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OCTOBER t he
o fficia l
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maga zine
ISSUE o f
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Gopher
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VOL.
contents
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At hlet ics
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28
16 24
features 10
G aeli n El more
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Terr y G an ley
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Heather Ciskowski
28
Fel ix Corwin & M at ic Spec
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Q&A wi th Mark Co yl e
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Multi pl e M edals
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Photo Feature
6
Credits
7
Fram e by Frame
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Dono r Feat ur e: Bi ll Walt er
40
Behind t he Scenes: Kr istin Zdanczewicz
44
Parti ng Shot
additional content
For enhanced additional content for these feature stories and video content, please visit skiumahmagazine.com.
OCTOBER 2016 / SKI-U-MAH / 1
2 / SKI-U-MAH / OCTOBER 2016
PHOTOS: ERIC MILLER (TOP, LOWER RIGHT, LOWER LEFT), CHRISTOPHER MITCHELL (MIDDLE RIGHT, LOWER MIDDLE), BRACE HEMMELGARN (MIDDLE LEFT
PHOTOS: JIM ROSVOLD (LEFT), ROB SCHUMACHER – USA TODAY SPORTS (RIGHT)
MULTIPLE
MEDALS
Gopher swimming alum David Plummer won two medals at the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro in August. Plummer took home the Bronze in the 100-meter backstroke and earned a Gold medal in the 4x100-meter medley relay and became Minnesota’s first swimming Olympic medalist since 1964. Plummer, who is beginning his post-swimming career as an administrative intern in the Gopher Athletics Department this year, has made numerous appearances following his multiple medal performance, including a on-field one at the Minnesota-Oregon State game on September 1 (pictured with University President Eric Kaler and Athletics Director Mark Coyle. Plummer joined six other former Gophers at the Olympics this year. Lindsay Whalen, a 2004 graduate, All-American and multiple-time WNBA Champion with the Minnesota
Lynx won a Gold for the second time in her career for Team USA. Hassan Mead (5,000 meters) and Ben Blankenship (1,500 meters) competed in track and field for the USA
and Barbora Spotakova (javelin) competed for the Czech Republic and won a Bronze medal, marking her third career medal. 2015 graduate Daly Santana earned a spot on Team Puerto Rico in volleyball as well. Halftime University of Minnesota Marching Band performance during the Gophers’ season opener with Oregon State on September 1. (photo by Eric Miller)
31st GRIAK INVITATIONAL
PHOTOS: CHRISTOPHER MITCHELL
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PHOTOS: ERIC MILLER, CHRISTOPHER MITCHELL (MIDDLE RIGHT)
OCTOBER 2016 / SKI-U-MAH / 5
SKI-U-MA H Issue
13
DIRECTOR OF ATHLETICS Mark Coyle DEPUTY ATHLETICS DIRECTOR John Cunningham EDITOR-IN-CHIEF / ASSISTANT ATHLETICS DIRECTOR FOR CREATIVE SERVICES Jeff Keiser EDITOR / WRITER Jake Ricker
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Justine Buerkle, Rick Moore, Ryan Tibbitts CONTRIBUTORS Paul Rovnak, Dan Reisig, Michelle Traversie, Brian Deutsch, Mandy Hansen DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY Eric Miller CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS Christopher Mitchell, Courtney Anderson, Brace Hemmelgarn, Jim Rosvold, Brad Rempel COVER PHOTOGRAPHY Courtney Anderson Advertising: 612.626.2300 GOPHERSPORTS.com Ski-U-Mah is written and designed by University of Minnesota Athletics and is provided as a courtesy to our fans and may be used for personal and editorial purposes only. Any commercial use of this information is prohibited without the consent of University of Minnesota Athletics. for questions about the editorial content in this issue of Ski-U-Mah, please email keiser@umn.edu. PHOTO: ERIC MILLER
6 / SKI-U-MAH / MAY 2016
Sco beats the odds as a pancreatic cancer survivor—umnhealth.org/Sco
CHEERING ON THE HOME TEAM AN ORDINARY MOMENT MADE POSSIBLE BY EXTRAORDINARY HEALTHCARE.
How do you define a breakthrough? Is it always newsworthy? Does it have to change the course of history? What one person considers a breakthrough may simply be taking one less prescription. Or being able to play with the kids. Or cheering on the home team. From checkups to transplants, the care team at University of Minnesota Health pays just as much a ention to making the breakthroughs that change our patients’ lives as they do to making the ones that change the world.
To find out more, or make an appointment, call 844-273-8383 or visit umnhealth.org today.
University of Minnesota Health represents a collaboration between University of Minnesota Physicians and University of Minnesota Medical Center.
FRAME by FRAME 8 / SKI-U-MAH / OCTOBER 2016
about the photos
Simone Kolander’s game-tying header goal for the No. 9
Gophers against No. 16 Penn State on September 16 was captured by Gopher Sports photographer Christopher
Mitchell. Kolander took a pass of a corner kick from sopho-
more April Bockin and found the back of the net in front of an
Elizabeth Lyle Robbie Stadium record crowd of 1,758 fans.
A
bout 450 miles of interstate separate Peoria, Ill. from Somerset, Wis., a drive that takes a little under seven hours. The distance between the two towns can be easily quantified but, through the eyes of Gaelin Elmore, the separation between the two is impossibly large. The difference those 450 miles made in his life is immeasurable. Elmore, a junior defensive lineman at the University of Minnesota, was
born in Peoria, home to nearly 375,000 people and a violent crime rate
starving. That was something new once we got into foster care,” said Elmore.
nearly double the U.S. average. Elmore, still in diapers, and his two sisters
Inspired by hunger, Elmore and his sister taught themselves to pick the
spent nights locked in a bedroom while their parents indulged drug ad-
locks. The disappearing food aroused suspicions and, within a week, El-
dictions. Strangers came and left at all hours, facelessly yelling and partying
more and his sister were on the move again.
beyond the locked door. The older of Elmore’s two sisters, an 11-year-old,
“We were viewed as problem children. Not a lot of people wanted to
prepared meals and got her younger siblings ready for school in the morn-
take us. We’d get to a home, stay there for a little bit, and be shipped off
ing. The house wasn’t a home. It was chaos.
to the next one.”
From the dirt and disrepair that filled the house, Elmore’s dad eventually emerged, committed to overcoming his drug problem. Before he did,
***
Child and Family Services discovered the conditions in which Elmore and his sisters lived. All three were going to live in foster care and they were
Elmore and his two sisters visited their birth parents together on a semi-
going immediately. They were not, however; going together.
monthly basis. These visits provided the children some hope their family
“The first night they took me, I got separated from my sisters right away.
would one day reunite. When their parents divorced, the visits ended.
It was instant,” said Elmore. “[Child Services] were in a hurry to figure out
In a twist of timing, Elmore and his sisters were placed together in a
where we were all going to go and they couldn’t find a place for all three
foster home shortly after and it felt like their family may yet come back to-
of us.
gether in some form.
“I was four and there was this strange dude driving me to this place … he tried to comfort me with toys.” The place Elmore ended up was a group home for toddlers and babies. “I guess you would call it an orphanage,” he said. He was brought to a bunk in a shared room filled with strangers in the middle of the night. “My caseworker later told me that I was moved because they couldn’t get me to stop crying.” Elmore lasted just one week before he was moved. The same thing happened the following week at a different home. By the end of that first year in foster care, Elmore estimates he lived in at least 19 different places. On average, that means moving your entire life once every three weeks. In an attempt to provide Elmore some sense of stability, his caseworker orchestrated a plan to place him with one of his sisters. Crammed into a three-bedroom apartment as two of six foster children,
Their address would be consistent for the first time as well. Given the pace at which he had shuffled from house to house, Elmore was hopeful about staying in one place, this new house with many children, for a while. “As soon as our social worker left, that place completely changed. The mood changed. The language changed. Everything changed,” said Elmore. In the next five years, Elmore says he was slapped, kicked, punched, slammed, thrown, and beaten with cable, extension cords, chains, and tree branches. “That type of discipline became the norm for everyone in the house, not just me,” he said. That discipline eventually drove his oldest sister to flee. One night, Elmore found his teenage sister in a fist fight with their caretakers’ daughter, a heavy-set woman in her late 30s. The caretaker had ordered the fight as
the Elmore siblings slept on small beds without sheets, next to a kitchen
punishment for a skipped class. Elmore helplessly watched his sister pum-
filled with padlocked cupboards. The locks had been added to keep the
meled and humiliated. The same sister that took care of Elmore in that
kids from taking food when they woke up hungry on their bare mattresses.
locked bedroom years earlier.
“As bad as our living situation was [with our parents], we never were
10 / SKI-U-MAH / OCTOBER 2016
Later that night “she kissed us and said she was leaving and she’d be
The Toughest Road
Gaelin Elmore faced challenges that would crush most people. Instead, with an entire community behind him, he's flourished.
in touch soon. She left. She got out. Not a lot of people successfully did that,”
and electricity bills went unpaid and the utilities were shut down. Elmore spent
said Elmore with a tinge of admiration.
a week sleeping in his coat and snow pants to stay warm.
Elmore and his middle sister tried to run away several times. Their final at-
Gigantic for a seventh-grader, gangs targeted him to join. For someone who
tempt, their successful attempt, turned them into nomads for more than a month.
had often felt no one was looking out for him, the idea of a brotherhood who
They stayed with friends, acquaintances, even strangers. They found their birth
would defend him began to tantalize Elmore.
mother, who told them to contact the police because she would be arrested if
His father saw this, too. He had an older son – a half-brother to Elmore – who
they were found at her house. No matter where they ran from it, the prospect of
lived in western Wisconsin. Elmore had never met this older brother, but now
being sent back to that awful house seemed unavoidable.
he’d be spending an entire summer living with him. His father sent him away
But it wasn’t. The police listened to the kids’ story. They investigated the caretakers of the foster home, revoking their licenses and removing the rest of the kids from the house. While sharing their story did a great thing for those other kids, it led to Elmore and his sister being separated one more time. They would never live together
from Peoria’s street to the open fields of America’s Dairyland. “I loved it,” Elmore said of that summer. “It was a completely different environment. Open fields, just freedom. I felt like a kid for the first time.” Elmore loved it so much, he didn’t want to leave. “I called my dad toward the end of the summer and told him ‘I want to live
again.
here.’”
