[00:00:14] Speaker A: Hello.
[00:00:15] Speaker B: Welcome to the Roundhouse Podcast with Paul Sullentrop of Wichita State University Strategic Communications. As always, we appreciate your listening. Thanks very much for your time. Our guest today is Steve Rainbolt. Steve is the director of track and field and cross country at Wichita State. He wrapped up 25 years leading the program this spring.
So we're going to look back on those 25 years and bring up some highlights. Steve was hired in August 2000. That was less than a week before the Shockers opened the cross country season. In those 25 years, Wichita State won 35 conference team titles, claimed 296 individual conference titles, 153 NCAA qualifiers and 80 All American awards. Steve earned Midwest Region Coach of the year eight times and is a 28 time conference coach of the year. So we're going to with this disclaimer that we're putting Steve in an impossible decision. He cannot thank and remember everybody who coached for him, competed for him, all those kind of things. Sometimes coaches dislike these things because being asked to pick favorites can be a difficult thing.
So naming names, however, is good for the listeners. So if you are a former Shocker athlete or coach, know that Steve loves you. He appreciates your contributions academically and athletically to the program. And if you're not mentioned today, the fault is mine.
Okay, Steve, you coached Kent State from 96 to 2000.
Take us back to coming to Wichita State. Why did you end up here?
[00:01:45] Speaker A: Well, so you know, I competed here as a 13 year old in the state Junior Olympics and I competed here all through high school at state track. And back in the day Herm Wilson had those big USTFF meets and I competed here all through college in those big meets, competed here as a post collegian in a USTFF decathlon and so loved Wichita State. And also the thought of being involved with state track was meaningful to me.
I knew that I would end up in some sort of a leadership role with the state track meet. And that meant a lot to me to think in terms of giving back to the athletes and coaches in the state of Kansas.
Turned out that two years after I got here, we changed our NCAA qualifying procedure to get to the NCAA meet. And I've been gone every year since during state track to the first round of the ncaa. But state track was a significant thing. You know, this was a fairly lateral move for me professionally from Kent State to here. Very similar programs, similar conferences, similar budget, similar athletes, and pretty much a very, very similar program.
But that state track piece was important to me and also I'm a Kansan.
I knew that here I would be two and a half hours from family in Kansas City and in Ohio I was 15 hours from family and I loved Kent State. But those were enough of a draw to cause me to come here.
So that was significant. Jim Schous hired me and he was an impressive guy and so he certainly sold me on the idea of this job and I'm really thankful. This has been a wonderful place. This has been a wonderful job for 25 years.
[00:03:38] Speaker B: And you grew up in Kansas City and attended one of the Shawnee Mission.
[00:03:41] Speaker A: Shawnee Mission East High School and then went to KU and my dad did a lot of work in Wichita.
I was familiar with Wichita all the way through, mostly because of my own track and field, but sort of a connection with Wichita the whole time I was growing up.
[00:03:58] Speaker B: When did you decide coaching was your career path?
[00:04:00] Speaker A: It's interesting.
I've had friends tell me that they have recollection of me talking about that as a junior high kid. I have loved coaching and am thankful that I've been successful, but I am keenly aware of my weaknesses. I would like to think I've got some strengths but I don't know if I would have flourished in a lot of other jobs because of a lazy streak, whatever you want to call it.
And coaching gets me up out of the bed every morning and it's exciting and I love track and field and I love working with the athletes. And so it has been a career path that has been, that has generated enthusiasm and daily spirit and excitement for me. And so it's been great. But I knew that from literally junior high or high school I was thinking about and talking about wanting to be a coach.
[00:04:55] Speaker B: Who do you regard as your coaching mentors?
[00:04:58] Speaker A: Well, my high school coaches, Carl England was the head coach there at Shawnee, Mitch and East and Chuck Soulzin was the assistant coach who helped me with the high jump. And both those guys were super critical to me and as a young guy and then you know, at KU, Coach Pepin, who ended up being the 42 year coach at Nebraska but then also the head coach. So Coach Pepin was the assistant coach, he recruited me, he coached me. But Coach Timmons, who started out right here in Wichita, Wichita East High School and is famous for having Coach Jim Ryan was the head coach.
Those are two U.S. track coaches association hall of Fame coaches that were on the staff at Kansas while I was on the team there.
And I certainly think of both of those guys as super important in my development as an athlete and Coach, depth.
[00:05:52] Speaker B: And balance, I guess define your teams at Wichita State. How did you come up with that philosophy, that method for building a team? Why is that important to you?
[00:06:03] Speaker A: I would go back to the four guys that I just mentioned, certainly the two KU coaches. Depth and balance, complete team, overall program keep coming at you. Build a juggernaut that the other teams are just going to think, when will Wichita State give us a break? And the answer is our objective will be to never give you a break. We want to have throwers and distance runners and sprinters and hurdlers and jumpers, pole vaulters, multi event athletes. We want to be a complete team. And right now, this year we got second at the American Athletic Conference championship. And I'm really proud that we scored in 20 of the 21 events. We did not have an athlete score in the 400 meters, but there are 21 events in track and field and we scored in 20 of them. So a complete team is a hallmark of what we always try to do. Balance and depth is exactly right.
[00:06:57] Speaker B: Thoreaus coach John Hetzendorf has also been here 25 years. He was your first hire, came with you from Kent State.
Sprints and hurdles coach John Wise has been here 19 years. He also coached with you at Kent State. Jumps Coach Heidi Benton 19 seasons as well. She's a former Shocker Conference champion in the jumps. Distance coach Kirk Hunter has been here 16 years. We should mention Pat Wilson who passed away in 2023, also a former Shocker athlete. He was an assistant coach on your staff in the pole vault for 16 years. Several really impressive assistant coaches in other areas. I guess the distance guys would stand out with Mark Burns and Randy Hassenbank. So there's a lot of continuity, a lot of experience in that assistant coaching staff. How has that helped this program?
[00:07:39] Speaker A: Well, I also want to mention Jenny Ashcroft. She's the associate head coach at the University of Michigan right now and was just a special person.
And another one would be Terry Van Laningham, who was one of my other first hires right around the time that I hired Dorff. And then Wayne angel was also our first distance coach.
