Ski-U-Mah Magazine: Spring 2017 Issue by University of Minnesota Athletics

APRI L

the

official

2017

magazine

ISS U E

Gopher

VOL .

I II

Athletics

CONTENTS

FE ATURE S 10

Sarah Wilhite

Baka r y Konaté

Anna G reene

Bret t & Chr is P farr

P. J. Fleck

A DDI TIO NAL CO N TE NT 2

G ophe r G re atne ss

G ophe r Travels

Credits

Back- to-Back

Backpack to Bri efca se: Jessica Ra mb erg

M Club Hall of Fame

Fan Eng age ment Program

Par ti ng Shot

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GOPHER GREATNESS Gopher Soccer won the 2016 Big Ten Regular Season and Tournament titles. Emily Heslin’s goal late in the Big Ten Tournament title game (right) gave the Gophers their first Tournament crown since 1995. (photos by Eric Miller)

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Gopher Men’s Hockey claimed the Big Ten Regular Season title for the fourth straight year and its sixth-straight conference title overall, a new national record. (photos by Jim Rosvold)

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/ GOPHERS ON THE ROAD /

GOPHER TRAVELS Slovenia native and men’s tennis associate head coach Urban Ljubic has traveled the world throughout his life. A top junior player from the Slovenian capital of Ljubljana, Ljubic came to the United States to play collegiate tennis at Lees-McRae College in North Carolina. Ultimately, he transferred to the University of Denver where he was a first team All-Sun Belt Conference player for current Gophers head coach Geoff Young. Soon after, Ljubic joined Young as an assistant coach at Denver and followed him to Minneapolis. Overall, he is in his 10th season at the University of Minnesota and travels much of Europe to recruit. Currently, the Gopher Tennis roster features student-athletes from Bosnia, Croatia, Serbia and Slovenia.

[2]

[8]

[10] [12]

[17]

URBAN LJUBIC [13]

ASSOCIATE HEAD COACH / MEN’S TENNIS

ON THE ROAD WITH URBAN [1] How many continents and countries have you visited: Four continents (Africa, Asia, Europe, North America). I’ve visited nearly all of Europe and probably 10 additional countries. [2] Airport you don't mind being stuck in: Amsterdam. [3] Essential travel items: Phone charger, portable phone charger, headphones, credit card. [4] Essential in-flight tunes: Whatever is playing on the playlist. [5] Favorite place to visit: Croatian beaches. [6] Sleep or no sleep on a flight: sleep as much as possible. [7] Snacks of choice: Prefer to bring my own food and snacks. I prefer the dark chocolate nuts and sea salt KIND bars. [8] Go-to travel outfit: Sweats or comfortable jeans [9] Favorite in-flight beverage: Craft beer if traveling alone, sparkling water when traveling with the team. [10] Bucket list trip: Faroe Islands. [11] Most unusual place you've visited: Romania. [12] Travel souvenirs that you collect: Paper foreign currency. [13] Team road trip location you never mind making: Miami, Florida. [14] Worst team travel nightmare you've been through: New York Snow Storm in 2016. [15] Worst personal travel nightmare you've survived: Staying at Kuala Lumpur Airport for 24 hours. [16] Most remote place or furthest place you have gone on a recruiting visit: Mostar, Bosnia. [17] Pretzels, peanuts or cookies?: Peanuts.

MORE ON URBAN: Ljubic first visited the United States in 1994 when he traveled to New York City to visit friends of his mother / Ljubic helped Minnesota win the Big Ten title in 2015, its first conference championship in 20 years and helped his teams earn eight NCAA Tournament berths during his 10 years on staff at Minnesota.

PHOTO: ERIC MILLER

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/ GOPHERS ON THE ROAD /

GOPHER TRAVELS Head soccer coach Stefanie Golan spends a lot of time on the road, whether it’s recruiting, traveling with her team to games around the country, or traveling with her family. The Duke University graduate is in her sixth season as Minnesota’s head coach, leading the Gophers to the Big Ten regular season and tournament titles in 2016. It marked just the second time the Gophers have won both titles in the same year (1995). It was Minnesota’s first regular season title since 2008. Golan was rewarded with Big Ten Coach of the Year honors after finishing the year with a 16-3-4 record and outscoring its opponents 48-12 on the year. The Gophers reached the NCAA Tournament for the third time in the last four seasons under Golan. [9]

[10]

[1] [2]

[11]

[5]

