Dale Moss signed with the Green Bay Packers Saturday. / Collegian File Photo

Former SDSU basketball and football standout Dale Moss signed with the Green Bay Packers on Saturday as an undrafted free agent, getting a call from the four-time Super Bowl winners after this year’s NFL Draft ended.

After four years with the basketball team, Moss had 61 catches in 2011 for 949 yards and six touchdowns. He signed with XAM Sports to represent him (who also represents former Jackrabbit linebacker Danny Batten) in December and played in the East-West Shrine Game in January.

The six-foot-three target visited with Cincinatti earlier this month and had contact with all 32 teams over the pre-draft process.

“Honestly, I’m excited. It’s out of my control, so I’m really not stressing about it. I’m ready for this week to be done so that I know where I’m going to be at,” he said last week at the SDSU spring game.

Four SDSU alums have played for the Packers, most notably offensive lineman Adam Timmerman, who played for Green Bay from 1995-1998, winning a Super Bowl in 1997.

“Honestly, I’m excited. It’s out of my control, so I’m really not stressing about it. I’m ready for this week to be done so that I know where I’m going to be at,” he said.

If you’re watching specifically for Moss, Saturday will be your time to tune in when rounds 4-7 are selected amongst the 32 league teams. The six-foot-four target remains confident that he’ll be picked — he visited with the Cincinnati Bengals last week.

He is ranked 250th among prospects on CBSSports.com and a seventh-round pick on their website. Sports Illustrated has him ranked as a fifth or sixth-round pick and lists the New Orleans Saints as a potential landing place in addition to the Bengals.

Moss said that his route work — the aspect that he said he needed the most work on in February — is where he needs it to be and that his agent, Scott Smith, is confident that he’ll be picked this weekend. Moss said that the posting of his pro day and making the dunk video that is making the rounds on the internet have only helped increase his overall profile. Like all draft hopefuls say, it only takes one team to like you.

“Just the difference that a year makes,” Moss said after the spring game, talking with his former teammates. “I was just thinking about how far I’ve come between last summer and the preseason and it’s just been a process. To get drafted would mean a lot.”

On April 23, the city of Brookings, the Blizzard Hockey Organization and the Brookings Ice Skating Association announced that they have reached a three-year deal to bring Tier II junior hockey to the city. The team, which will be called the Brookings Blizzard, will begin North American Hockey League play in September 2012 and will play at Larson Ice Arena, coming to Brookings after nine years in Alexandria, Minn.

Brookings Blizzard co-owner Chris Canavati and head coach Doc DelCastillo speak at a press conference April 23 at Larson Ice Center. / Collegian Photo by Marcus Traxler.

The NAHL is Tier II in the ranks of junior hockey in the U.S. Tier I includes the United States Hockey League, which includes the Sioux Falls Stampede. A lower-level Tier III team will replace the Blizzard in Alexandria. Players ages 16-20 from around the nation and around the world join the league and take high school classes on the road. The season starts when players arrive around Labor Day and the 23-27 players, who stay with host families, will stay until at least April. The slate is 60 games long and there will be 28 home games in Brookings. Conversations started in July about bringing a team to Brookings with both the city and ownership courting each other for a while.

“We think junior hockey can come to this town and survive in this town long-term,” Blizzard co-owner Chris Canavati said, who owns the franchise with his brother Mitri. “We know that teams come and go and we’ve taken the time to study the Brookings market and make sure that it will work long-term. We don’t ever want to leave.”

Canavati said that teams in Sioux Falls and Aberdeen have shown that junior hockey in South Dakota can work and Brookings’ population and community support are main reasons why they have confidence. In addition to Aberdeen, other Midwest teams include Austin, Minn., Bismarck and Minot, N.D. and the five teams will play in the Central Division of the league.

The team said that they will start to market themselves more aggressively soon and will likely work on adding areas for parties and groups to take in the action. Brookings City Manager Jeff Wheldon confirmed that alcohol will be sold during Blizzard games and that it will likely be confined to a portion of the 2,000-seat arena. Canavati said that alcohol is only a part of the experience and the team is not going to market around that aspect. That said, he wants to make a point of reaching a unique fanbase of SDSU students, who have supported the school’s two club teams over the years.

