Jacob Biesterfeld’s mother and father never got to see him pitch for the Nevada baseball team. But they prepared him for that moment. They prepared him for the rest of his life.
“I saw how they fought day in and day out, and I hold onto the belief that my parents did everything they could to prepare me for this life,” Biesterfeld said. “Of course, every day of my life I wish they were still here. But truthfully, I don’t know if there’s much more they could have taught me. I think they really set me up to succeed in whatever I choose to do, to show unwavering confidence and to never ring the bell.”
Biesterfeld’s mother, Maria, and father, KC, died almost one year apart, colon cancer stealing both of them. Maria passed away Feb. 4, 2021; KC on Feb. 7, 2022, just 11 days before Nevada’s first game this season. Wolf Pack pitching coach Troy Buckley flew to Oregon for KC Biesterfeld’s funeral.
“I felt that it was the responsible and the right thing to do from a program standpoint,” said Buckley, whose team earned a verbal commitment from Biesterfeld in July 2021. “Not necessarily for me exactly. I just represented the program because not everybody was gonna be able to get up there to say goodbyes and support him, and so I felt it was important to do that from his family here. That’s part of what he has here now to move forward.”
Added Biesterfeld: “That was incredible. It was incredible for me and everybody else there. They were all wondering ‘Who’s that man right there?’ I was, like, ‘That’s my coach.’ And they thought that was inspiring, especially at the Division I level. Obviously our coaches care about us, but there is a business aspect to this, and it really showed everybody how much this program supports me. And I love them for that.”
Nevada’s team motto this season is #StandTAL, an acronym for Toughness, Accountability and Loyalty. Given what he’s gone through, Biesterfeld, a right-handed relief pitcher who has appeared in 15 games for Nevada this season, epitomizes it day in and day out.
“I try and be the best teammate that I can and I try to set an example for others,” Biesterfeld said.
Biesterfeld’s college career began at Portland, where he played in 2020. He transferred to Mt. Hood Community College in 2021, playing baseball for the program in his hometown of Gresham, Ore. That’s where he cared for his mother, who was diagnosed with color cancer just 6 months before the disease took her.
“I lost my mother of colon cancer in February 2021, and that was a time where I was actually living at home and I was taking care of her just because she had become completely dependent,” Biesterfeld said. “When I was taking care of her, I was training for the upcoming season I was gonna have at my junior college, Mt. Hood. And unfortunately right before the season started, she passed away and that was definitely a dagger.”
The same thing happened one year later when his father, KC., died on the eve of his next college baseball season. KC had been diagnosed in August 2017 with colon cancer that spread to his liver. When he passed, Biesterfeld was left without both of his parents at age 22. Biesterfeld is now finding a new way of life, taking each day as it passes and inspiring his teammates to #StandTAL.
“You know when life tries to knock you down, you just have to keep going,” Biesterfeld said. “A lot of my teammates ask me, ‘How do you do it on a daily basis?’ I just tell them, ‘One foot in front of the other.’ And I voice how much this team means to me. They’re a great support system down here, and I feel like I could talk to them about anything. I’m really just trying to exemplify what it means to #StandTAL, stay strong and keep going.”
You can watch the full feature on Jacob Biesterfeld below.