***
to remind himself, that he had told Elmore he’d do what was in his best interest
At first, Elmore’s dad said no. He called back the next day and said, almost when he regained custody. He packed up what they owned and headed north. Elmore’s father learned that his son had bounced around dozens of foster homes
With Elmore and his dad living at his Wisconsin house, his brother broke off
in the years since they were separated. The two began having overnight visits
his engagement with his fiancé. She kicked out all three of them. They were
back in Peoria. One weekend, Elmore’s caseworker called and told him she
homeless, two grown men and a teenager sleeping in a black Ford Explorer. An-
wouldn’t be picking him up. His father had been granted full custody. In an essay,
other setback for Elmore.
Elmore wrote how this moment changed his life – “I had my father!” Back in Peoria, Elmore’s father – a recovering addict with a criminal history – struggled to find work. They lived below the poverty line. That winter, the gas 12 / SKI-U-MAH / OCTOBER 2016
“I would brush my teeth and wash myself in the sink of the bathroom of the nearest gas station,” Elmore recalled. The adults weren’t making much money. Elmore’s dad resorted to selling
“My definition of family is not like anyone else’s, just like my definition of home isn’t like anyone else’s. As far as family, it’s anyone that’s willing to risk something for me. I have a large, large family.” drugs to support his youngest son, scraping together enough cash to pay for a motel room. The two discussed moving back to Peoria. Instead, they moved to a town outside of Somerset. *** Comparing Peoria to Somerset is a simple exercise in identifying opposites. Somerset is essentially everything Peoria is not, a small hamlet of fewer than 3,000 with little crime and good schools. Jay Emmert coached AAU basketball in Somerset. After Elmore moved to the area, Emmert reached out his previous AAU coach, who gave Elmore a resounding endorsement. He also alluded to potential family issues, mentioning Elmore would need a ride to every team event. Emmert didn’t mind. He and his son, Jack, picked up and dropped off Elmore every Friday and Saturday. After repeating this for several weekends, Emmert asked Elmore if he’d like to spend the weekends at his house. Elmore and Jack were becoming friends and it would save on travel time. “One time, I went to drop him off back at where he had been living and he said ‘Oh no, we’re not staying there now. We’re at this other house,’” Emmert remembered. “He’s walking up [to the house], and his shoulders slump. He’s getting sadder as he heads toward the house.”
On a recent visit to Somerset High School, Elmore pointed out a state championship trophy that he helped win. Somerset also claimed a state runner-up trophy as well during his career. friends and the future looked to be shining brightly as he approached the end
Emmert called his wife on his drive home. He told her how difficult it was to
of a seemingly endless tunnel.
drop off Elmore that day. “We should bring him home,” Emmert told his wife. “Until they get it figured out.”
“
“I immediately said, ‘Well, then go get him,’” replied Roxanne Kendle, Emmert’s wife.
Emmerts and others in the Somerset community, Elmore’s father moved into town that July. “We kind of rallied the troops – friends and community members – to furnish an apartment for Gaelin and his father,” said Kendle. “It was really a community effort, between furnishing and the apartment.” “A kid should be with his dad if he can,” added Emmert. Living in a two-bedroom apartment above a dance studio in town, Elmore still spent a good amount of time
Roxanne Kendle first learned that Elmore’s dad had been arrested when a friend called her at work. She reached out to a guidance counselor at the high school
Elmore moved in with the Emmerts for a few weeks to start that summer before his freshman year of high school. With help from the
***
and asked her to get Elmore out of class and be sure someone he loved could
I kept thinking to myself, ‘This can’t happen. He’s a good kid. He’s an honest kid. He’s a hard-working kid. He’s a kid that needs something good to happen. I went out in the hallway and he was standing there. I just told him ‘We’ll figure this out.’
”
with the Emmerts. He and Jack were best friends and
– Somerset football coach BRUCE LARSON,
spent much of their time together. Elmore excelled at
who took in Elmore during his sophomore year
both basketball and football, lettering in each sport as a
of high school.
ninth-grader. The Emmerts stable lifestyle helped Elmore as he and his father continued to move endlessly. Elmore’s brother moved out of the cramped apartment and his dad couldn’t afford the rent on his own. The two settled into an apartment in a bar. When the bar shut down, they began renting a single room. Despite all this, Elmore was generally happy. He was with his father, he was succeeding academically and athletically at his new school, he was meeting new
break the news to him. One of these people was Somerset’s football coach, Bruce Larson. “In what I do, you get to know all the kids,” said Larson, who also teaches at the high school. “They become like family to you … you really build a pretty solid relationship.” Larson was in the counselor’s office waiting when Elmore arrived. Everyone in the room, including Elmore, understood his future teetered between promising and uncertain in those moments. As the meeting ended, Elmore left the office silently. “I didn’t know how to react to that one,” recalled Elmore. “After I got back with my dad, I never thought I’d be taken away from him again.” He quickly considered his options, including a plan
where he would quit sports, work weekends and pay the rent until his dad returned. Larson saw things differently. “I kept thinking to myself, ‘This can’t happen. He’s a good kid. He’s an honest kid. He’s a hard-working kid. He’s a kid that needs something good to happen,” said Larson. “I went out in the hallway and he was standing there. I just told him ‘We’ll figure this out.’” OCTOBER 2016 / SKI-U-MAH / 13
Like Kendle before her, Kelly Larson didn’t ask questions when her husband called and said Elmore would be coming to live with them. She worked at the local elementary school and had heard rumors earlier that day that Elmore’s dad had been arrested. “It was my lunch hour and my husband was on the phone. He typically doesn’t call me during the day,” Kelly said. “He says, ‘You know he’s coming home, right?’ and I said, ‘Yep, I do.’ And that was the discussion.” In a life story riddled with lowest points and rock bottoms, that morning appeared to be the most devastating setback Elmore had ever experienced. That halted in the span of nine words gruffly spat by Larson. “I think it’s best if you come with me.” With that simple phrase, Elmore was welcomed into the last home he’d know between the spring of his sophomore year and graduation day. “I’d lost trust in a lot of people and people I’d relied on a lot more than him. He showed me a different side to people,” said Elmore. “He stepped up to the plate like very few people in my life have and kind of opened up a new world to me.” Kelly’s only anxiety over the “spur of the moment” decision to take in Elmore was how he would fit in with the Larson children. While the oldest had moved to college, her son, Elmore’s teammate Reggie, and daughter, team manager Mckell, were going to have a new sibling. “Bringing someone into your house, in your family, made me nervous,” said Kelly, looking back at those first days. Now, years removed from that moment, her kids “call him their brother … [they] look at him as their sibling. We love him.” *** Elmore flourished living with the Larsons. The basic structure gave him things other kids take for granted. He had lived in more than 60 different places during in his life but, for the first time, he had a home. It’s impossible to overlook the impact living with his head coach had on Elmore as an athlete. He began training more seriously, committing to a weight-lifting regiment for the first time and immersing himself in sports. A natural athlete gifted with size and speed, Elmore stood out on the football field. By his junior season, college coaches began inundating Elmore with recruiting pitches. “He got a lot of mail,” said Kelly. “His whole bedroom was full of letters.” One of the first teams to show interest in Elmore was Minnesota. After studying Elmore’s game film, assistant coach Rob Reeves appeared at Somerset High. Reeves invited Elmore to the Gophers’ junior day camp. During that camp, Reeves pulled aside Elmore and Larson and led them to head coach Jerry Kill. After a few minutes of conversation, Kill said, “We’d like to take this opportunity to offer you a full scholarship to Minnesota.” He continued, “Understand, there are a lot of schools that are going to offer you. We wanted to be first. … Before anybody ever heard of you, you were here, we recognized you and we value you.” The scholarship offer was unexpected. The attention that followed that initial offer may have been too, if not for the warning from Kill. Schools across the country ramped up their efforts to court Elmore. Larson smiled as he remembered pulling into the high school with
14 / SKI-U-MAH / OCTOBER 2016
The Storytelling Sleeve
Gaelin Elmore has 17 tattoos, all of which cascade down his left arm from around his shoulder to past his elbow. The sleeve of symbolic images and meaningful phrases evolved without a set path. Meandering through the collection is a walk through the Elmore’s life story. Given how much has happened to him in his relatively brief existence, it’s not surprising the tale requires so much ink. He shies away from picking a single, definitive favorite from the bunch. Still, the first one he describes when asked about his tattoos is a compass. It’s one of the more prominent elements in the overall tapestry. Around the edges are various sets of initials. According to Elmore, each belongs to someone who helped him grow. There are two blank spots, waiting for initials to be added in the future. “I didn’t feel I was done growing yet,” said Elmore. He then points to a chessboard immediately below the compass. He tells a story about how chess was the first thing his dad used to build a bond with him - “we were battling when we played that” – before discussing how he sees some symbolic parallels between his own life and the game. He talks about feeling like a pawn growing up, limited in its freedom and treated with little value. “Hopefully someday, I’ll feel like a king,” he added. As the tour continues, Elmore calls out an anchor. This is part of a sibling tattoo, with his two sisters each having corresponding tattoos as part of the series. Each has a different central image that represents that individual – Elmore’s is the anchor while one of his sisters has a boat helm and another has a feather. Each has the names of the other siblings to go along with the image. All three also have three birds as part of their tattoo, meant to represent them and their quest for freedom. Beyond those meant to honor those in his life, others Among Elmore’s 17 tattoos is a quote from former head coach Jerry Kill. show elements of Elmore’s personality. He calls out a simple tattoo made up of three stars. The three stars reflect the ranking he was assigned by high school football recruiting services during his career at Somerset High School on the traditional, five-star ranking scale. “I thought I was better than that,” Elmore said of that evaluation. He shares a story about a prominent Football Championship Series (FCS) head coach who was recruiting Elmore in high school. The college coach shared with Elmore that he’d love to have him on his team, but that he was definitely a Big Ten caliber player. Elmore believed the same. Details continue to pour out of Elmore as he points to a pink ribbon, one he got to support his birth mother’s battle with breast cancer. He shows off a parchment tattoo on his forearm that includes a quote from former Gopher head coach Jerry Kill, signed with the initials of both Kill and his wife, Rebecca. In a matter of 20 minutes or so, Elmore has shared information or a short back story about almost all of his tattoos. With many years left to live, the obvious question for Elmore is if the work is done or if more tattoos will appear in the future. Elmore keeps the door open for that, acknowledging that there’s more to come in his story.
