Iron Icon: Tye Niekamp

Week of Sept. 15, 2025

Brady Phelps, Senior Staff Reporter

Sep 19, 2025

Iron Icon is a recurring Inkspot segment highlighting Community alumni making an impact after graduation. Through interviews with teachers, coaches and staff, each installment spotlights an alum’s achievements—whether on the field, in their career or in the community—while connecting their success back to their Ironmen roots.

This week’s Iron Icon is Tye Niekamp—the college junior just earned Missouri Valley Football’s Defensive Player of the Week after racking up a career-high 14 tackles, 10 of them solo, plus two tackles for loss in the Illinois State Redbird’s win over Eastern Illinois.

The Inkspot spoke with Niekamp’s former head coach, Mr. Jason Drengwitz, about the Community graduate’s achievements.

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