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Mar. 23—SIOUX CITY, Iowa. — Rylie Osthus is back on the Dakota Wesleyan University women's basketball sideline this weekend at the NAIA tournament at the Tyson Events Center.
That brings back some great memories for many Tigers, including the former point guard herself, who was a member of DWU's national championship team in 2018.
Today, she's a chiropractor at Dakota Family Chiropractic in Mitchell and part of the DWU support staff with the Tigers, working alongside DWU director of athletic training Randi Christensen to care for the DWU athletes.
"I'd say it's been really kind of an odd feeling being behind the scenes, but it's been so cool, and they're so deserving to be here," Osthus said. "And I'm just honestly ecstatic that they get to have the experience that I once had, because it really is so special. These girls deserve it. They're such a special team, and it's been really fun to watch them come into that."
Osthus said she still has "a lot of friends at DWU," which led to her being asked to join DWU's teams and assist on special occasions.
"It's special for me to still be a part of it and have a mark on it and be in the community of Mitchell, because it's so great," she said. "We have the best supporters of any team, so I love it."
Osthus graduated from DWU in 2019, and she went to chiropractic school at Northwestern Health Sciences University in the Twin Cities. When she got her chiropractic doctorate degree, she emphasized working with athletes and those competing in sports.
"I would say one of my biggest passions is being able to help kids and especially athletes," she said. "It's been pretty cool to be a part of just a small piece of this and be able to enjoy watching them and talking to them and see how they feel about things and going through it."
In her role with the team, Osthus has been filling out all kinds of duties, including helping prepare players before games, providing massages at the team hotel and grabbing bags of ice for players after contests. Instead of playing for head coach Jason Christensen, she now finds herself working alongside him.
"It's awesome. Randi and her do such a good job. She's our team chiropractor, and we had her working on everybody's back the other night. She even worked on mine," Christensen joked. "It's kind of nice having her along."
Osthus was a two-time GPAC defensive player of the year in 2018 and 2019 and scored 1,466 points in her career from 2015-19. She started every game and averaged 10.6 points per game when the Tigers won five games in seven days in 2018 to claim DWU's first national championship.
"They've always been such good supporters to me," Osthus said of the coaching staff. "It's awesome to be able to repay that and hang out with them and the team and see their side of how things work when you're in the national tournament."
Nobody would ever accuse DWU President Dan Kittle of changing his stripes.
But he has been wearing them at the national tournament.
The DWU leader has been in the stands in Sioux City, cheering on the Tigers, and he's been easy to find, given he's been wearing an orange tiger-striped jacket.
That was the deal Kittle made ahead of "A Day for Wesleyan," which is DWU's annual single-day fundraising campaign. That was on March 19, and one of the supporter goals was if DWU had at least 300 donors, Kittle would wear the tiger-striped jacket for the national tournament the next day, on March 20, when DWU played Lindsey Wilson.
"Last week, if we met a certain goal of donors, I agreed to wear this," Kittle said of his striped attire. "Of course, the first day we won, so now I have to wear it because we can't change something that works. ... I am proud of being a Wesleyan Tiger, so this isn't my Monday morning style, but I'm proud to wear it."
DWU raised nearly $68,000 on A Day for Wesleyan with 429 donors.
And now among the final four teams, DWU is ramping up the already strong fan support. Two fan buses — one for students, one for general DWU fans — have been lined up for Monday's semifinal round.
"We have supporters of all ages," Kittle said on Saturday. "We had a social where there were three-year-old kids all the way to an 84-year-old grandmother that's leading the cheers for DWU. It's awesome."
Asked about what making the NAIA final four meant to him, Christensen said he thought of a movie that he believes many of his players likely have never seen.
"I told the fans (Saturday) at the pep rally, this just reminds me of the movie Hoosiers. You look at the enrollment of everybody we're playing, our enrollment is not even near theirs," Christensen said. "We're not even at quite 1,000, and we knock them off. That means a lot to us."
DWU has the lowest undergraduate enrollment of the 16 universities represented in Sioux City for the NAIA women's basketball tournament. DWU had an undergraduate count of 775 students in 2024-25 and an overall campus headcount of 906 students. Only fellow Great Plains Athletic Conference member Hastings has an enrollment of less than 1,000 undergraduates — according to U.S. News and World Report — and qualified for Sioux City.
