Re-Release: Jared Fredenburg's Football Life (July 30, 2025)
The Lincoln Patriots are back in the state championship game for a third straight year. Before the season started, we sat down with their veteran head coach Jared Fredenburg for 77 minutes about his life in football on Happy Hour: If anyone has channeled his inner Miley Cyrus, it's Sioux Falls Lincoln football coach Jared Fredenburg. That may seem like an odd connection, but the Cyrus song, "It's about the Climb," applies as aptly to Fredenburg as anyone. Like other current and past Sioux Falls Public School head coaches, "Freddie" spent over 20 years paying his dues in the district — first at the middle school level for nearly a decade, then another 15 years as a high school assistant at Roosevelt — before landing his first job at the helm. Once he took over a reeling Patriots program in 2017, it took them five seasons to win a playoff game and seven seasons to reach the state championship game in the DakotaDome. The long climb finally led to a sweet view from the mountain top with a dominant 2023 squad that ran the table to seize the crown and earn "best ever" consideration. The Pats follow-up act was just as impressive, with a bunch of new starters rising late in a semifinal win at No. 2 Harrisburg to make it back to the Dome, then an "upset" fourth quarter thriller over No. 1 Brandon Valley to go back-to-back. There are terrific stories about that breakthrough, but Fredenburg and Happy Hour host John Gaskins spend most of their 77 minutes together walking through the North Dakota native's climb up in football that led to Lincoln, which includes an admitted not-so-decorated prep and college playing career, followed by his move to South Dakota in the 1990s. He started as a legion baseball coach. He found a gig in middle school football. Along the way, he started meeting and coaching both for and with some of the legends of the sport in Sioux Falls — most of them together on Brent DeBoer's Roosevelt staffs in the 2000's. One of those connections was Kurtiss Riggs, who eventually hired "Freddie" to coach the Sioux Falls Storm's defensive line for a decade. What were the differences between coaching high schoolers and pro players fighting to get into the NFL? Two-time state champ DeBoer, 11-time indoor pro football champ Riggs, all-time South Dakota prep wins leader Kim Nelson, three-time state champ Brian Hermanson, two-time state champ Craig Clayberg — yeah, there are some colorful stories about those distinct personalities. If you're a Sioux Falls high school football junkie, you'll enjoy Freddie's document of his climb. Â
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