So that whole group has been incredible. I am super proud of the fact that there's just you're not going to find, I don't know if you'd find anywhere in the nation, coaching staff that's been together like Dorf and Heidi and Kirk and I have been and Wise that group. To be five coaches together for as long as we have is unique and special. And so I'm really Proud of that. And I have heard myself many times say, like I did a minute ago, that I am keenly aware of my weaknesses, but one strength that I've demonstrated is that I've hired a heck of a staff that's really been a wonderful coaching staff, no doubt.
[00:08:36] Speaker B: So you meet with former Shocker athletic director Jim Schoust in the summer of 2000. He's well known, made a lot of really strong hires at this university.
What was your blueprint? What was that meeting? How did you convince him that you had an idea about how to build Shocker track and field?
[00:08:52] Speaker A: You know, we'd been successful at Kent and had had a complete team. We'd had the same philosophy at Kent State, and we had just won the Mid American championship in track and field, and that was a heck of an accomplishment. The Mid American had Eastern Michigan and Western Michigan, and that was a tough league to win. And just like the Valley, Missouri Valley was a tough league to win with Northern Iowa and Indiana State and Illinois State and Southern Illinois, that league was a tough league to win. And this American has been a very tough league to win, no doubt.
But anyway, so I think that that was an impressive check mark on my resume. And so Jim, I think, just saw that evidence, and then we talked and Jim and I hit it off. You know, he's a energetic and enthusiastic guy and really promoted the job that he felt like we could, the job that I would have and the situation that we would benefit from. And he wanted to grow the program and everything sounded pretty good. Now, you got to remember, I'm visiting what I'll refer to as Third World country, old Henry Levitt Arena. And of course, Cessna Stadium was old then, and. But, you know, I didn't think too much about that. I was impressed with Henry Levitt arena because it was sort of historic, you know, and I like that stuff. But looking back after Jim did the Roundhouse Renaissance, it sure is nicer. It's way nicer and still feels new to me. And it's, heck, 22 years old or whatever it is. And.
But that. But old.
Old Henry Levitt Arena. I mean, we literally were duct taping the windows, and Dorf would come in in the morning and there'd be snow on his desk because the wind had blown the snow right through the window. You know, cracks in the window or whatever, and in the seals. And it was a. It was plenty of.
Not a very impressive place at the time until Jim was able to pull off that Koch Arena. Charles Koch Arena, Roundhouse Renaissance. And man What a spectacular.
I don't know, what would you say? Refurbishing of the entire athletic department.
And he's laying out that vision for me in the interview.
And another thing was he lays out, what do you call it, a blueprint of the old, of the new plan. And the track coach's office is going to be the corner office up there overlooking the throws field. And I can tell you at the time I thought, that's not the basketball coach's office. I mean, how on earth is the track coach rate?
Because it's simply a nicer spot than where the basketball coach was. To this day, the basketball coach is looking underneath the rusty side of Cessna Stadium. And the corner office over there was just a spectacular spot. People would say, well, you've got the best office on campus.
And then I moved from there to the next best office in campus overlooking Cessna Stadium track. But anyway, my point is that that raised my eyebrows when he rolled out that blueprint and I went, son of a gun, that'll be a nice spot for track coach. Anyway, it sounded like a really good job. You know, he said things about the safety of the campus because Wichita State has a very safe campus. And he was proud of that and talked about Wichita and 300 days a year of Sunshine. You know, Jim was a guy that would reel off statistics to you of cool things. And, you know, Wichita State had unbelievable attendance at men's basketball games. It was. The community of Wichita was really supportive of the Shockers.
So all that stuff played together. And of course, for me, also coming home, coming back to Kansas and like I said previously, that state track meet was important to me and it was not a tough sell.
[00:12:52] Speaker B: Yeah. So in 2000, then Henry Levitt arena would have been near the end of its life. It was not in great shape. That was a big part of Jim's job. And president Don Beggs and by. I think they started the renovation and the expansion in 02 and started playing volleyball and basketball in 03. And that was definitely a landmark of Jim Schouse's tenure here. No doubt.
So the Wichita Eagle. Wichita Eagle reporter Adam Knapp reported your hiring in August 2000. You were unavailable for comment. Is that the only time in your career you've turned down a chance to comment on anything, any subject?
[00:13:30] Speaker A: I don't know. Maybe so. I don't remember that I was unavailable, available for comment. But maybe at the time, things were so crazy right there in August trying to get moved. I wasn't aware that there was an article that highlighted my hiring that I was unavailable for comment. I will tell you that my recollection a couple of things. Scott Noble was a significant guy that Brad Pittman ended up replacing. And I arrive here and within 24 hours, he and I are heading out to the cross country course to set up the cross country course in preparation for the.
For the Gold Classic, which then I decided to name the JK Gold Classic in honor of my predecessor, John Cornelson.
And then John Hetzendorf drives from.
He takes this job site unseen. He'd never been to Wichita. Drives from Pennsylvania at home to Wichita. And before he ever came to the campus, we had him out on the cross country course, helping us paint the cross country course and get it ready for a cross country race. So Dorf came into town late one evening. We had a hotel room for him, and the next morning, pick him up, take him out to the cross country course. And Noble and I and Dorf were out there working on the cross country course. So that was our start.
[00:14:44] Speaker B: Give me one sentence on all American decathlete Hunter Vieth.
[00:14:48] Speaker A: Oh, certainly one of the best athletes. I mean, let's go down and have an adult beverage and talk about the greatest athletes in the history of Wichita State athletics in any sport, men or women.
And other than Alefine Tuliamuk and maybe Inars Tuperitis, I'll take Hunter Vieth and I'll have stats that'll win that contest, that'll win that discussion. Because he could do anything. He was just a special, special athlete and a wonderful competitor.
And it was really, really special to see him develop athletically.
[00:15:25] Speaker B: One sentence on sprinter Aldeia Moore, seven time Missouri Valley Conference champion.
[00:15:30] Speaker A: Just an incredible young woman who was quiet and unassuming and tried to act like, really and truly tried in the recruiting process to act like.
Track was not primary to her, it was academics. And I'm sure that that was truthful. But she was special, man. She was a warrior when it came time to compete.
[00:15:53] Speaker B: But.
[00:15:54] Speaker A: And it turned out that if she could figure out how to triple jump and help the team, then she wanted to help the team if she could long jump. You know, it was just the 100 and the 200 out of high school.
