Faculty Spotlight: Coach Nobles

COACH NOBLES

By Paul Connor

Inscribed on the walls of Dodd Hall, on the campus of Florida State University, is the quote, “The half of knowledge is to know where to find knowledge.” Perhaps the other half of knowledge is to learn from those who possess it. For the past 36 years, Florida State University’s sport management program has had the privilege to have one of its own, Dennis Nobles, share his knowledge and wisdom every day. As Coach Nobles retires from his position of associate professor and undergraduate academic advisor following the upcoming 2021 summer semester, we salute him and his contributions to the sport management department and to the FSU community as a whole.

No two words could better describe Coach Nobles than “teacher” and “advisor.” Whether in the classroom or on the track as the director of field events for FSU track & field, Coach Nobles spent his career guiding and teaching students through their pivotal college years. The best teachers are the ones who are not simply passionate about their subject matter, but are passionate about teaching their students, and no teacher was more passionate about teaching young adults than Coach Nobles. Coach Nobles, a letterman with the track & field team, first began teaching at FSU in 1985 as an assistant professor as a double FSU alumnus, with an undergraduate degree of physical education in 1980 and a master’s of exercise physiology in 1983. Through courses such as “Human Movement and Principle and Problems of Coaching,” Coach Nobles shared with his students his love for coaching and his belief in the impact and power of sports on both individuals and the world. In these classes, countless future coaches learned what makes coaches successful during practices and games, but more importantly, these students learned who coaches should be as people. He spent as much time on how athletes should be coached as to what they should be coached on. Coach Nobles taught that success was not defined by wins and losses but by the highest level of effort being given on each day. While Coach Nobles taught his students that a good coach should be a good person, he also showed it every day on the track. A combination of John Wooden and Mr. Miyagi, Coach Nobles was much more than just a track & field coach. More importantly, his coaching was the medium through which he taught life lessons. Wearing his trademark brimmed hat, he coached with kindness, patience, and encouragement. No day was ever too bad, and no goal was ever unreachable. Each athlete, whether they be an Olympian or a walk-on, was treated fairly.

Champion ship effort was celebrated the same as championship medals, and the little victories were just as important as the National Championships. Many of his athletes came to Tallahassee from the other side of the world. Often, they were alone for the first time, thousands of miles from their families and their homelands. Coach Nobles served as a father figure and a constant rock of support, care, and understanding. No matter how bad an athlete’s day prior to practice was, they always knew that their coach was waiting for them in quiet excitement on the track.

While Coach Nobles focused on the athlete as a person, he also found success on the track. If you were competing against any of Coach Nobles’ FSU athletes, you were likely fighting for second place. In his 31 seasons coaching for the Seminoles, he produced 130 All-Americans, 15 individual NCAA Champions, 131 Conference Champions, and seven Olympians. During his tenure, FSU as a team won three NCAA National Championships. Coach Nobles was awarded the National Assistant Coach of the Year honors in 2003, the South Region Women’s Indoor Assistant of the Year in 2011 and 2012, and was elected to the State of Florida Track & Field Hall of Fame in 2012. At the time of his retirement from coaching in 2017, he was the longest-tenured assistant coach at FSU. While Coach Nobles humbly attributes these achievements to being surrounded by talented and hardworking people, his impact and contributions to his athletes’ successes on and off the track are immeasurable. Coach Nobles describes his time at Florida State as his dream job at his dream school. He considers himself lucky, that he was in the right place at the right time to do exactly what he always wanted to do, and at the place he always wanted to be. For as lucky as Coach Nobles believes he was, he was not the luckiest one; Florida State was. For the past 36 years, FSU has had its dream coach, Dennis Nobles, improving the lives of its students. If you happen upon Coach Nobles around Tallahassee—whether it be at the track, at Tijuana Flats with his daughter, son-in-law, and two granddaughters, or more likely than not at a golf course—thank him. Thank him for all the lessons, the track-and-field skills, or life advice. Thank him for what he has done for this school, this sport management program, and for his students. Thank him for being our coach, and for so greatly guiding us into being the people we’ve become.