JEFF TESCH
It begins in early October with the turning of the fall leaves. Students, proud alumni and families from surrounding communities file into a small, picturesque stadium by the lake with fevered expectations for the battles to come. Through the autumn combat, those watchful souls have been blessed to witness an unprecedented era of success. All-America honorees. School records falling by the wayside with an almost dazzling regularity. A stadium where victories occurred with the frequency of a bigfoot sighting just a few short years ago now hosts men with annual dreams of championship and glory. It’s an era of success and excitement that once might have seemed akin to the Christmas fantasies of youth. But under the masterful guidance of 10th-year head coach Jeff Tesch, the Bemidji State football program has undergone a remarkable metamorphosis and gone from annual doormat to title contender. Tesch has posted a 62-44 record at BSU and led the Beavers to a school-record streak of eight consecutive winning seasons. During that historic streak he has posted three of the four eight-win seasons for a program now in its 81st season of competition. He is the only coach in Bemidji State history to oversee back-to-back eight-win seasons, and his 2000 team set a school record with nine wins. Tesch’s success at BSU has been remarkable. Upon being named BSU’s 15th field general in May 1996, he inherited a program which had won just 16 games in its previous eight seasons, suffering losing streaks of nine, 11 and 18 games in that time. Today, his 62 wins represent more than 22 percent of the program’s all-time victories. He has averaged six wins a season at a program which in 70 years prior to his arrival averaged barely three victories each fall. In fact, Tesch’s 62 wins in 10 years are more than the number of victories garnered by the Bemidji State program in the 22 full seasons prior to his arrival — 61. Tesch has further cemented his legendary status by becoming Bemidji State’s all-time leader in coaching victories. He posted his 53rd win at BSU with a 28-20 victory over Minnesota Crookston on Oct. 16, 2004, moving him past H. “Jolly” Erickson, who won 52 games during a 17-year career at BSU from 1938-54. Tesch’s growing list of achievements at Bemidji State has him amongst the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference’s coaching deans as well. Now entering his 11th season at the Bemidji State helm, Tesch is the second-longest tenured coach in the conference, trailing only Winona State’s Tom Sawyer who enters his 12th year with the Warriors. A graduate of Moorhead State (Minn.) University who was a free-agent signee with the Atlanta Falcons, Tesch was inducted into the MSU Hall of Fame in the spring of 1998. In 1977, Tesch was the NCAA Division II receiving champion and still holds Dragon single-game and single-season records for receptions. In 23 years of coaching, Tesch has produced 12 All-America selections and five NFL draft picks. Jeff and his wife Susan have two children — daughter Tara and son Vincent.
