'SHE'S THE BEST': Amy Steel Inspires, Instills Perseverance in Three Bobcat Football Players

BOZEMAN, Mont. (May 6, 2026) – Just under 30 seconds remained in the first half of the 2025 NCAA Division I Championship football game when Montana State's Dane Steel caught a pass from Justin Lamson near the visiting sideline. The ensuing run looked more like a military-grade obstacle course than a football throw-catch-and-run.

Steel caught the pass at the Illinois State 23, pivoted inside, away from the Redbirds defender in coverage, and sprinted toward the end zone. At the 10-yard-line he hurdled a defender, and seven yards later he shed another tackler. Teammate Julius Davis nudged him into the end zone for a crucial score 18 seconds before halftime. The Bobcats won the national championship 35-34 in overtime.

"I didn't think I'd still be talking about that play four months later," he laughed about one of the iconic plays in Bobcat football history.

There are many moments, large and small, public and private, that display the persistence and perseverance of the Steel brothers from Sheridan, Wyoming. Dane and his older brothers, Coy and Brock, have each left lasting legacies in the Bobcat football program through signature plays and a spirit of toughness and perseverance. And one woman's fingerprints are all over all of them.

"Amy is unbelievable," Montana State head football coach Brent Vigen said of Amy Steel, who raised the three Bobcat football players and her daughter Talia after their father Mike's tragic death in a boating accident in 2008. "She's no-nonsense, raising those boys and their sister. She's independent and she just did an incredible job."

But none of that was predestined.

'A HORRIBLE, HORRIBLE THING'

Mike Steel and Amy Jordan grew up in Sheridan, Wyoming. They each played sports at Sheridan High, where they began dating. They followed their own paths after high school but, in 1998 they married and after finishing their studies at the University of Wyoming returned to their hometown to raise a family.

By the summer of 2008 they had four young children – Coy was nine, Talia seven, Brock five and Dane three. The two older children already showed a serious interest in sports, while the younger boys were finding their footing, as well.

Then, on July 16, 2008, everything changed. Mike died in a tragic boating accident on the Tongue River Reservoir northeast of Sheridan. "It was a horrible, horrible thing," said Tim Daniels, a teacher at Sheridan High and long-time resident of the community. "The way it happened, for the kids and Amy to have no closure, no chance to say goodbye, was so hard."

When the conversation turns to the resilience and toughness of each of Amy and Mike Steel's four children, it begins in the summer of 2008. "I haven't lost a father so I can't say this for certain," said MSU Director of Strength Training for Football Sean Herrin, who has worked with each of the three throughout their time at MSU, "but I would have to say that going through that probably forced some of that on them."

Coy Steel calls it "a pretty simple answer" when asked about that tragedy's lasting effects. "The question was where we get our perseverance or toughness. We didn't really have a choice. Those were the cards we were dealt. You learn it, you learn how to get through, or you let it be something that lasts and keeps you down. The example my mom set for us from that point forward is that marker or reference as far as toughness goes. Being able to persevere, as little as we were, makes a lot of other things seem pretty routine."

Vigen, who coached Coy Steel for two seasons and recruited Brock and Dane to MSU, cited Amy's success in framing her family's future. "With the tragedy they went through at a young age," he said, "they didn't let that define them. Amy did an amazing job with that."

Jeff Mowry coached each of the three Steel brothers at Sheridan High and said their mother's determination to move beyond those difficult circumstances is the family's defining characteristic. "Amy's awesome," he said. "From a very early time in her life she became a single mom, unfortunately, and was challenged to raise four kids. I think it's one of those things you don't know how successful you're going to be, and I'm sure at times she had some real struggles, but when you see what her four kids have done and become, what kind of people they are, boy, she's done a good job."

'A BIG SPREADSHEET'
The logistical issues of raising four active, athletic children began immediately, but the town of Sheridan responded. "Credit that community," Vigen said. "I think it has meant a lot to them, and they have meant a lot to that town. I don't know that you see that a lot, where a community surrounded the family and helped Amy raise those kids."

Traversing the region for sporting events was "what our weekends turned into," Coy said. "We played not just football, but we were all three-sport athletes, our sister included. The weekends were always football, baseball, basketball."

"There were times when Brock might be playing in Rapid City and Coy might be in Denver, Talia's somewhere in Wyoming," Dane Steel said. "We were just all over the place, and I think my mom did such a good job of just getting us all there and usually getting herself somewhere to watch. The amount of hours that she put in will be something that I never understand."