STEFANIE GOLAN HEAD COACH / SOCCER

ON THE ROAD WITH STEFANIE [1] Airport you don't mind being stuck in: Minneapolis...if I get stuck, I can go home! I prefer to fly direct so I don't get stuck in an airport, but if I was going to pick one, I might pick Philadelphia because there is good shopping. [2] Essential travel items: Phone, books to read, notebook and pen to write down all of my ideas as they come. I'm not really high maintenance about anything. [3] Essential in-flight reading: I'm always reading something to try to challenge my mind and to push me to grow. Anything on leadership, culture, or the mental side of things is right up my alley and sprinkle in something to stretch my faith. [4] Essential in-flight tunes: I always have my iPod on shuffle, so I get everything from Frank Sinatra to Linkin Park and everything in between. [5] Favorite place to visit: Any place that is warm and has a beach is great by me! We took [my son] Travis to Hawaii last January as his last vacation as an only child and it was awesome. I also love the Outer Banks, NC. [6] Sleep or no sleep on a flight: Depends on what seat I'm in and who is sitting by me. I am usually reading and rarely sleep. [7] Travel outfit: Typically something comfortable that is still repping the U of M as I'm usually traveling to recruit. If I'm not going straight to the fields, I can usually be spotted in Nike golf pants, Minnesota shirt, Minnesota jacket and Nike kicks. [8] Snacks of choice: I like to travel with trail mix and healthy snack bars. I'm an AdvoCare woman, so I usually have their snack bars and Spark with me. [9] Favorite in-flight beverage: Water and ginger ale...is it just me or does ginger ale taste better on a plane? [10] Bucket list trip: Fiji. [11] Team road trip location you never mind making: I love when we go to schools I've never been to as I love seeing other college campuses...however, it was completely awesome that we went back to play in Duke's tournament this past season and see a bunch of my former teammates. [12] Worst personal travel nightmare you've been through: [associate head coach] Krystle and I were traveling to California to recruit and we had a layover in Phoenix and we kept getting delayed. By the time we finally left to get to California, we landed, got our rental car, and had to make a choice...we went to check in at the hotel and could either sleep for 45 minutes before heading to the fields for a full day of recruiting or get a good breakfast, no sleep and power through. We powered through and it was a rough day to say the least. [13] Worst team travel nightmare you've survived: My first year as a graduate assistant at Mercer University, we were taking a bus to Northwestern State University in Louisiana in August. It was brutally hot and it was going to be a long bus ride. The AC broke and I literally passed out from the heat. When I woke up, drenched in sweat, it was two hours after we were supposed to have arrived, and our bus driver was completely lost. We got to our hotel about four hours past schedule and I think I sweat off 10 pounds! [14] Most remote place or furthest place you have gone on a recruiting visit: When my husband was a men's college soccer coach, we went to both England and Israel recruiting, and I've also gone to work an ID Camp in Alaska many years ago when I was an assistant.

MORE ON STEF: Golan’s father, Geno Kraay, was an All-American goalkeeper at the Air Force Academy in 1969 / Golan lettered as a defenseman for Duke from 19972001 and helped the Blue Devils reach three NCAA Tournaments PHOTO: CHRIS MITCHELL

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Issue

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, Rachel Timmerman 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 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.

REGGIE LYNCH BLOCKED 11 SHOTS AGAINST PENN STATE ON FEBRUARY 25 WITHOUT COMMITTING A FOUL, BECOMING THE FIRST PLAYER IN THE BIG TEN TO ACCOMPLISH THE FEAT IN THE LAST 20 YEARS. PHOTO BY ERIC MILLER

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BACK-TO-BACK Gopher Volleyball advanced to the NCAA Final Four for the second straight year and held the No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament, the best seed in school history. The Gophers finished 17-0 at the Sports Pavilion and have won 36-straight home matches. (photos by Eric Miller)

Senior Sarah Wilhite was named the AVCA National Player of the Year and First Team All-American (middle) while teammates Samantha Seliger-Swenson and Paige Tapp were named First Team AllAmericans. (photos by Eric Miller)

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Right: It was a banner for Gopher women’s diving as Yu Zhou won the NCAA title on the 3-meter springboard, Sarah Bacon was the NCAA runner-up on the 1-meter and Lexi Tenenbaum was named the NCAA Diver of the Year after earning All-America awards in all three diving events. Wenbo Chen was named the NCAA Diving Coach of the Year. (photos by Walt Middleton)

NCAA CHAMP Ethan Lizak, Michael Kroells, Tommy Thorn and Brett Pfarr earned All-America honors and helped Minnesota finish seventh at the 2017 NCAA Wrestling Championships. Pfarr and Lizak were runners-up at 197 and 125 pounds respectively. (photos by Jerry Lee)

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SPECTACULAR S E N I O R

SARAH WILHITE COMPLETED HER COLLEGIATE CAREER AS THE NATIONAL PLAYER OF THE YEAR ON A FINAL FOUR TEAM. STORY BY RACHEL TIMMERMAN

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PHOTO: ERIC MILLER

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he National Player of the Year never thought she would end up where she is today. Five years ago, she wasn’t even sure she’d play Division I volleyball.

