Northwestern to honor former athletes

Three Northwestern College graduates who earned All-American honors will be inducted into the school’s Athletic Hall of Fame on Saturday, Oct. 25. The honorees, along with the 2014–15 Red Raider Club Coach of the Year and Barnabas Award recipients, will be recognized at the Athletic Recognition Luncheon at 11 a.m. in the Vermeer Dining Room and at halftime of the football game against Dordt, which starts at 1:30 p.m.

Sara Friedrichsen of Boyden, Iowa; Laura Jacobson of Arlington, Va.; and Curt Schilling of Ellsworth, Minn., will bring the number of Hall of Famers to 104. Doug De Zeeuw of Orange City; Craig Douma, Pella; Aaron Johnson of Inwood, Iowa; and Tim Van Regenmorter of Maurice, Iowa, will receive Red Raider Club Coach of the Year honors. Kara (Christoffer) DeGroot of Sioux Center and Lisa (Muilenburg) Vos of Orange City will receive the Barnabas Award, which is bestowed upon Raiders who encouraged others to strive for their best performance athletically, academically and personally, and who used their sport as a way to bring others to a knowledge of Jesus Christ.

Friedrichsen earned NAIA All-American third team honors in basketball as a senior in 2002 and was an honorable mention All-American in 2001. She was chosen as a second team all-tournament player when Northwestern won the national championship in 2001 and played on four national tournament teams. She ranks sixth in assists in the Raiders’ record books with 398 and is the 10th leading scorer with 1,492 points. She also was credited with 490 rebounds and 192 steals.

A 2002 winner of Northwestern’s Vander Stoep Athletic Award, Friedrichsen also earned first team all-GPAC honors in softball as a junior and senior. In 2002, the team advanced to the national tournament. A first baseman, she recorded 795 career putouts, which is fourth in the school’s records, along with a defensive average of .986 and a .487 slugging percentage. A 1998 graduate of Galva-Holstein High School, Friedrichsen teaches high school math and is head softball coach at Boyden-Hull High School, where her squad won its third consecutive conference title last year. She was named the 2014 Class 3A regional coach of the year.

Jacobson, a 2008 graduate, earned NAIA All-American honors in track at the national indoor meet her senior year, finishing third in the 1000-meter run and fifth in the distance medley. She and her distance medley teammates still hold Northwestern’s outdoor school record. A team captain, she qualified for nationals nine times and was named Most Valuable Runner in 2007 and 2006. She also earned Most Valuable Runner honors in cross country in 2006. Jacobson was a two-time NAIA Scholar-Athlete in both track and cross country.

A 2004 graduate of Galva-Holstein High School, she graduated from William & Mary Law School in 2011, earning the Thurgood Marshall Award for Distinguished Public Service. She is now an immigration attorney and managing member of L&L Immigration Law in the Washington, D.C., area.

Schilling was a second team All-American in basketball as a senior in 2008 and earned honorable mention in 2007. The shooting guard/small forward was on teams that qualified for the national tournament all four years and advanced to the Final Four in his junior and senior seasons. A member of the all-national tournament team in 2008, he holds Northwestern’s season free throw percentage record, making 89.4 percent (126 of 141) in 2007–08. He is the fifth leading scorer in school history with 2,089 points and ranks third in career three-pointers with 253. The four-year letter winner also was credited with 274 career assists.

A 2004 graduate of Ellsworth High School, Schilling farms and serves as athletic director and head boys’ basketball coach at George-Little Rock High School.

De Zeeuw led the MOC-Floyd Valley High School girls’ cross country team to second place at the state meet the last two years and was named regional coach of the year for 2013, 2012 and 2011. The Dutch placed sixth in 2011. Meanwhile, the boys’ team, which he also leads, has qualified for state five of the last seven seasons. He has coached cross country for 14 years and distance events in track for 21 years.

The 1992 Northwestern graduate teaches chemistry and physics at MOC-Floyd Valley. De Zeeuw graduated from West Sioux High School in 1987 and ran cross country and distance events in track at Northwestern.

Douma, a 1994 Northwestern graduate, is in his third year as head men’s basketball coach at Central College, where his team went 21-8 last year and advanced to the second round of the NCAA Div. III national tournament. He was named the Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Coach after the Year after the Dutch won the conference, despite being picked last in the preseason poll, and won the postseason league tournament.

Before going to Central, Douma was head coach at Carroll and South O’Brien high schools, compiling a 268-78 cumulative record. His high school teams won eight conference championships and qualified for the state tournament three times, placing third in 2009. A 1990 graduate of MOC High School, Douma is the third leading scorer in Northwestern history and was a two-time NAIA All-American.

Johnson, a 2000 Northwestern graduate, led the West Lyon High School boys’ basketball team to the Class 1A state championship with a 23-5 record last season. He earned Northwest Iowa Review Co-Coach of the Year honors. In his 13 years leading the Wildcats, his teams have compiled a 138-148 record.

A student assistant coach for the Red Raider men’s basketball team while a student at Northwestern, Johnson teaches sixth grade at West Lyon. He graduated from Rock Valley High School in 1996.

Van Regenmorter, who has been head football coach at Sioux Center High School for seven years, led the Warriors to a 10-3 record last year, advancing to the semifinals of the Class 2A playoffs. He received coach of the year honors from the Sioux City Journal and the Northwest Iowa Review, and he was recognized as regional coach of the year by the Iowa Football Coaches Association. The high school physical education teacher has been coaching for 17 years, compiling a 34-28 record as a head coach prior to this season.

A 1998 Northwestern graduate, Van Regenmorter earned first team all-conference honors as a defensive end in 1995 and was an honorable mention selection in 1995. He graduated from MOC-Floyd Valley High School in 1993.