Brock Steel said he can't recall a moment that his hometown wasn't there when his family needed help. "It's been a huge impact on my life," he said. "The Sheridan community and the community around my family in general has been amazing. From a very young age, everybody I've ever known has told me that they'd do anything to help my family. And they've done that."

Aside from friends and extended family, Amy Steel found one thing supremely helpful. "A big spreadsheet," she laughed. "This kid has to get to this spot at this time, that kid has to get (somewhere else). Every single day, it was (possible because of) the help of lots and lots of people around our community. Our community is fantastic. A lot of people pitched in and gave rides all over the place. The list of amazing friends and coaches (who helped) is long."

Not only did all four children star in certain sports, but they each participated in multiple sports. Talia excelled in soccer, and the boys played "basically everything other than basketball," Daniels said, referencing the challenges their height presented. Coy Steel starred on the diamond as well as the gridiron, and Dane and Brock also excelled as wrestlers.

Amy admits that "soccer is my favorite" sport, but she never pressured her sons to stay on the pitch. "Brock and Coy quit playing soccer when they started playing Legion baseball so I would complain to them about that," she said with a laugh. "But I like it all, and if they're happy playing I'm happy watching."

It didn't take long for one of the discouraging elements of sports to rear up, and it began with Talia Steel. "Talia was really young when she first tore her ACL," Amy said, "so it was a lesson we all learned together when they were young."

Talia suffered multiple ACL surgeries, and all three boys dealt with various injuries through the years. But that never led the family away from sports. "Every single ACL that was torn, all the injuries, they were still on the team," she said. "As soon as they could move on their own they were back at practice and on the sidelines."

That process offered teaching points, and also served as proof of lessons learned. "I think it was just how our family did it," Amy said. "It wasn't an option to not work your buns off (to recover from injuries). There wasn't a lot of 'I can't do that.' It was, 'I am going to do it.' With all the injuries there was a lot of space for there to be defeat and to feel sorry about it, to feel sad or whatever. And it's true, it all happened. But we tried not to spend a ton of time with that. You get dealt the hand you're dealt, and you have to make the most of it."

And always, they had family and friends to prop them up when needed. "We were really fortunate that our family had a lot of awesome resources around us," Coy said. "Friends and extended family jumped in to support us. That was pivotal. Generally, it was the support we got from people in our community, our family, and our mom being awesome through it all. It's a pretty crazy and impressive deal."

'MY LEAST FAVORITE PLAY EVER'
Coy was the first of the four to enroll at Montana State, joining Jeff Choate's program in the fall of 2017 as a preferred walk-on, redshirting in his initial season. "Coy had torn an ACL in high school and was undersized," said BJ Robertson, head coach Jeff Choate's special teams coordinator and Steel's primary recruiter.

"I met his high school coach Don Julian when he coached for Joe Glenn at Wyoming," Robertson recalled. "Coach Julian said that Coy is the toughest and most competitive kid he had ever had, and that he would come in and push our wide receiver group with his competitiveness. (MSU receivers coach) Matt Miller met with Coy and his mom and also believed in him, and Coy connected with Matt, so we were able to get him to walk on."

In 2018 Coy Steel found his way onto the field on special teams. He caught his first pass in a playoff win over Incarnate Word that fall and by 2019 had worked his way into the rotation at receiver. Long before then, though, he had caught the coaching staff's eye. "He came in and right away that summer (of 2017) he blew everyone out of the water in the conditioning tests, even Kevin Kassis," according to Robertson. "He made everyone take notice, and look at themselves and how hard they were working."

The last decade or so of Bobcat football is littered with amazing, defining moments registered by the Steel brothers. The first came on a cold, dreary day in late September of 2019. The Cats hosted Northern Arizona, and MSU fell behind 21-0 in the game's first 20 minutes. Travis Jonsen pushed MSU into the scoring column with just under three minutes remaining in the first half on a 14-yard run. The Bobcats forced a three-and-out, and then quarterback Tucker Rovig and Coy Steel turned the game around.

On first-and-10 from the NAU 49, Rovig found Coy Steel over the middle. "We had a post safety (defensively) and Coy was in the slot and I knew he was going to be the number one guy as long as the safety didn't favor his side," Rovig recalls. "As soon as the snap the safety dropped straight back and I knew I had Coy. What I didn't expect was for the safety to trigger as fast as he did and for the corner to come up over the top."

