MARSHALLTOWN/MARSHALL – John Kersbergen brought the Marshalltown pride back to the gridiron. He’s yet another example of how hard work can pay off.

After redshirting one season at the University of Nebraska-Omaha, John Kersbergen joined his old high school teammate at SMSU. Kersbergen played linebacker at Marshalltown and was voted to the all-conference team two times as well as the all-area team two times. He was also a four-year letter-winner in baseball and did one year of track and field. Then SMSU coach Eric Eidsness also recruited Kersbergen. While Kersbergen may have originally chosen to go to UNO, he got a good feeling about the SMSU program the first time he met Eidsness.

“He struck me as very professional,” Kersbergen said. “I knew they were struggling at the time, but I knew it wasn’t because of him. He was very respectful during the recruiting process.”

After hearing about Tyler Peschong going to SMSU and the Marshalltown network that was starting to grow there, Kersbergen knew he wanted to be a part of it. Kersbergen roomed with Andrew and quickly felt right at home in Marshall.

“It was a lot of fun,” Kersbergen said. “I knew it wasn’t going to be easy going through the transition, but living with those guys, I had a built-in support system.”

Kersbergen wasn’t just getting comfortable off the field, he was making plenty of progress on it as well. In his freshman season (2008), he recorded 23 tackles while playing in all 11 games as the Mustangs went 6-5, winning three out of their last four games. It was the first winning season for SMSU since 1999 when the team also went 6-5. The Mustangs went 5-6 in 2009, which was Eidsness’ final year as head coach. Kersbergen tallied 20 tackles, including one for a loss and also recorded a sack. He played in 10 of the team’s 11 games, but had yet to make his first start. Kersbergen cracked the starting rotation his junior year (2010), the first under Cory Sauter. Kersbergen thrived in his increased role and led the team in tackles with 86 that season. He also had five tackles for loss and one sack. The Mustangs went 4-7 that year, but he established himself as one of the defensive leaders on the team.

Sauter felt Kersbergen simply getting the chance was a major factor.

“He was provided an opportunity and he took advantage of it,” Sauter said. “He really developed physically that season and became a major player for us. It’s just an example of guys not having good stats earlier in their careers still making an impact once they grow and develop.”

Kersbergen was listed at 6-foot-1, 218 pounds, and, while he was physical, his speed was his biggest asset.

“He had the ability to make plays with speed,” Sauter said. “He was a very instinctual player and had that ability to get into the backfield.”

Aside from getting more opportunities, putting on weight also played a big part in the production increase.

“I put on about 15 pounds that offseason and was able to stay healthy,” Kersbergen said. “The previous season, I played in all the games, but I was battling some injuries.”

The Mustangs dropped to 3-8 his senior season (2011), but Kersbergen again was at the top of the tackles chart. He and Phil Breidall each tallied 95, while Kersbergen had seven tackles for loss. He was also named team MVP and voted to the All-NSIC South second team. It was the second consecutive year he was voted team MVP.

Kersbergen is now living in Vermont and is working at an athletic training facility. He is also a salesman for the recreational vehicle retail company that is the No. 1 volume dealer in the Northeast. Kersbergen also spent a couple years playing football in Europe following his SMSU days.

He looks back at his SMSU days fondly.

“My favorite part was just being with my teammates and making memories,” Kersbergen said. “The pipeline is open now. It’s cool to see people wanting to go there. It solidifies why I and other people from Marshalltown wanted to be at SMSU.”

Michael Appel

Michael Appel joined the Mustang basketball program in 2011 after playing his first two seasons at Marshalltown Community College. While at MCC, he was a two-time honorable mention all conference and set a school record with eight consecutive 3-pointers made. Appel thought about leaving and transferring to SMSU after his first season at MCC, but decided to wait.

“I wanted to stay another year because I was enjoying my time at MCC and I wasn’t exactly sure what I wanted to do yet,” Appel said. “I wanted to finish out my time at MCC.”

While still a student and playing basketball there, he came up and visited Tyler on campus and got a pretty good feeling about SMSU. Andrew Peschong talked to one of the SMSU assistant coached about bringing Appel on board. Once Appel became a Mustang, he had to adjust to a new role. On a team already latent with talent, Appel’s most important role came in practice.

While he would only play in 13 games in two years, it didn’t take away from his experience. Bigler also viewed his presence as valuable.

“Part of college athletics is that it’s a competitive environment,” Bigler said. “He was valuable piece of the puzzle because he brought great intense competition in practice. The scout team is a difficult role and he was great at it. He saw the big picture. We recruited him to provide depth inside and provide competition for Nick Smith.”

Smith is now one of Bigler’s assistant and Appel is now an assistant coach back in Marshalltown at MCC. He also teaches special education classes at the high school where his dad is a physical education teacher.

Appel felt the people around him made the experience enjoyable.

“I had great teammates and he learned a lot there,” Appel said. “I got a great education and I made sure I worked hard whether I was playing or not. I enjoyed being out there everyday with my teammates trying to get other people better.”

He has also enjoyed seeing the line of Marshalltown athletes end up in Marshall.

“It’s been really neat so see everybody go up there, and a lot of them had success,” Appel said. “It’s great to see that. Hopefully it keeps going because it’s good to have connections that way.”