Though the awards from her banner year span every category, Eden Prairie native Sarah Wilhite didn’t realize her own potential until she started getting attention from top programs around her junior year of high school. “I didn’t know if I wanted to go Division I, II or III – the journey just led me to Division I,” Wilhite said. “I think it just kind of happened as I developed as a player and I grew into my own body – I sprouted up a lot my freshman and sophomore years of high school.” Once Wilhite grew into her early potential, there were a lot of schools interested in her. Her hometown university was among them, with a new leader building the Gopher program in his vision. “The attraction [of Minnesota] was Hugh [McCutcheon] coming in the year before I got here, so knowing I could play under him was awesome,” Wilhite said. As it did for many of her highly recruited teammates, Wilhite’s first season as a Gopher came as a shock. She developed into a standout player in high school. Now she found herself playing among a roster full of standouts. “The Minnesota team was made up of the best, and I was competing against my teammates for a role on the team,” Wilhite said. The young player had a hard time pushing past the mental struggles of competing for a starting position. “My mental game was not very strong,” Wilhite said. “At the beginning, I was beating myself up over it. There was a lot of pressure that I put on myself through that, [pressure] about performing and meeting expectations.” Head Coach Hugh McCutcheon, whose presence helped the future All-American decide to be a Gopher, wanted Wilhite to learn how to be comfortable with the moment of competition versus worrying about competing for a spot. He also wanted her to “understand that she could have a profound positive influence on the team and get her to own that.” “By the time the starting team was more set, I was able to still have a role on the team by pushing people who were playing to get better, which I think I embraced more as the season got further in,” Wilhite said. That evolution in outlook helped her adjust and learn in her new role. Playing behind AllAmerican players like Ashley Wittman and Daly Santana for those first couple seasons helped strengthen her game, both physically and mentally. “I had to go through those experiences [of not playing] to figure it out,” Wilhite said. “The huge shift for me was getting rid of the fear and pressures, and just “The huge shift for me was getting being able to focus on the actual technique. Whereas if I would have rid of the fear and pressures, and played right away, I don’t know if I just being able to focus on the would have seen that barrier.” That lesson has helped her actual technique. Whereas if I every season since her rookie year. She’s found a way to benefit the would have played right away, I team no matter her role, eventually making her way to a six-rotation don’t know if I would have seen outside. that barrier.” “It’s definitely a different experience being out there all the time and being able to make a difference as people are coming in and out,” Wilhite said. “Hugh always said to me that not a lot of people understand the work that comes with being a six12 / S K I - U - M A H / A P R I L 2 017

AV C A N AT I O N A L P L AY E R O F T H E Y E A R / E S P N W N AT I O N A L P L AY E R O F T H E Y E A R B I G T E N P L AY E R O F T H E Y E A R / N C A A F I N A L F O U R A L L - T O U R N A M E N T T E A M N C A A R E G I O N A L M O S T O U T S TA N D I N G P L AY E R / F O U R - T I M E B I G T E N P L AY E R O F W E E K rotation outside because you have to be able to do everything. I think it really pushed me in a positive way and got me to be the leader I knew I could be.” Everyone may want that coveted all-around position, but many aren’t able to handle the pressure. Wilhite can, which makes her exceptional. “People don’t understand the work it takes to get there and the weight you carry as being a six-rotation kid,” McCutcheon said. “The amount of emotional depth needed to withstand that constant battle is pretty significant – she was able to develop that.” With such a decorated senior season, many are surprised to learn Wilhite never received a single national or conference awards during her previous three seasons at Minnesota. Wilhite said the big switch that led to such a successful senior year was learning to just enjoy playing the game. “[This season] I was kind of blocking out the noise a little bit more than I did my first three years,” Wilhite said. “Whether it’s the fans, or the media, or even just the expectations of coaches and teammates. There was definitely freedom that came with that, of just playing the game that I’ve grown up loving without any of the extra baggage that may come with the moment of competition.” McCutcheon was able to see those changes in not only her play, but also in her everyday life. “I'm really proud of her because I know where she started and what she was able to accomplish in the end," McCutcheon said. "She certainly made progress from year to year but the shift from junior to senior year was probably the biggest. It was phenomenal.” At the end of her senior season, the volleyball program awarded Wilhite both its most improved and most valuable player awards – two things that are not normally won by the same person. “The most improved means a lot to me because it shows where I’ve come from and how I’ve gotten better,” she said. “In the spring, I was making big shifts in my technique, whether it was passing, hitting approach or arm swing. The most valuable was just an honor.” Former teammate Paige Tapp recognized the qualities that made Wilhite so deserving of both awards. “She was always such a talented player, but the past year she owned every piece of that, rising to every challenge and excelling to be the leader and player that everyone knew she could be,” Tapp said. Tapp also noted the physical struggles Wilhite had to overcome. “She didn’t have the easiest path throughout her ca-