And because of literally training activities like plyometrics, I went, you know, Adacia, have you ever tried the triple jump? You look fabulous on those drills. I'll try.
And she would score in the top three in the conference. She was just a special athlete. And I don't know what did she win 10 or 11 conference titles. She was really special and just an unbelievably wonderful girl. So.
And you know, she was battling to break her mom's school records at Wichita State. I love that stuff. I thought that was really cool. And she did it. And so having Audacia on the team was certainly one of the special, special athletes ever.
[00:16:44] Speaker B: Adacia went to Wichita Heights and I remember that. That's correct, yes. You mentioned her mother. She was also an excellent, excellent sprinter here at Wichita State. I knew one sentence was aspirational, trying to get on this plane in under two hours. So I'm gonna, we're gonna, we're gonna try again.
1999, Wichita State finished sixth in the 17 Missouri Valley Conference with 31 points. 2002, WSU wins its first MVC outdoor title since 94. That's on the men's side. 2003, the Shockers almost double the point total of second place UNI. On the women's side, they finished third in 99, second in 2002, which was their highest finish as an MVC member.
Women win their first Valley title in 04. How did you get this turned around so quickly?
[00:17:33] Speaker A: Well, you know, a one word answer that you want me to be brief. A one word answer to that is recruiting, I suppose.
You know, my college coach was Gary Pepin. He was my head coach at Nebraska. And he, he was the guy that told me a recruiter will beat a coach every time. The trick is to be a good coach and a good recruiter. If you can recruit some good athletes and then coach them up, then you've got something.
But we worked hard at the recruiting. We really, really worked hard at the recruiting and brought in some really nice athletes. I say nice athletes because we weren't bringing in blue chip world beaters, but we were bringing in good athletes who had potential and then coaching them up. And the 2003 team there at Southern Illinois that just about that pretty much doubled the score on the second place team, I believe it was 198 and a half to 102. So I consider that doubling the score on the second place team. That was a special group. That was an incredibly special group.
That was a great team. I think we had eight men and one woman at the NCAA championships that year.
That 2003 year was really special. Our guys ran 39, four in the four by one. It was just a wonderful year of track and field at Wichita State. So I'm glad you mentioned that group because that was really special. And then on the women, you know, we won both in 04. @ Illinois State.
And that was the women's first championship. And Heidi Yost Benton was on that team, and Lindsey Eck was on that team. And I could go on right on down the list. But like you said previously, it's a impossible to name them all, but that was a wonderful team. And to win that women's title meant the world. It was the first women's title in the history of the school in track and field.
There had been cross country championships in women, but not track. And so that was a wonderful day in my time at Wichita State to win both.
[00:19:28] Speaker B: So the early days, recruiting, building the roster. Who are a few athletes that you look back on, say that person was just absolutely pivotal, crucial. That really elevated us.
[00:19:40] Speaker A: Well, Bruce Swann. Bruce swan was not only a spectacular athlete in the sprints, but a spiritual leader on the team that just. You couldn't imagine the spirit that he brought to the team. And then Lindsay Eck was a very special athlete on that 04 team. Heidi Yost was a very special athlete that I could go on and on talking about her, just how aggressive she was coming down the Runway in an aggressive, competitive mindset in her track and field. It meant the world to her. She wanted to win.
So then there's like, Alison berry, who wins four consecutive javelin titles, and Brooke demo, who's now the pole vault coach at Louisville and coached our current pole vault coach, Aliyah fertig. And Brooke was a spiritual leader on that team. She was a leader.
Eating right became the thing to do on our track team because of Brooke demo, Because she promoted nutrition and other athletes bought in so I could go on and on. Micah land was a terrific distance runner back in those early days and is now a booster of ours that is a help to our program. And she and her husband, Justin el Cory, they're wonderful to our program. And Micah was an all american. And oh, my gosh, I could tell stories about Micah Ann, but there was all, you know, well, then of course, Desiree Osborne, before alefine and before Hunter. I would have said that Desiree Osborne was one of the greatest athletes. Well, she still is. But one of the greatest athletes in the history of Wichita state athletics and humble beginnings at little what, oh, Linden, Kansas, if I'm not mistaken, if I said that correctly. And times out of high school that were not recruitable. Not recruitable As a distance runner. As a distance runner. And she. But we needed distance runners. And so we recruited her and basically asked her to walk on. But we need a distance runner so bad. I think we Gave her a small $2,000 scholarship or something. And she ended up fourth in the NCAA in the 5,000 meters and seventh the previous year. And when she got seventh, I thought, well, she's maxed out. There's no way that she can continue getting better. And she did. The next year, fourth ended up being disappointing. Everybody, she included, thought she could battle to win the thing.
And I said, desiree, how did you continue to get better? She said, I really got serious about my nutrition.
So these were some of the athletes. And like you said previously, there's no way that I don't forget people. And there's all sorts of people that I have forgotten. But those are the early years. Then you go to the middle years. And I don't know, I mean, there's all sorts of athletes that I would think of from, let's say, 08 up through, say, 17 in those years and some really special athletes during those times.
[00:22:55] Speaker B: Let's go back and fill in some details for listeners. Bruce Swan was a sprinter. Lindsey Ek, hurdles.
[00:23:00] Speaker A: Hurdles and long jump.
[00:23:02] Speaker B: And long jump. You mentioned Alison Berry, she was javelin. And Desiree Osborne, distance. Distance. Micah Land, steeplechase and distance.
[00:23:09] Speaker A: Yep. All American. Micah, All American in the steeplechase.
[00:23:12] Speaker B: Okay.
How does your background as a high jumper and a decathlete? You were 1977 Big Eight indoor high jump champion. You were an NCAA All American in the decathlon in 1980, competed in the 1980 US Olympic trials in the decathlon. How does that background shape your coaching career?
[00:23:34] Speaker A: So the baseball people that might listen or that would liken being a decathlon athlete to being a catcher to sort of the field general, sort of the jack of all trades. Obviously, a decathlon man is a jack of all trades. You're learning all the events.
