Hey, gather up your friends and family and head out to Canterbury Park, Thursday, August 26, for DCTC Night at the Races. DCTC is sponsoring one of the races. First post is at 7 p.m.
Admission is FREE!
Scholarship in a Haystack
Canterbury and DCTC will also be presenting another round of Scholarship in a Haystack. Contestants will have the chance to find a golden horseshoe redeemable for $500 in Dakota County Technical College scholarship money good toward DCTC tuition and books. Five horseshoes will be hidden in a haystack made from two large round bales of fresh-cut Minnesota hay, creating a free-for-all for scholarship funds. To register for a drawing to compete in Scholarship in a Haystack at Canterbury Park, visit:
Look for golden horseshoes totaling up to $2,500 in scholarship money
Everyone is welcome to head for Canterbury Park in Shakopee, Minn., Thursday evening, August 12, 2010, for Scholarship in a Haystack and the chance to find a golden horseshoe redeemable for $500 in Dakota County Technical College scholarship money. Five horseshoes will be hidden in a haystack made from two large round bales of fresh-cut Minnesota hay, making for a free-for-all for scholarship funds. To register for a drawing to compete in Scholarship in a Haystack at Canterbury Park, visit the link below:
NJCAA Hall of Fame Coach brings vision and experience to new program
Jay Pivec
Jay Pivec, one of the top coaches in the history NJCAA Division III basketball, has been named head coach of the new men’s basketball team at Dakota County Technical College. Pivec is best known as the legendary head coach of the Minneapolis Community and Technical College Mavericks.
Pivec and DCTC are gearing up to launch Blue Knights men’s basketball in October 2011. The plan for now is to have the team compete as an independent at the NJCAA DII level, but having the Knights join a conference is also a possibility.
“My job at DCTC presents several similarities to when I took over an MCTC team in 1990 that had just come off an 0–21 season,” Pivec said. “I’m looking forward to building a program from scratch. Working from the ground up, we’ll be able to get our thumbprints all over this thing.”
Pivec’s thumbprint is already renowned in the realm of NJCAA DIII basketball. An eight-time Minnesota College Athletic Conference Coach of the Year, he entered the MCAC Hall of Fame in 2002. During his career at MCTC, he posted a 425–115 record, leading the Mavericks to four appearances in the DIII national tournament, including two second-place finishes—the last in 2009, a tough one-point loss to Richland College, ending a 33–2 season that saw the team ranked number one in the nation for seven consecutive weeks on the NJCAA DIII poll.
That same year, Pivec was named the NJCAA Division III Coach of the Year. In 2010, he entered the NJCAA Men’s Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame. With 452 wins under his belt, he ranks second among active DIII coaches for career victories. While at MCTC, he coached eight NJCAA First-Team All-Americans, a feat unmatched by any other DIII program in the U.S.
“Right from the start at DCTC, it will be very important to prove to the community that our players are both serious students and ready to play at the highest level,” said Pivec, who will be focusing a good share of his recruiting energy in the South Metro, building on already strong relationships with high school coaches in Rosemount, Apple Valley, Burnsville, Lakeville, Eagan, Farmington, Hastings and other cities in the area. “One of the primary goals of our program will be to guide our students on to four-year colleges and universities where they can continue their academic and athletic careers. DCTC is the beginning, not the end—and that’s what will separate us from the pack.”
“I’m looking forward to building a program from scratch. Working from the ground up, we’ll be able to get our thumbprints all over this thing.”
Two out of three of Pivec’s players at MCTC went on to play basketball at four-year institutions with two out of three of the transfers earning bachelor’s degrees. Cam Stoltz, the athletic coordinator at DCTC, echoes Pivec’s dedication to the future success of DCTC student-athletes.
“Hiring Jay to lead our new basketball program was the obvious choice,” Stoltz said. “He has an unsurpassed track record of mentoring his players and pointing them in the right direction. He is famous for giving opportunities to players while preparing them for the highest levels of college basketball and life. He also knows how to field championship-caliber teams.”
Stoltz went on to say that taking the step to start a men’s basketball program at DCTC fits perfectly with the strategic plan of an athletic department with five other sports—women and men’s soccer, fastpitch softball and women’s volleyball.
“Basketball is a paramount sport when it comes to intercollegiate athletics,” he said. “With Jay Pivec at the helm, we are on course to make our new basketball program a boon to our students, our surrounding communities, DCTC athletics and the college as a whole.”