Steel made the catch and turned upfield, and at about the 20 he took a hit from two Lumberjack defenders, one on each side. "Coach Miller always used to talk about physics taking over and if you get hit on both sides at the same time then you'll be fine. I remember vividly after I got hit and I was still standing, just thinking about him saying that, so I finished and ran into the end zone."

But Steel wasn't fine. The collision had collapsed a lung, and he dropped as soon as he reached the end zone. "I knew I was in trouble because I couldn't breathe," he said.

Amy Steel will never forget the panic that shot through her. "That was horrible," she said. "That was my least favorite play ever."

Rovig remembers thinking something entirely different. "I thought it was an incompletion with how violent the hit was. The last thing I expected was for him to bounce off the safety and corner and run it in for a touchdown."

"I remember my mom was freaking out because he got to the end zone and just collapsed," Dane said. "That was before the BAC so we were standing in the end zone by the gates, and we walked with her along the bleachers there and came down by the locker room. And Coy comes out and just says, 'Go back up in the stands.'"

Rovig's experience was much the same. "I remember running down the field to celebrate and seeing him drop in the end zone. Coy was no doubt one of the toughest guys I ever played with, and that play exemplified it."

His penchant for big plays and for persevering through difficult moments emerged again in 2021 when the Bobcats faced a similar scenario at Portland State. MSU trailed 10-9 in the third quarter, struggling to get the offense into gear in general and specifically with field position. With nine-and-a-half minutes to play in the third quarter, Coy Steel fielded a PSU punt and returned it 45 yards to the Vikings 18-yard-line.

The end of the play ended Steel's season. He had torn his patella tendon. "If I was a little faster I would have scored," Coy Steel said, his dry sense of humor on full display.

"Thinking back on Coy's career," Vigen said, "he had a punt return against Portland State in 2021 that turned the course of that game. It says a lot about him because he just kept fighting."

Steel returned for the final six games of his senior season in 2022, catching three passes, all in the FCS Playoffs. He also registered six tackles, again starring on special teams.

According to Mowry, Coy Steel "is one of the toughest kids you'll ever meet, and there's only one person you can credit that to, and that's his mom, Amy."

'HE BECAME ANOTHER COACH'
Some sports injuries come at a time that is convenient for recovery. Brock Steel played through injuries late in the 2025 season but remained a key member of MSU's special teams and contributed through the December playoff run. After off-season surgery and spring drills, "I'm excited to get back for this last fall."

But that's not always the case, and in one of the cruel ironies that sports occasionally delivers, he lost his senior season of football at Sheridan High School to an ACL injury suffered during a summer camp at Bobcat Stadium. "It was pretty devastating," he said.

The injury kept him off the field, but not off the sideline. "Many guys wouldn't spend time with the team or would go do something else until game day," Mowry said, "but he was in the front row of everything. He would still lead team meetings, player meetings, he would still lead conversations, he became another coach for us."

Brock Steel knew from example how to respond. "I think it's just been instilled in us from my mom," he said. "She's the toughest person I know, and seeing how she has persevered through some of the things that she's gone through in her life, raising the four of us by herself and I think she's done a pretty good job of that, so seeing how things could always be worse and knowing that perseverance pays off. I think she passed that on to Coy, maybe Coy passes it on to Talia and so on and so forth down the line."

Still, the magnitude of a high school senior finding a way to help after losing his final season was not lost on Mowry. "Here is an 18-year old young man who became another coach for us," Mowry said. "In fact, on the sidelines he wore a headset and would help us signal plays in. He couldn't participate because of his knee, but he found a role as an extension of our coaching staff and was still a leader in our locker room and in everything we did. All of those same characteristics that Coy had shown, Brock has those same ones."

The person who helped ensure that Brock got to every team function, practice and game also took notice. "I think his coaches would tell you that he was a huge part of the team," Amy said, "if not playing an even bigger role than if he hadn't been hurt because he coached."

Brock Steel's path to the Bobcat program wasn't direct. After missing his senior season "the conversations were there, but fairly limited," he said. Preliminary discussions with Robertson evolved into conversations with Vigen that were "mostly through Coy, saying that I wanted to play college football but didn't necessarily have the stats and stuff coming out of my senior year to be highly recruited."

MSU eventually offered Brock Steel a walk-on roster spot to join the team after his first semester on campus, so "I decided that's what I wanted to try to do. So I showed up for school and (Vigen) called when I was moving into the dorms and basically said that we had some guys quit and there's a spot open if you want it. I still wasn't quite healthy, I hadn't played football (as a senior), hadn't really wrestled, and I missed all of fall camp and still wasn't quite healthy so I wasn't able to fully participate. But I came out the next week and just hopped in."