At the time, it was an event that I felt like I wanted to try. I was a high jumper, and I got intrigued with the decathlon. Without going into much detail, that's what happened at the time. I didn't really link it to how beneficial it would be in my coaching, but I have a significant understanding and sense for all the events. For the sprints, the hurdles, the jumps, the. The throws, the distance running. I mean, I know about all of it. There's two things that I've never done. I've never run a steeplechase race and I've never thrown the hammer in competition. And otherwise, I pretty much have done all of it. I've never run a 10k on the track, but I've run 10ks in road races. So I know about all of it and have experienced all of it. And I consider that beneficial to me.
I do know, you know, Cliff Revelto, one of my terrific colleagues who's a world class coach that just retired from K State, was not a track athlete, but I don't think it hurt him a bit. He did a great job coaching track and field, but I feel like it helped me, it has helped me to have a background in all of these events and have a sense and to this day there's such thing as neuromuscular firing patterns. And I think that anybody who's ever done sports can remember what it feels like to throw a football or to spike a volleyball or to shoot a jump shot. And for me, I can watch these athletes and I can still feel, and I'm a bloated old man, I can't even remotely close to do it anymore, but I can still feel in my neuromuscular firing patterns, in my musculoskeletal system, I can still feel what it feels like to do what they're doing and I can feel mistakes that the athletes are making in these events and then try to help them figure out how to correct those mistakes. So I feel like it's been hugely beneficial to me.
[00:25:48] Speaker B: One sentence on Alefine Tulliam, a great distance runner, Olympian, you know, she's in.
[00:25:55] Speaker A: Our hall of fame and so I'll leave it at that because I can't keep it to one sentence. She was an unbelievable competitor. You can't fathom the toughness of this human. This was an unbelievably tough human being. And I'm talking about waking up, literally deathly ill on a trip to Boston where the objective was to go and qualify for the NCAA championship.
And sick. Sicker than you would like to talk about. Really sick.
And hearing some devastating news from family back home in Kenya and going to the line and running a personal record that got her to the NCAA championship where she ended up earning a couple more of her first team All American designations.
I'm literally getting phone call. I'm not there. Coach Hunter's there with her getting a phone call, not sure she's gonna be able to run. And she's so sick.
You couldn't stop this girl, you simply couldn't stop her. And so I can't.
I could talk the rest of our podcast about Alefine.
Suffice it to say, one of the toughest humans that I've ever met and one of the most competitive girls you can possibly imagine. Really a joy to work with all.
[00:27:16] Speaker B: American hurdler Shannon Armstrong. One sentence on him.
[00:27:20] Speaker A: Just a fabulous guy. He and I had such a wonderful working relationship.
He got seventh in the ncaa. He was a terrific competitor. And one day we're doing a drill that he and I had worked on and had talked about how beneficial it would be for him for rhythm development in his hurdling. And he says, coach, if I make All American, will you name this drill after me? And I go, absolutely. And so he makes All American. We named the drill after him. To this day we do Shannon Armstrong drills. And those kids don't even realize that I created the Shannon Armstrong name for that drill. I didn't create the drill necessarily, but I named it for us. And so they know we're doing Shannon's today. And then occasionally Shannon will show up at Wichita State. He's a police officer in Overland Park, Kansas City.
And I'll go, hey, you guys, this is Shannon. And they're like, there's a real Shannon. They didn't even, you know, they don't even know. But it's really, really cool that you asked that right this minute because his nephew Jabari is coming to Wichita State and is one of the best hurdlers in the nation as a high school senior and he's going to join our team this fall. So I'm excited for our second round of Armstrong.
[00:28:37] Speaker B: That's a perfect lead in to the history of track and field. The history of shocker. Track and field obviously matter a great deal to you. You've honored former coaches John Cornelson and Herm Wilson by naming meets after them.
You name parts of the cross country course for former runners.
There's an all American wall in the team room.
We talked about the Coughlan cup earlier this morning which honored a former Illinois State coach.
Kind of an all sports for track and field and cross country in the Valley.
Why is the history of all this so meaningful to you?
[00:29:12] Speaker A: Oh, I suppose it's been the way that I have been since I was a young 10 year old when I got into track and field. I've always been intrigued by, you know, I don't want to use the word history, but. But I don't know any other word to use right away. As a 10 year old, 11 year old, 12 year old. I was intrigued with the Olympians, you know, the Bob Mathiases, the Milt Campbell and Bill Toomey that won Olympic championships. And when Dick Fosbury won the high jump, it became a historical event.
I was aware of who the first seven foot high jumper was. I think it was Charles Dumas. I'm struggling to remember now, but back then I knew.
And I've always just paid attention to historical references, and they mean a lot. And then when I went to Shawnee, Mission east high school and ku, man, I was intrigued by the top 10 lists and by the school record boards and by the accomplishments of those athletes, whether they'd won state titles or not, or whether they'd won conference titles or been all American. And so that stuff has just always meant a lot to me.
I don't know that I can answer why, but there's a mystique to me about those types of things, and they mean a lot to me that there's a history of the program and that I love recognizing that historical background.
[00:30:47] Speaker B: People describe your coaching style as positive, encouraging.
I guess you would be regarded as a player's coach. How did you develop that style?
[00:30:59] Speaker A: I literally don't know what else to say besides, I just feel like God wired me that way.
It would have been difficult for me to coach a sport where the expectation. I'll use football and basketball as an example, where the expectation might have been screaming and hollering and cussing. That. That just would have been anathema to. To me as a person. I love having a fun time. I mean, I go out there and I tell those athletes, hey, you guys. I mean, obviously joking around and typically having fun and saying, today is unbelievable. It doesn't get any better than this. It just simply doesn't get any better than this.
After. After this, after college track, it's all downhill from here because this is one of the best days of your life. You're having one of the best days of your life today.
And I'm wanting them to understand how great it is to be a college athlete, to be living out a dream with Wichita State on your jersey, because they've been dreaming of this since they were little children. If they are like I was, I wanted to be a college athlete.
I dreamed of being a college athlete. And I think these athletes do, too. And so I love pointing out to the athletes positive things that, hey, this is awesome. This is great, and so let's enjoy today.
And so, anyway, yes, I've always considered myself an encourager. I believe encouraging is better than discouraging. I'd rather be encouraged than discouraged.
