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Dietz joins Simpsons’ Storm on defense
by Gregory R. Norfleet · Sports · March 09, 2017


Chuck Dietz said that when Colton was in fifth grade, he picked him up after his first day of tackle football practice, and the boy seemed down.


“I don’t know if I want to do this,” Colton told his dad.

Now Chuck and his son had an agreement: If you start something, you have to finish it. In sports, that means finishing the season. However, he wanted to know why one day of practice disappointed him.

“We don’t get to hit anybody,” Colton said.

Chuck explained that the players will get pads in a couple of days. Colton got his pads, and he got to hit.

He liked it.

He got good at it.

And while amassing 26.5 total tackles in a season may not seem like much for a defensive lineman, realize this: most Bears’ opponents double-teamed West Branch’s 6-foot-2, 250-pound senior.

That, Head Coach Butch Pedersen said, meant one less guy defending the quarterback.

“That’s a real benefit,” he said. “That opens somebody else up.”

This fact was not lost on Simpson College Head Football Coach Matt Jeter, and on Friday Dietz publicly accepted an academic scholarship and an invitation to play for the Division III Storm.

“I feel like … I don’t know what to say,” he said. “It’s surprising. I worked hard in school, but I was told that I don’t work as hard as I could.”

Dietz said he dreamed about playing Division I ball, but “Who cares?”

“I get to play at the next level,” he said. “That’s an accomplishment I never thought I’d get.”

The Iowa Newspaper Association named Dietz to First Team All-State as a defensive lineman in 2016, and Dietz earned a spot on the Class 1A District 3 Elite team. He made the INA’s Third Team All-State list in 2015, as well as Most Valuable Defensive Lineman on the All-District List.

Pedersen called the scholarship “a reward he worked extremely hard to achieve, both on the football field and in the classroom.”

“It was an honor to coach him and get to know the family,” the coach said. “He’s a class act.”

Pedersen said Colton has “an extra heartbeat,” and gets off blocks well.

“He’s got good feet, a quickness off the ball and good hands,” he said.

Pedersen noted that opponents double-teamed Dietz for two years.

Jeter declined to comment, citing National Collegiate Athletic Association rules that forbid Division III coaches from commenting on potential players until those players have made their first deposit to their school of choice.

Dietz is a son of Chuck and Kim Dietz. He plans to major in criminal justice.

“I’m excited,” his father said. “I look forward to the education he will get.”

Dietz played offensive and defensive tackle when he started football in fifth grade for USF Youth Sports. He played some defensive end and spent most of his time in high school as a guard.

He has attended football camps in the off-season at University of Iowa, Iowa State University and University of Northern Iowa.

He credited all of his coaches over the years, especially Rick and Randy Sexton and Rich Stout in his younger years, and high school Defensive Line Coach Telly Zuniga.

He said fellow linemen and other players encouraged him to play better, especially senior Cale Donovan, junior Jacob Barnhart, senior Garrett Tucker and Class of 2016’s Matt Shawver.

WBHS Principal Shannon Bucknell stepped in front of a crowd of teammates and classmates before the signing ceremony, saying he has “a lot of pride” announcing Dietz will play for the same football team in which he played in college.

Dietz said he wants to become a patrol officer, but also have the education that will allow him to move up in a police department, or other areas of law enforcement.

He travels to Indianola to start practices with the Storm a few weeks before the rest of the student body arrives on the Simpson campus. His father said the team forwarded to him a workout schedule to get prepared.