New blood on the sidelines for the Lions

[caption id="attachment_12388" align="alignleft" width="270"] Troy Tysdahl will serve as defensive coordinator for the Clear Lake football team this season. -Reporter photos by Chris Barragy[/caption]

Troy Tysdahl felt like he was in a very good place.  He was a teacher, athletic director and head football and track coach in a school district and community he and his family loved.  But when a teaching position and head football coaching job at Clear Lake opened up, Tysdahl put his name in.

“There aren’t very many jobs that could pull me away, but Clear Lake was one,” he said.

Assistant Coach Jared DeVries got the head coaching job and Tysdahl said he was ready to continue building an up and coming football program at Nashua-Plainfield.  But then came a phone call from DeVries.

“It’s weird how things worked out,” laughed Tysdahl.  “I wouldn’t be here if they had been advertising for a teaching job and assistant football coach.”

After speaking with DeVries, Tysdahl said it was apparent he and the former NFL player turned businessman and coach share many of the same philosophies and beliefs.

“He shared with me what he thought I could bring to the team and what he thought he could bring.  ‘Head coach’ is just a title.  I decided to come to Clear Lake and do my best to support him,” said Tysdahl.

He will serve as defensive coordinator for the Lions this season, replacing longtime assistant Curt Charlson, who announced his retirement a short time after Head Coach Fred Wieck decided to step down.

[caption id="attachment_12389" align="alignleft" width="270"] New Head Clear Lake Football Coach Jared DeVries gives direction to his team during a recent football practice. DeVries, a former NFL player, brings a vast amount of knowledge to the Lions’ team.[/caption]

DeVries said he met Tysdahl previously.  “I had talked with him and knew what he stood for.  I felt I had the opportunity to add a quality individual that believed in the same things I do.  I asked him to come join the fight,” said DeVries.

Tysdahl, a native of Hubbard, Iowa, is a graduate of Northwest Missouri State in Maryville, Mo.  He played football there for five years and earned a Master’s Degree in Education.  After graduation he was offered a position at Liberty, a suburb of Kansas City, where he had done his student-teaching.  He was an assistant football coach for a Class 6A team with 100 players.  At Nashua-Plainfield there were just 40 kids on the team.  Last year the Huskies had their most successful season in his only year as head coach.  They were 10-2 and won the outright district title to advance to the Class A state playoff quarterfinals. Tysdahl replaced Ben Jass as the school’s head football and track coach, and before that, he spent three years as an assistant under Jass in both sports.

“Football is football — whether you have 140 kids or 40 kids.  At the time the Nashua-Plainfield job opened up, my wife, Carrie, and I were wanting to get back to Iowa and closer to family.  We have the same feeling about Clear Lake,” he said.

In June, Tysdahl said he began driving to Clear Lake to be in the weight room as players were working in the off-season.  A commitment to weight training is one area he emphasizes.

“Weight training is important in all athletics.  We want students to be multiple sport athletes and strength is vital to injury prevention,” he said.  “We are not trying to turn athletes into body builders.  We are trying to strengthen them to improve in a variety of areas.”

Tysdahl said he met his wife in the weight room at college.  They continue to subscribe to weight room routines.  Carrie, who played volleyball in college, is now in training for a triathlon, according to her husband.

Tysdahl said he has enjoyed becoming a member of the Lion coaching team and said coaches and players have been working hard in the pre-season.

“We have been bringing in a new defense, with new verbiage, and the kids have been patient and willing to learn.  We’ve been throwing a lot at them— it’s a physical and mental grind— but they embrace it.”

In addition to new challenges, the move to Clear Lake also brings the Tysdahl family closer.  Carrie’s parents, Rod and Julie Johnson, moved to Clear Lake full time a few years ago from Tripoli, Iowa and now will be able to see their grandchildren, four-year-old Tate and two-year-old Drake, grow up.  Carrie, as well as her parents, are employed by American Solutions, a distributor of print, promotional products, office supplies, eCommerce and marketing solutions.  The Tysdahls are also living with the Johnsons while their new home is under construction.