“We think that South Dakota State is very important to our success. It’s a high level of hockey and we think that the entertainment value is excellent and we think that we’ll be able to attract some followers from the university,” Canavati said. “The university will also open up some new opportunities for us too and will allow our players to take classes from the university, which we couldn’t do before.”

The Blizzard’s head coach is Doc DelCastillo, who is entering his fourth season coaching the franchise. He has coached Division I hockey as an assistant at St. Cloud State and at Nebraska-Omaha. DelCastillo says that fans will be impressed with the level of hockey that is played, where most of the players will play some sort of college hockey, either at Division I or Division III.

“It’s an entertaining brand of hockey. We’ll get up and down the ice and we’ll play physical. This is going to be a tough ticket to get. Once we start playing, it’s going to be tough to get in here and I would tell [the fans] to get season tickets to make sure they have a seat,” DelCastillo said.

Ticket prices have not been set but Canavati said that they would be similar to others in the league, which would put them in the $10 range.

The Jackrabbits scored on their opening possession, driving 30 yards on a six play drive and SDSU set up first and goal when Cam Jones caught a 15-yard pass. SDSU couldn’t score on the first three downs and then converted when starting quarterback Austin Sumner launched a lob to the corner of the end zone where Jason Schneider hauled in the one-yard pass for the touchdown.

From there though, the defense carried the way with R.C. Kilgore intercepting a pass from Eric Kline off a deflection for the day’s first turnover, worth six points with the adjusted scoring in the spring game. David Godley stole a Sumner pass from the arms of receiver Aaron Rollin on the first half’s final play and junior college transfer Austin Scott-Knowlton intercepted third-string quarterback Tyler Finnes in the second half. The front seven also picked up four sacks in the second half to keep the offense off balance and Bo Helm led the squad with seven tackles.

“I thought the first half was better. I thought there was some sloppy play in the second half and just turnovers and bobbling the ball. There’s a tendency to fall off as the game goes along and I think that’s what happened today,” SDSU head coach John Stiegelmeier said.

The offense picked up their second touchdown of the game when redshirt freshman Reggie Gandy lost the ball at the one yard line and offensive lineman Dylan Seiter recovered it in the end zone.

The special teams, hampered by the strong winds, was hit and miss throughout the day. Both Jason Syrovatka and Jay Carlson got cracks at a 23-yard field goals in the first half but missed. Syrovatka later made a 44-yard field goal but the kickoffs and punts were sporadic in length and accuracy.

Sumner finished the game completing 11-of-22 passes for 104 yards and a touchdown and an interception. Kline was 6-of-10 for 55 yards in the game. Gandy, appearing in his first spring game for the Jacks, led the rushing game with 15 carries for 61 yards and Zach Zenner had 10 carries for 49 yards.

“Credit to all of the defense, they came out and stepped up. We played hard and executed well and I think that it’s a good way to end the spring,” linebacker Chris Tracy said.

For the second week in a row, SDSU rebounded from a less-than-stellar showing on a Tuesday and followed it up with a Wednesday win over North Dakota, 12-6 at Erv Huether Field. The Jackrabbits dropped a 6-1 decision the day before against NDSU in Brookings. Last week, SDSU gritted out a 3-1 win over Mount Marty before following it up with a well-played 3-1 victory over Minnesota.

The Jackrabbits (12-20-1) scored in four of the first five innings, capped with five runs in the fifth frame and building a 12-3 lead. North Dakota (4-25) got on the board in the first inning with a run, only to see SDSU even the game up when Zach Rhodes scored on a Cain fielders’ choice. SDSU tacked on a three in the second inning and never trailed from there.

“Before the game, we talked about two things that we wanted to focus on, one being that we want to be more consistent and, two, we wanted to take out some of our frustrations today,” SDSU head coach Dave Schrage said.

Shortstop Eric Cain led the Jackrabbits with four runs batted in and his middle infield-mate Andrew Phelan added three RBIs of his own. UND walked SDSU 10 times in the game and committed three errors, helping the Jacks to the win.

“We’ve been steady and we just need to be a little bit more consistent,” Cain said. ”We’re right there.”