I do understand that there's coaches that come at it from a position of, we're going to beat this guy up and find out how tough he is and find out and help them, then, you know, build Back up or whatever. I'm not sure that I understand all of that philosophy. I believe in encouraging athletes. I just do.
And is it always perfect? No, it's not always perfect. And does it always come off exactly right? No, it doesn't always come off exactly right, but that's always my objective.
[00:33:04] Speaker B: So I asked one of your coaches, former athletes, to kind of describe your coaching style. And this is what was recounted to me. Kind of a conversation between you and an athlete. Let's play track. Let's look at it. Let's go play high jump. Start by jumping over the hurdle. Next time, think about doing this with your arms, then do this. Have fun, jump over something.
Describe that conversation and how that fits into the whole coaching style.
[00:33:30] Speaker A: Well, so I like to think about playtime and I suppose that I've taken that. I heard that European coaches that have been wildly successful in the past would literally start out with little children playing, doing playground activities and beginning to develop and help those little children learn to jump, for instance, and how to set up for a jump, gather for a takeoff by play activities. And so when I'm starting a year, I want to just say, hey, I just want you to high jump. Let's play high jump today. And I just want to watch you and begin to get familiar with what it is that you do. And then I'll begin helping you sort of make some adjustments. And.
And so then another thing I've heard myself describe is if we're going to learn to hurdle initially, if you were running home from school as a child and you came across a bush, you would just hurdle over it. You would just jump over it. You wouldn't think a lot about it. You're running along and you just jump over the bush. And I want you to do that. I don't want you to think a lot about it. I want you to just run and jump over it and then run again and jump over the next one.
And this is especially when I'm teaching someone like in the decathlon and they've never hurdled before how to begin the process of learning to hurdle or begin the process of learning to high jump. And I like that style of trying to help an athlete just kind of begin to get a feel for an event.
So that, yeah, that is my style and I do that and that's the way that I approach it.
[00:35:13] Speaker B: One sentence on all American multi Brianne Borman.
[00:35:18] Speaker A: Really, really wonderful girl. I mean, I enjoyed working with Bree so much. You know, she was the national junior Olympic champion in the heptathlon as a young girl and as like a high school girl.
And she had a sister who was NCAA champion in the javelin two times and was an Olympian at least once. But I think her sister might have been an Olympian twice.
And her family has a significant background in track and field. And it was intimidating to me to recruit Brianne because I was like, dang, man, I hope we can do a good job with this girl whose sister is an Olympian, you know, and who is such a wonderful athlete and comes from a fan. I tell you what, her parents couldn't have been more wonderful people. They were so down to earth and so encouraging to me and so supportive of our program.
And Brianne was coachable and pleasant to work with every step of the way. And I never felt like that she was judging or the family was judging how we were doing things. Compared to maybe some of the, you know, upper level experiences that her sister had had as an Olympian.
It was a joy to work with Brianne Borman and then of course, consummate competitor, just a warrior and really, really into it, deeply into it. If you wanted to know something about what was going on in college heptathlon, Bree knew. She just knew she was a researcher that way.
[00:36:48] Speaker B: She was indoor and outdoor all American in 2017 and part of a great multi group that also would have included Gavin Yetter and Nikki Larch Miller. All three of them went to the national meet in 2017.
[00:36:59] Speaker A: Having those girls together at the NCAA championship was one of the most special memories that I have from my time at Wichita State. Incredible to have three girls, you know, 24 make it. So we had three of them and that was really wonderful. And those were three great girls and they worked well together and I felt like that I worked well with them and it was a special, special deal.
[00:37:21] Speaker B: Another all American, multi Ben Johnson.
[00:37:24] Speaker A: Special guy, man, tough guy and a warrior also. Fun loving, happy, go lucky on the daily, but tougher than nails, hard worker in the weight room and just a beast. I mean, he could literally plow down hurdles and it didn't seem to slow him down any. We would sometimes hit seemingly every single hurdle and just plow him down. But he was, he was just like a horse. He just blew through them. And that's an example in the hurdles, but that was sort of the way he approached things. But he was a literal walk on level athlete who it was between Pittsburgh State football as a walk on ku, join a fraternity or come here and try the decathlon. And not very impressive marks out of high school. He came Here and tried the decathlon and right away was evident that he intended to get good at it.
[00:38:19] Speaker B: I remember he had a football background from Tonganoxy.
[00:38:22] Speaker A: Yeah, that's right, Tonganoxy, Kansas.
[00:38:24] Speaker B: Okay.
How has this program adapted to the transfer portal?
[00:38:31] Speaker A: Oh, it's been minimal for us compared to, I think some of the revenue sports where you turn on the TV and literally every player that you hear has transferred from somewhere on some football game, on a football Saturday or a basketball game.
So compared to that, I feel like it's been minimal. But we've had athletes leave and go on the transfer portal and we've had athletes join us from the transfer portal and have we benefited from it? Yeah, we've had some good athletes come here from the transfer portal. But generally speaking, I'm trying hard to provide these athletes with what I would refer to as a good old fashioned, old school collegiate athletic experience. And the transfer portal doesn't fit into that very well. All of this, you know what, maybe I'll go ahead and refer to as pay for play and the nil and now the revenue share.
That's not traditional, good old fashioned old school college athletics. It is what it is. It's what we're dealing with now. And I'm trying to adapt and get involved with it on some level as necessary. But thankfully for me it's mostly in the revenue producing sports and it's minimal in the world that I'm living in right now.
But I don't know if that's an answer to you. I feel like we're still just trying to provide the athletes with a good solid collegiate athletic experience.
[00:40:03] Speaker B: Who are some of the athletes you look back on as the best leaders on your teams?
Maybe they weren't an all American, but boy, they really did a lot.
[00:40:13] Speaker A: Well, that's an interesting question, but leadership is such an important thing. You know, Jared Foley is a guy that won a conference title in the 200 meters and was a complete bonehead out of high school, a follower, a partier. And then at some point along about his second year, a light switch got flipped and he started thinking, I wonder how good I could get at this. He cleaned up his act, totally stepped away from the party life, totally got extremely serious about nutrition. And at that time, he and Brooke Demo were both serious about nutrition. And it became the thing to do on our track team to be serious about your nutrition.