reer,” Tapp said. “With a multitude of injuries and trials, she overcame every single obstacle and grew to become the strongest version of herself for her senior season.” One challenge that most would view as a large setback came during the preseason of her junior year, when she tore an abdominal muscle. But the optimistic Wilhite looks back on it as a humbling learning experience. “The timing of it was inconvenient, but it helped me to break things down more,” she said. “During practice, I would just be doing approaches, working on my footwork, or working on different techniques that I’d be able to apply to when [I was] actually playing, which I think helped a lot.” Without a role on the court, Wilhite strengthened her leadership skills off the court. “I now had a role of encouraging and being a good teammate, and helping the younger players,” she said. “I was still able to affect the team in a positive way.” McCutcheon observed the impact Wilhite’s leadership had on the team. "There were lots of people that led in different ways, but I think Sarah's style was more exemplary," McCutcheon said. “She wasn't just telling you to work hard, she was living it." While she wasn’t the loudest on the court, Wilhite knew how to motivate her team and create energy. “There are a lot of things that go into leading by example – not just execution but the way you handle yourself on the court, in competition, being composed when things get a little crazy,” Wilhite said. And when things did get a little crazy on her home court, Wilhite had a secret weapon – her 11-year-old sister, Caroline. The youngest Wilhite was part of the Volley Squad; a group of young girls that pass balls to players and towel off the court in between plays at home matches. “She’ll run off [off the court] and yell ‘You got this, Saucey’ under her breath so she’s not screaming,” Wil-

hite said. “It’s special to have her out there, enjoying it right along side me and cheering for me, even though they’re not supposed to cheer. I think it has connected her and I in a way that’s special and different than most relationships.” Leaving something behind for younger women to follow is a part of Wilhite’s current role. Though her time as a Gopher volleyball player has ended, Wilhite has returned to work at open gym sessions with the team. And she’s ready to be back. “I have the opportunity to help the four freshmen outside hitters,” she said. “I’ll be able to influence and share my experience with them. I still have a role even when I’m not necessarily on the team, which is cool.” McCutcheon is happy to have her back as well. "I think she can really help our young team with how to manage the process," McCutcheon said. "It will be great to have her influence as a leader, as someone who has been through it successfully.." But since she’s not technically on the team, that means more time for other things, like sleeping. “It’s weird being on campus knowing that the team is getting up every morning to work out and I’m in my bed,” Wilhite said. The physiology major is currently working toward graduating by next fall, with hopes to play volleyball professionally before eventually going to grad school. “Grad school is a long-term goal, especially because playing overseas is definitely of interest,” she said. “I’m ready to move on to the next step, especially with the players who are playing overseas, it makes me want that a little more.” Three Gophers from Wilhite’s class are all over the world playing professionally right now, leaving many options for where Wilhite could end up. “I’d love to go somewhere in Europe, but I know there are really good leagues in Asia, so it’s kind of where the best opportunity is,” she said. “I haven’t had a ton of communication with teams yet, but hopefully that will play out as I get further along in this process of graduating.” With volleyball no longer the focal point of her life, she’s able to cultivate other hobbies. But there’s one thing that continues to take up all of her time. “School is kind of my hobby right now.” Rachel Timmerman is a communications assistant for Gopher Athletics.

PHOTO: ERIC MILLER

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akary Konaté flashes a wide, warm smile and reaches down to shake a visitor’s hand before ducking under some scaffolding that’s become a new fixture in the Bierman athletic complex—a precursor to the new Athletes Village rising to the east. Upon entering a conference room, Konaté takes a seat at the end of a long table, his legs splayed everywhere, and suddenly you realize you don’t have it so bad on airplanes, after all.

By all accounts, the junior center on the Gopher basketball team is a blast of West African sunshine in the University of Minnesota community, with a personality even larger than his 6-11, 235-pound frame. But on this day he’s a bit reserved, especially after finding out his story will be shared at length to a broader audience. That’s the price of endearing yourself to your teammates and adopted state and having a rich tale worth telling.

A late bloomer, ‘Lost Boys,’ and a found opportunity Konaté’s path to Minnesota would take half a basketball game to fully explain, and involves four languages, three continents, two families, and one very dedicated student and athlete. He was born in Bamako, Mali, and counts 14 siblings among his “extended” family. At age 12 he started playing basketball rather than his original love, soccer, and that corresponded with an epic growth spurt. Two years later he traveled to Spain with his brother to explore options for secondary school, and wound up attending IES La Vega de San Jose on Grand Canary Island. Konaté was still raw as a high school player, but in four years averaged nine rebounds, 7.5 points, and one block per game, and he played for Team Mali in the Adidas Nations Basketball Tournament in Chicago. He spent an additional year at Sunrise Christian Academy in Wichita, Kan., where he focused on raising his SAT scores and English proficiency. The summer prior he caught the eye of coaches from a number of Division I colleges. Among them were Rick Pitino from Louisville (which had recently won an NCAA championship), who said, as Konaté recalled, “I think we are interested in you.” On an official visit to Louisville, Konaté met Pitino’s family, including son Richard, who had just won the NIT title in his first year coaching at Minnesota. When the Louisville ship sailed without him, one thing led to another and Konaté wound up visiting Minnesota, where he loved the U and the “kind” people. Intertwined with all of this was a relationship Konaté’s family had with Jeffrey Kollar of Sharon, Pa. Some 18 years ago, Kollar had watched a ‘60 Minutes’ segment on the Lost Boys of Africa. The piece moved Kollar. The following day he talked with a friend from college and declared that, “Somehow or another, I’d like to help.”

