Head Coach Don De Waard will lead a Global Football-organized squad of select NCAA Division III student-athletes in the annual Tazón De Estrellas (Bowl of the Stars) for a sixth time on Saturday, December 16.
The former Central College (Iowa) defensive coordinator holds a 3-2 record against the CONADEIP All-Stars from Mexico’s private universities, who will be led by UDLAP head coach Eric Fisher for a third time.
De Waard has named a five-man coaching staff, which includes three returning from previous years and two newcomers. Joe Austin (Southwestern University), Jim Lyall (former Siena Heights & Adrian College) and Rob Cushman (Occidental College) have coached the D-III select team before, while Jim Margraff (Johns Hopkins University) and Dave Murray (Hamilton College) make their debuts.
The Tazón De Estrellas will be played at the Margarita Aztiazarán de Fimbres Stadium at CETYS University in Tijuana, marking the 20th time Global Football has organized the week-long event of team practices, community service and the game.
Coach – School – Year
Don De Waard HC, Central College (retired), 6th as HC
Joe Austin OC, Southwestern University, 8th
Rob Cushman, Occidental College, 3rd
Jim Lyall, Siena Heights University (retired), 3rd
Jim Margraff, John’s Hopkins University, 1st
Dave Murray, Hamilton College, 1st
John Roslien, Central College, 20th
“As always, I am excited about the opportunity to participate in this year’s Tazón De Estrellas,” said De Waard. “Having been involved in the game for many years I am most excited about the opportunity that our players will have to participate in a truly great event. They will experience a different culture for a week and get to participate in a very competitive and exciting football game. For most of these players this is the last game of football that they will ever participate in.
“Again, we have assembled a great coaching staff with many years of experience (some veterans and some rookies) and these coaches will do everything in their power to assist the players in having a great experience.
“I am looking forward to returning to Tijuana after being there two years ago. We were treated so well by our hosts and also won a very close exciting football game.”
Head coach Don De Waard was a member of the Central College (Iowa) coaching staff for 34 years and is a 1982 Central grad. De Waard retired from coaching the Dutch following the 2015 season.
At the helm of Team Stars & Stripes for the past five games, De Waard returns to the scene of a dramatic comeback victory in Tijuana in 2015, when his bold two-point conversion call after a touchdown scored on the team’s final possession earned the Americans a 15-14 victory.
In 2000, the American Football Coaches Association named De Waard the NCAA Division III Assistant Coach of the Year. He was honored at the AFCA convention in Atlanta, Ga. in January, 2001. A native of Kanawha, he is a certified public accountant and also serves as president of the Molengracht, a downtown development project in Pella. De Waard and his wife Jean have four children and five grandchildren.
Joe Austin has served as the team’s offensive coordinator since 2013. Austin is in his fifth year as the head coach of Southwestern’s football program. He was hired in February 2012, as the program was reintroduced to campus following a 63-year hiatus.
The Pirates have continued to grow in each of the three campaigns led by Austin. In 2016 Austin guided the Pirates to an undefeated 6-0 record in the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC). The championship marked the team’s first football championship since 1941 and the 7-3 overall record was the best in more than 70 years, earning Austin the conference’s Coach of the Year award.
Prior to Southwestern, Austin transformed the program at Hanover College through four seasons as the head coach, helping the team to back-to-back runner-up finishes in the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference in the final two campaigns. Austin spent two years as the offensive coordinator at the University of Dubuque, where he helped the program to back-to-back winning seasons for the first time in 28 years. Austin has been a regular traveler with Global Football, taking his Hanover and Southwestern football squads to play in Europe.
Rob Cushman made his debut on De Waard’s staff in 2015. Cushman became head coach of Occidental College this year after two years in charge of the University of Minnesota Morris, where he took a winless NCAA Division III program to a 4-6 record during his first season and then improved to 6-4 in 2016, going undefeated at home.
He was named head coach at Minnesota Morris in 2015 after leading Augustana College, where he served as head coach for the 2011 through 2014 seasons as well as defensive coordinator from 2008 through 2010. As head coach, Cushman produced 22 All-Conference players at Augustana, and took his Augie team to France in 2012 with Global Football. Cushman has experience building competitive football programs. He was the first head coach hired at Feather River College in Quincy, California, in 2002, where he created a new community college program that went 6-5 in its first year.
Jim Lyall was hired in 2010 to help start the Siena Heights University intercollegiate football program and led SHU through its first five seasons. In 2014, he was named the MSFA Mideast Coach of the Year after leading the Saints to a Mid-States Football Association Mideast Division championship. In four NAIA varsity seasons at Siena Heights, Lyall compiled a 19-21 record.
After playing for legendary University of Michigan coach Bo Schembechler from 1970-73, Lyall spent more than 40 years coaching at the collegiate level, including 25 as a head coach. He was the head coach of Adrian College from 1990-2009, compiling a record of 103-92-1, including a Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association championship. Lyall took his Adrian College team overseas with Global Football every three years and traveled most recently to Italy with Siena Heights University, when the Saints’ women’s soccer team also journeyed to Europe.
Jim Margraff is the all-time winningest coach in Johns Hopkins football history, with a record of 200-85-3. Since returning to Johns Hopkins in 1990, the four-time Centennial Conference Coach of the Year (2011, 2012, 2014, 2016) and three-time AFCA Region 2 Coach of the Year (2011, 2014, 2016) has elevated the Blue Jay football program to national prominence.
Margraff began turning hard work and dedication into success on the football field during his playing days at Hopkins. As a four-year starting quarterback for the Blue Jays, he rewrote the Hopkins passing record book and ranked as the Blue Jays’ all-time statistical leader in pass attempts, pass completions, passing yardage and touchdown passes when he concluded his career. In 1997, he was inducted into the Johns Hopkins Athletic Hall of Fame. Margraff took his Blue Jays overseas to Italy with Global Football in 2016 to tour and play against local opposition.
Dave Murray is in his fourth year as the head football coach at Hamilton College. The Continentals won three games under Murray’s guidance in 2016 and three players made the NESCAC all-conference team. Five student-athletes earned NESCAC Fall All-Academic Team honors.
In 2015, three of his players made the NESCAC all-conference team and one was selected to the D3football.com all-region team for the East Region. Alex Mitko received the first academic all-America honor in team history as he was voted to the 2015 Academic All-America Division III Football Team by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA). Murray guided the Continentals to a 20-17 win at Williams – Hamilton’s first victory against the Ephs since 1996. While head coach at Alfred University, Murray took the Saxons to France in Global Football in 2008.
John Roslien returns as Player Personnel Director for Team Stars and Stripes having been involved with the game for 20 years. Roslien joined the Central staff in 1986 and has held his current title since 2003. He is a member of the Iowa Athletic Trainers Society Hall of Honor and is also an associate professor of exercise science.
Roslien was inducted into the Iowa Athletic Trainers Society (IATS) Hall of Honor in 2007 and is a past president of the organization. Under his leadership, leadership Central’s athletic training education program was granted accreditation in 2004 from the Commission on Accreditation of Athletic Training Education (CAATE).
Coaches wishing to nominate deserving D-III athletes for a place on the Team Stars & Stripes roster should contact Director of Player Personnel & Football Operations John Roslien: RoslienJ@central.edu.