And those two sort of almost together were terrific leaders for our program. Brook Demo, who is now Brooke Rasnik and Jared Foley, those are a couple of Consummate leaders that I think of that were just terrific for our program. Now, it goes on and on. I want to say Tanya Friesen, because Tanya was just a great competitor and an athlete that, you know, she's our school record holder in the heptathlon. She got fifth in the NCAA in the heptathlon. And I don't know that Tanya would consider herself some sort of leader, but she led by example, and she led just by her presence and by her competitiveness and toughness. And then, of course, Nikki Larchmiller was a fabulous leader. And I have to have an opportunity to mention Nikki in this recount of my 25 years here. There's nothing any athletes, and she's already in our hall of fame. And just a remarkable competitor and a remarkable person, a great athlete. So I just named three separate things. A remarkable competitor.
She could. When she lined up, you knew something good was getting ready to happen. She didn't get psyched out. She didn't get butterflies that ruined the day. She showed up and she was ready when it was time to be ready. A remarkable person, a great gal. Fun, a pleasant smile every day. Happy, go, lucky. Just a great gal. And we've. My wife and I have remained close with her and her twin sister Taylor, who they were on an all American relay together. And the family to this day.
And then a remarkable athlete. You know, there's a great athlete, there's a great competitor. And Nikki was both. Nikki was a very athletic girl. And, you know, at the time that she finished, she was the fastest hurdler in the history of the Missouri Valley Conference. And she didn't hurdle in high school, so we taught her to hurdle. And that meant a lot to me that she learned how to do it correctly. Whereas a lot of times, hurdling can be learned incorrectly at the high school level, it seems like.
And so she shows up here and learns to do it correctly. And her natural leg speed took her to great heights in the heptathlon. But also one of her great events was the hurdles. So that was one that was a marvelous leader in our program. Ben, that you mentioned was a terrific leader, again, sort of by example. But the guys wanted to, you know, Zach Penrod. Zach Penrod was a guy that, I don't know that Zach considered himself some sort of unbelievable leader. But by lining up and showing up and competing and winning championships in the distance races, people follow that. People follow a guy who shows up tough when it's time to show up.
I've always admired somebody who could Decide I'm going to show up when it's time to show up. And Zach Penrod did that. And Sidney Hirsch was that way. She was as quiet as a mouse. But I considered her a heck of a leader because she led by example.
[00:44:10] Speaker B: That way, both Zach and Sydney would have been distance runners.
[00:44:13] Speaker A: Distance runners who won championships multiple times in distance races.
[00:44:16] Speaker B: And Tanya Friesen, to fill in the details. She was an all American in 13, 2013, the multi events from Bueller AM. I remember Bueller, Kansas. Correct.
[00:44:29] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:44:29] Speaker B: Okay. The Larchmiller twins. We should mention that. That had to be unique.
You're coaching twins now with the Parrish twins. Nikki and Taylor. What was that dynamic like? And both of them had strong careers here.
[00:44:41] Speaker A: It's unbelievable. They come from San Diego.
They are beach volleyball girls out there. And you're thinking, okay, these girls have decided to come to school here. Will they be going home in November when it gets cold? You know what I mean? It's like, I hope this goes okay.
And it went spectacular. From the day they arrived, they truly made me feel like that they were going to settle down in Wichita after college. Now they didn't.
Taylor ended up going back. Nikki did stay in the Midwest and coached for a while, but now she's back in San Diego near family. I mean, I understand that they ended up back there, but my point is they were positive about Wichita, Kansas and Wichita State University and our program and our team every step of the way and just marvelous athletes, fabulous athletes.
So really, really special. It's been a very special situation that I could go on and on talking about. But anyway, those were great girls.
[00:45:41] Speaker B: Emily Doffing from Conway Springs, she ran for WSU from 2013 to 2017.
She finished 8th in the 100 meter hurdles in her final meet. 2017 Valley Outdoor. It's the only time she scored in a conference meet. Why is that type of story meaningful to you?
[00:45:59] Speaker A: So there's another one of Sharon Zeller. And both Sharon Zeller and Emily Doffing were extremely meaningful.
You know, there's other examples of that, no doubt. Stephanie Ryan, which was Stephanie Hammond, her maiden name was another one.
These three girls wanted to score, wanted to contribute, wanted to score points for the team in conference championship competition. You come to Wichita State and we make it evident in every single solitary team meeting that winning conference titles is what we do. Winning conference championships is our target. That's what we're trying to accomplish.
So pretty quick. Everybody wants to score. They want to score points for the team and help the team. And those Three girls, Will were all on the outside looking in. They were battling to try to get up into the scoring. And it was. It's not easy to get up into the scoring sometimes.
And Sharon Zeller got 8th in a 10,000 meter race in her final go round.
Emily Dolphin got 8th in a 100 meter hurdle race. But it was more than that. She made the final by a thousandth.
She tied for eighth to make the final. And then they had to separate it to the thousandth, which is like putting a credit card on your chest, literally. And she makes the final by a thousandth. And she breaks down crying right on the track. There's photographs of her teammates surrounding her and congratulating her. It was a very emotional moment and it was just awesome.
And same thing with Stephanie Hammond. She would constantly be, did I score? Did I score at the end of a heptathlon? So I love those stories because I love it when athletes are wanting to contribute and those are situations that will make me emotional and literally I'll struggle and choke up at a track meet when something like that happens.
[00:47:56] Speaker B: One sentence on Destiny Masters, an all American high jumper and multi event.
[00:48:02] Speaker A: I totaled up this morning in preparation for this. How many points Destiny scored in American Athletic Conference championship meet competition and she scored 120 points.
And Rebecca Topham is an athlete that we should mention because one of the greats in the history of our program. First team all American in the steeplechase event, won a bunch of conference titles in championship competition and scored 85 points. And that's second all time. Destiny scored 120 points in American Athletic Conference championship meet competition. And I don't know how to explain it. This is just a marvelous athlete who is a marvelous competitor and can show up and decide. Now, she had a bit of an achilles heel with the 800 in heptathlon competition. That was one that she never quite figured out. But everything else she figured out at an unbelievable level.
You know, normal heptathlon build girl. And she scores this year in the open shot put event at the conference championship. First athlete I've ever had. You know, you mentioned Brianne Borman. Brianne Borman was a marvelous heptathlon shot putter. Well, she wasn't scoring in the open shot put at the conference championship.
