Division I football player has local ties

Less than 1% of all high school football players get the opportunity to play at the Division I level and even fewer get to play for a team in a Power Five conference yet two of them have ties to Steele County.
The more well-known one is Jason Williamson, who led the Owatonna Huskies to back-to-back state championships before joining the University of Minnesota football team.
The less well-known one is Kellen Diesch, the starting left tackle for Arizona State University (ASU), whose ties to Steele County include multiple family members who grew up in Blooming Prairie. His dad, Mark Diesch, his uncle, John Diesch, and aunt Sharon (Diesch) Kelly, all graduated from Blooming Prairie High School. His late paternal grandparents, Gordon and Marcella Diesch, lived and farmed in Blooming Prairie. Gordon also graduated from Blooming Prairie High School.
Due to COVID-19, Kellen Diesch’s first season with the Sun Devils has been anything but normal. However, when he and his teammates have gotten to play, he’s performed well.
In their season opener against the then-ranked No. 20 team in the country, the USC Trojans, he and the rest of ASU offensive line surrendered just one sack and paved the way for the Sun Devils to run for 258 yards. Unfortunately, the Trojans showed why they were ranked in the top 25 by rallying from a 13-point deficit and winning 28-27.
After two consecutive games were canceled, Diesch and ASU faced the UCLA Bruins in week four. The ASU offensive line once again helped its team run for more than four and a half yards per carry (165 yards on 35 carries), but they gave up five sacks and UCLA won 25-18.
A few weekends ago, the Sun Devils got their first win of the season in dominant fashion, beating the University of Arizona 70-7. Diesch and the rest of the ASU offensive line had their best game yet, paving the way for their teammates to run for seven touchdowns and more than five yards per carry (259 yards on 50 carries) and didn’t surrender any sacks.
Before grad-transferring to Arizona State, he played three seasons for the Texas A&M Aggies after a redshirt freshman year.
At Texas A&M, Diesch earned a bachelor’s degree in business. He’s pursuing a master’s degree in liberal studies at ASU.
One silver lining of COVID-19 is the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Council granted all fall athletes another year of eligibility so Diesch will get to play for ASU again next year and he’ll have one more year to figure out what he wants to do after graduation.
 
Photo: Kellen Diesch is the starting left tackle for Arizona State University. He has ties to the Blooming Prairie area.