That notion turned into a concrete idea—to recruit, in a sense, a bright young African child who could earn a collegiate scholarship in America. The goal, said Kollar, was to “get someone a full education so that they could take those skills back to Mali, put them to use, and change lives.” His first “recruit” was Ibrahim Konaté, Bakary’s older brother, who came to Pennsylvania when he was 15 and went on to play college basketball for Boston University. Ibrahim earned a math degree and added a master’s degree. He is now teaching in Ohio. Kollar developed a relationship with the Konaté family and thought, “This worked so well, let’s see what we can do with his brothers or sisters.” That connection has worked six times now, and Kollar considers himself a second father to Konaté, about whom he gushes. “As the people of Minnesota are becoming aware, Bakary is an individual that is extremely outgoing and personable,” Kollar said. “That’s one of Bakary’s greatest traits; his personality is so big.” “You’d be hard pressed to find a guy that’s more liked than Bakary on campus,” said Gopher Head Coach Richard Pitino. “Everyone knows him, everybody loves him. He’s never had a bad day, always a smile on his face, always talking to everybody. He’s easily one of the most popular student-athletes that I’ve been around.”

Adapting to a new role Despite some nagging injuries, Konaté was a key cog for the Gophers as a sophomore last year, albeit for an undermanned team that struggled to an 8-23 overall record and only two Big Ten wins. He started 26 times and averaged nearly 22 minutes per game, with 4.8 points and 5.1 rebounds (the latter good for second-best on the team). This year Minnesota added to its lineup transfer Reggie Lynch (who promptly became one of the nation’s elite shot blockers) and freshman Eric Curry—two athletic big men who earned significant playing time and helped key the Gophers’ incredible turnaround. That relegated Konaté to a reduced role in terms of playing time, with an average of about 10 minutes per game. However, the time he logged was precious, both for the team and Konaté. “Last year he played a lot of minutes and it was good for him, even if he may not have been totally ready,” said Pitino, who added that last year’s experience bolstered Konaté’s matu-

14 / S K I - U - M A H / A P R I L 2 017 PHOTO: ERIC MILLER

BIG MAN ON CAMPUS GLOBETROTTER BAKARY KONATÉ FINDS A HAPPY HOME IN MINNESOTA. STORY BY RICK MOORE

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screens. And when English is your fourth language (his native Bambara, French, and Spanish are the others), you’re always playing a bit of catch up. “I have to [work harder]; I have no other option,” he said. “I still have a way to go, but I know I have to learn faster.” He’s planning to major in business management, and thinks that the world of sales—if not basketball—may open doors for him anywhere in the world. “I’m getting the skill set to start knowing people and how to communicate,” he said. “If I have a good resume and have those relationships, I think can find something.” The desire to communicate is not an issue. “When he first got here he was really quiet,” Mason said. “Through the years he’s definitely speaking a lot more—speaking too much now—and making jokes. It’s fun to see how he went from being shy to being so talkative.” “You can always tell when someone gets somewhat Americanized,” added Pitino. “He’s one of the funnier characters in our locker room. Everybody loves him; he’s friends with everybody. You can just tell that everybody really, really wants him to succeed on the court. And I think a lot of that is because he’s such a good teammate and cares about the guys and wants them to succeed. You can ‘No Bakary-screen Tuestell that they feel the same way about days’ and other rituals him.” While Konaté is reserved in an inOutward ebullience aside, there’s terview, talk to Pitino or a teammate a contemplative side of Konaté. “Even or even Konaté himself and you learn though he’s very personable, he’s a that he’s enthusiastic and outgoing, to very cerebral individual,” said Kollar. the nth degree. His energy abounds “When people think he doesn’t underon the court, especially in practice. stand [something], he understands.” “He works his butt off and never Everyone knows him, everybody loves him. He’s never “I’m just trying to take time to antakes a possession off,” said Pitino. had a bad day, always a smile on his face, always talking alyze things, instead of trying to “To be his size and play that hard, to react,” said Konaté. “I might underplay with that type of motor, it’s a to everybody. He’s easily one of the most popular stand more than people think.” valuable weapon off the bench for student-athletes that I’ve been around. “I try to be generous and have a us.” good time with people,” he added. “To And “he can set some very physi– head coach Richard Pitino me, being in a different place and cal screens,” Pitino said with a grin. being around different people of dif“You have to be careful of putting him ferent cultures and ethnicities and all those backgrounds different to my own, that in screening actions the day before a game, because he’ll knock somebody out. We’re has been a blessing. And I’m trying to take advantage of every opportunity to meet always on him about that.” new people and learn from them.” The day before a home game with Indiana in mid-February, Konaté apparently Host dad Kollar has no doubt Konaté will succeed in the future—during and after set himself up as an immovable object on just such a screen. Akeem Springs hit the his on-court pursuits. “Bakary has turned into a great young man and I’m expecting wall and Konaté “almost gave him a concussion,” said Pitino. “That’s just the way he great things of him as a man, a father, and a leader of a community—whatever prois; he’s an intense kid that plays hard every single possession.” fession he chooses,” he said. Konaté dedicates himself to academics with the same vigor he applies to his