Kolton Emery started for the Jackrabbits and pitched one inning with SDSU trying to save his arm for the weekend’s series against NDSU. SDSU used six more pitchers with Nick Young pitching innings two, three and four for his first win of the season. Schrage was also impressed with the work of Marcus Heemstra, Shane Kraemer and Deon Entringer out of the pen.

The Jackrabbits open the four-game series against the Bison Friday at Newman Outdoor Field in Fargo, N.D. Both teams are 2-2 in the Summit League.

“Baseball is a mind game and I don’t think our guys are in a bad spot mentally,” Cain said. “We have a huge series this weekend and it’s a rivalry. Hopefully we will play better than we did Tuesday and can build on that.”

He had his proof. The Gophers throttled SDSU with the bats for a season-high 16 hits in a 9-3 win at the Metrodome 14 days ago.

The coach doesn’t mind being wrong, though.

For the second consecutive day and this time against a considerably better opponent, the Jackrabbits rode stellar defense and a very good pitching performance to beat Minnesota, 3-1, in front of 258 fans at Erv Huether Field Wednesday.

“It was probably overall, the best game we’ve played. I thought we made some great plays defensively and on a Wednesday, to get that kind of pitching performance from five or six guys says a lot about where our staff is at,” Schrage said.

First baseman Aaron Machbitz drilled the eventual game-winning two-run home run to center field in the sixth inning to break a 1-1 tie. Machbitz, the big Texan manning the cleanup spot for the Jacks, said he felt like he was due to go deep once again for his second homer of the season.

“Since the very beginning of the season, I’ve felt like I’ve had chances. I haven’t hit many and I guess I just got a pitch to hit,” Machbitz said.

The Jackrabbits didn’t strike the hit column until the fourth inning and the man to do it, Phil Paquette, would come around to score when Zach Rhodes put SDSU out in front, 1-0, with a single to right field. Minnesota would answer in the top of the next frame when David Bettenburg led off the inning with a walk and came around to score two batters later with a groundout from Andy Henkemeyer to even the score at 1-1 at the game’s halfway point.

The Jacks (10-17-1) had six pitchers team up to hold the Golden Gophers (17-17) to five hits. With it being a midweek game and both teams trying to conserve energy for their more importance conference series this weekend, the pitching changes were frequent, with 11 pitchers being used in all.

Shane Kraemer and Nick Young each pitched two innings after Layne Somsen’s scoreless first inning, in which Somesen had three strikeouts. Blake Fiedelman’s spotless sixth inning earned him his first win as a Jackrabbit and after two innings from Marcus Heemstra, Deon Enringer notched his first save of the 2012 campaign with three fly ball outs in the ninth inning, keeping SDSU’s home record against Minnesota perfect since moving to Division I.

The Jackrabbits saw catcher Zach Briggs throw out a pair of runners on the bases from his perch behind home plate, including one on a throw down to second base to catch Ryan Abrahamson off second base to end the Minnesota fifth. SDSU had exemplary defense from Andrew Phelan — filling in at second base for the injured Andrew Melton — when he started a spectacular double play with only his glove for the flip to Eric Cain at the bag and on to Machbitz at first. The end of eighth and the beginning of the ninth inning for Minnesota were both marked by terrific diving catches by Rhodes and Eric Danforth in right and left field, respectively.

“It was a good team win. We had fantastic defense and good pitching and it’s good for the team to have everyone come together for the win,” Machbitz said.

For a team that has been trying to turn its season around for a few weeks now, a win against a Big Ten team like Minnesota could be the turning point for the Jackrabbits. They sure hope so.

“It’s always fun when we get a chance against a team like Minnesota,” Briggs said. “We’re always going to be a little bit more geared up for a game like this and to get a chance to compete with one of the powerhouses in the Big Ten amps us up and we brought our A-game today.”

“I think this is the kind of game that can catapult you. To know you can play with a team like this and we [the coaches] have been telling them that. Hopefully, this will get us going in the right direction,” Schrage said.

If the Jacks felt like their bats betrayed them in the 10 prior losses before Friday’s doubleheader, they need not blame them anymore.

The SDSU softball team picked up hits to defeat the Coyotes in game one of the doubleheader, 8-4 and then finished off the southern in-state rival with a 1-0 win in front of 173 fans at Jackrabbits Softball Stadium March 30.

