Former Central coach dies

By Jim Holland, Journal staff | Saturday, November 08, 2008

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RAPID CITY — It seems only fitting that Jesse Herrick went out on top of his game.

Herrick, a longtime teacher and coach at Spearfish, Rapid City Cathedral High School and Rapid City Central High School, died Thursday at the age of 80.

On Monday, Herrick played one of his usual three-times-a-week rounds of golf at Meadowbrook Golf Course. That day, friends said he had probably his best round of the season.

“We‘d play for quarters,” recalled golf partner Dana West, who coached and taught with Herrick at Central. “He birdied No. 18, kind of a tough Par Five, and it was the first any of us remembering him birdiing it.

“So he made some quarters on the last hole and it was the last hole he ever played,” West said.

Herrick played football at both Black Hills State and Chadron State College. His son Casey, of Rapid City, recalled that his dad wound up at BHSU after interrupting his studies for military service in the Korean War.

“He was a linebacker at Black Hills in the old leather helmet days. He always reminded us over the years that he still had a year of eligibility left,” Casey said.

Jesse Herrick’s teaching and coaching career began in Hysham, Mont., in 1955. Herrick taught and coached football and basketball in Spearfish from 1959 through 1961, before he came to Rapid City.

Herrick taught biology, history and math at Rapid City High School and was also head football coach at Rapid City Cathedral until that school closed in 1968.

“They didn’t win a game that first year at Cathedral, and six years later they went undefeated,” said Casey. “One of the players on that unbeaten team was John Dutton, who went on to star with the Nebraska Cornhuskers and in the NFL with the (then Baltimore) Colts and Dallas Cowboys.”

At Central, Herrick coached sophomore football and basketball.

One of his sophomore players was future South Dakota State and NFL kicker Adam Vinatieri.

Herrick was the head tennis coach for the Cobblers.

“He pretty much started the tennis program there,” Casey said.

Darcy, Duke and Daryl Paluch all got their start playing tennis under Herrick’s tutelage.

“In that tennis mode, he was a great coach,” Daryl Paluch said. “He didn’t know that much about tennis, but he was a great motivator.”

“At the time we had some very, very good players in the state. Jesse knew the other team and he knew where to put the players.

“He knew I could win a state championship at No. 2,” Daryl Paluch recalled. “He lined up the teams just right.”

Darcy Paluch said Herrick was a source of many lessons, more of life than just the games.

“We spent a lot of time on the road with tennis. It was always an honor to sit in the front seat and listen to Jesse tells stories about his life. He influenced a lot on what I did with my life and how I trained my kids and worked with my life. He was a huge influence on my life,” Darcy said.

“Tennis was a game, just part of what you did in life. He talked about his experiences in life and how they related to what you were going through,” Darcy said.

“He was very important to all of us. He was one of the top two people in my life.”

As a football coach, Herrick was old-school, West recalled.

“I remember (former Central player) Jared Vasquez telling me that Jesse would literally draw plays on the ground with a stick. Jared said it was amazing. Those plays would actually work,” West said.

West said Herrick didn’t let his age interfere with a late-found interest in mountain biking.

“He had given his mountain bike to his grandson Ryan and had bought a new mountain bike for himself. He was trying to get in shape to ride with us on the Mickelson Trail,” West said.

“It’s kind of too bad. The last ride we made before the weather turned, Jesse was going to go, but he found out it was the Pringle to Edgemont leg, which is about 32 miles. He said that might be a little long for my first time on the Mickelson Trail,” West recalled.

“Ryan told his mother that it was like Grandpa got to be 20 years old again with his golfing, bicycling and all his other activities,” West said.

Herrick was elected to the Rapid City Sports Hall of Fame in 2002. His wife, Marjorie, died last May 15. He is survived by a daughter, Maureen Stevens of Rapid City, son Casey and wife Barbara Herrick of Rapid City and son Robert Herrick of Winchester, Va.; a sister, Frances Hoffman of Siletz, Ore.; eight grandchildren; and eight great-grandchildren.

“He just had a way with people, it didn’t matter whether they were young or old, He was really well-liked,” West said.