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Tjeerdsma Thankful For Outpouring Of Support From Across The Country
By JON DYKSTRA The Forum
Mel and Carol Tjeerdsma are shown during a National Football Foundation Hall of Fame celebration at Bearcat Stadium on Sept. 15, 2018.
TODD WEDDLE/NORTHWEST MISSOURI STATE UNIVERSITY
MARYVILLE, Mo. — Former Bearcat football coach Mel Tjeerdsma has faced many foes during his years patrolling the sidelines. However, he is currently in the midst of a much larger battle since he was diagnosed with leukemia in August. Northwest Missouri State officially announced the diagnosis last week on behalf of the legendary coach.
Tjeerdsma and his wife Carol Tjeerdsma have been living in Kansas City since the diagnosis as he has to limit contact with others to protect his compromised immune system. While physical contact with others has been limited, the Tjeerdsmas have been moved by the amount of support they’ve received.
“The support has been incredible,” Tjeerdsma said. “I’ve heard from former players from as far back as my time at Sioux Center (High School in Iowa). Austin College — the 10 years that spent there — some of those people have just been unbelievable. Then, of course, the Northwest people and Northwestern College. It is almost overwhelming. It makes you appreciate the fact that you’ve been so blessed to be in that type of situation.”
In August, Tjeerdsma moved up a routine check up because he wasn’t feeling like himself and ended up having to take a pint of blood. After having his tests studied, Tjeerdsma got the call to head down to the University of Kansas Medical Center on August 12.
“I’d had a little bit of shortness of breath,” Tjeerdsma said. “Normally I have a physical in the fall every year, so I called my doctor and asked if I could move that up a little bit. I was a little concerned about my heart, to be real truthful, after Carol went through what she went through a couple years ago with her bypass surgery.”
The couple ended up staying in Kansas City with Mel in the hospital to begin with and Carol staying at their daughter’s home nearby. Eventually when he was released into outpatient treatments, the Tjeerdsmas rented an Airbnb nearby the hospital to continue treatments and minimize the chance of infection.
“We had to stay here because my immune system was so bad that any kind of bacteria or virus or anything like that can be extremely dangerous in a hurry because you don’t have any immunity to fight it,” Tjeerdsma said. “I had one experience with that three or four weeks ago. Somehow I got a bacteria and I ended up back in the hospital for about five days. It just laid me out because I didn’t have anything to fight it with.”
Tjeerdsma is now through two rounds of chemotherapy and preparing for a third. He is hopeful that if things keep progressing well then he will get the go ahead to return to Maryville.
“I feel good, I really do,” Tjeerdsma said. “I’ve been through two rounds of chemo. … I won’t start my next round of chemo until sometime later in the week. If things go good into the third round of chemo, I might be able to come back to Maryville. The way my chemo is set up, the first seven days is kinda clinical and at the clinic because it is based on injections. After the first seven days, it is just a pill — and I can do that at home.”
He and Carol have made their temporary home at their Airbnb though and Coach says they are enjoying their time there even in isolation. The always-positive Tjeerdsma is remaining busy by keeping tabs on his coaching tree, which in the MIAA alone includes Northwest’s Rich Wright, Central Oklahoma’s Adam Dorrel and Central Missouri’s Josh Lamberson.
“I’ve got so many different guys to follow,” Tjeerdsma said. “It has been a good time for me to have that time to sit and watch. … The time has gone by quick. I still do my Coaches Connection thing. I’m still actively involved with the Board of Regents and a few other things. I haven’t had to shut myself off from everything completely, so that has been good.”
One of those in the coaching tree is Dorrel, who goes back the longest with Tjeerdsma. Dorrel, the Maryville native, played offensive line for the Bearcats from 1994-1997 under Tjeerdsma and then worked his way up through the coaching ranks in the program as a graduate assistant, followed by offensive line coach, then offensive coordinator and eventually head coach.
“First and foremost, we love him very much and we are praying for a speedy recovery,” Dorrel said. “It is amazing to me how positive he always is and that is something that just really stood out to me from my first couple weeks knowing him. I was on the the Elliptical a couple days ago, just talking to him. He’s been though the ringer, but just to hear his voice and how positive he was — he is such a Christian man and his faith is so strong to him. He is a really good football coach, but what he has done for thousands of players is just really powerful.”
