BUFFALO — Four Harding County Ranchers are roaming NFL and college football sidelines. 

Buffalo, a town of roughly 350 people, sits at the northwest corner of South Dakota and boasts a proud football tradition. The Ranchers have won two state football championships, regularly produce college football prospects and four former players are currently college or professional coaches. 

Harding County High School graduates Dalmin Gibson, Austin Brown, Steven Koch and Clayton Koch are representing the tiny school as football coaches across the country and across multiple levels. 

“It’s special,” Harding County/Bison football coach Jay Wammen said. “I don’t know how many other coaching staffs can say they have four kids they’ve coached priorly that are coaching at the collegiate level. So it’s pretty amazing.”  

At the highest level is Gibson, who was hired as the assistant special teams coach for the Minnesota Vikings in February. The ascension culminates Gibson’s journey from South Dakota nine-man football to the NFL.

“It means really everything to my family and I,” Gibson said. “My wife is from North Dakota and her whole entire family grew up Vikings fans. She grew up a Vikings fan. A dream come true doesn’t even describe it.”

Harding County High School graduate Dalmin Gibson is the assistant special teams coach for the Minnesota Vikings. (Image Courtesy of the Minnesota Vikings)

Gibson’s fellow Ranchers are following in his footsteps, and are climbing the coaching ladder at different stages in their careers. 

The other former Ranchers and their current roles include: Brown (Eastern Oregon offensive coordinator), Steven Koch (Texas State University special teams analyst) and Clayton Koch (Black Hills State University athletic performance co-director). 

“I am so proud of all three of them,” Steven Koch said. “Everything they’ve gotten, it’s because they’ve worked for it. No one has given them a single thing. Every single one of them have started from the volunteer level, been a GA, been a support staff member. It’s unbelievable what those guys have done.”

And it all started in Harding County, the third-least populated county in South Dakota. The ranching community prides itself on its blue-collar work ethic and it’s served the coaches well in their coaching careers. 

“It’s very special coming from where we came from — all playing nine-man football and growing up on cattle ranches,” Steven Koch said. “It’s just not something that you really see. It’s just unbelievable how in that part of the world things like that can happen and it’s just super special. It’s a tribute to our head coach Jay Wammen and the things he did for us back in Harding County.”

Ranchers grind across college football landscape 

Their coaching journeys might have started in Harding County, but they’ve all gone their separate ways and yet, their careers have been intertwined. 

Gibson, Brown and Steven Koch all played college football at Dickinson State University in North Dakota. Clayton Koch, who played college football at Black Hills State University, spent the 2022 season on Dickinson State’s coaching staff. Gibson, Brown and Steven Koch all had stints at the University of Colorado. 

While Gibson is currently at the highest level, the other three are continuing to grind at various college levels. 

Steven Koch is at FBS Texas State, which upset Baylor University in the season opener. Brown and Clayton Koch are in their first seasons at NAIA Eastern Oregon and NCAA Division II Black Hills State, respectively. 

For Wammen, it’s not a surprise to see the former Ranchers representing at the next level and beyond. He noticed they each had leadership qualities in high school that would translate to the coaching profession.  

“It’s really special to be able to see all those kids grow,” said Wammen, who also graduated from Harding County High School and Dickinson State. “A lot of them you could tell when they were playing, if they wanted to go into coaching in the future that they would have that opportunity. All four of them played college football, and then just kept wanting to advance their knowledge in the game. They kept grinding and they kept moving up the ladder.”

Gibson, a 2010 Harding County High School graduate, was the first Rancher to start the coaching grind. Gibson ascended to the NFL after filling multiple positions at Dickinson State, Wayne State College, Colorado, Michigan State and Southern Illinois. 

“It’s very amazing,” Wammen said about Gibson’s path to the pros. “That’s the elite of the elite. A very small percentage of the people would get that opportunity and it’s all earned.”

Gibson credits his Rancher roots for his rise to the NFL. 

“I don’t feel like anybody will ever outwork me in the coaching profession,” Gibson said. “Because of the work ethic, the life lessons, the mindset and mentality of our upbringing. I am still in contact with coach Wammen and coach (Waylon) Sabo up there. They mean really everything to me. They were some of the early coaches that I needed in my life to really start that burning desire and passion for football.”

Harding County High School graduate Dalmin Gibson is the assistant special teams coach for the Minnesota Vikings. (Image Courtesy of the Minnesota Vikings)

Gibson spent three seasons at Colorado, joining the program in June 2017 as an intern before working his way up to a graduate defensive assistant. Gibson spent two seasons as a special teams analyst at Michigan State and one season as special teams coordinator/defensive ends coach for Southern Illinois.

Gibson got his foot in the NFL door through the Bill Walsh Minority Internship with the Vikings in 2022. He also previously worked with Vikings special teams coordinator Matt Daniels at Colorado. 

Gibson, who had aspirations to be a college defensive coordinator, jumped at the professional opportunity when it arose. 

“It’s the best level of football in the world, and there’s only 32 of those positions,” Gibson said. “There’s only 32 assistant special teams coaches in the NFL and nobody is leaving. So any opportunity to get in was obviously huge, and you have to take that chance when you get it.”

Brown’s path to Eastern Oregon continues his winding football career after graduating from Harding County in 2011. After redshirting at the University of Sioux Falls, the 6-foot-5 Brown converted from quarterback to wide receiver and walked on at the University of Oklahoma.

He later transferred to Dickinson State, where he was an all-conference receiver for the Blue Hawks. Brown started his coaching career with a two-year stint as an offensive intern and recruiting assistant at Colorado, where Gibson was at the time. 

Brown was an offensive graduate assistant at Oregon State for three seasons, followed by two seasons at Southern Oregon University. He was promoted from receivers coach/recruiting coordinator to offensive coordinator following his first season with the Raiders.

He landed his current role as Eastern Oregon offensive coordinator position during the offseason. 

Like Gibson and Brown, Steven Koch also wore numerous hats at different colleges along his coaching career. In 2017 and ‘18, Koch was the outside linebackers coach at Dickinson State and was a defensive intern at Colorado in 2019. 

It was his relationship with Gibson that led to the Colorado internship. 

“That was kind of Steven’s break into building his network, and both of those guys have worked unbelievably hard to get where they are at,” Gibson said. “They are going to do an excellent job wherever they are for as long as they are coaching. Because those guys are dialed in and sharp. They are great people and that’s the No. 1 reason why they have done well.” 

Koch, a 2014 Harding County High School graduate, parlayed the Colorado internship into coaching stints at Chadron State and back at Dickinson State. He landed his first Division I job at the University of South Florida, serving as a special teams assistant in 2022. Koch joined Texas State in Feb. 2023 as a special teams analyst. 

A 2016 Harding County High School graduate, Clayton Koch played five seasons for the Black Hills State University football team. Clayton Koch, who is Steven’s younger brother, joined the Yellow Jackets staff during this past offseason. 

The four coaches regularly communicate and constantly check how the other Ranchers are doing on game days. Gibson called the other three Ranchers, “My best friends in the whole world and we are all each other's best man’s in our weddings.” 

And no matter where their coaching careers guide them, they’ll always be representing Harding County.  

“It’s just a tribute to the people of Harding County, the school and the administrators,” Steven Koch said. “People don’t understand the impact that those folks have. I can remember my principal, our defensive coordinator, my head coach always talking about how to prepare. How to work hard, how to present yourself and how to represent Harding County."