Mike Van Diest
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Mike Van Diest is the Head Coach of the Carroll College (Montana) Fighting Saints Football team.
During his eight-year tenure as Head Football Coach at Carroll College (Montana), Mike Van Diest has led the Fighting Saints to four straight National Championship, which has been one of the most dominating runs in college football history. The Saints have posted a 88-18 record during the past eight seasons. This includes a 55-10 Frontier Conference record for an impressive 85%. The Fighting Saints earned six straight Final Four appearances in the NAIA national playoffs between 2000-2005.
In 2005, the Saints won their fourth consecutive NAIA National Championship with a convincing 27-10 victory over St. Francis University (Ind.) this was the second time under Van Diest that Carroll had a perfect record (14-0) in claiming the Title. In 2004 the Fighting Saints were the NAIA national champions for the third year in a row with a slim 15-13 victory again over St. Francis University (Ind.) in Savannah, Tennessee. In 2003, the Saints were national champions with their first perfect season at 15-0, by defeating Northwestern Oklahoma State 41-28. In 2002, the Saints won their first national championship with a 28-7 victory over Georgetown, KY. Van Diest and his staff have led Carroll College to a 20-2 record in the NAIA national playoffs. In 2000 and 2001, the Saints finished with the number 3 national ranking. During this time the Saints defense has been ranked 11th in 2000, 4th in 2001, 6th in 2002, 5th in 2003, 3rd in 2004 and number 1 in 2005. In 2005 the Saints have held teams to an outstanding 9.4 points per game, which included three shutouts, two of which came in the quarterfinal and semifinal rounds of the playoffs. While at Carroll, Van Diest has coached 18 All-Conference linebackers with four being named first team All-American, Joe Horne (2001), Cory Perzinski (2002), Marcus Atkinson (2003), and Gary Cooper (2004, 2005). Horne, Atkinson, and Cooper were all named Frontier Conference Defensive Player of the Year. Also during his time at Carroll College, Van Diest has coached the 2-time NAIA player of the year (2003 and 2005) and 3-time 1st team All-American (2003-2005) Quarterback Tyler Emmert. During his tenure as head Coach of the Fighting Saints, Van Diest has been named Frontier Conference Coach of the Year five times. In 2003 and 2005 Van Diest was named NAIA National Coach of the Year by the American Football Coaches Association as well as the AFCA Division II Coach of the year in 2003.
Van Diest is a 1970 graduate of Helena High School. His career has included stops at his alma mater, the University of Wyoming, the University of Montana, the University of Massachusetts, and Big Ten representative, Northwestern University as an assistant coach. Van Diest has won titles at Montana (Big Sky Conference Champions, 1982), Wyoming (Two Western Athletic Conference Championships and one Pacific Division Championship), Massachusetts (Yankee Conference Champions, 1986) and now seven Frontier Conference Championships at Carroll, as well as the 2002, 2003, 2004, and 2005 NAIA National Championships. He and his wife Heidi have two sons, Shane and Clay. Shane is a football player at Carroll College.