Elmore one morning to an unexpected sight. “We get out of the car and [former NFL linebacker and Ohio State alum] Mike Vrabel is standing in the parking lot with his Super Bowl rings on.” When it came time for Elmore to make his college decision, Larson handed his oldest son, Rocky, a gas card and loaded him and Elmore into the family’s Honda Civic. The two drove to Iowa, Nebraska, Indiana, Ohio State, Michigan State and Wisconsin. Near the end of the trip, Elmore woke up from a nap and told Rocky he had made his decision. The two called Larson. The following day, Elmore went to the Twin Cities and told Coach Kill that he would be a Golden Gopher. “Every school I went to, I compared to Minnesota,” said Elmore. “Minnesota is 40 minutes from where I went to high school. That town put so much into me and to help me become the person I am, I knew I wanted to stay close.” Many high school kids choose to play close to home so they can play in front of their families. Elmore made the same decision. He wanted to stay close to his 3,000-person family in Wisconsin. “My definition of family is not like anyone else’s, just like my definition of home isn’t like anyone else’s,” said Elmore. “As far as family, it’s anyone that’s willing to risk something for me. I have a large, large family.” Jake Ricker is an associate athletic communications director for Gopher Athletics. Contact him at rick0127@umn.edu.
OCTOBER 2016 / SKI-U-MAH / 15
a
MINNESOTA TREASURE
Beloved Gopher Swimming legend Terry Ganley starts her 40th season on the pool deck. STORY BY JUSTINE BUERKLE “I grew up in Minneapolis and I think Minnesota is part of who I am.
“When I first started, I just wasn’t done swimming yet,” Ganley said.
I don’t know exactly how it came about, but I would just say Minnesota
“I thought I’d come and try it. I had no idea. At that time, very few
is a part of me.”
women really even swam beyond high school.”
Those are the words of Terry Ganley who joined the Golden Gophers
Newly-named head coach Jean Freeman and her squad did not have
as a freshman swimmer in the fall of 1973, and has remained on the ros-
lockers during Ganley's first season with the team. They would carry their
ter ever since then. This fall, the quick-witted Minnesota’s men’s and
suits and shampoo around campus in their backpacks.
women’s associate head swimming and diving coach begins her 40th year of coaching at her alma mater.
“You didn’t know anything different,” Ganley said. “It’s just kind of the way it was. Obviously there were women who were thinking bigger
She has seen campus buildings named after six of the seven univer-
and wanted to see change. But I think as an 18-year-old, that’s just the
sity presidents who have led the school since her arrival as a freshman.
way it was. We did what we did and had fun doing it, and we worked
She has seen an aquatic center built and named for her own college
hard.”
coach, Jean Freeman. The founding of the women’s athletic department
After selling t-shirts to help fund her trip to the 1974 AIAW national
and its merger with the men’s department both occurred while Ganley
championship meet, Ganley became the U of M’s first female All-Amer-
was on campus. During that time, Ganley has been part of seven Big Ten team cham-
ican in any sport. She would go on to win three more AIAW All-America accolades.
pionships, coached dozens of All-Americans and forged lasting bonds
The women’s athletic department officially formed in 1975, and Gan-
with student-athletes and colleagues. She was part of the inaugural Min-
ley and her teammates gradually began to experience the impact of
nesota Aquatics Hall of Fame class in 1984. It is as difficult to imagine
Title IX on women’s athletics. At some point they started getting into
Minnesota swimming without Ganley as it is to imagine Ganley without
the Cooke Hall pool after men’s practice was done.
Minnesota swimming.
“That was kind of a big deal,” Ganley said.
Seizing an opportunity
No matter what the team’s budget or pool situation was, Ganley had
Ganley is the youngest of her parents’ six children, all of whom live in Minnesota. In her father’s family of 13, only one didn’t live in Minnesota. Ganley grew up in North Minneapolis and started swimming in the neighborhood pool. Upon high school graduation, like many of her club teammates, she
looked at the opportunity that was there and made the most of it. She had success in the pool, and developed friendships she still maintains today. She was still hooked on swimming.
The beginning of a beautiful friendship
Freeman wanted to keep her star swimmer as part of the program after
continued her swimming career at the University of Minnesota. She did
she graduated with a degree in physical education in 1977. Ganley’s
not yet sense the future the sport would hold for her.
coaching career began on a part-time basis. She would spend most of
16 / SKI-U-MAH / OCTOBER 2016
PHOTO: ERIC MILLER
OCTOBER 2016 / SKI-U-MAH / 17
“When I first started, I just wasn’t done swimming yet. I thought I’d come and try it. I had no idea. At that time, very few women really even swam beyond high school.” her workday as secretary for the women’s swimming and diving and gymnas-
months, and finally to coaching all year. Ganley would coach under Freeman
tics teams, a new position at the U. In the afternoon, she would be able to
for 27 years.
coach. “I think you had to be 75 percent on one payroll to get benefits, so I was actually 75 percent secretary and 25 percent coach,” Ganley said. On meet days, she would carry a typewriter down to the pool from the office in Cooke Hall. She coached for part of the competition, then typed up results during diving. Ganley eventually moved to 75 percent coaching for nine
“She was my club coach and I was good friends with her brother,” Ganley said. “In some sense I think we grew up together. She started coaching when she was injured at like 17, I think. …Looking back, things that I learned from her certainly come to mind. It’s her lifestyle, the way she coached, the way she became involved.” Freeman did not shy away from getting involved in high-level department
Ganley, pictured at the Cooke Hall pool, where her legendary career at the U of M began in 1973. discussions that impacted her team, while Ganley did not see that side of the
man’s principles as well as her technical swimming knowledge. She valued Free-
coaching field as her own strength at the time.
man’s loyalty to Minnesota and attention to the student-athletes’ “total experience,
“I think for the years we worked together we balanced each other out that way, because I could do the day-to-day coaching and things and allow her the time to do the other things that needed to be done to have a successful program.” After decades building up the program, the combination of Freeman and
the development of young men and women.” Those qualities are among the core values that have remained important to Ganley throughout her own career. “My major one is mutual respect,” she said. “You can’t just expect respect from the athletes without it going both ways. Setting that standard where they know that you respect them. With some of them you have to wait a while to find
Ganley guided the Gopher women to their first Big Ten title in 1999, and a sec-
something to compliment them or acknowledge that they’re doing well. Those
ond one the next year. The team’s first conference championship came in its
little things create a mutual respect, and it has to be sincere. You can’t just throw
home pool, an aquatic center that opened in 1990 as a major improvement over
it out there, because these kids are smart. I always want to treat these student-
the aging Cooke Hall.
athletes the way I would want someone to treat my own children.”
Spending so much time together, Ganley became well-acquainted with Free18 / SKI-U-MAH / OCTOBER 2016
Ganley has high standards for student-athletes, but rather than always rigidly
Top left: Ganley with her first All-America award in 1974. She was the first female All-American in any sport. Top right: Ganley with Jean Freeman in the 1990s. The two coached together for 27 years. Middle right: Ganley and Kelly Kremer in 2006 after being named Big Ten Coaches of the Year. Bottom right: Ganley coaches at Cooke Hall in 1985.
enforcing every rule, she tries to “see the human side of it and what these guys
“It takes people who want what’s best for this program to succeed in that
are going through on a daily basis.” At the same time, she wants student-athletes
role,” Kremer said. “Terry and I are not only colleagues but great friends. Noth-
to take ownership of their college experience. 1997 Minnesota graduate and
ing’s changed from that standpoint. Titles might be a little bit different, but it’s
“
current Denver associate head coach Alicia Hicken-Franklin remembers training
the same. We both function the best when we’re working together, and that’s
in a group with two All-Americans who were starting early during an interval drill.
the way it’s been and will continue.”
She asked Ganley to tell them to leave on time, but she responded: “I don’t want to tell them. You tell them.” “She’s always been very much not necessarily trying to make your problem go away, but lending an ear and being supportive to give you the confidence that you can solve the problem yourself,” Hicken-Franklin said. “Whatever happens or is going on in your life, you dictate your attitude and how you handle situations going forward,” 1999 graduate and current high school coach Beth Shimanski said she learned from Ganley. “It’s that constant positive outlook. You can get through anything.” “Terry’s a rock,” Gophers men’s and women’s head coach Kelly Kremer said. “She’s really a foundation. When
The duo of Ganley and Kremer earned Big Ten Coach of the Year honors in
She kept it real. She would reality check you. She didn’t want to hear any complaining, but she would just throw zingers back at you and make you laugh and bring you back to, ‘Okay, I can do this. This is why I’m here.’
