Mark Bishop, Travis Mertens (Photo by Noah Clooten)
By Mojo Hill
NEW ROCKFORD — “When you’re frustrated about where you’re at,” Four Winds football coach Mark Bishop said, “look at where you’ve been. Where you came from.”
Bishop has been the Indians’ head football coach since 2011. His first year, the team won three games. At the time, that was tied for the most wins in school history.
The team went on to lose 40 consecutive varsity games. They went the greater part of the 2010s without any wins. The Indians went 0-9 in 2012, then 0-8 in back-to-back years.
Former Devils Lake star Travis Mertens joined the program as co-head coach in 2015. The program was struggling with numbers, so it went to a JV schedule for most of its games.
In 2017, Four Winds was back to a full nine-man varsity schedule.
“We were thinking we were gonna surprise the region,” Mertens said with a chuckle.
They went 0-8.
“It wasn’t easy. I’ll tell you that,” Mertens said. “There was days where you’re sitting there pulling your hair out, and you’re questioning, ‘What are you doing? What are you doing?’”
Eight years later — seven years after their first playoff appearance — the Indians have done what would have been unthinkable just a decade ago. They’ve won a program-best six games. They hosted a playoff game last year, and now they’re heading to the playoffs again — the first time they’ve ever reached the postseason in consecutive years.
“It’s validating,” Mertens said.
Setting the table
The 2018 season was the start of turning this program around.
After opening the year 1-3, Four Winds won four consecutive games. It earned the school’s first ever playoff bid.
“That was the first group that showed everybody else, ‘This is how you do it,’” Bishop said.
It started with dedication from the kids. That meant showing up consistently and prioritizing the right things.
“Being there in practice every day. Being good kids in school. Everything like that,” Mertens said. “So they kind of just set the example. And fortunately enough, we’ve had guys follow that example and keep competing and keep showing up. And things like this happen when you do that.”
Numbers kept growing. In 2019, the NDHSAA tried to move Four Winds up to 11-man, but the coaches didn’t feel the team was ready for that level. So the Indians went back to a mostly-JV schedule in 2019 and 2020. They recorded some varsity wins over teams like Standing Rock, Larimore and New Town.
The 2020 team, which went 4-0 in varsity play, included a couple of fresh-faced ninth graders named Deng Deng and Dalen Leftbear.
Neither was offered immediate playing time. They spent most of the year on the sideline. But they made the commitment to show up consistently anyway — an example they’ve passed down to the next wave of kids.
“Guys like Deng, who’s playing for UND now, came to practice all year as a freshman knowing he wasn’t playing. And that’s what it takes to get better,” Bishop said. “Football is a man’s sport. It’s gonna take a year or two for you to figure it out. If we’re starting freshmen and sophomores, we’re not gonna be a very good team.”
With a revamped football layout in 2021, Four Winds was back in nine-man. It went 3-6, with a first-round playoff loss.
Between 2022 and ‘23, the Indians had a combined record of 9-7. But they missed the playoffs both years.
Still, after a big senior year from a bulked-up Deng, they had their first Division I football player. Four Winds started to get looked at as a little more than just a basketball school.
Deng, who wasn’t even starting on his high school team five years ago, is now catching touchdown passes for the Fighting Hawks.
“It’s the physicality, maturity, strength, all that — by the time you get to your junior and senior year, you kind of have,” Mertens said. “And when you show up and you go against those bigger guys in practice every day, eventually you get tougher and you figure things out. So kudos to all of our seniors that have come through, and the past alumni that have done it the right way.”
Deng’s younger brother Marial helped the Indians return to the playoffs last year. They hosted for the first time, in an eventual 42-12 loss to Cavalier. They went 5-3 overall.
Senior quarterback Kashton Keja Jr. was the glue of that team, earning a selection to the North Dakota Shrine Bowl.
And now, Four Winds is back in the fold. It won six of its first eight games this year.
Playoffs are no longer a lofty goal, but the new standard of this program.
“That was, I think, the vision when Bishop and I kind of decided to go head coaches,” Mertens said. “We knew we always had talent in the school; just a matter of getting them out on the football field and kind of getting them to buy into that football mentality, physicality-type game.”
Getting tested by the No. 1 Rockets ahead of the 2025 playoffs
Four Winds’ regular season concluded with a loss to the No. 1 team in nine-man football.
The Indians fell 46-16 to the defending state champion, New Rockford-Sheyenne/Maddock, on Thursday. But spirits were higher than when they lost 68-0 to the Rockets last year. They held a brief 8-0 lead, and kept it a one-score game until the middle of the second quarter.
“That team and that program, they’re good. There’s no doubt about it,” Bishop said. “We’re right there. It’s not like we came in here and they throttled us. We were competing with them on every play.”
This season hasn’t necessarily worked out the way Mertens and Bishop drew it up on paper. They lost key players like Richard Cavanaugh and Tyler Black to early-season injuries.
