Kalen DeBoer is a South Dakota man through and through. It shows in his work at Washington

Kalen DeBoer got called into the athletic director’s office a few days after the University of Sioux Falls won its third national championship in four years.

The 2009 Cougars had just finished one of the most dominating seasons in NAIA history. In Willie Sanchez’s mind, DeBoer had outgrown the small, Baptist-affiliated school in South Dakota’s largest city.

Sanchez said he asked DeBoer if he had aspirations of coaching at a higher level. DeBoer, hesitantly, told him he did.

“He’s a South Dakota boy, and it seems like in the Midwest people don’t want to leave and I can understand why,” Sanchez recalled. “I said, ‘Kalen, you have more ability and should go forward.’ He said he had some inquiries, and I told him he needed to look into those possibilities.”

For good measure, Sanchez threatened to fire him if he didn’t take another job.

“I said that in a joking way,” he said. “I certainly wasn’t going to fire a guy who just won a national championship, but it was a way to kind of motivate him, and hopefully he would look for a position at a higher level, which he did. And I’m glad he did.”

DeBoer, who lived his first 35 years in South Dakota, is 49 now and head coach at Washington. He has led the unbeaten Huskies to the College Football Playoff in his second season, an effort that earned him coach of the year honors from The Associated Press last week. They play Texas in the semifinal at the Sugar Bowl on Jan. 1.

No one knows if DeBoer really needed Sanchez’s nudge, but the coach still appreciates the belief his old boss had in him.

“I was still pretty young, and getting a chance to go be challenged at the next level with different people was certainly something I think he saw for me,” DeBoer said, “even if I didn’t feel that way at the time.”

DeBoer’s rise through the coaching ranks began a few weeks after his meeting with Sanchez when he was hired as Southern Illinois’ offensive coordinator. It was the first of six stops over 12 years.

In nine seasons as a head coach — Sioux Falls (2005-09), Fresno State (2020-21) and Washington (2022-23) — his record is 103-11.

“It is crazy,” said DeBoer’s high school coach, Mike Busch, drawing out the last word. “It’s by no accident, either. It’s hard to win games at any level, and him and his staff, they find a way to win and their kids find a way to win and they believe.”

Though DeBoer left South Dakota in 2010, South Dakota never left him. Neither did the lessons he learned from his mentor at Sioux Falls, NAIA Hall of Fame coach Bob Young.

Young, who died last January, spoke of DeBoer often with close friend Jim Heinitz, the retired coach at Augustana in Sioux Falls. Heinitz said Young knew DeBoer had the makings of a good coach and did what he could to foster his growth.

Young developed DeBoer into an All-America receiver who helped the Cougars win their first national championship in 1996 and kept him around to coach receivers the next year. Then he helped him get an assistant’s job at Washington High in Sioux Falls and hired him in 2000 as offensive coordinator. When Young retired, he urged Sanchez to hire DeBoer as his successor.

DeBoer went 67-3 in five seasons, 49-1 in conference games and won NAIA titles in 2006, 2008 and 2009. The Cougars went 56-1 from 2006-09, with the only loss coming in the 2007 championship game. His last Sioux Falls team outscored opponents 775-158 and beat North Dakota of the Football Championship Subdivision, 28-13.

His ties to Sioux Falls remain strong.

Washington defensive coordinator Chuck Morrell was DeBoer’s teammate and later his defensive coordinator at Sioux Falls. Huskies offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb was DeBoer’s line coach at Sioux Falls and on staff with him at Eastern Michigan and Fresno State.