”
– Big Ten champion and All-American Beth Shimanski
you think of any organization, if it’s going to be really
2006 and led the Gopher women to their third conference championship in 2008. When the men’s and women’s swimming and diving programs merged in 2011, Kremer was named the overall head coach. Ganley continued in her role as women’s head coach, and later her current role as women’s and men’s associate head coach. Ganley has seen relations between the men’s and women’s teams “ebb and flow” during her 40-plus years on campus. She said the teams were close when she swam because they shared club teams in the summer. After that, there was sometimes tension between the men and women depending on the coaches, or whether
strong, it’s the foundation of it. She is that. She’s the foundation. It doesn’t seem
one team was more successful at the time. Even when the programs got along,
to matter what’s happening in Terry’s life outside of the university or outside the
differences between how they operated could create difficulties.
campus. When she’s here, she is an incredible coach, an incredible teacher, an
“I think right now it’s the healthiest environment for the student-athletes that
incredible mentor, an incredible colleague to work with.”
probably we’ve ever had,” Ganley said. “There is a mutual respect both ways. I
Joining forces
think it comes from the top down. I think they know what’s acceptable and what
The women’s and men’s athletic departments at Minnesota remained separate until 2002. In 2004, Freeman retired and Ganley was named interim head coach. Ganley and Kremer, who had been coaching with the men’s program, were soon named co-head coaches of the women’s team.
isn’t. We support each other. We’re one team. We have one goal.” “Terry’s been instrumental in that,” Kremer said. “She’s a progressive thinker. She wants all these student-athletes to feel the same and to be treated the same and to have the same resources. She’s really done a good job of helping us be a combined team when we need to be.”
OCTOBER 2016 / SKI-U-MAH / 19
Ganley described Dorothy Sheppard, a
“There is rarely a day where I don't think about her, and I've been out of swimming for 13 years.”
Minnesota alumna and program supporter for whom the pool is named, as a “forward thinker.” She would describe Freeman, for whom the aquatic center was named in
– two-time All-American Dana Baum
2014, similarly. Sheppard and Freeman have
ence, eight members of the women’s program have won the Big Ten Medal of Honor. At least a dozen women have earned Academic All-Big Ten status in each of Ganley’s 12 years as head coach or associate head coach.
both passed away, but now people are ap-
More than the trophies and medals, Gan-
plying that type of description to Ganley as
ley’s swimmers consider their lasting relation-
she carries on their legacy.
ship with and impact from their coach to be
Why she coaches
the greatest rewards of their time with her. “There is rarely a day where I don't think about her, and I've been out of swimming for
Division I coaching has become an increas-
13 years,” 2003 graduate Dana (Baum) Hardt
ingly demanding job as recruiting rules have
said. “Her calm demure, matter-of-fact nature
changed and college athletics have evolved.
and ability to make you want to be better
Yet Ganley has remained just as motivated to
without saying anything at all lives as part of
do her job as when she started 40 years ago.
my consciousness. Alongside the angel on
She enjoys watching friendships form be-
one shoulder and devil on the other, Terry
tween student-athletes who may never have crossed paths if not for swimming and diving. “Working with the young people, seeing them develop,” Ganley said. “Everything
lives somewhere in between.” Ganley was an accomplished backstroker and earned All-America honors in the 50 free, 50 backstroke and the 100 individual medley.
from people coming in as a walk-on, theoret-
would swim with Ganley’s group due to class schedule conflicts. Not only does he credit
ically, to getting to the level of scoring at Big
her with improving his kick, but he said: “If
Tens or becoming an All-American and scor-
Terry didn’t believe in me, I wouldn’t be as
ing at NCAAs. Obviously it’s rewarding when
successful as I am today. She pushed me to
you have people win either a conference
achieve goals that I never thought were pos-
championship or win at NCAAs. It’s all very
sible, in the pool and in life.”
different. I think having people come here and
Numerous swimmers who trained under
leave with the degrees that they have and
Ganley have gone on to start their own coach-
seeing them now out in the world being doc-
ing careers. Rebecca Weiland, a 2015 gradu-
tors and lawyers and biomedical engineers,
ate, strives to follow Ganley’s example of
it’s rewarding to be a part of that journey in
mutual respect and treating everyone fairly as
their four years here.”
an assistant coach at St. Cloud State.
The team’s success has certainly helped
“Terry has influenced the way I coach, the
keep Ganley’s energy level up. In recent years Minnesota swimming and diving became the school’s first women’s team to win four consecutive Big Ten championships, repeating from 2012-15. From 2006 to 2015, the Gophers finished no lower than 13th at the NCAA Championships, including a program-best ninth in 2011. More than 100 student-athletes have earned more than 450 All-America certificates during Ganley’s time on staff. Seven female swimmers and divers have won individual national titles. The first two, diver Chris Curry in 1981 and breaststroker Gretchen Hegener in 1997, are Minnesotans like Ganley. “I think there’s always a little extra sense of pride when they’re a Minnesotagrown athlete,” Ganley said. “At least for me, it means a little extra when you’re representing your home state on the national stage.” Confirming Ganley’s commitment to a well-rounded student-athlete experi-
1973
Men’s swimming 2012 graduate Nathan Jobe looked forward to Mondays, when he
way I think about coaching, the way I treat my swimmers,” Weiland said. “Anything I can think of, there’s a little bit of Terry flair to it.” Oakland assistant coach and 2009 Minnesota alumna Stacy Busack, who was inducted into the Minnesota Aquatics Hall of Fame last fall, credits Ganley for a “profound” impact, and much of what she achieved in the pool. Busack remained with the program as a volunteer assistant after graduation and continued to learn from Ganley. “I admire her work ethic,” Busack said. “She is tireless. I admire her attention to detail. I certainly admire her professionalism. She’s always thinking about the program, the people in the program, what’s best for everyone. ….I really admire her listening skills.”
TERRY’S TIMELINE
Arrives at the University of Minnesota as a freshman
1974
Becomes the Gophers'
first female All-American in any sport
1977
Graduates from Minnesota and joins the women's
20 / SKI-U-MAH / OCTOBER 2016
swimming staff
1984
1990
1997
Gretchen Hegener becomes
Inducted into Minnesota
Inducted into U of M
Gophers' first NCAA swimming
Aquatics Hall of Fame
Athletics Hall of Fame
champion; breaks American record
1999
Serves as assistant coach for the Gophers' first Big Ten team
title, and first of two in a row
Ganley’s influence comes both from what
pretty quiet by demeanor. As a coach on
she purposely teaches and from the way she
deck, she’s very observant and she takes
lives. The swimmer who went to college when
splits, but she’s not a jump up and down and
there were few athletic opportunities for
go crazy kind of coach. She’s just not that way.
women has become a coach who exemplifies
She’s very quiet with her demeanor. But I re-
all that women can do in sports now.
member standing next to her at Ohio State
“She’s a woman in coaching who coached
and I can’t even tell you what race was going
full-time while she had children,” Hicken-
on, but I remember looking down and she
Franklin said. “For me that was an important
was holding—I don’t remember if it was a split
thing that I wanted to do with my life. …I
sheet or a piece of paper or a program—but
looked up to her for sure, because I knew that
she was white-knuckled. I remember thinking,
I could do it if she could do it.”
‘She’s competitive. She wants to win as bad
“I just had my first child in June,” 2010
as anybody.’ It doesn’t show, not in the verbal
alumna Castina (Wabeke) Wingard said. “I re-
sense. That struck me. …In her way, she is as
ally feel very strongly that I want her to have
into it as you can be. It’s those things that
qualities that Terry has. She is a strong person,
stand out about Terry.”
a resilient person. She’s always kind, very con-
Current senior and fellow Minnesota na-
siderate, so passionate about what she does.”
tive Ellen Bloom grew up seeing Ganley on
Golden moments
deck at meets and considering her a “superstar.” When Bloom first met her, she thought Ganley was uncommonly serious. That was
Busack and numerous other swimmers who won Big Ten championships under Ganley have memories of their coach placing gold medals around their necks. Certainly no one who was part of a team championship will for-
before she got to know Ganley’s sense of Above: The final of Ganley’s four All-America honors came on the 200 freestyle relay in 1976, teaming with Cindy Anderson, Cheryl Swanum and Joni Ellis. Below: Ganley and Ellis during a team practice.
humor. Bloom remembers seeing someone trying to move a whiteboard during morning practice and hearing Ganley ask, “You got a license to drive that?”
get celebrating in the water with the trophy.
“It was like 6 a.m.,” Bloom said. “Nobody
Other favorite memories come from everyday
was trying to be witty. Most of us were just try-
life at the pool.
ing to keep our eyeballs open, and she’s
“I can still picture her face showing me the
throwing out these one-liners. She was on a
stopwatch she timed me on when I broke 23
roll that morning.”
seconds in the 50 free,” Hardt said. “22.99.