For Wright, Tjeerdsma has been a mentor for him and like a grandfather for his daughters.
"He has been like a father to me," Wright said. "I talk to him a couple times a week. He is doing really well. We just have a really special relationship. When I moved out here 1,200 miles away from home, I didn't have a whole lot of people around me. He and Carol have always taken myself first and then my family under their wing.
"Shoot, he and Carol were surrogate grandparents for my kids when they were little in elementary school for Grandparents' Day."
The ‘Coaches Connection’ is a group started by Tjeerdsma after he retired to give Division-II coaches a bigger voice nationally and a platform to discuss issues around the game. Each of the Division-II conferences has a representative on the committee.
“Coach is a trooper, man,” Valdosta State coach Tremaine Jackson said. “He had just went to his first appointment and said, ‘Hey guys, I’m isolated in this townhouse in Kansas City, but I wanted to make our call.’ I’m like, this guy is thinking about a Coaches Connection call when he just got hit with some bad news.”
Jackson, the head coach of the No. 3 team in the nation, first got to know Tjeerdsma when he worked under Adam Dorrel at Abilene Christian as his defensive coordinator.
“You go around the National Coach’s Convention as a young coach and you go, there’s Bobby Bowden and there’s Mel Tjeerdsma,” Jackson said. “You don’t really know why, but you are star struck at first.”
The Coaches Connection has pushed for positive change in Division-II football from a coaches’ perspective and gives them a voice with the decision-makers in the sport. Jackson says the respect that Tjeerdsma has among his peers is unique.
“He’s our Nick Saban,” Jackson said. “If he says something, we will go out and push for it, cause we know that his heart is in the right place for Division-II.
“Ever since Coach has been retired, he’s always given back to Division-II in some form or fashion.”
Some of the most positive changes in the sport, in fan’s eyes, have been spearheaded by Tjeerdsma.
“I’ll tell you the biggest thing he did,” Jackson said. “The Week Zero deal is all Mel Tjeerdsma. … He pushed it and pushed it, and he was calling administrators. I think we won the vote by like three votes or something like that. Mel, when he gets on a kick of something happening, that committee is where it all goes. We found out that Hudl was selling our film to Division-I schools where they could look at kids on our rosters. … When we found that out and took that to Mel, he got Craig Bohl (former Wyoming and North Dakota State coach and current AFCA Executive Director) involved. He is everything Division-II. If we need something, Mel makes it happen.”
While his impact on a national level is remarkable, Tjeerdsma’s impact on Maryville is the most obvious. The town is nicknamed Title Town due to the success and notoriety he achieved.
“As successful as he’s been as a football coach with the Bearcat football program, Austin College and every program he’s touched — the special thing about Mel Tjeerdsma is that he is a better man than he is a football coach,” Maryville High School football coach and activities director Matt Webb said. “… An unbelievable man, a unbelievable coach and certainly in everyone’s thoughts and prayers.”
Northwest Director of Athletics Andy Peterson was mentored by Tjeerdsma after Peterson played basketball at Northwest and eventually succeeded Tjeerdsma in the Director of Athletics role.
“He is a special human being who has a lot of good will and a lot of support from a lot of people,” Peterson said. “We are obviously praying for him and for Carol. We hope that he can kick this thing and get another victory.”
Northwest Missouri State has set up a place to leave messages of support for Coach T and Carol. The link can be found on the ‘Northwest Missouri State University’s Facebook page.
Messages on the page already include Rich Wright, NWMSU President Lance Tatum, many former players, even national champions in other sports with track and field star Hiba Mahgoub and basketball standout Ryan Welty, current Northwest athletes like Peyton and Lindsey Kelderman, and even Tjeerdsma’s rival across the field for so many games with Missouri Western all-time wins leader Jerry Partridge.
“I’m just so appreciative of everybody being so supportive,” Tjeerdsma said, clearing his throat. “When you have that many people thinking about you and praying for you, it is a pretty good feeling.
“We just take it a day at a time and have faith.”
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