Jarred Carlson

Jarred Carlson ended up being a key piece to SMSU’s baseball success, but that wasn’t the original plan. Carlson was a star wide receiver in high school and played four sports. He helped Marshalltown’s football team to its first ever state championship where it lost to Iowa City High. It was a team that was picked to finish 1-8 during the season and finished with a record of 13-1. In his senior season, he compiled 85 catches for 1,540 yards and 22 touchdowns. His reception, yardage and touchdown totals were state records at the time.

Carlson also played with A.J. Derby, who bounced around Division I schools and was eventually drafted by the New England Patriots and is on the roster as a tight end.

Carlson played in the Shrine Bowl after his senior season and one of his teammates was Clinton, Iowa, native David Johnson, who went on to play at Northern Iowa and is now a key cog in the Arizona Cardinals’ backfield.

“After my senior season of football, I had decided that’s what I wanted to play,” Carlson said.

He had offers from Division I programs like Iowa and Iowa State as well as some interest from the University of Tulsa. Like most of his fellow Marshalltown student-athlete friends, he didn’t know what playing at the D2 level would be like.

He took an official visit to SMSU where Tyler served as his host, and he also spent time with Kersbergen.

Carlson also had offers from other NSIC schools like Minnesota State, Minnesota-Duluth and St. Cloud State. He had already made up his mind.

“If I was going to go Division II, I was going to go to SMSU because of those guys (Kersbergen and Tyler),” Carlson said.

After a semester at Iowa State, he joined his Marshalltown comrades in Marshall.

Carlson planned on playing football for the Mustangs but suffered two season-ending injuries in each of his first two spring football sessions.

He wanted a change.

“I was just kind of fed up with it,” Carlson said. “That’s when I decided I wanted to switch and play baseball.”

Carlson had a long talk with SMSU baseball coach Paul Blanchard. Blanchard hadn’t seen him play, but knew of Marshalltown’s strong baseball tradition.

“We tried to do some X’s and O’s baseball wise and just see what he knew,” Blanchard said. “I knew what his background was and all that. I tried to explain to him what was expected. I made sure he knew there were no guarantees and that you had to earn everything.

Much like Andrew, Tyler and John, working his way up and earning something was never a problem. It was almost coded in the Marshalltown DNA.

Once Carlson went through all the processes of first-year players and entered the walk-on or tryout phase, it didn’t take long for Blanchard to see he had potential.

“You could see he had some skills,” Blanchard said. “He was rough around the edges at first, but he kept working at it and smoothed those out. He’s a really good kid, good student and easy to teach. He’s sharp and understands the game quite a bit.”

Carlson came in with plenty of baseball accolades as well.

He finished with 52 RBI his senior season and racked up 119 for his career. He also batted .411 his senior year and finished with a .372 career average to go with 18 home runs.

In his sophomore season with Marshalltown, the Bobcats made the state championship game, where they got beat by Johnston. Johnston finished a perfect season that year. As a junior, the Bobats returned to state and were knocked out in the first round by Sioux City North. Marshalltown lost 2-1 to a team that had two future D-1 pitchers on its staff and another player who is now in the Phillies organization. As a senior, Marshalltown was kept out of the state playoffs by Cedar Rapids Jefferson, which featured Kellen Sweeney, the younger brother of Major League Baseball player Ryan Sweeney. Kellen Sweeney was drafted by the Toronto Bluejays in the second round out of high school.

Marshalltown baseball coach Steve Hanson, who has been head coach threw for 23 seasons, was glad Carlson was part of his squad for three years.

“He’s a wonderful athlete,” Hanson said. “Beyond that, he was very intuitive and very intelligent. He really understood baseball and how to play. He picked up on a lot of little things. When you take a smart guy and add in some talent and put him with some other talented guys, good things happen.”

Once Hanson heard Carlson was going to switch to baseball, he knew Carlson would continue his success at the next level.

“The most successful guys are the ones that can get through that first hurdle or that first road block,” Hanson said. “You have to give guys credit who go on a path and then find out that it doesn’t work for them and still make good out of it. Jarred is certainly one of those guys.”

Carlson primarily played outfield for the Mustangs. In his first season, as a junior, he played in 28 games and had 22 starts. He finished with a pedestrian .145 average, eight RBI, 12 hits and 21 strikeouts. Carlson transformed himself his senior season and upped his average to .320 in 48 games, 47 of them starts. He also drove in 10 home runs and drove in a team-high 49 RBI.

“He got stronger,” Blanchard said.” He became more efficient in what he was doing.”

In his two seasons with the Mustang baseball program, SMSU finished with a combined record of 48-52. The Mustangs made the NSIC tournament in his junior year. Once in the tournament, SMSU dropped its opening game to Augustana before beating Northern State and exiting with a 4-3 loss to Winona State. 2014 was the first time the Mustangs qualified for the conference tournament since 2010 when they went 29-18 and won three games in the tournament before getting beat by Minnesota State in the title game. The Mavericks were No. 24 in the country that year.

Hanson felt the upbringing of Carlson, Kersebergen and Tyler Peschong helped them get to the next level.

“There was no horsing around when they were coming up,” Hanson said. “Yes was yes, no was no. Figure it out. They were brought up to be respectful and be disciplined. That’s a huge piece of the pie. Those guys are all great guys and I miss them every day.”