“Her sarcasm and her lighthearted atti-
She left it on her stopwatch for the rest of
tude made practices easier and manage-
NCAAs that year. She must have used a dif-
able,” Shimanski said. “She kept it real. She
ferent one to take splits on other races. I love
would reality check you. She didn’t want to
Terry because she made you feel special but
hear any complaining, but she would just
almost in a secretive way. Like you were one
throw zingers back at you and make you laugh
of few who were special. But it turns out we
and bring you back to, ‘Okay, I can do this.
all were treated that way. More importantly we
This is why I’m here.’”
all felt that way.” Weiland remembers Ganley simply telling her to have fun before a race her sophomore year. Wingard remembers the way Ganley made swim camps fun instead of stressful. Busack remembers Ganley playing Queen’s “We Are the Champions” on the van stereo when the team was on the road for Big Ten Championships. “I remember little things,” Kremer said. “Like the first year we were coaching together. It was a challenging year, but I remember being at Ohio State. Terry’s
“You don’t want to get in a battle of wits with her,” Kremer said. “Certainly not in a battle where you’re doing witty banter back and forth. You’ll lose. I’ve stopped trying. Or if I’m going to try and get the last word in, I’ll say my piece and then run or cover my ears. She’s way too quick.” Just as Ganley has gained a reputation for her sharp wit, her signature facial expression has also become famous among student-athletes and alumni. She said she doesn’t consciously do it, but everyone on the team can imitate the
TERRY’S TIMELINE 2004
Named interim head coach, and then co-head coach with Kelly
2006
2008
Kremer, after Jean Freeman's
Earns Big Ten Coach of the Year
Wins third conference
retirement
honors with Kremer
championship
2011
2012
Gopher women's and men's programs combine; Ganley
becomes senior associate head coach for both teams
Starts four-year run of women's Big Ten championships
PHOTO: CHRISTOPHER MITCHELL
2015
Wins fourth consecutive and seventh overall Big Ten women's swimming and diving title
meet holding two babies with a big group of people trying to talk to her at the same time. “I kind of lose track of who was here when,” Ganley said. “But it’s definitely very rewarding to see people come back and talk about how much their collegiate experience, both athletically and academically, meant to them, and where they are now. A lot of them, their kids are starting in swimming.” Whether it’s running into a former diver on the beach during a team training trip to Hawai’i or walking the pool deck alongside an alum who is now coaching, Ganley has the potential to encounter alumni just about anywhere. “That knowledge and that continuity is priceless,” Kremer said. “She can reach out to anybody. She connects generations of swimmers at Minnesota, generations of former swimmers and divers, generations of coaches. She connects all of us. She’s that bridge between the past, present, future. … She’s a Gopher, through and through.” Ganley has seen it all in her four decades as a Gopher. Equipment has changed, from sharing warm-ups with other Gopher teams when she was an athlete to the new gear current teams receive each year. Various training fads have come and gone, and come again. While her core principles remain the same, Ganley welcomes new ideas as younger coaches join the staff. She adapts to the different team chemistry and personnel each new year brings. “She’s been coaching a long time,” Kremer said. “Terry could pull the, ‘Look, I’ve done this longer than anybody and I know.’ But it never goes that way. She’s so willing to learn and wants to learn and wants to get better all the time. That’s what makes her a great coach.” Ganley’s accomplishments as both an athlete and a coach could fill a book, but most people are pursed lips, pushed slightly to one corner of the mouth.
cause “family is extremely important, being close to my siblings and the extended family, too.” Ganley’s
“It’s the Terry Look,” said Weiland. “Whether
adult sons, Joseph and Patrick, inherited her Maroon
you’re doing something funny, you’re doing some-
and Gold blood. Both graduated from the University
thing good, something bad, she gives you the look.
of Minnesota, and Joseph works in the College of
It’s like a smirk and her eyes get really small, but it’s
Science and Engineering.
like a smile smirk.”
“When Joe was in like fourth grade he was doing
Bloom said it takes some time to learn the “de-
a geography project and I was working with him,”
grees” of the look to know whether or not “you’re
Ganley said. “He had the Midwest and there was a
actually in trouble.” She added that a temporary
blank spot. I said, ‘Don’t you have to know Wiscon-
Snapchat filter resembling “the Terry Face” experi-
sin?’ He said, ‘Yeah, but I’m not writing that on my
enced popularity among the team.
paper.’ It’s not like we sat around the dinner table
‘She’s a Gopher through and through’
talking about it, but I think it’s loyalty.”
Ganley said she has never given serious thought to
year at the Gophers’ alumni meet, there is a long re-
moving away from the Land of 10,000 Lakes be-
ception line for Ganley. Bloom once saw her at that
22 / SKI-U-MAH / OCTOBER 2016
Ganley’s network stretches far beyond her blood relatives. She has 40-plus years’ worth of alumni to follow, on both the men’s and women’s sides. Each
more impressed by who she is. Current and former athletes know they can always come to her if they need help. Kremer calls it an honor to be her friend. Bloom said hanging out with Ganley after graduation is “the ultimate goal.” “I can come to her with anything,” Bloom said. “I can talk to her about swimming. I can talk to her about life. She’s just a great, understanding person to talk to. She’s invaluable. She’s a national treasure. She’s a state treasure. She’s a university treasure.”
Justine Buerkle is an assistant athletic communications director for Gopher Athletics. Contact her at jbuerkle@umn.edu.
“
I can talk to her about swimming. I can talk to her about life. She’s just a great, understanding person to talk to. She’s invaluable.
”
She’s a national treasure. She’s a state treasure.
She’s a university treasure.
an
INCREDIBLE
DRIVE
In her second season with the Gophers — and just her fifth as a serious golfer — Heather Ciskowski set the team record for single-season scoring average. She has her sights set much higher. STORY BY RICK MOORE
24 / SKI-U-MAH / OCTOBER 2016
PHOTOS BY ERIC MILLER
J
ust a shade over five years ago, Heather Ciskowski was a talented varsity tennis player at Barrington High School in suburban Chicago. She had her sights set on a college scholarship and had made a nice run in the state tournament as a freshman when she decided tennis wasn’t her game of love, so to speak.
pher women’s golf head coach. “That’s probaShe didn’t get burned out so much as she bly my favorite trait about her. She’s unbelievgrew sick of competing—in tennis, at least. “I able with determination. She can will herself realized that I didn’t really love it as much as I to do a lot of stuff, and it’s pretty cool.” would have thought,” she said. Lest this story sound the slightest bit sad, Ciskowski got over competitive tennis quickly, and in a big way. Her Ciskowski set a Minnesota record for single-season scoring dad suggested she try golf, and the summer before her sophomore year she started playing in earnest. And studying. And taking lessons. And playing some more. “I basically dedicated myself six, seven hours a day, maybe even more, every day during the summertime because I really hadn’t played [much]. I was at ground zero,” she said. “Fortunately I’ve been given this gift of natural athletic ability, so given that I was working super, super hard I was able to put myself in very high-level tournaments. I wanted to win and I wanted to play in college. I was fortunate enough to get very lucky early on and start winning a couple events, and I got recognized by a few 18, 36, 54 … whatever it takes schools and now I’m here!” Here, and already doing big things. In her Ciskowski credits her determination in that inifirst year at Minnesota she posted a scoring avtial summer back home for jump-starting and erage of 79.93 for the season. Then she found quickly super-charging her game. It helped that another gear in 2015-16, notching two top-20 her family had a membership at a nearby countournament finishes and shaving an amazing try club, but she took it from there. “Somesix strokes off her scoring average to set a Mintimes I’d play 18 holes, some days I’d play 36, nesota record for single-season scoring aversometimes I would literally play 54. I’d just be age at 73.93. She, along with teammate and there all day,” she said. “I was really deterroommate, Sabrine Garrison, teamed up to mined to get better, and so I would just sit capture the Minnesota Women’s State Amateur there all day in order to figure it out.” Four-Ball Championship in June, and Ciskowski There were even times, later in the day, when also qualified for the U.S. Women’s Amateur she’d take off her golf shoes to play—not exactly Championship in August. Not bad for a relative the going advice from Miss Manners among the novice. country club set. But by then she was a known “The biggest thing for her is she’s very deentity and, these days, Ciskowski said with a termined—she doesn’t let anything or anyone modest laugh, she’s the person they’re coming get in her way,” said Michele Redman, the Goto for advice on how to drop their handicap.
She also read articles, sought advice, watched video clips, and caught up on movies. “I had never watched Caddyshack,” she said. “[I thought] if I’m going to be immersed in golf
average at 73.93 as a sophomore in 2015-16.
I kind of have to know the lingo and what I’m talking about.” She broke 80 for the first time that summer, and her success in those tournaments spawned interest from colleges. She had visited Northwestern, Indiana, and Yale and knew she had options. “And then, poof, Minnesota came out from nowhere,” she said. Ciskowski first visited in the middle of January during a snowstorm, took in a hockey game, noticed students riding around on their bikes with ski masks on, and thought, “Oh, this is what I’m getting into.” But then she chatted with Redman and discovered that Minnesota was high achieving in both academics and athletics. “I was also looking for that butterfly feeling, that gut feeling that you get at the pit of your OCTOBER 2016 / SKI-U-MAH / 25
“I love pressure. I’m very successful in very high-pressure situations; that’s just kind of the situation I prefer to be in.”
stomach, because that’s what people had told me to search for when you’re looking at colleges.” Great business program, check. Great coach, check. Great campus, check. “So it was just a package deal, I think.”
On the course and off, all business
Ciskowski showed up for this story interview in business attire, having just come from her internship at Aon in downtown Minneapolis. She inherited the business bug from her father, a portfolio manager for a company in Chicago. “I was always kind of immersed in the business atmosphere,” she said. “I love money and I love the stock market, and obviously I like to win and I love numbers. I think business was kind of the way for me to go.” She also loves the Carlson School, and some of the strengths she ascribes to herself make her a great fit for the business world: extremely outgoing, enthusiastic, intelligent, a good communicator, and very professional. “She does really well,” said Redman. “Carlson is really tough. She’s an excellent student … 26 / SKI-U-MAH / OCTOBER 2016
and makes school a priority.” For that matter, the entire women’s golf team embodies Gopher Athletics’ emphasis on academics, ranking 20th among all collegiate women’s golf teams—NCAA Division I, II, and III—in team grade point average at 3.689. Another strength for Ciskowski is perhaps the biggest challenge for most golfers—mental toughness. “For me, personally, 80 percent of the game is mental,” she said. “You get to a certain level and you have the swing, you’re a good ball striker, you’re a good putter, you’re a good chipper. But none of that matters if you can’t step up and hit the shot. “I love pressure,” she added. “I’m very successful in very high-pressure situations; that’s just kind of the situation I prefer to be in.” Another thing she enjoys about golf is the almost infinite array of available shots, depending on the situation—and one’s imagination. “You basically can hit whatever shot you want whenever you want, wherever you want. It’s all about comfort and your ability to exe-
cute,” she said. “If you get in a sticky situation and you have to be creative, the only way you can do that is if you can [imagine] that shot.” “She doesn’t really hit it off line very often so I can see where she enjoys doing that,” said Redman. “She really does like visualizing the shots and she likes to be creative. She has a lot of good feel in her hands and she uses that to her advantage.”