DWU beat Lindsey Wilson University of Kentucky in the Round of 16, which has an undergrad enrollment of 1,714 students, and then topped Bethel (Tenn.) in the quarterfinals, which has 2,674 undergraduates.
The national semifinals include DWU taking on Marian University from Indianapolis, Indiana, which has 2,608 undergrads. The other semifinal involves Dordt University (enrollment: 1,655) taking on Dakota State University (enrollment: 3,085).
This is the first time DWU has made the national quarterfinals or semifinals since the NAIA merged its two divisions of basketball into one for the 2021 tournament. The GPAC teams played in Division II with the smaller universities, but at least in women's basketball, they have proven since then that they can compete. DWU joins Briar Cliff, Dordt and Morningside as teams to make the national semifinals since the merger.
And as for that iconic basketball movie from 1986 about an underdog high school basketball team from small-town Indiana?
"When I say Hoosiers, my players don't even know what I'm talking about," Christensen quipped. "It's been a fun ride right now, and we're kind of just hanging on and taking it one game at a time."
* DWU's Avery Broughton has broken the DWU single-season blocks record. She has 72 blocks on the season, passing Randi Morgan's total of 71 from 2003-04.
* Rylee Rosenquist surpassed the 1,500-point mark for her career on Saturday, becoming the 11th player in DWU women's basketball history to reach that landmark. Her 40-point effort moved her into the top-10 all-time and she goes into Monday's game tied for ninth with Emily Janssen at 1,536 points.
* Jason Christensen picked up win No. 352 on Saturday over Bethel, which is now the most for any DWU basketball coach, passing longtime men's coach Gordie Fosness, who coached the Tigers for 22 years in the 1970s and 1980s.
* DWU's win over Bethel on Saturday represented the Tigers' third win this season over a top-five ranked team, as the Wildcats were No. 3 in the final rankings. Campbellsville was No. 3 when DWU beat them in December and Dordt was ranked No. 1 in the final poll when the No. 9 Tigers defeated them in the GPAC title game. In all, DWU has five top-10 wins this season and has defeated No. 3 Bethel and No. 11 Lindsey Wilson in Sioux City. Up next is Marian, which was No. 4 in the final coaches poll.
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That brings back some great memories for many Tigers, including the former point guard herself, who was a member of DWU's national championship team in 2018.
Today, she's a chiropractor at Dakota Family Chiropractic in Mitchell and part of the DWU support staff with the Tigers, working alongside DWU director of athletic training Randi Christensen to care for the DWU athletes.
"I'd say it's been really kind of an odd feeling being behind the scenes, but it's been so cool, and they're so deserving to be here," Osthus said. "And I'm just honestly ecstatic that they get to have the experience that I once had, because it really is so special. These girls deserve it. They're such a special team, and it's been really fun to watch them come into that."
Osthus said she still has "a lot of friends at DWU," which led to her being asked to join DWU's teams and assist on special occasions.
"It's special for me to still be a part of it and have a mark on it and be in the community of Mitchell, because it's so great," she said. "We have the best supporters of any team, so I love it."
Osthus graduated from DWU in 2019, and she went to chiropractic school at Northwestern Health Sciences University in the Twin Cities. When she got her chiropractic doctorate degree, she emphasized working with athletes and those competing in sports.
"I would say one of my biggest passions is being able to help kids and especially athletes," she said. "It's been pretty cool to be a part of just a small piece of this and be able to enjoy watching them and talking to them and see how they feel about things and going through it."
In her role with the team, Osthus has been filling out all kinds of duties, including helping prepare players before games, providing massages at the team hotel and grabbing bags of ice for players after contests. Instead of playing for head coach Jason Christensen, she now finds herself working alongside him.
"It's awesome. Randi and her do such a good job. She's our team chiropractor, and we had her working on everybody's back the other night. She even worked on mine," Christensen joked. "It's kind of nice having her along."
Osthus was a two-time GPAC defensive player of the year in 2018 and 2019 and scored 1,466 points in her career from 2015-19. She started every game and averaged 10.6 points per game when the Tigers won five games in seven days in 2018 to claim DWU's first national championship.
"They've always been such good supporters to me," Osthus said of the coaching staff. "It's awesome to be able to repay that and hang out with them and the team and see their side of how things work when you're in the national tournament."