SDSU had seven hits in the first game of the afternoon, including home runs from Morgan McCabe and Krista Honken. The Jackrabbits got a solid performance from Kori Seidlitz, who relinquished four runs on two home runs to the Coyotes. However, those were the only USD hits of the game and the Jackrabbits’ junior pitcher delivered eight strikeouts to negate her six walks.

“We’re excited to be at home and playing on our home field. We really took advantage of being out here in the sunshine and having our home crowd here to cheer us on. We knew we were playing a rival and that they were going to give us two good games and we stepped it up,” SDSU head coach Kim Aggabao said of the win, her first at home as the Jacks’ skipper.

The second game’s only run arrived home when shortstop Kelly Kleppin doubled in Honken and Pam Nicholson’s six-hit shutout held up with some solid defense to give the Jacks an afternoon sweep in their home debut. The defense was best exemplified in the seventh inning when Morgan Hancock hit a single to right and tried to stretch it into two bases. Her efforts were to no avail when Honken’s throw to Kleppin was on target for the tag and a rally-stifling out.

“I felt that every pitch I was throwing was going to be a strike and I got a lot of help from my defense. It was just a good day to be pitching out there,” Nicholson said.

In Saturday’s finale, SDSU’s late rally fell short and USD avoided the series sweep with a 3-2 win over the home-standing Jackrabbits.

Runs scored in the second, fourth and fifth innings built a 3-0 USD lead. They stayed out in front with a strong performance from Missy Blackburn for the first five innings. Samantha Terry came through with a pinch-hit RBI single in the sixth inning to make the score 3-1. In the seventh inning, with Blackburn out of the game, the Jackrabbits had runners on first and third with one out when McCabe smacked a fly ball to right field, scoring Devon Reick and cutting the Coyote advantage to just one run. There, the rally fizzled when Alex Landon ended the game with a ground ball to the shortstop and USD got out of Brookings with one win to its name. Nicholson was tagged with the loss, moving her record to 3-8.

“We’ve been playing well as of late and our girls have been building off of our positives. It’s good to get these games in,” Aggabao said.

There is little hiding in the facts for the Jackrabbits right now. At 6-17 and 2-7 in the Summit League, SDSU is behind in the conference tournament chase but every one still counts for the Jackrabbits.

“This series was huge. We knew that we needed to come out and get some wins. These are going to be the wins we’re going to carry forward and that’s going to give us confidence,” Nicholson said.

The conference tournament is still the ultimate goal for the SDSU softball team.

“We have the talent on our team and we have ability and it’s a matter of whether or not we can execute on that particular day to pick up wins,” Honken said. 

The SDSU softball team picked up some hitting to defeat the Coyotes in game one of the doubleheader, 8-4 and then finishing off their southern in-state rival, South Dakota, with a 1-0 win in front of 173 fans at Jackrabbits Softball Stadium Friday afternoon. SDSU is now at 6-16 for the season with the pair of victories, their first two wins in the Summit League in 2012, as well.

SDSU had seven hits in the first game of the afternoon, including home runs from Morgan McCabe and Krista Honken, a rare power surge from a team that carried four home runs for the season entering Friday. The Jackrabbits got a solid performance from Kori Seidlitz, who relinquished four runs on two home runs to the Coyotes. However, those were the only USD hits of the game and the Jackrabbits’ junior pitcher delivered eight strikeouts to negate her six walks.

“We’re excited to be at home and playing on our home field. We really took advantage of being out here in the sunshine and having our home crowd here and cheer us on. We knew we were playing a rival and that they were going to give us two good games and we stepped it up,” SDSU head coach Kim Aggabao said of the win, her first at home as the Jacks’ head coach.

The second game’s only run arrived home when shortstop Kelly Kleppin doubled in Honken and Pam Nicholson’s six-hit shutout held up with some solid defense to give the Jacks an afternoon sweep in their home debut. The defense was best exemplified in the seventh inning when Morgan Hancock hit a single to right and tried to stretch it into two bases but to no avail when Honken’s throw to Kleppin was on target for the tag and the rally-stifling out.