Even Dayson Dubois, their star running back who sometimes fills in at quarterback, is playing through a broken knuckle right now.
“This is a really, really unique team with the injuries we’ve battled through and missing players and stuff like that,” Mertens said. “Every guy that we call on seems to step up and contribute.”
One of those guys was Zach Langstaff. He’s just a sophomore, but he’s filled in as an athletic wide receiver and defensive back.
“He’s another kid that throughout the year, he just kept getting better and better each week,” Mertens said. “And as a sophomore, he’s asked to do a lot of different things, playing both sides of the ball and guard some of the better players in the state.”
Langstaff took a scare in Thursday’s game against the Rockets. He was knocked down with a head injury and was in and out of consciousness as the medical staff rushed him into an ambulance.
“If he can’t go, it’s gonna have to be the next guy up, next guy up. Or we’ll have to adjust the way it is. It’s kind of our theme for the rest of the year,” Mertens said. “Not having him would hurt, but we’ll see what the prognosis is this week.”
The coaches mentioned Lander Guy and Judah Young as some of the next options in the line of fire.
One guy they know they can rely on is Marial Deng, the UND-committed senior. Deng had a 32-yard reception to set the Indians up on Thursday, then made two touchdown receptions to keep it a close game in the first half.
Sophomore Kaleb Keja made those throws. With Dubois unable to throw the ball, Keja is their quarterback for the foreseeable future.
“We love Kaleb’s arm. We do. He’s got one of the best arms,” Mertens said. “When he gets his feet set and focuses in, I don’t know how many guys can throw a better ball than him in our region, or maybe even nine-man.”
Keja also combines to form a lethal running threat with Dubois. The two of them alternated carries for much of Thursday’s contest.
“Dayson, all year you’ve got the ball in his hand, whether it’s quarterback or running back — it seems like he can make a play,” Mertens said.
The team, unofficially, totaled 178 rushing yards against an NR-S/M team that owns a 21-game winning streak.
No nine-man game will get much tougher than playing the Rockets.
“When you go against a team like this, usually you get to see what your weaknesses are — what you execute, what you don’t execute,” Mertens said. “Maybe it’s a blessing to play that in the last game of the year, where you get to go into the playoffs going against the best team in the state. Your kids are in that battle, and they know what it takes to maybe get a victory in the playoffs.”
The Indians also had to contend with all-state quarterback Easton Simon. The senior routinely throws for a few hundred yards per game, sometimes even by the end of the first half.
“What we said in the game plan was we’ve got to make sure Easton is a little uncomfortable,” Mertens said. “And he can’t just sit there back there, otherwise he’s just gonna cut you up and find out who he wants to throw to.”
Four Winds has a big, physical line, led by senior Francis Bellile. The Indians were able to catch the Rockets’ offense off guard early on. They forced a three-and-out on the opening possession, with Simon overshooting his receivers.
“This might be a brag, but I think we have athletes that do match up with their athletes on that side of the ball,” Mertens said.
Eventually, NR-S/M jolted ahead on the heels of a few particularly explosive plays. Simon found openings to Thomas Allmaras, Koy Zieman and Easton Benz as the Rockets ran away with it in the second and third quarter.
“I don’t know how many times this week I said, ‘When Easton Simon has a guy open, he doesn’t miss him,’” Bishop said. “But I think our pressure tonight caused him maybe to get rid of it a little sooner than he wanted, at least early in the game.”
Though the Rockets ended up taking them down, the Indians could take some solace that they kept up with the top team in the state for a decent chunk of the first half.
“It gives you that confidence, where you know you can play with anyone going into the playoffs,” Bishop said.
One last thing to prove
As Mertens said, maybe Four Winds needed to play somebody like the Rockets before heading into the playoffs.
The Indians’ next game doesn’t get much easier. They’ll now face the No. 2 team in the state, LaMoure-Litchville/Marion.
It’s an even tougher draw than last year.
“We’ve still got one more hump to get over. We need a first playoff win yet,” Mertens said. “But if we continue to keep showing up and preparing and holding everybody accountable, we’ll be fine. We’ll keep continuing in the right direction.”
The Indians still have some young pieces for next year. Dubois has one season left, and Keja has two. Guy, Langstaff, Young, Lander Jackson and more will return.
Over in Grand Forks, Four Winds will be well-represented with a pair of Dengs on the Fighting Hawks.
The team is now a well-respected, perennial playoff contender. It’s the end result of a path carved out by current and former players alike.
“It’s not just Bishop and I and the coaches,” Mertens said. “It’s the whole program, the players that have come through and contributed to everything. So it’s everybody. It’s a community thing.”
Mertens said he has people come up to him and ask, “Hey, how’d the game go?”
These days, his answer to that question is usually positive.
“Before,” Mertens said with a smirk, “they didn’t even bother to ask.”
