub on fourth down with 22 seconds remaining that helped lift the Blue Hawks to a 21-20 come-from-behind victory over Montana State-Northern on Saturday afternoon at the Badlands Activities Center.

The win helped Biesiot tie the NAIA career coaching wins record with 256 and gave the Blue Hawks (1-2, 1-2 Frontier), who rallied from a 13-point fourth-quarter deficit, their first-ever Frontier Conference victory. Biesiot, in his 37th season at DSU, was just happy to see the team get its first win of the 2012 season.

“We’ve been in a lot of close games,” Biesiot said. “I’m happy to have one go our way.”

The coach and quarterback debated what they should do during a time out before the game-tying touchdown, all the while knowing they were looking to either pass or have Velasquez run.

Velasquez told Biesiot he felt better rolling out to his right and found Straub open on a screen pass in the front right corner of the end zone.

“He wanted to roll me out to the left,” Velasquez said. “I told him we should probably roll out to the right. It won’t be an accurate pass if we go to the left. We saw each other. He (Straub) was wide open. I gave him a little toss just like playing catch in the backyard.”

Freshman kicker Chad Bryant nailed the extra point to put the Blue Hawks ahead and MSU-Northern junior quarterback Derek Lear misfired on two Hail Mary attempts in the final seconds — including one with no time on the clock after DSU senior cornerback Mike Fisher was called for pass interference on what should have been the game’s final play.

Velasquez was 15 of 31 for 230 yards and hit seven different receivers.

He threw a 21-yard TD pass to Tanner Leak in the second quarter and a 56-yarder to freshman Wyatt Mirich in the fourth quarter — just four plays after MSU-Northern had taken a 20-7 lead with 8:22 remaining in the fourth.

“We made too many mistakes,” MSU-Northern head coach Mark Samson said. “Then we had to suck it up at the end of the game and we didn’t get it done. That’s, in a nutshell, how we played today. We should have never been in that situation to begin with. We just didn’t do things when we had to really do them.”

DSU outgained MSU-Northern 340 to 297 in total yards despite being held to just 125 yards rushing on 41 carries.

After playing to a 7-7 halftime tie, the Lights (0-3, 0-3 Frontier) took the two-score lead when Lear found Brandon O’Brien for touchdown passes on back-to-back series. O’Brien caught a 17-yard TD pass with 1:37 left in the third quarter and hauled in a 14-yard strike to cap an 11-play, 80-yard drive in the fourth.

Perhaps the biggest difference in the game came when DSU blocked an extra point after O’Brien’s first touchdown pass.

DSU, which had struggled running the football much of the game, used offensive balance to fight back.

The Blue Hawks caught the Lights napping when Velasquez connected with a wide-open Mirich for his first career touchdown over the middle. They then ground out the clock on a 13-play, game-winning drive that took 4:42.

Junior receiver Jimmy Smith came up with two big catches on the final series. He dragged his feet in bounds along the DSU sideline for a 16-yard reception up to the DSU 4 on a fourthand-9 and set up Straub’s TD with a 7-yard catch after junior tailback Myren Moore was pushed back to the 10 on a pitch.

“I felt my feet drag. I didn’t know if I’d got them in bounds,” Smith said with a smile. “I was at full extension. Dave put the ball the only place he could. I did my best to get to it and ended up there, ended up coming up with it somehow.”

Lear threw for 108 yards and rushed for 70 to lead Northern. Stephen Silva rushed for 77 yards on 19 carries, including a 14-yard touchdown on the Lights’ opening drive of the first quarter.

Moore led DSU on the ground with 64 yards on 16 carries but came up short on a pair of runs from the 1-yard line late in the second quarter that would have given the Blue Hawks a halftime lead.

DSU turned the ball over on downs at the 2-yard line on that series, got the ball back on a MSU-Northern fumble on the kickoff and marched to the 14 — only to have Bryant miss a 28-yard field goal attempt into the wind with 8 seconds left before halftime.

Yet, for the first time in three tries, DSU didn’t dwell on its misfortunes from early in the game.

“We yelled the whole week, ‘finish, finish, finish,’” Velasquez said. “We got shut down on the 1-yard line and we had things go the other way. You’ve got to come back and you’ve got to finish and we did.”

Biesiot is now in a three-way tie for the coaching wins record with Frosty Westering, the former coach at Pacific Lutheran University, and Kevin Donley of St. Francis (Ind.). Donley’s Cougars were idle this week.

Biesiot, who already owns the NAIA record for most wins at one school, and Westering have all 256 of their wins at NAIA institutions. Donley had 11 of his wins come at the NCAA Division II level.

That means if Biesiot wins one more game before Donley wins 11, then he will pass Westering as the winningest coach at only NAIA schools. DSU visits Southern Oregon for the first time at 2 p.m. MDT next Saturday in Ashland, Ore.

“I know he’s not all about that, but I’m just happy we’re one of the teams that can get him there,” Straub said.

MSUN 7 0 6 7 — 20 DSU 0 7 0 14 — 21

First quarter

MSUN–Stephen Silva 14 run (Trevor Baum kick), 6:59.

Second quarter

DSU–Tanner Leak 21 pass from Dave Velasquez (Chad Bryant kick) 8:10.

Third quarter

MSUN–Brandon O’Brien 17 pass from Derek Lear (kick blocked), 1:37.