ration process. “He’s become a great force down low—a great secondary big man we can count on to make stops,” added Nate Mason, the junior point guard who is one of Konaté’s closer friends on the team. Facing less playing time can be a big blow for an athlete, but Konaté has adapted well. “He hasn’t said a word,” said Pitino. “He’s the biggest cheerleader on the team and just wants to help us win. The only time he’s ever complained to me is if I take him out too much in practice. He listens to everything you say, he competes every single day. He just wants to be on the court and practice, and he never even mentions [playing] time during the games.” Konaté is competitive enough to dislike his decreased time, but unselfish enough to turn it into a positive. “It was not easy, but I understand,” he said. “I know Reggie is an excellent shot blocker and a big body, and does a lot of stuff well.” “Now I understand I have to work very hard, game by game, to get [the coach’s] confidence every minute that I’m on the court. Even if it’s for five seconds or 10 seconds, I try to do my best to help my team win.”

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PHOTO: COURTNEY ANDERSON

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[your plan] step by step and not be lazy, Pitino is also expecting big things To me, being in a different place and being around you can find your way. It might take time, of Konaté. “He’s such a people person different people of different cultures and ethnicities but you can do it.” that he’s going to be successful in And in his case, if you smile a lot on whatever it is that he does, because and all those backgrounds different to my own, that your journey, you’ll have plenty of teamhe has such a good way about him has been a blessing. mates and friends at your side. and people are going to want to surround themselves around him.” Konaté may not yet be prone to profundity in his fourth language, but after a re- Rick Moore is a writer/editor in University Relations and a long-time follower of Gopher Athletics. flective pause, he offered that he’s “starving” to achieve his goals—academically, athContact him at moore112@umn.edu. letically, and socially. “I really believe if you prepare yourself, work hard, and follow

”

PHOTO: ERIC MILLER

nna Greene grew up a golfer. Her dad bought her a set of

clubs when she was in fourth grade and she has been playing ever since. She was all-conference on the Irondale High School golf team in high school. She spends her summers working on the Hiawatha Golf Course in south Minneapolis. She plays with her dad whenever she can. She also happens to be a first team All-Big Ten rower. “All throughout high school, my home course was Victory Links in Blaine. Playing 18 holes every day in the spring for three years made that place home,” said Greene. She had spent a lifetime golfing, but turned down a chance to play collegiately at St. Catherine University in St. Paul. The lure of the University of Minnesota’s campus was too strong. Her family moved to suburban St. Paul from Dayton, Ohio when she was in eighth grade and she says she “fell in love with Minnesota.” Her father worked on campus and, as a result, Greene was always around the U of M. She loved the big school feel. She knew she wanted her college experience to include going to football games and attending classes in “big lecture halls, like in the movies.” Greene’s introduction to college rowing came in what has emerged as a critical, if not unconventional, part of head rowing coach Wendy Davis’ recruiting process. Greene received a pamphlet. Davis said her program tries to “get talented walk-ons who are athletic and want the opportunity to be an athlete.” That strategy has helped Minnesota compete at the highest levels despite the challenges of its Upper Midwestern location. Greene’s dad encouraged her to pursue rowing, but she was still skeptical. At ExploreU, a campus orientation event for first-year students, Greene said she was “signing up for everything she could” when the novice rowing coach found her. “He came up to me and said ‘You’re tall. You should be a rower.’” While on its own maybe not the most compelling recruiting pitch, it seemed rowing would always find Greene. At an event where she was looking for ways to get involved in campus, she again found herself being drawn into rowing. She surrendered. She went to a team informational meeting and decided to join. She told herself then that she could walk away at any time and that there was nothing holding her to the team. After one day of practice, she knew she was going to stay. It’s certainly not because that first day was easy. Greene remembers enduring a rough few weeks as she began her rowing career. She missed the first day out on the water, a day spent in a boat the team calls “the barge.” The nickname fits the flatter

Her oddly assembled athletic history has given Greene the traits to be a successful rower. Her ascent from that first day in the water to one of the best rowers on the Gopher roster is a testament to that. boat that moves more stability to help first-time rowers. Instead, Greene’s first day on a boat was in a real racing shell. “I was convinced I was going to die out there,” she recalled. Greene’s ability as a rower were to be determined at that point, her ability to be a great teammate shined through right away.

