Dec. 2—MITCHELL — Nothing could’ve prepared Alex Kretzschmar for the experience the last several months has brought.
But after a full season at the helm of the Dakota Wesleyan University football team, Kretzschmar is ready to turn the page to 2025.
Kretzschmar, who has served on the Tigers coaching staff since 2022, has officially been the Tigers’ head coach since February, following former head coach Ross Cimpl’s promotion to become DWU’s athletic director. Under his guidance, DWU overcame an 0-3 start to finish the season at 4-7, playing .500 football from the team’s bye week on Sept. 21 to the end of the year.
Overall, the Tigers’ ground game averaged the third-most rushing yards per game among Great Plains Athletic Conference teams, while also having five players garner all-GPAC recognition for their performances this season.
With the 2024 campaign in the rear view, Kretzschmar recently sat down with the Mitchell Republic to reflect on his first season as head coach along with the team’s offseason plans, with his answers below, edited for clarity:
Q: Overall, for you personally, how did your first season as DWU football’s head coach go?
AK: It was definitely a learning experience, and being a first-time head coach, there’s a learning curve. I didn’t make any decision haphazardly or lightly, analyzed it and got feedback from my coaches with everything we did. There’s a reason for everything we did and why we did. Sometimes, some things worked and some things didn’t, and that’s the way it is. I’m sure any head coach would say that.
I enjoyed it. It was a lot different than being a coordinator, an assistant, and being a position coach.
Q: What’s been the biggest piece of advice you received that’s helped you along the way as the season progressed?
AK: “Go with what your gut is telling you and don’t try to overthink it. Whatever happens, own it, move on and then try to make it better. Make decisions as they come.” Obviously, you always want to kind of be looking a few steps ahead and being ready for any different possibilities. Ultimately, you can’t predict the future. You have to make decisions with the information you have and go forward. If that information changes, then you adjust, reassess and move forward from there.
Q: This season, the Tigers finished 4-7 after an 0-3 start. Looking back, what was one thing about this group that stood out the most?
AK: They were willing to take that look in the mirror and say, “What do we need to do to be better? What is truly holding us back?” Those are hard conversations for some guys but to their credit, the whole team was like, “We have to change. Otherwise, it’s going to be more of the same.”
Our bye week practices were intense because the guys were putting in full effort and competing. It made those three practices extremely fun. We had to make that correlation of why they’re having fun is because they were out there competing and that’s what we needed to continue to do throughout the season and we’d start to see the results.
Q: Which game this year is the most memorable from the standpoint of the players executing the game plan to how everyone acted throughout the full 60 minutes?
AK: From the standpoint of “Let’s go out here and get this done,” that was our Oct. 5 win against Hastings. The guys had a little bit of a different fire behind them. They were ready to go out there and compete. We ran into some adversity prior to the start of the game and the guys responded well.
We were able to cause a turnover on defense and get the ball back. On that next drive, we were able to go down and score, and that kind of spawned everything. In the second half, we started with the ball, ran three plays for 70 yards, and kind of just went from there.
Q: Looking ahead, what did you tell the Tigers players to focus on during the offseason, and how do you see potential recruits fit in with what the team is trying to achieve?
AK: We’re going to play the best players that we can. Even the guys that were starters realized they have to level their game up and work to get better. It starts in the weight room and working on skill development outside of the weight room, such as getting faster, getting quicker, all that type of stuff and getting in better shape.
We’re recruiting high-character individuals who will represent our program at the university well and trying to recruit the best football players we can. One of the greatest compliments anyone that plays this sport can get is, “That guy’s a football player.” You have to be able to have guys that can play certain positions, but ultimately, we’re looking for young men that want to go out there and compete.
Q: What do you ultimately want to take away from this season?
AK: You never know when you’re going to be called to do something, and when you are, you have to be all in. Last year at this time, I would never have thought that I was going to become the head coach. This opportunity presented itself because of an opportunity that was presented to coach Cimpl.
There’s always things that you can do better. There’s always things that you can continue to work on and make your strengths stronger and, but then also continue to work on your weaknesses and turn them into strengths. That doesn’t happen unless you go all in.
All the credit goes to the players. They worked hard, got better, and grew as individuals, teammates and as a team. The reason why coaches get into this is because of seeing that growth in players and seeing them reach their full potential.