So Destiny has just been an unbelievably special competitor that way. She jumps five foot six in high school and she jumps six one in a fraction here at Wichita State in the high jump and could seemingly decide to make it happen on third attempt. That's a special quality to be able to answer the call on third attempt.
It's tough to jump on third attempt when you've only got one jump left and it's a make or break.
And so this was a wonderful competitor and. And it meant the world to me that she was in our program for six years and battled hard all the way to the end and, you know, got 10th at the NCAA championship in the heptathlon this last time with a personal record.
It was a wonderful finish.
[00:50:07] Speaker B: Destiny from El Dorado attended Bluestem High School. She will be an assistant coach at Butler Community College. And then you mentioned Rebecca Topham. She was from Iowa. Griswold, Iowa.
[00:50:17] Speaker A: Yeah, that's right. Griswold, Iowa.
[00:50:19] Speaker B: Just a fabulous distance runner. Steeplechase, as you mentioned. Who is the athlete that you want another chance with? Maybe there's a. What if you look back on, you say, you know, maybe had we emphasized this or had I done this approach a little bit differently to coaching them, is there an athlete out there that you'd say, give me a redo on that person?
[00:50:39] Speaker A: Well, it's interesting that we just talked about Destiny because I mentioned the 800. I. I would still love to continue strategizing and trying to figure out how to help Destiny get over her struggle with the 800 meters.
That's one example.
There's athletes that have had injuries. There's athletes that maybe have had one reason or another that it just was elusive.
Austin Bonner, there was way more in the tank. He was an All American. He was a conference champion multiple times.
A great athlete and a spectacular competitor in the decathlon. In the decathlon and also in individual events like the long jump and such.
And there was more in the tank. There was more there that we could have found if he hadn't been injured a lot. You know, you'd like to figure out if you could help a guy get through a career without getting dinged up as much as he did.
And so thing things like that are significant, and those are a couple of examples. I'm sitting here trying to think about other examples that I might outline. Heck, same thing with Hunter.
Hunter, we were going to battle for him to win. He got second at the NCAA indoor in the heptathlon event.
And the idea was to win the decathlon at the outdoor championship. And he was hurt. His back seized up on him and he couldn't even finish the decathlon at the outdoor championship. So it was scored 8,000 points at the Texas Relays and qualified for the NCAA and by the time he got to the NCAA meet, his back was significantly seized up on him.
[00:52:27] Speaker B: So Hunter, all American in 2017 and 2018 in the multi's Austin Bonner also Wichita Heights product all American in 2013 in the decathlon and then all in 2013 and 2014 in the heptathlon. Also had just a fabulous career. We are watching outside the office that you mentioned. We're watching Cessna Stadium be renovated into University Stadium. What are you thinking as you watch the stands come down? They're now getting ready to put in the nine lane track. What's going through your mind as you're watching the change there?
[00:52:59] Speaker A: Well, as you mentioned earlier, I'm a guy who thinks about history. You realize that that stadium, Jim ryan ran the first sub 4 minute mile in high school competition history. Now he ran sub 4 in a different race that included older athletes previous to that, but at Cessna Stadium he ran the first sub 4 minute mile in the history of high school track.
And that's one example. That stadium is iconic.
That stadium is iconic. Carl Lewis ran in that stadium. Al order set his personal record in that stadium. I can name names of a world record in the pole vault by Earl Bell in that stadium. I could go on and on and I could name a lot of names of Olympians that people won't even recognize their names. Rick Woolhutter, I'm guessing a lot of people won't recognize the name Rick Wohlhooter, but he was one of the best 800 meter runners in the world and he ran really, really fast times. Evelyn Ashford ran really, really fast times in that stadium.
Merlene Oddie ran really really fast times in that stadium. So it goes on and on for our stadium record to be held by Carl Lewis.
That's significant in my opinion. That is an iconic stadium.
So am I excited that it's coming down and the artist renderings are of an unbelievably beautiful new stadium that's getting ready to happen. Absolutely. I think it's going to be spectacular. But that is a historic old structure that has seen a lot of wonderful competition and that means a lot to me. You know, that's meaningful like we've been talking about. The history of that place is special.
[00:54:45] Speaker B: So there would be the well known photo of Jim Ryan crossing the finish line at the stadium, people jumping up in the background. That would be an event. And then you mentioned Earl Bell, Carl Lewis, those would have been in those USTFF meets.
[00:54:57] Speaker A: That's correct. Throughout the 80s Dwight Stones, I competed against Dwight Stones in the high jump event right there, you know, Dwight came along and there was a concrete curb on, on the inner, you know, there's a, there's always a curb. And he had Herm Wilson come and saw it out like cut out a section of the curb. So that.
So Dwight was an arrogant dude, but he was a good guy. But anyway, Herm took out the curb for now. It's an aluminum curve that you can take out and put back in instantaneously. But Herm had to saw the thing out for Dwight to I jump the place you could talk forever about the history of that stadium with all the fabulous athletes that competed in Cessna Stadium.
[00:55:44] Speaker B: And the state high school track and field meet starting in the early 70s. I believe that's early 60s.
[00:55:49] Speaker A: Early 60s.
Well at least mid 60s. At least mid 60s. And Herm has talked to me about that before. But in the mid-60s is when I believe it landed in Wichita. And I competed from 72 to 75. And it had already been at Wichita for a while, but before then.
[00:56:07] Speaker B: So there are a lot of Kansas high school athletes who have great memories about Cessna Stadium. You mentioned Herm Wilson. We should recognize his contribution. He was an influential voice in track and field in those times. And that's how Wichita was able to get those high profile USTFF and usatf.
[00:56:24] Speaker A: Yeah, that's correct. It was the same organization but they changed the name of it.
Unbelievable. His vision.
That guy would decide he wanted to try to make something happen and he could do it on a shoestring. He could find a way to make it happen by raising some money, by talking to the right people. And he had influence and he was incredible. And those meets that we're talking about, those USTFF championships were incredible track meets. You know, all the major players used it as a tune up for the U.S. championships. And so it was a logical meet after the conference meet and before the NCAA meet. So lots of collegians came to try to have a final qualifying opportunity for the NCAA meet. And lots of post collegians came to get to begin their tune up process for the U.S. championships. And it just was kind of a perfect storm, so to speak or a stars aligned situation for there to be some magnificent performance.