Pivec reported that Ron Gates, who worked as his assistant coach for all his 20 seasons at MCTC, will be joining the Blue Knights in his former role. Pivec also expressed his wish for the college to work in partnership with area communities and other entities to pursue the construction of a multipurpose arena on the DCTC Rosemount campus that would serve not only his program, but also other sports, particularly volleyball, in addition to housing important collegiate and community functions and events.
Jay Pivec | Professional Achievements
Minnesota College Athletic Conference Coach of the Year
1993, 1995, 2001, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2010
Minnesota College Athletic Conference Hall of Fame
At 22, Tom Lukken is already taking off as a professional photographer. That might seem young, but Lukken actually launched his career some 14 years ago when as an 8-year-old he received his first point-and-shoot camera. He loved the fact that he was able to freeze time and capture memories that might otherwise be forgotten.
“I have almost my entire life photographed in some way or form,” he said. “So I can literally sift through images and see everything, which is awesome. That’s what really got me hooked.”
At age 14, Lukken set his mind on the idea that he wasn’t going to spend the rest of his life working for someone else. “I will be my own boss,” he told himself—and that became his main goal. He loved art, but didn’t think he had the talent to be a painter or illustrator so he picked up his camera and took it everywhere he went, working constantly on building his skills. He took every photography class he could in high school, but had trouble finding the right photography program in college.
“Knowing your equipment in and out is huge. Because if something happens you have to know why it’s happening, not just it’s happening.”
“I went to a few other schools before coming to DCTC, but I didn’t like any of the programs,” he said. “I just wasn’t fitting in. Then I came to DCTC, met the photo instructors and absolutely loved them. They’re great guys and always there to help. I got so much instruction from the technical side and how I should be going about my business—how I needed to be looking at things in a professional manner.”
Lukken believes that he wouldn’t be running a successful business without the classes he took at DCTC and the knowledge he picked up from his instructors. “The thing about the teachers here is that they’re all photographers,” he said. “They’re still in the industry, they’re still shooting—and they all own businesses. So whenever I had questions, I would go up and talk to one of them and they were more than happy to share anything and everything they possibly could with me.”
Thomas Lukken Photography
A year and a half into earning his A.S. degree in photography, Lukken started his own business, Thomas Lukken Photography, and things just seemed to fall into place. Family and friends provided natural networking opportunities, and he used social media to its fullest extent to get his name and his work in the public eye.
“I have a Facebook page I use just for my photography,” he said. “I want anyone and everyone to see it. I want my images out there, which is one of the best ways to generate business. I also use Twitter and I have a few blogs, not just one.”
Word of mouth has proven by far the strongest method of advertising for Lukken’s business. “I can send out two thousand mailers or tell ten people and I’ll get more business from telling ten people than I will out of two thousand mailers—and it’s a lot cheaper,” he said. “It’s pretty amazing, I guess. I’ve done the fliers, I’ve done all that, and it’s just not there compared to the instant gratification I can get from putting something online and saying, hey, check this out, check this out, and having five to six hundred people look at it within two days.”
Lukken’s first niche as a professional photographer was taking portraits of children and then families, but he’s since branched out to become an accomplished wedding photographer. He credits much of his success shooting weddings to Rick Stidger, a seasoned, award-winning master photographer who served as Lukken’s mentor during his first months on his own.
“Rick kind of just took me in and let me follow him around at weddings and shoots on the side,” Lukken said. “I learned a lot from him. He’s been in the field for 20 years. It was great just going to a wedding and not having the pressure on me to do anything but absorb what’s happening and watch the way he deals with people.”
Photo from album for a Montana wedding | Thomas Lukken Photography
Lukken pointed out that stressful situations pop up at weddings as a matter of course because so much is riding on catching one-time moments that would be lost forever if something goes wrong. Knowing exactly how to deal with inevitable problems has been one of the top benefits of working with Stidger.
“The first wedding I did by myself I was terrified,” Lukken said. “I have one chance to capture one thing. I can’t mess it up. It’s their wedding day. They’re letting you in on a very important event and you have to know what you’re doing. You have to be confident. You have to know your equipment—that’s one of biggest things I can emphasize. Knowing your equipment in and out is huge. Because if something happens you have to know why it’s happening, not just it’s happening. And that was one of the things Rick taught me.”
Landscape photography is another aspect of Lukken’s professional career and it’s something he pursues with pride because he knows that it’s much more difficult than it looks. He points to the college’s North Shore Photography workshops with DCTC Instructor Darrell Tangen as an unbeatable way to improve your nature and landscape shooting while significantly advancing your overall knowledge of digital photography.