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PHOTO: ERIC MILLER

embracing the

CHALLENGE An eclectic past as a competitor prepared all-conference rower Anna Greene to excel i n y e t a n o t h e r a t h l e t i c e n d e a v o r. STORY BY DAVID PLUMMER

each other and during the whole test we were about 10 meters apart. Because we “I met Anna the first week of practice, she was actually the first person I met on were so close, we were pulling faster numbers than we probably would have if we the team,” said Greene’s teammate Anna Cruse said. “Within the first five minutes were not next to each other. It was support through comof conversation, she was cracking jokes. She brought so petition, which is really fun.” much humility and lightheartedness to a very stressful situGreene remembers how her mindset about training ation. It was refreshing, and from that moment we were shifted going into her junior season, not just in terms of the friends and have been very close ever since.” volume of time she trained, but her mentality throughout Greene showed that dedication to her teammates early those sessions. “I attacked every practice and every stroke on. When someone was late to a practice where the team and it (has) made a world of difference.” was running the hundreds of stairs rising and falling from Instead of dreading every practice, she started looking the flats that flank the Mississippi River, Greene stayed and at them as opportunities to improve, another trait usually ran extra so her teammate did not have to go alone. Davis said that Greene “embodies what we are about” and that only found in the most experienced athletes. While working through one of those optional summer she is “exactly what you are looking for in a rower.” practices, an assistant coach asked her in what boat she “You have to love training,” Davis added. wanted to row that coming season. Greene, who did not run in high school, found herself “I just blurted out, ‘top 8,’” a term used for the team’s running regularly to become a better rower. She said that once she realized she could not cheat her training and still number one boat, which is powered by the team’s best rowers. She had challenged herself to become one of the best succeed, she started to get her work done. Then she started on the team. to get extra work done. She would regularly spend an extra For any rower, the highest levels of collegiate competiten minutes on the rowing machine after practice was over. Greene’s athletic background is in golf and color guard tion can be daunting. There are meets where someone like By her junior season, Greene was setting personal best (above) during her time at Irondale High School. times in practice nearly every time the team tested. She beGreene, a first-time varsity rower, finds herself looking over at the boat one lane over and sees Olympians starting back. That pressure only inlieves that simply that working hard and doing a little extra began to mold her into tensified when realizing how little margin of error separates the extraordinary from a competitive rower. At development camp over the summer, she signed up for every the ordinary. optional practice. Davis put it in these terms: “Think of three one-hundredths of a second on each “If you want to get better, you have to put the work in every practice,” she said. stroke over six minutes.” While a simple idea, the concept can be amazingly hard to execute on a regular Those micro-seconds can make for a big difference. Rowing is a sport of enbasis. For a novice rower, she sounded like a veteran. durance, but it is also extremely precise. While Greene’s relentless training proCruse remembers a six-kilometer test that fall where “Anna and I sat next to 2 0 / S K I - U - M A H / A P R I L 2 017

PHOTOS: ERIC MILLER

“I like the accountability. If someone isn’t working as hard as they can, they are letting the rest of the team down. I’m reminded of why I love the sport”

duced endurance, she felt like she had some experience when it came to being precise. Few sports require more precision from its athletes than golf, Greene’s lifelong love. When Greene looks for the roots of her rowing success, she sees it in her high school past, however; she doesn’t recall Victory Links. She remembers a color guard competition at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Ind. Greene competed in both color guard and winter guard while at Irondale. The core tenet of any guard performance is to stay in perfect time with all other members, creating the best possible visual effects for the group’s performance. Her team competed in front of nearly 50,000 people that afternoon in Indiana. “I knew if I wasn’t doing the same thing as everyone else with that many people watching, someone would notice,” Greene said. Precision was everything. Greene had the precision and the endurance to row. No stranger to challenges, she also had the competitive fire to become great. “It’s a decision,” she said about being in a race. “As [the other team] gains water on you, do you let it happen?” She says that you can break another boat and, as you start go by, you get a lighter feeling. “In rowing, you can see a team start to panic as you take seats on them.” Her oddly assembled athletic history has given Greene the traits to be a successful rower. Her ascent from that first day in the water to one of the best rowers on the Gopher roster is a testament to that. She understands the challenges of a walk-on rower’s journey. Having experienced that, she believes her greatest contributions to the team come away

from the oars and the stopwatches. “I think it’s the positivity I bring to the team.” She maintains strong relationships with every athlete on the team, even going so far as to putting Hershey’s kisses in the lockers of girls who have had a hard practice. “(Anna) brings leadership, especially as a captain,” said Cruse. “She has a contagious laugh and laughs at pretty much anything, so she is able to lighten any situation. She tells jokes during ab circuits and writes jokes on the whiteboard in the locker room reminding us every day that in addition to being serious and driven toward greatness, it is important to have some fun along the way.” What many athletes and coaches love about row-

ing is the team atmosphere it breeds. “There is a camaraderie and closeness in the sport, everyone relies on each other,” said Davis. Those feelings are what Greene loves about the sport. “I like the accountability. If someone isn’t working as hard as they can, they are letting the rest of the team down.” At its best, when everyone embraces that and it clicks, “I’m reminded of why I love the sport.” At a recent practice, Greene said her coaches went down the line to every pair on the boat and asked them to put in a little more. “You can feel the shift in intensity as everyone starts to pull harder.” As her coach passes Greene’s pair, she puts in the extra effort and they start to fly. David Plummer is a 14-time All-American swimmer at the U of M and was a Gold and Bronze medalist at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio. He currently works in athletic administration for Gopher Athletics. Contact him at plumm006@umn.edu.