[00:57:31] Speaker B: You have to win a track meet to save the universe from destruction. What's the Wichita State men's team you're going to roll out there?
[00:57:40] Speaker A: That's a tough question.
You know, you start, you certainly do start with Hunter Vieth and men's track. I mean you just do.
[00:57:49] Speaker B: And I'M talking about. I'm sorry, what year would be the 04 team? The 2023 team? That's.
Yeah, we would be here forever if we went event by event. I'm just talking depth and balance. Which team are you going to pick?
[00:58:03] Speaker A: That's going to be something of a toss up between the 03 team, which was just unbelievably special. That was really a good team in all the event areas. And then the 22 and 23 teams that won and beat Houston.
I literally have to be apologetic to all of the other 33 team championships that we've won because of how I have felt and Talked about the 22 team that won here at Cessna Stadium and beat Houston and then the 23 team that won down at Tampa, Florida and beat Houston.
Houston was one of the premier teams in the United States in NCAA track and field at that time. They were second one of those years in the NCAA championship and we beat them in a conference meet.
And it was just unbelievably special to get down to the finish. And so I'm literally standing out there celebrating, feeling guilty about not considering all the rest of the championships as significant as that one, because I thought, this is unbelievable. We've been dreaming of winning this conference title and it has seemed seemingly impossible to beat Houston. And we did it and then we did it again the next year. So those two teams were really, really special.
But that O3 team would have to be considered to be equally special. They. That was a wonderful team with all sorts of fabulous athletes that in all event areas. So I'd have. I'd have a hard time selecting. Now I could do it, but I'd have to go back and look at the details. I'd have to go back and analyze the details of the two teams. But off the top of my head, I'd give those two eras or whatever.
[00:59:47] Speaker B: A wash because of the prestige of Houston. They had dominated the American. They were a national level program, great sprinters, great jumpers, coached by Carl Lewis.
[00:59:58] Speaker A: You know what I mean? And Leroy Burrell, another world record. I mean, that's a heck of a team.
[01:00:03] Speaker B: I would think if you were to look at all conference champions across all sports at Wichita State, those would be two of the more significant because of the competition that Houston offered. Same questions you got save the universe. What women's team? What year are you choosing on the women's side?
[01:00:18] Speaker A: So 2017, I guess, you know, with Alefine and Tonya in 2013, those two girls alone got 16th at the NCAA championship.
[01:00:30] Speaker B: And Tanya Niro, also a distance runner.
[01:00:32] Speaker A: No, I'm talking about Tanya Friesen. I'm talking about Tanya. Now Tania Niro was a spectacular all American for us, but Tanya Friesen and Alefine Tuliamuk went to the NCAA championship.
Alefine got second in the 10K, I believe she got fourth in the 5K and Tanya got fifth in the heptathlon. And those scoring finishes totaled up to 16th place at the NCAA championship.
But that was in 2013, 2017, we set the all time Missouri Valley Conference scoring record. I believe we scored about 225 points.
And the Larch Miller twins were on there.
Brianne Borman that you mentioned, Gavin Yetter that you mentioned. But it went on and on. I mean it was a wonderful team that dominated that conference championship and we won both indoor and outdoor with that team. And it happened we also won the men indoor and outdoor. So we won all four conference titles. That was our final year in the Valley. And so I would pick that 2017 team.
[01:01:35] Speaker B: Steve Rainbow, thanks so much for your time. You did a great job recapping 25 years. We appreciate it.
[01:01:42] Speaker A: I must say. Thank you very much for talking with me about these 25 years. We didn't mention the bender of twigs thing, but I'm go through the bender of twigs. So I'm literally, you know, Ted Ayers, our former university attorney, lives in my neighborhood and was walking one day and, and he had just retired and I stopped him on the street and said, hey man, how's retirement? And he said good, and how long are you going to go? And all this? And I said, you know, I'm approaching 25 years. And he goes, oh, you'll be a bender of twigs. And I said, what is that? And that's the university designation for a person who works at wichita State for 25 years. And it represents the effect of the wind in Kansas on a twig.
And immediately I thought, oh, I want to do that. I want to be a bender of twigs. And so here I have accomplished that one objective. And so that's one thing that I have wanted to mention. And then I, I just can't help but mention just a couple of people like Lambo that I came in with.
[01:02:43] Speaker B: And Chris Lamb, volleyball coach.
[01:02:44] Speaker A: Chris Lamb the volleyball coach. And then Greer Jones, who I office next to for over 20 years. And it was unbelievably special for me, a golf enthusiast to get to office next to, you know, one of the greatest golfers in the history of Kansas, for sure. And a PGA Tour great. A multiple time winner on the PGA Tour and but mostly just my buddy, you know that I office next to and we'd sit and chat every morning on the couch in my office. So those are a couple of guys. It goes on and on that I would love to mention so many different people. Mr. Banks is an example that a lot of people that listening to this will remember. Mr. Banks Joe Banks, Former Equipment Manager that's right.
That's exactly right. So figure our ads have been special. Eric Sexton remains a special friend of mine and same with Darren Boatwright and I'm so enjoying working with Kevin Saul. This is a wonderful athletic director that we have right now and I'm enjoying it immensely. So I've worked for some great athletic directors so I'll stop there. But I wanted to make sure and mention a few of those.
[01:03:45] Speaker B: We can't do the kind of things that you've done without help from a lot of different people. We certainly appreciate it. Thank you very much.
[01:03:51] Speaker A: Steve thank you.
[01:04:07] Speaker B: Thank you for listening to the Roundhouse Podcast courtesy of Wichita State University Strategic Communications. We encourage you to rate, review and.
[01:04:16] Speaker A: Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
[01:04:18] Speaker B: You can find more roundhouse
[email protected] she's.
[01:04:23] Speaker A: Just one of those players who could be a game changer though with one swing of the bat she can send it over the fence. We've seen her do it time and time again. Is she do with a.585 slugging percentage, nine home runs on the season.
We'll see what they decide. Swinging away in a drive to center. Are you kidding? Another walk off. It is ball game. Wichita State wins two walk off home runs today.
Bailey Lang in the first game and Lori Derricko here.
And Wichita State knocked off Central Florida five to four.
