Bakken Bloodlines Run Deep In Cobber Football

Article reprinted courtesy of Fargo Forum and reporter Eric Peterson. Picture courtesy of Forum photographer Dave Samson.

MOORHEAD — Concordia defensive coordinator Kyle Bakken was a few years into his tenure with the Cobbers when his son Jonah Bakken joined the football team on a road trip.

Jonah was in elementary school — a decade ago — and his first road experience with the team was a bus ride to Northfield, Minnesota, where the Cobbers played Carleton. That inaugural journey included a glitch.

"I'm used to routine so I would get off the bus and do my thing and I used to walk the campuses because I'd never been to a lot of these MIAC schools," said Kyle, the team's defensive coordinator since 2011. "All of a sudden it hits me, 'Oh, my gosh. Where's Jonah?' I forgot him. I forgot he was with me."

Kyle — who was in the gym — went back to the football field where he found Jonah playing catch with the players as they were warming up for the game.

"I had no clue," Jonah said. "I was just out on the field being a kid, enjoying the players."

Jonah is now a 5-foot-11, 180-pound junior safety for the Cobbers, who are on the road this weekend. Concordia plays at 1 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 2, at Wisconsin-Eau Claire in the season opener. Jonah is second on the depth chart at one of the safety spots.

"It's definitely the early memories at Concordia that shaped why I wanted to turn football into my main sport and put so much energy into it," said Jonah, a Fargo North graduate.

Cobbers football has turned into a family affair for the Bakkens. Kyle's older brother Derek Bakken is the defensive line coach for Concordia.

"It's dynamic," cracked Derek, entering his second season with the Cobbers. "He's my younger brother and also my boss. I can't tell you how proud I am of him."

Kyle joked that he had to tell his son to keep it quiet from mom after he forgot about an elementary-age Jonah on that trip to Northfield.

"I laughed and told him after, 'This is a guy thing. You can not tell your mother,' " Kyle said with a chuckle, referring to his wife Jeanne. "Otherwise she's not going to let you go on the bus again. ... The statute of limitations is hopefully over."

Jonah relished those moments with the college-age players as he was growing up.

"The fun part, especially being a kid, was being on the field with the guys who you were looking up to at the time," Jonah said.

Jonah played three years of varsity football at North and was a captain and starter during his senior season with the Spartans. He's entering his third season in the Cobbers program this fall, looking to earn his first significant playing time in his Concordia career.

"Now is the best time I've ever had playing football," Jonah said.

While Kyle coaches the linebackers to go along with his DC responsibilities and Derek coaches the defensive line, all three Bakkens get plenty of interaction during the course of practices and meetings.

Derek said he sometimes has flashbacks when he watches Jonah. Derek and Kyle are both from Drake, N.D., where Derek graduated from in 1985. Kyle was a 1988 Fargo Oak Grove graduate.

"There's times Jonah does things and in my mind I see Kyle at that age," Derek said. "I see so much of his dad in him. I see Kyle's effort level. I see Kyle's attention to detail."

Kyle had coached at both the high school and college level for around 30 years. Derek has around 20 years of coaching experience at the prep and college levels. Kyle played most of his college football career at Minot State and Derek at Dickinson State. They played together one season at Minot State in 1989 when North Dakota State associate head coach Randy Hedberg was the head coach at MSU.

In 2007, Kyle was the head coach at Oak Grove and led the Grovers to a North Dakota Class 2A state football championship that fall.

Jonah said his early experiences with football played a key role in him aspiring to be a college player.

"I was around the game as much as anyone," Jonah said of growing up with a dad who coached. "I'm around the team and on the bus trips and that is part of it, making me look forward to, hoping to play college football one day."

Derek has pride with the job Kyle — who has been on the Concordia staff since 2008 — has done as the program's defensive coordinator.

"You look over and say that kid is pretty darn smart," Derek said.

Jonah said Cobbers head coach Terry Horan was his primary recruiter out of high school and Kyle said he allowed his son to make his own college decision.

"It was up to him where he wanted to go and what he wanted to do," Kyle said. "I never really coached him as a kid. I always wanted to experience having coaches, not having your dad as coach."

Now, all three Bakkens are experiencing the game together.

"It's been a blast to fulfill the dreams that I had growing up as a kid and playing for this team one day," Jonah said.