‘A donut with no hole is a Danish’
When she has free time, Ciskowski loves to draw, read, or “do any sort of outdoor activity—biking, running, hiking, swimming, throwing a ball, going on walks,” she said. “I’d like to have more hobbies but unfortunately I have to stick to why I’m here, which is school and golf.” She also loves to cook and bakes for her teammates “all the time.” She and Garrison have a “famous” stuffed peppers recipe. Other specialties are cookies with an Oreo cookie stuffed in the center, and meatloaf cupcakes with mashed potatoes as frosting and bacon
TOP CHEF As mentioned in the feature on Heather Ciskowski, one of her favorite activities is cooking and baking. Below is the recipe for Ciskowski and her teammate Sabrine Garrison’s (above) famous stuffed peppers.
INGREDIENTS 4 large bell peppers (any color) 1 Ib lean (at least 80%) ground beef 2 tablespoons chopped onion 1 cup cooked rice 1 teaspoon salt (or more) 1 clove garlic, finely chopped 1 can (15 oz) organic tomato sauce
bits on top. Her dad was anxious to try those, she said. In addition to being in business, he’s also an avid and competitive golfer, and her mom is quieter but highly organized. Ciskowski has two younger sisters: the youngest (also an avid golfer) will be a sophomore in high school, while the other will be a sophomore at the University of Iowa. (Apparently, butterfly feelings can emanate from Iowa City, too.) As far as her own goals, she primarily wants to get better every day. “I want to accomplish as much as I can because I know that these four years go by super quickly, and it’s a once-in-alifetime opportunity, so I take advantage of it as much as I can.” She said that Redman has told her that her swing is fine, “But I still like to work on it and continue to get better and grow. She can say that it’s fine, but
it’s never going to be fine until I’m satisfied. And I’m never going to be satisfied so it’s … just going to keep going.” She’s excited about her business aspirations and wants to tack on an MBA at some point, but the lure of the green could pull her in another direction. “Being a professional golfer is always on my mind,” she said. “You play a sport for this long and it would kind of be foolish to not have it be on your mind, considering I am so passionate about it and it’s such a large part of my life.” Five years ago, Ciskowski was playing till twilight as a teenager in her hometown. Five years hence? She may still be immersed in golf, or she may be all business. Either way, she wins. Rick Moore is a writer and editor in University Relations and a long-time follower of Gopher Athletics. Contact him at moore112@umn.edu.
Additional: 3/4 cup mozzarella cheese (3 oz) and pepper for flavoring
PREPARATION INSTRUCTIONS 1. Cut a thin slice from the stem of the end of each bell pepper to remove the top of the pepper. Remove seeds and membranes; rinse peppers. If necessary, cut thin slice from bottom of each pepper so they stand up straight. Fill a saucepan with water and heat to boiling; add peppers into the water and cook for approximately 2 minutes; drain. 2. In a skillet, cook beef and onion over medium-high heat for about 8 to 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until beef is brown; drain. Add in and stir rice, salt, garlic, and 1 cup of the organic tomato sauce; cook until hot. 3. Heat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. 4. Stuff the peppers with beef mixture cooked in the skillet; stand peppers upright in un-greased square glass baking dish. Pour remaining tomato sauce over peppers. 5. Cover the peppers with foil and bake for 10-15 minutes. Sprinkle the top with cheese, if needed.
OCTOBER 2016 / SKI-U-MAH / 27
M
atic Spec flew half way across the world from Maribor, Slovenia preparing for the next chapter of his life as a men’s tennis studentathlete at the University of Minnesota.
He settled into his 17th Ave. dorm room and awaited the arrival of his future roommate and teammate, Felix Corwin, who strolled onto campus four days later from a small Wisconsin town, Elm Grove. They were both full of nerves that are familiar to anybody who remembers moving away to college. Corwin’s family took Spec out to eat that first night, the two played some tennis and tried to get to get to know each other. Spec remembers texting Corwin in the days leading up to the meeting and thinking he seemed quite introverted.
“We did not know what to expect from each other,” Spec said. “We were sitting in the room later that night and Felix was like ‘ok let’s try to meet some people.’ He opened the door and he had these giant speakers that he started blasting music from. I was like ‘ok I think we will get along well.’” That moment was the first of many the two have shared. As they head into their junior season, it is tough to find times they have been apart during the last two years. “We were together 24/7 it seemed like for the entire first half of our college career. We hardly ever argue, we get along really well. He is just easy to be around,” Corwin said. “We both love loud music, love to eat and that is about all it took.” 28 / SKI-U-MAH / OCTOBER 2016
Simple as that. Loud music and food. Not even adding girlfriends could split the duo up. It actually did the opposite. Their girlfriends are best friends, too. “They were friends before we started dating them. Matic and Kaitlyn were dating for a few months and I met my girlfriend Brittany through Kaitlyn. She introduced us,” Corwin said. Despite coming from dramatically different cultures, the two share similar views on the world and were eager to learn more about the other’s background. There is one thing that especially stood out in Corwin’s mind. “The biggest thing he has picked up from our culture is American football. He really latched onto that,” Corwin said. According to Jeremy Lynn, a teammate and roommate this past year, Spec may have been more into it than anybody else. “He knows more about the NFL than I do,” Lynn said. “Somehow he manages to stay up- to- date on sports updates, get good grades and win accolades in tennis.”
Starting Strong
It’s a good thing the duo hit it off right away. As freshmen, they joined a team with six upperclassmen. “They were the only two in their grade so they spent a lot of time together that first welcome week,” head coach Geoff Young said. “They had a lot of the same classes so it’s not surprising they became good friends. They are very similar style people with the way they go about their business.” The way they go about their business is laid-back, yet determined. The pair wasted no time jumping into col-
UNBREAKABLE
BOND
Felix Corwin and Matic Spec grew up half the world apart, but you would never know by their friendship on and off the court. STORY BY RYAN TIBBITTS
PHOTO: ERIC MILLER
OCTOBER 2016 / SKI-U-MAH / 29
legiate competition. Both contributed significantly to the team’s success as freshmen in 2015, helping the Maroon and Gold win its first Big Ten championship in 20 years. Spec went 31-5 in singles playing in the No. 2 through No. 5 singles spots. He went undefeated in Big Ten action and was named an alternate for the NCAA singles tournament after finishing the season on a 14-match win streak. He only lost two matches in dual match play his entire freshman season. Corwin completed the season with a 28-6 singles record playing in the No. 3-5 spots. He also posted a 25-7 doubles mark, among the most single-season doubles wins in program history. He recorded the match- clinching point against Northwestern in three sets to secure the team’s Big Ten Championship. “While they are from different parts of the world, I think they had similar upbringings,” Lynn said. “They share the same values. They are both like-minded, hard-working and successful.” “They just both like to work. Even when we are on the road they are constantly online looking for results and searching for who they will play,” associate head coach Urban Ljubic said. “Their mind is 100 hundred percent on getting better at tennis. They both are also doing very well in school. It is a win-win for us as coaches to have guys like that be part of the team.”
need to be able to be really real with each other and be very honest. Sometimes that comes across as tough love.” They were ranked as high as No. 10 in the country but were limited together in the spring due to Corwin’s injury. They teamed up again toward the end of the year and closed the season on a five-match win streak. They were selected as an NCAA Tournament alternate. “We are both great competitors and we both understand each other really well. We are just
“We have big serves, hit the ball big and return big,” Spec said. “We play most of our matches indoors so we go big returns and big serves,” Corwin said. “They complement each other with good serves and good returns which is the most important part of doubles,” Lynn said. “It is a lot easier to play when you have a good serve and a decent return in doubles. Those are the most important shots in doubles and both of those guys have them,” Ljubic said.
“Their mind is 100 hundred percent on getting better at tennis. They both are also doing very well in school. It is a win-win for us as coaches to have guys like that be part of the team.” – associate head coach Urban Ljubic
New Year, New Look
As freshmen, the duo could lean on senior leadership but the team had a completely different look going into their sophomore seasons. After trading four graduating seniors for four incoming freshmen, Spec moved to the No. 1 singles spot and Corwin started at No. 2. The Gophers produced positive moments despite struggles. Spec earned All-Big Ten honors playing all but one match at No. 1 in the spring season. Meanwhile, Corwin missed time with a wrist injury that limited him even when he was able to play. Playing together, the friends found success as a doubles tandem, something with which they did not have much experience with as freshmen. “We gave them a shot this year because we had a very new team. Those were the only two that really had any doubles experience before the season started,” Ljubic said. “We put them together to see what would happen and right away they had some success. They deserve to be playing No. 1 and to be ranked as high as they are.” In the fall tournament season the two went 6-2 together and won the ITA Central Region Championship, a victory which earned them a trip to the National Indoor Intercollegiate Championships. “I am surprised they did so well in doubles because, in the past when I put good friends together in doubles, it didn’t always take,” Young said. “When you are part of a doubles team you 30 / SKI-U-MAH / OCTOBER 2016
patient with each other,” Corwin said. “I don’t tell him what to do and he doesn’t try to tell me what to do,” Spec said. “A lot of people try to show their teammate what to do. When we started playing together, we said, ‘Yeah, let’s not do that. Let’s just see what happens.’ That worked out.” How do their games complement each other? “They serve and return well which is the biggest thing for doubles,” Young said.