Fourth quarter

MSUN–O’Brien 14 pass from Lear (Baum kick), 8:22. DSU–Wyatt Mirich 56 pass from Velasquez (Bryant kick), 6:58. DSU–Presley Straub 3 pass from Velasquez (Bryant kick), :22

TEAM STATISTICS MSUN DSU

First downs 19 19 Rushes-yards 38-189 41-125 Passing yards 108 215 Comp.-Att.-Int. 11-20-0 15-31-0 Total yards 108 215 Fumbles-lost 2-21-1 Penalties-yards 6-40 3-31 Punts-Avg. 5-45.4 6-37.8

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING: MSUN, Stephen Silva 19-77, Lear 12-70, Justin Montelius 4-49, Orin Johnson 3-3. DSU, Myren Moore 16-64, Presley Straub 11-31, Dave Velasquez 7-16, Kyle Stanton 4-13, Jordan Moore 2-2. PASSING: MSUN, Lear 11-20-0 108. DSU, Velasquez 15-31-0 230. RECEIVING: MSUN, Brandt Montelius 4-46, O’Brien 2-32, Silva 2-22, Mick Miller 1-5, Johnson 1-4, J. Montelius 1-(minus-3). DSU, Jimmy Smith 5-66, Cody Clausen 3-34, Tanner Leak 2-38, Presley Straub 2-21, Wyatt Mirich 1-56, J.T. Keith 1-9, Kyle Stanton 1-6.

DEFENSIVE LEADERS

TACKLES (FOR A LOSS): MSUN, James Chandless 12, David Arteaga 11, Butch Hyder 9, Josh Baum 7 (1), Ryan Craig 6 (1.5), Mike Carbon 4, Jordan Van-Voast 4 (1.5). DSU, Kyle Watson 11 (.5), Jaylen Sokoloski 10, Jay Grosz 9 (.5), Nolan Schwartz 5, Cord Berg 5 (2), Colton Hill 5 (1), Mike Fisher 4. SACKS: MSUN, Craig, Van Voast. DSU, None. INTERCEPTIONS: None.

NDSCS president sends campus-wide email regarding Jamie Kuntz

Today, through a source, I was able to get my hands on a memo sent to the entire North Dakota State College of Science campus from NDSCS President John Richman regarding the dismissal of Dickinson High School graduate Jamie Kuntz from the college’s football team, which subsequently led to Kuntz leaving NDSCS.

The message stands by the college’s view that head football coach Chuck Parsons was within his rights as a coach to dismiss Kuntz, who admitted to the coach that he was gay before being dismissed from the team, based on the fact that Kuntz lied to him about an incident during a game on Sept. 1 in Pueblo, Colo., as well as conduct detrimental to the team.

The message from Richman reads:

Recent public statements about NDSCS made by former student athlete, Jamie Kuntz, have prompted me to publicly defend decisions made by the college and speak out about our policies on student conduct.

Jamie Kuntz voluntarily withdrew from NDSCS last week. Prior to his withdrawal he was dismissed from the football team for a violation of the football team rules, following an incident at a football game.

Kuntz was sidelined with an injury and volunteered to film the game for the team. Instead, his conduct with his companion in the press box, which was ongoing and explicit in nature, drew complaints from numerous parents who were in attendance and players. When asked about the identity of his companion and his reason for accompanying Kuntz to the game, Kuntz falsely identified the companion as his grandfather. Kuntz later admitted that he had not told the truth, and was then dismissed from the team.

In other words, instead of filming the game, Kuntz invited a companion into the location where he was supposed to be working and engaged in behavior that was a distraction to the team. When asked about the incident by his coach, Kuntz did not tell the truth about the identity of his companion and what happened, as he has since acknowledged. Based on this conduct, the football coach dismissed Kuntz from the team.

I want to reaffirm my support for the decisions made in this instance. As the president of NDSCS, I entrust our staff and faculty with decision-making authority which includes the responsibility to fairly administer our policies. This situation was handled thoughtfully, fairly and in line with our policies.

These statements made by the former student have caused individuals not associated with the College to incorrectly claim decisions were made in violation of our policies, in particular our Diversity Policy. In reality, the student’s conduct violated the policies outlined in the Student Athletes Player’s Manual, as well as NDSCS’s Basic Regulations of Conduct for all students outlined in the Guide to Student Rights and Responsibilities – http://www.ndscs.edu/studentlife/student-rights/

All students and faculty must abide by College policies, and this one is very clear. These policies are in place to protect student rights and provide an open and supportive environment for learning.

It is unfortunate that the events of the week have prompted the mass media to inaccurately portray our campus, faculty, staff and students as something other than what we are. Let’s continue to operate North Dakota State College of Science, as we always do, with our Quality Standards as guiding principles, and with integrity and fairness always at the forefront.

Despite how this is being portrayed by some, Jamie’s sexual orientation had nothing to do with his dismissal from the football team. NDSCS is a welcoming campus where individual differences are valued and respected.

Kuntz sits down with SB Nation, ESPN next

Former Dickinson High football player Jamie Kuntz gave his first on-camera interview today to SB Nation regarding his much-publicized dismissal from the NDSCS football program after lying to his coach and then admitting that he was gay after he was caught kissing his boyfriend in the press box while filming the team’s game on Sept. 1 in Pueblo, Colo.

Kuntz said today that ESPN is in town and plans to interview him either tonight or tomorrow. He said earlier this week that Outside the Lines had inquired about doing a piece on him.