“I felt that every pitch I was throwing was going to be a strike and I got a lot of help from my defense,” Nicholson said. “It was just a good day to be pitching out there.”

SDSU hosts USD in the series finale at noon on Saturday.

“We’ve been playing well as of late and our girls have been building off of our positives. It’s good to get these games in and we can finish it off on a good note tomorrow,” Aggabao said.

Coming off of their second straight season of finishing at 5-6, the Jackrabbits are working on the little things that could improve on that mark, one that turned sour fast when the Jacks started the season with four consecutive losses in 2011.

Now starts the simplification of sorts, almost an annual rite of spring football practice. The coaches don’t want to overload their players with too much new information, and focus instead on technique.

“From a coaches’ standpoint, you have to build your smaller groups and you have to go beyond the bench press and the 40 times and get to know kids and work on the technical aspects of the game,” SDSU football head coach John Stiegelmeier said.

The reinforcement of the basics doesn’t mean there won’t be a few new wrinkles. The Jacks enter with a sole offensive coordinator in Eric Eidsness, after co-offensive coordinator Luke Meadows left SDSU after a decade to take a job at Florida Atlantic. Don’t expect big changes, outside of the addition of more formations from the offensive side of the ball, though almost everyone involved feels more comfortable than they did a year ago.

“He’s got his own little wrinkles. We have quite a bit back and we have good guys that are coming back and have a year of experience under their belt and I do too. We’re excited and we’re feeling good about our upcoming season,” quarterback Austin Sumner said.

The defense will have less experience, in a way. After being ravaged by injuries, SDSU rolled out as many players as they could, stretching themselves thin at some spots but giving players time that is not undervalued.

“If a guy has to play some, even if he runs down on kickoff for a few games, the game will slow down and that helps you when you play your position,” Stiegelmeier said.

As the hitting increases, the defense will likely have the early edge based on the history of previous springs. That unit will relish every moment, especially considering how things turned out a year ago.

“We always hit a little harder,” defensive back Bo Helm said of his unit but with a caveat. “The offense is going to say the same thing. We obviously didn’t play as well as would have liked last season as a defense and we want to get better over the next few weeks.”

Stiegelmeier says he expects a lot of competition at the wide receiver, running back and linebacker spots, almost all of which won’t be decided until fall camp in August for the Jackrabbits, who open the season at Kansas on Sept. 3. That includes competition on special teams, which will be a first for the Jacks, according to Stiegelmeier, where they will have players compete for spots to be on the field in the heavily valued game of field position.

It’s all part of the build up to the annual culmination of the spring season every year: the intra-squad scrimmage at Coughlin-Alumni Stadium April 21 at 3 p.m.

“We can’t have gray areas. I don’t care which side of the ball is better or who wins the spring game because we win the spring game. I’ve won every spring game since I’ve been here,” Stiegelmeier deadpanned. “We all win by having mastering our duties.”

Jokes aside, the Jackrabbits know that this is the time of year to fix problems the team has had over the last months and the time together is invaluable for when they keep score.

“When we gain that experience, we’re going to know what to do when the games count” offensive lineman Bryan Witzmann said.

On two occasions, the Jackrabbits played with the nation’s top basketball teams before ultimately succumbing to their more talented foe at the NCAA Tournament.

The men’s team took to The Pit in Albuquerque, and both the SDSU faithful who headed to New Mexico and the casual onlookers got behind the tournament first-timers. The Jacks jumped to an early lead on third-seeded Baylor, making folks around the nation turn their heads to see if a team from South Dakota could really play so well in the Big Dance. The feeling wouldn’t last, and the Jackrabbits’ late rally fell short, with SDSU dropping a 68-60 decision to the Bears.

The Jackrabbits’ women — the tournament veterans — headed to Purdue two days later to meet the Boilermakers. The Big Ten champions got out to a terrific start. SDSU was able to avoid the early disaster and rallied before halftime. In their fourth appearance in as many chances, the Jacks’ never withered, instead falling victim to a terrific shooting performance from Purdue’s Courtney Moses in a 83-68 SDSU loss.

Both squads will feel the sting of an oh-too-close loss when it counted, but gauging the amount of support and energy in Brookings and around the state, many are looking to relive the experience 12 months from now.