Hitting the Road
When the season ended, Spec and Corwin immediately went back to work to prepare themselves for the upcoming season. They will be two of only three upperclassmen on the roster and plan to lead by example to help get the team back to where it was two years ago. “I think they are two guys that have a very clear vision of what they want to do here in college. That is making the most of their opportuPHOTOS: ERIC MILLER (TOP), BRAD REMPEL (BOTTOM).
nity – in school, as people and on the tennis team,” Young said. They went right to work on that vision by hopping in a car and road-tripping across the country to compete in four tournaments over the entire month of June. They stayed in hotels or host houses with no real break from tennis or driving. It was the ultimate friendship test. “I don’t know if I could stay with many other people while on a trip like that,” Corwin said. “We were sleeping in the same bedroom for 30 straight days and in between the tournaments we were driving ten hours. We did not have much space between us.” Oh, and Corwin drove the entire trip. “I do not have a license so he was the driver for everything. I was just trying to be a good co-driver and not fall asleep,” Spec said. “I was just grinding it out. He was a great companion to have,” Corwin said. “He only dozed off like once. I told him he could nap all he wanted and I really would not have cared but he stayed awake.” After leaving the Corwin family’s house in Elm Grove to start their summer odyssey, they headed all the way to Charlottesville, Va., for their first tournament. They went from Charlottesville to Winston-Salem, N.C., where they spent a week competing. From there they traveled all the way back to Tulsa, Okla., and finally finished out their trip in Wichita, Kan. Both Corwin and Spec said they had good moments and bad moments on the tennis court during the trip. Neither was completely satisfied. PHOTOS: CHRISTOPHER MITCHELL (TOP), BRAD REMPEL (BOTTOM).
“They were not as successful as they would have liked to have been. They spent countless hours right next to each other and were not winning. They stayed close regardless of results,” Lynn said. He compared it to the difference between their freshmen and sophomore years on the court. “They really had two drastically different seasons. One noteworthy one where they helped the team win a Big Ten Championship. The other one where the season did not go well and they had to be counted on as leaders as just sophomores,” Lynn said. “It did not have any negative impact on their relationship.” All it takes is spending a little time with Spec and Corwin to understand why nothing seems
to diminish their friendship. While they are both highly competitive, they stay steady in their emotions knowing what they have to work on. That positive way of thinking is something that the Gopher tennis team as whole strives to have. “Every tennis player has adversity in every single match. If you are able to stay the course and stay calm, and keep the right perspective, then you are going to be rewarded for it,” Young said. “The type of culture and environment we have is the kind that we want everyone to be real with each other and feel safe to say it how it is.” Though their path has been unpredictable, one thing that has remained a constant is that their friendship can get them through even the most trying times. It has been like that since the start. “It was my first week getting to know Matic, and the campus for that matter,” Corwin said, reflecting on the time they had spent together. “We did not realize that we had gone deep into [the campus-adjacent] Como [neighborhood] and had no idea how to get back. It started pouring rain … and we walked around the same blocks numerous times. After an hour or so of comical confusion we finally walked back into familiar territory where we then made it back to our dorm at 17th.” Ryan Tibbitts is an athletic communications assistant for Gopher Athletics. Contact him at rtibbitt@umn.edu.
OCTOBER 2016 / SKI-U-MAH / 31
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NEW KID ON THE BLOCK
E
ntering his fifth month on the job in October, Athletics Director Mark
tive, Coyle had Midwestern roots that grew deeper when he worked for
Coyle takes a few minutes to reflect on his first days at Minnesota
the University from 2001-2005. During his first tenure at Minnesota, Coyle
and where the athletics department is heading in the future. In the past decade, as he served as the deputy athletics director at Kentucky and then led the athletics departments at Boise State and Syracuse, Mark Coyle often reflected on the impact the four
years he spent working for Gopher Athletics had on his career. An Iowa na-
rose through the ranks to an associate athletics director position, experience that sent him on a journey from the Rockies to the East Coast, and eventually back to Dinkytown. Coyle recently looked back on his first few months at the helm of the department and to look ahead to what’s yet to come.
INTERVIEW BY JAKE RICKER
Q: Do you recall anything in particular from that first press conference back in May introducing you as the new athletics director? A: I remember when I got emotional. It was overwhelming. We never thought we’d have the opportunity to be at Minnesota. This place means a lot to us. The fact that we now have the opportunity to raise our children in an environment similar to how we were raised means a great deal to my wife and me. It’s those Midwestern values of loyalty, hard work, honesty, integrity, you know all the adjectives. As I looked at my family and looked at our kids at that press conference, I thought about what a blessing this is. Q: What is the biggest change at the University between when you departed in 2005 and when you returned in 2016? A: The biggest difference has been the facilities, both in athletics and in academics. I would have a chance to come back here every other summer and I always felt like there were cranes on campus, whether it be a new academic building, a research building, TCF Bank Stadium. The facilities have dramatically changed the physical appearance of the University since I was here before.
Q: How has you family adjusted to moving to Minnesota? A: I appreciate you asking about my family because that’s very important to me. I’m really grateful for their support. My wife, Krystan, and our kids have been awesome. They’ve adjusted well and are enjoying their school year. They’re involved in their sports right now and academically they’ve
that. If they take the time to come up and say hi, or if they take the time to write me a note, or send me an email, that’s important and I do want to get their feedback. I want to make sure we have a program for our people. We want a program that our people are proud of. It’s on us to create those special moments for them.
gotten off to a great start. My wife is back at work as a physical therapist, which she really enjoys. We’re slowly starting to get into our routine again.
Q: For those who don’t know you, how would you describe your leadership style? A: I think the most important thing is to lead by example. We can talk all day but, ultimately, you’re defined by your actions. We want to live in truth always. We want to be transparent with each other and people who engage with Gopher Athletics. We want to make sure we leave this place better than we found it. You can do that as a student-athlete, coach, or athletic administrator.
Q: In the rare event the Coyle family has a day off together, how do you spend it? A: It’s really simple – we’ll either be skiing or at a waterpark. We love to ski as a family and, selfishly, it’s great because cell phones don’t always work on mountains and you can spend time on the ski lift or on runs with your kids, which I really enjoy. We also love waterparks. I’m looking forward to that first day off with them. Q: You’ve spent a lot of time meeting with fans around the state. What’s your message for them? A: I am listening to them. I want our fans to know
Q: You often discuss the importance of accountability. What does accountability mean to you? A: When we bring a young woman or young man to our campus, I promise that every one of our coaches tells that potential student-athlete that if they come to Minnesota, they’re going to get a
OCTOBER 2016 / SKI-U-MAH / 35
dents in the NCAA’s Academic Progress Rate and I’m very proud of that. We are training young women and young men to leave here after four years and be able to contribute to society. The second thing that excites me, we have great stability. I get people sometimes focus on football, basketball, hockey. We’re going to focus on those sports but at the same time, we had six Big Ten Championships last season and a National Championship for women’s hockey, their fourth in five years. We have great athletic success. I’m really appreciative of how hard our kids are working. We need to make sure we make decisions that don’t deflect from how our student-athletes are doing academically and athletically. Mark Coyle speaking to a group in Owatonna (top) and Marshall (below) during the Gopher Road Trip in June.
degree and compete for championships. It’s my job to hold our coaches accountable, that we get that degree and compete for those championships. At the same time, it’s important for us to hold our student-athletes accountable. Being a student-athlete is a lot of responsibility and we need to make sure we act the right way academically, athletically, and socially, and that we make sound decisions. That goes to our staff too. We represent this institution, this community, and this state. We want to make sure we do it in a first class manner at all times.
Q: What’s the biggest change between your student-athlete days playing football at Drake and the current landscape for student-athletes? A: The sense of urgency is the biggest change. Social media has changed our world forever. There’s
36 / SKI-U-MAH / OCTOBER 2016
so much pressure on you as a student-athlete to do things the right way. I have an opportunity to visit with as many of our recruits as I can when they come on campus. We talk about making sure that you’re mindful, that people pay attention. Studentathletes didn’t have cell phones 20 years ago … they didn’t have social media, like Twitter and Instagram. We teach our kids all the time, that’s how you brand yourself. When we tweet something out or when we post something on Instagram, is that who we want to be? Is that how we want to be defined? We need to make smart decisions.
Q: What’s happening right now at Minnesota that excites you? A: Academically, we’re the top ranked public institution in the country in respect to success of our stu-
Q: Now that you’ve begun to settle into this role, what are your top priorities going forward? A: We need to improve on our actions. We’ve been through a period where we’ve taken a lot of the attention from our student-athletes and put it on ourselves because of decisions that were made. We need to make decisions that are intentional and consistent. We need to be transparent, and be people of great integrity and great character when we make those decisions. Are we focused on our student-athletes and coaches, and doing everything we can to support them? Are we invested in our donors, in our season ticket holders, and those people who are a part of our program? Our actions will define us. Q: What do you see as the future for the athletics department? A: I think we have unlimited potential. There’s no reason we can’t be the model program in the country. We’re working very hard on Athletes Village and we’re so grateful for the donors who have stepped up and made a donation for that. I talk about the academic success and we’re really proud of that. We’re going to continue to focus on our academics. At the same time, you can’t be shy to say you want to compete at a high level. We don’t have excuses why we can’t. We have to make honest assessments of where we’re at and where we want to be. I think the first thing is, you have to talk about it and realize that it takes hard work. We all have to be in it. When I say all, I mean our fans, our coaches, our studentathletes, our administration on campus, we all have to buy into this. When it’s done right, it can be special for this entire state. That’s our goal, to be a model program.
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BASKETBALL &
DONOR PROFILE
BEYOND
Bill Walter has followed his passions for much of his life, which has taken him around the world but always brought him back to Williams Arena.
BY JAKE RICKER
Bill and Judy Walter endowed a scholarship for men’s basketball and the recipients included Andre Hollins (left) in 2014-15.
38 / SKI-U-MAH / OCTOBER 2016
A
fter boiling down a lifetime of experiences and adventures, it becomes clear that Bill Walter simply wants to help. He’s a willing mentor, an eager fundraiser, a committed supporter of his favorite organizations and an appreciative alumnus of the University of Minnesota.