Regarding advice for up-and-coming photographers, Lukken has this to say: “If you’re truly looking to pick up photography and be good at it, always have a camera on you because you never know when that one shot’s going to come up. When I was at DCTC, a few good buddies from school and I would go on photo adventures every other day. We’d go to the Cities, we’d go to the woods, we would just shoot and then critique each other’s work—and then we would improve on it. I would shoot from a hundred to a thousand images a day. Every time you take one image you’re getting better because you know what not to do the next time.”
Thomas Lukken Photography
He highly recommends going to school for photography, not just for the teachers and what you’ll learn from them, but from the intense competition with fellow student photographers. “There’s nothing like being in a classroom with other people and the camaraderie of pushing each other. It’s the only way I got better. Every week is a competition with each new assignment you get. Somebody would do something that would blow you away and the next week you would do anything you could to top it. You force yourself to get better that way.”
As for his chosen industry, Tom Lukken couldn’t be more pleased with the openness and cooperation shown by his peers. “The new wave, the new era is pushing photographers to band together to keep the industry strong,” he said. “I network with every other photographer I know. They’re all about helping each other out. They’re all about sharing. If you have a question and they can answer it, they will. They’re just great people.”
Former NCAA Division II National Player of the Year already recruiting for fall 2011 inaugural season
Kari Peterson
Kari Peterson, the former interim head women’s volleyball coach for the University of North Dakota, has been named head coach of the new women’s volleyball team at Dakota County Technical College. Blue Knights volleyball will compete as an independent at the NJCAA Division II level starting fall 2011.
“Starting a program is a lot like taking over a program like I’ve done in the past at UND and Valley City,” Peterson said. “At UND, we took a program that was zero and twelve in conference play and, by my third year with the team, we had set a season record for wins and won our first NCAA Division I tournament.”
Peterson is focusing on bringing in recruits that will succeed both athletically and academically—and she already has a couple lined up from volleyball camps she teaches. Scheduling games will be a big part of launching the team and Peterson plans to have the Knights compete in a number of tournaments against Division II competition in Iowa, North Dakota and Illinois. “We will also be scheduling matches against Division III teams in Minnesota,” she said.
DCTC Athletics Coordinator Cam Stoltz is glad to welcome Peterson to the Blue Knights coaching family. “Kari has an amazing resume both as a coach and as a player,” Stoltz said. “She’s the perfect choice to start a new program and is used to competing at a very high level.”
“At UND, we took a program that was zero and twelve in conference play and, by my third year with the team, we had set a season record for wins and won our first NCAA Division I tournament.”
In 2005, Peterson took over as head coach of the Valley City State University Vikings. She led her team to a 10–15 season with a 7–7 record in the Dakota Athletic Conference, winning more conference games than in the four previous seasons combined.
Peterson arrived at UND in 2006, serving as assistant coach to Head Coach Katy Peterson, her twin sister, for two seasons before taking over as interim head coach in 2008. As head coach, she took her team, which was entering its second season at the NCAA Division I level, to an impressive 24–8 overall record, going 7–1 at home, 10–3 away, and 7–4 on neutral ground.
Kari Peterson’s accomplishments during her four-year career as a Viking
Two-time AVCA Division II All-American
Two-time Daktronics Division II All-American
Played on three North Central Conference championship teams (1997, 1999, 2000)
Played on three NCAA Division II Regional playoff teams (1997, 1999, 2000)
Earned NCC Freshman of the Year honors in 1998
First-team All-NCC honors in both 2000 and 2001
All-time leader in digs with 1,563
Second all-time in set assists with 5,797
Peterson and her sister Katy are co-directors of Midwest Elite Volleyball, which provides camps and clinics for youths interested in improving their volleyball skills. She also plans to conduct volleyball camps through DCTC and the Blue Knights.
A native of Moorhead, Minn., Peterson earned a bachelor’s degree in exercise science from Augustana College with minors in fitness management and psychology. She is currently working on her master’s in kinesiology.
For more information about Blue Knights volleyball, or if you are interested in joining the team as a player, please contact Kari Peterson or Cam Stoltz.
If you have news, breaking stories, stories about students, faculty, staff, alumni or programs, event info or just something noteworthy that you would like posted on YouBlue, please contact Chris Hayes at 651-423-8266 or chris.hayes@dctc.edu
Recent Comments