Fast forward to 2024, when Brock Steel's third season at MSU ended after three games because of injury. "He went through that year where he was hurt and he still was in the front row of every special teams meeting," Vigen said. "He was going to know exactly what he had to do and he was going to do it to the best of his ability, and I think that's the mark of all three brothers."

Brock Steel says it comes naturally. "It's just something that I think our family tries to be about," he said. "We recognize that hard work works and I think that it's just something that was instilled in us from a young age and we've just kind of chosen to embody it as we've grown older."

'IT'S ALL I'VE REALLY KNOWN'
While the others in his family dealt more directly with the trauma of Mike Steel's death, Dane was young enough, at just three years old, that growing up without his father is "all I've really known. For me at such a young age, I don't really remember a lot. I always say that Coy and Talia and Brock went through so much more than I did because they had to figure it out on their own, and I was like, 'OK, this is just how it is.'

"Coy kind of became a father figure to me as I grew up," Dane Steel said, "and Brock slowly took over that role, too. I think that's why those two are the way they are, because they had to do that by themselves and I was lucky enough to have them."

That doesn't mean Dane Steel was able to coast through life with three older siblings who were growing up in a way that demanded resilience and toughness. "What I remember," Dane Steel says with a laugh about growing up with two older brothers, "is just getting beat up all the time. Coy and Brock, I thought those guys were jerks when I was little. But come to think of it now, they were just toughening me up."

Even his sister "got in on it," Dane Steel recalls. "I used to think she was a jerk at times, too, because she'd dress me up in her clothes when I was little and I'd start crying. But she's just like Coy and Brock, one of the toughest people I know with all the stuff she's been through. She's a good athlete and an awesome person."

The memory of Talia Steel's long-ago aspirations as a fashion designer makes Amy laugh, as well. "She had a lot of princess dresses that Brock and Dane wore against their will," she said. "Very much against their will."

Dane Steel had a tremendous freshman campaign for the Bobcats in 2025, rising from special teams prospect to receiving prodigy. He attained that status long before his championship game heroics. He finished the campaign with 39 catches, second-most all-time among Bobcat freshmen, for 501 yards, third on the MSU freshman list.

"He's a really good receiver," Vigen said, "a really good football player." His public display of grit and determination on the championship game touchdown stand as a nice bookend to all the hours and years of perseverance required of everyone in the Steel family.

For Dane and Coy, in particular, probably the most difficult obstacle to overcome was their height. Coy's official roster height was 5-8, while Dane is listed at 5-10. "I think there's a lot of places that didn't bat an eye at me because of it," Dane Steel said. "Like Wyoming. I didn't have a visit, didn't get a preferred walk-on (offer), didn't get anything. And I think that's based on size. Or at least I hope it was solely on size."

"Coy and Dane have had to overcome hearing, 'You're not big enough,'" Daniels said. "But they just keep going."

'IT WAS CERTAINLY ALWAYS THERE'
One thing none of the Steels had to overcome was a lack of desire or an unwillingness to work hard, and the mental makeup was on display in the family long before it was a family. Mike Steel excelled in several sports at Sheridan High, then competed in football and baseball at NCAA Division III Carleton College in Minnesota.

"Their dad played football and baseball in college," Amy said. "I lived out there Mike's last two years of school (and) I ended up graduating from Mankato State. And then we went to grad school at Laramie," where Mike Steel earned his law degree. Amy earned her master's degree and is a speech therapist at the elementary school level in Sheridan.

"He was a great athlete," Daniels said of Mike Steel, "and very humble. And they were great parents. You could talk to them and there was never any gloating or bragging about their kids for all their accomplishments. You can imagine what kind of dad he was by the boys he raised."

The time spent in Minnesota by both the Steel parents left deep imprints, and led Amy to temporarily relocate to the Twin Cities for a few months after her husband's passing. "There was one summer that we lived in Minnesota," Amy said, "and I thought that wouldn't be so bad."

She had made friends with the family of one of Mike's former Carleton teammates with children that aligned in age with Coy and Talia. "We had a couple friends, but not like Sheridan, and it was a zoo. It was chaos. I could not get everybody where they needed to be."

The return to Sheridan didn't sever ties to that part of their lives. "I have so many of my dad's best friends that I still talk to today," Dane said. "Whatever I need, there's so many people I can call."

Commitment to family remains ingrained in the Steels' every-day life. "My mom, Grandma Jan, has been such a huge help," Amy says, noting that she remains her travel partner on many Bobcat football road trips.