Nobody would ever accuse DWU President Dan Kittle of changing his stripes.
But he has been wearing them at the national tournament.
The DWU leader has been in the stands in Sioux City, cheering on the Tigers, and he's been easy to find, given he's been wearing an orange tiger-striped jacket.
That was the deal Kittle made ahead of "A Day for Wesleyan," which is DWU's annual single-day fundraising campaign. That was on March 19, and one of the supporter goals was if DWU had at least 300 donors, Kittle would wear the tiger-striped jacket for the national tournament the next day, on March 20, when DWU played Lindsey Wilson.
"Last week, if we met a certain goal of donors, I agreed to wear this," Kittle said of his striped attire. "Of course, the first day we won, so now I have to wear it because we can't change something that works. ... I am proud of being a Wesleyan Tiger, so this isn't my Monday morning style, but I'm proud to wear it."
DWU raised nearly $68,000 on A Day for Wesleyan with 429 donors.
And now among the final four teams, DWU is ramping up the already strong fan support. Two fan buses — one for students, one for general DWU fans — have been lined up for Monday's semifinal round.
"We have supporters of all ages," Kittle said on Saturday. "We had a social where there were three-year-old kids all the way to an 84-year-old grandmother that's leading the cheers for DWU. It's awesome."
Asked about what making the NAIA final four meant to him, Christensen said he thought of a movie that he believes many of his players likely have never seen.
"I told the fans (Saturday) at the pep rally, this just reminds me of the movie Hoosiers. You look at the enrollment of everybody we're playing, our enrollment is not even near theirs," Christensen said. "We're not even at quite 1,000, and we knock them off. That means a lot to us."
DWU has the lowest undergraduate enrollment of the 16 universities represented in Sioux City for the NAIA women's basketball tournament. DWU had an undergraduate count of 775 students in 2024-25 and an overall campus headcount of 906 students. Only fellow Great Plains Athletic Conference member Hastings has an enrollment of less than 1,000 undergraduates — according to U.S. News and World Report — and qualified for Sioux City.
DWU beat Lindsey Wilson University of Kentucky in the Round of 16, which has an undergrad enrollment of 1,714 students, and then topped Bethel (Tenn.) in the quarterfinals, which has 2,674 undergraduates.
The national semifinals include DWU taking on Marian University from Indianapolis, Indiana, which has 2,608 undergrads. The other semifinal involves Dordt University (enrollment: 1,655) taking on Dakota State University (enrollment: 3,085).
This is the first time DWU has made the national quarterfinals or semifinals since the NAIA merged its two divisions of basketball into one for the 2021 tournament. The GPAC teams played in Division II with the smaller universities, but at least in women's basketball, they have proven since then that they can compete. DWU joins Briar Cliff, Dordt and Morningside as teams to make the national semifinals since the merger.
And as for that iconic basketball movie from 1986 about an underdog high school basketball team from small-town Indiana?
"When I say Hoosiers, my players don't even know what I'm talking about," Christensen quipped. "It's been a fun ride right now, and we're kind of just hanging on and taking it one game at a time."
* DWU's Avery Broughton has broken the DWU single-season blocks record. She has 72 blocks on the season, passing Randi Morgan's total of 71 from 2003-04.
* Rylee Rosenquist surpassed the 1,500-point mark for her career on Saturday, becoming the 11th player in DWU women's basketball history to reach that landmark. Her 40-point effort moved her into the top-10 all-time and she goes into Monday's game tied for ninth with Emily Janssen at 1,536 points.
* Jason Christensen picked up win No. 352 on Saturday over Bethel, which is now the most for any DWU basketball coach, passing longtime men's coach Gordie Fosness, who coached the Tigers for 22 years in the 1970s and 1980s.
* DWU's win over Bethel on Saturday represented the Tigers' third win this season over a top-five ranked team, as the Wildcats were No. 3 in the final rankings. Campbellsville was No. 3 when DWU beat them in December and Dordt was ranked No. 1 in the final poll when the No. 9 Tigers defeated them in the GPAC title game. In all, DWU has five top-10 wins this season and has defeated No. 3 Bethel and No. 11 Lindsey Wilson in Sioux City. Up next is Marian, which was No. 4 in the final coaches poll.
Continue reading...