“I’m forever grateful to the University for what it did for me,” said Walter in a refrain he shares in different iterations several times during a nearhour-long conversation in his office in south Minneapolis. His business, Heartland Realty Investors, sits in a building that was once an old grocery store topped by a series of apartments. The updated structure is a reflection of the business itself, one which Walter bought from his employer as the larger company liquidated subsidiaries, went bankrupt and wound down into oblivion. That opportunity, one that shaped much of Walter’s life in the past 40 years, came only thanks to his time at Minnesota. In the late 1960s, Walter was an avid basketball fan with an undergraduate degree in Civil Engineering from Minnesota and a commitment to the Navy. He had left his hometown of Helena, Mont., for the Twin Cities thanks to a Navy Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) scholarship. In exchange for that support, Walter served following graduation. The U.S. was locked in a protracted war in Vietnam and he, like many of his peers, was sent overseas. His engineering background gave him skills that were critical to American missions at the time, and he ultimately served two tours abroad. “When I got out [of the Navy] in 1970, I came back to go to school at the University,” said Walter. “I loved construction and my civil engineering background, but I realized I didn’t want to be an engineer my whole life.” Walter enrolled in the M.B.A. program at the Carlson School of Management. He wanted to pursue his passion for investing. He left the U with his second degree in 1972 and began working with Shelter Corporation of America. Then, the company went broke. The bank asked Walter to help it unpack the company’s assets. Walter agreed on the condition he could purchase Shelter Financial Corporation, a subsidiary he turned into his current business. His success as a businessman has afforded Walter the opportunities to indulge his appetite for helpfulness. While that branched in many directions – from youth sports in southwest Minneapolis to a multi-decade tenure on the National Parks Board of Directors – his alma mater has received a great amount of his attention. Basketball is a life-long love for Walter. He was the captain of a lousy high school team in Montana who relished being around the game. He brought
Bill and Judy Walter
“
When I grew up, we had nothing. I knew I wanted to get out of Montana. My scholarship enabled it. We are trying to give other students the same opportunity I had.
”
that appreciation with him when he moved to Minneapolis. “I loved Gopher Basketball as an undergraduate. We had Lou Hudson, Archie Clark and Don Yates. The point guard actually lived across the hall from me in Frontier Hall when I was a freshman,” recalled Walter. “So I was able to talk to him about college basketball and I quickly learned about the players and who they were.” That encompassing view of student-athletes has stuck with Walter, who has taken an active role mentoring basketball players studying in the Carlson School, including famed sharpshooters Blake Hoffarber and Andre Hollins. Along with those mentorships, Walter lends his experience to other Carlson students as well. “They are inspirational. You talk about superstars,” Walter said, smiling and shaking his heads as he reflected on the students with whom he has worked over the years. “These young people I get exposed to, I hope I can provide some help and some guidance … from my perspective, I get far more out of it than I put into it.” His focus on giving back to both the basketball
program and the Carlson School extends to scholarship support as well. He and his wife, Judy, have established several scholarships within both athletics and the business school. “When I grew up, we had nothing. I knew I wanted to get out of Montana,” said Walter. “My scholarship enabled it. We are trying to give other students today the same opportunity I had.” Walter’s support goes beyond his own checkbook. He also fills a role of advocate and fundraiser. He reminisces about his junior year of high school and agreeing to raise money to publish the yearbook, a job nobody else wanted. He shares stories of working to raise money for parks, for his own company and for the University. “I’ve spent my whole life fundraising. People, my wife in particular, say ‘Don’t you get tired of asking people for money?’” said Walter. “The truth of the matter is I never ask people for money. I’ve never done that. What I do is tell them what I’m doing and how excited I am about it and they ought to join me because this is good stuff. This is fun.” That genuine zeal makes it feel like Walter would do anything on a moment’s notice for his favorite causes and organizations. And while the sentiment is figuratively true, he points out the one thing in his life around which he schedules everything for six months out of the year. “I alter my schedule in the winter around Gopher [basketball] games, business travel and all of that,” Walter said. In addition to attending every home game as a season ticket holder, Walter also travels to at least one or two road games each year and follows the team throughout its conference and NCAA tournament runs. He boasts an unblemished streak of attending every Big Ten tournament in history. It’s been more than half a century since Walter first arrived on the University of Minnesota campus. He’s earned two degrees, built a successful business and invested a tremendous amount back into his community. His enthusiasm still shines through when he discusses his favorite things – his family, his business, his alma mater. That enthusiasm shines the brightest when talking about his favorite team. Walter is still the captain of a lousy high school basketball team in Montana, excited to be in the stands for the next Gopher basketball game.
OCTOBER 2016 / SKI-U-MAH / 39
F
rom the rugby pitch to the weight room, Golden Gopher strength and conditioning assistant director Kristin Zdanczewicz has found that her time as an athlete has greatly shaped her career.
After being cut from her college’s softball team, Zdanczewicz went on to play for the USA Women’s National Rugby Team at the 2006 and 2010 World Cups, serving as team captain in 2007 and 2008. In all, she competed internationally for 12 years. Now, at age 35, there’s a chance she’ll don red, white and blue once more but Zdanczewicz believes her most important starting position is as coach. She currently serves as the main strength and conditioning coach for the women’s gymnastics and women’s track and field/cross country teams. Q: How did you get into rugby? A: I was on the women’s basketball team at UW-Whitewater and was planning to play softball, but at tryouts I was cut. I had a couple of basketball teammates that played rugby during the offseason – that’s how I found the sport. I went to one practice, then a tournament, and that was it. Q: How did your time on the basketball court transfer to the rugby pitch? A: There’s crossover in the lateral play, sprinting and accelerating. I was a physical player in basketball, which can get you in trouble, but in rugby that works. As far as speed and seeing the field, it comes over very nicely. I think basketball players can make a nice transition to rugby because they understand spacing and team play. Q: What did representing USA mean to you? A: It means a lot. I had the opportunity to travel across the world and play a sport I love. Being able to represent your country in Ireland, Scotland, England, New Zealand, Canada, etc., was an incredible experience. I enjoyed it a lot. Q: What was the most memorable part? A: My first World Cup in 2006. I was at the height of my game, pretty much the gold standard for my position … it was a great high, being able to play and represent USA on the world stage. Q: What was the atmosphere like? A: It’s exciting. Canada has a pretty strong following, there was a cool crowd. Being able to go toe-to-toe with England was awesome. We came in as underdogs and we were able to hit them in the mouth and show them what we were about. It was a great to start to the World Cup. Q: You’re still playing rugby, what keeps you in the game? A: My strength and conditioning, taking care of my body. Understanding what needs to get done in the weight room, as well as recovery. Having [Minnesota associate strength and conditioning director] Sara Wiley, “Coach Y,” not only as a mentor, but as someone that was there PHOTO BY JIM ROSVOLD PHOTOS: ERIC MILLER
40 / SKI-U-MAH / OCTOBER 2016
BEHIND THE SCENES
strengt h and cond itoning coach Krist in Zdanczewicz ONE OF AMERICA’S BEST RUGBY PLAYERS PREPARES GOPHER STUDENT-ATHLETES FOR THE RIGORS OF COMPETITION. by MADELINE OLSON
OCTOBER 2016 / SKI-U-MAH / 41
assisting me and training me off the field has made a big impact. Q: How did your time as an athlete shape your career? A: I was a business major and after one class I knew I couldn’t do that for the rest of my life. Our strength and conditioning coach at Whitewater, Steve Brown, was awesome. From what we did with agility, to what we did in the weight room, it really sparked my interest in continuing my education in strength and conditioning. Q: What is it like to work with student-athletes? A: You need to have a good floor presence. Being able to catch a studentathlete’s attention and get to know them is why they are going to buy in. If you’re not passionate, there’s not going to be trust. I can’t imagine doing anything else. My favorite part is watching freshmen come in with either a lot of knowledge, or very little, and seeing them develop over the next 3-4 years. We’ve had some really great athletes that are great at their sport, but watching them transition in the weight room is really exciting.
MORE ON ZDANCZEWICZ Hometown: Milwaukee, Wisconsin High School: Milwaukee Hamilton Bachelor’s Degree: B.A., UW-Whitewater, 2004 (Exercise Science) First Year at Minnesota: 2014 Jobs Prior to Arriving at the U of M: Strength and Conditioning coach at UW-Milwaukee, personal trainer, assistant basketball coach at Benilde-St. Margaret’s Hobbies: Checking out craft breweries, playing rugby, serving as [head football strength coach] Coach Klein’s workout guinea pig. Pronunciation Guide for Last Name: zuh-DAN-zuh-vitch
42 / SKI-U-MAH / OCTOBER 2016
Q: How do you approach strength and conditioning for the different programs that you work with? A: I work with women’s track and field as well as gymnastics. Both sports are individual, based on events, but there’s also a team aspect. My 400-meter runner is not going to be doing a program that my hammer throwers are, and my gymnasts aren’t going to be doing what my sprinters are, but the concepts are somewhat similar. They are both anaerobic and power sports. I take the core, and make sure they’re tweaked for the event and for the individual athlete. Q: Is this a dream job for you? A: It is. Someone asked me what I wanted to do five years ago when I was still focused on rugby, and I said that I ultimately wanted to be a strength and conditioning coach. I was able to do it at the high school level, but I knew I wanted to be here at Minnesota, specifically. I am really happy with this staff and department. I feel like I have grown with my methodologies and with the athletes, too. It’s been great. We had a successful season last year and we’re looking forward to building off of it. Q: You used to be a personal trainer, what kind of personal trainer were you? A: My sister used to tease me about being a drill sergeant. I tended to take the concepts that I would do with my athletes and apply it to a stay-at-home mom. The intensity was a lot for some of my clients. Q: What are your favorite exercises? A: I enjoy the power clean and I’ve also grown very fond of the safety bar front squat and back squat. And while it has no application, the bench press is still one of my favorites.
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