Bozeman and Montana State have also offered a place for that connection to strengthen. "Until Coy went there, I'd only been to Bozeman a handful of times," Amy said. "So it's not like we said from the beginning, 'That's the place.' Of course, football is such an enormous part of (her sons' lives). We got to know the people, and it was obviously so much fun. (Coy) found his place, so that made it easier (for the others to follow)."

As the third of the four Steel children to matriculate to Bozeman, Brock Steel appreciates the opportunity. "Being able to be around each other and grow as a family has been awesome," he said. "And I don't take any of it for granted."

But there was another factor. "They really like each other," Amy said with a laugh. "Coy and Talia would hang out when she was a freshman, but a lot of his teammates didn't know he had a sister for years." Dane recalls trips to Bozeman to watch Coy play and travel plans allowed "I'd get to stay with Coy and Troy (Andersen) and those guys at their house," and Brock treasures the years he's spent playing with his brothers. "Inspiring is the word I'd use" to describe Coy, adding that he's realized "just how fortunate I am."

The four Steel children learned to lean on each other through the years and never shied away from teaching and learning difficult lessons. "I remember Dane coming to our little kids camp and Coy was helping work," Robertson recalled. "Dane was crying because his team got beat and Coy went and asked what he was crying about. Dane said he got beat, and Coy said he couldn't cry unless he had done everything he could for his team to win. Dane admitted he could have done a few things better or maybe even given more effort, so Coy told him to stop crying."

The life lessons learned and taught, the difficult circumstances navigated, the football pain and glory, all lead back to the question of whether toughness and resilience and perseverance can be learned, or if they are innate characteristics. Amy's answer is simple. "I think it's a combination, probably," she said. "It was certainly always there before Mike died. That was definitely his personality, too."

'SHE'S THE BEST'
Whether the "unusual and really difficult circumstances," as Amy calls life after Mike's tragic death, created or drew out the traits everyone around them sees in their children, the four have thrived in the intervening years. Coy is in medical school at the University of Utah, and after time spent "traveling all over the world," as Brock says, Talia is preparing for law school. Brock graduated from MSU on Friday with degrees in political science and criminology and also has designs on law school. Dane enters his third year as a civil engineering major in the fall.

In the time leading to Mother's Day 2026, Amy's impact on her four children is clear. "She's fantastic, she's always there for her kids, always there for everybody," Daniels said. "Her boys had so many accolades, her family, and you'd never know it. She's so humble."

"Amy is an awesome person, just like her kids," Mowry adds. "A lot of (their success) is a credit to Amy in how she raised those kids."

All three of the Steel brothers represent the best of Bobcat football, said Herrin. "We want our guys to be great men of character and to be tough physically and mentally, to be resilient. We want guys who can lead, guys who aren't afraid to call somebody out, guys who aren't afraid to not be liked because they're fighting for what they believe is right. And those three exemplify all of those things."

Brock Steel said committing to achieving academically has always been something his mother emphasized. "We talked about that a lot growing up," he said. "I didn't always enjoy school when I was younger, and sometimes I still don't, but she knows what we're capable of and held us to a standard in school as well as in athletics that anything we do, we do well."

Amy admits that football isn't her passion. "I don't watch other football games" when her sons aren't playing, "I can tell you that," she said. Learning the game is an ongoing process. "She'll sit there and listen as we try to explain it to her," Coy says. "Now and again, Brock and Dane will give her a hint of game plan stuff so she can watch what's happening."

"Football is very stressful," she laughs, "and even at the spring game some of the other moms and I were counting down the minutes until it was over with. It's nice (when the season ends) and you can stop freaking out for however many hours a game lasts. Injuries are tough."

Dane Steel is thankful for the lessons his mother has taught him. "I know it sounds repetitive, but I just think the toughness side of it, there's not really any way around that. She's way tougher than Brock or Talia or Coy or I ever will be, and talk about perseverance. She's the perfect example of that."

"I'm excited for Mother's Day," Brock says, and Coy adds a sentiment about Amy that her three sons each expressed using the same words.

"She's the best."

#GoCatsGo

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'SHE'S THE BEST': Amy Steel Inspires, Instills Perseverance in Three Bobcat Football Players

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Julius Davis

Travis Jonsen

Kevin Kassis

Justin Lamson

Tucker Rovig

Brock Steel

Coy Steel

Dane Steel

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'SHE'S THE BEST': Amy Steel Inspires, Instills Perseverance in Three Bobcat Football Players

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Coy Steel

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