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FAITH OF FARMERS Brett and Chris Pfarr may not have imagined they’d wrestle together in the NCAA Championships while they were practicing on their family’s farm, but faith in the power of hard work has helped them accomplish their goals. STORY BY JAKE RICKER

igh above the banks of the Minnesota River, travelers heading south down Highway 169 from the Twin Cities are welcomed to the river valley by the likeness of the Jolly Green Giant, the signature image of Le Sueur, Minn. The town of 4,000-some has long been home to the Green Giant label, famous for adorning frozen vegetables for decades. It’s the perfect symbol for a town that could be the postcard for Minnesota’s agrarian tradition. While Green Giant no longer cans its goods in Le Sueur – its agricultural research center still resides in the southwest Minnesota hamlet – statues and images of the brand’s towering mascot still dot the community. In the shadow of the Giant, just a few miles out of town, the Pfarrs continue to farm land that has been in their family for generations. It’s not an easy lifestyle. The days are long, the work is hard, and unforeseen problems are part of the daily routine. Success is measured in seasonal increments. Faith that time and energy invested will pay off is paramount. “We reap what we sow,” said Dave Pfarr, the patriarch of the family. It’s a reference to farming, but he quickly broadens its scope. “The discipline of the farm, the hard work and the adaptability [needed] day-to-day, it feeds well into a sport like wrestling.” The entire family understands that connection. Dave and his wife Robyn raised four kids on the same 300-some-acre farm site on which Robyn grew up (the family also owns around 500 additional acres down the road, the farm where Dave was raised). The three Pfarr boys have wrestled since they were young. “Our parents put us in all kinds of sports growing up. We played basketball, wrestling, soccer, baseball, we did everything,” said Chris, the youngest of the Pfarr children and a redshirt junior on the Gopher Wrestling team. “They threw us into everything and let us decide what we wanted. That’s the way you should do it. Wrestling is a sport that, if you force it upon someone, it’s easy to resent it really quickly because it’s emotional. But we fell in love with it as we grew up.”

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“That brother aspect is big for a sport like wrestling, just to have that support, and someone to do it with. I can’t imagine if it were just me, an only child … I wouldn’t always have that partner that was helping me out.” “There are probably three things the boys did growing up. They were farming, they were training for wrestling and they were doing their homework,” said Dave. Part of that was necessity. The farming needed to get done and many hands make for quicker work. Part of that was love. The boys loved wrestling. Part of it was growing up in a rural area. There just wasn’t a whole lot else to 2 3 / S K I - U - M A H / A P R I L 2 017

some of the same expressions and intonations. Less than a year apart, it’s not surprising they would share some many similarities. But those first impressions can be deceiving. Their parents will tell you they’re not as similar as they may seem. “Chris is a carbon copy of me,” said Dave. “He’s very fast to make decisions. He’s very aggressive.” By contract, “Brett is very gentle, he’s got a very gentle heart, 2 4 / S K I - U - M A H / A P R I L 2 017

Pfarr’s house, farm equipment had been repaired, rebuilt and refurbished for years inside the corrugated steel walls of an old machine shop. As the Pfarr kids grew, the long-held purpose of the machine shop began evolving into something new. New equipment began to appear in the shop, piece by piece, but it wasn’t the farming equipment that had littered the floor

brothers. Normally, growing up on a farm would mean long treks to wrestling rooms at area high schools, eating up valuable time from the working day. Given the unpredictability of winter weather, especially in greater Minnesota, wrestling season could be the most difficult time of year to find a place to practice and a partner with whom to work.

PHOTOS: ERIC MILLER (TOP, BOTTOM RIGHT), JERRY LEE (BOTTOM LEFT)

even though he’s a fierce competitor on the mat. for so long. It was a wrestling mat. It was dumbbells. It do, especially when the family didn’t get any channels Chris, the baby, would come after him and intimiwas a rope to climb. The machine shop became a on its television. date him. Robyn wanted her middle son to figure it out.” makeshift wrestling room. “One day the satellite went out. We didn’t get reSo Robyn said she told Brett, “You just have to get “It’s all decked out. Anything workout-related we ception anymore and my dad said we didn’t need TV,” back at him and put him in his place. I showed [Brett] wanted, [our dad] was always there to get it for us and said Brett, the family’s middle son who recently comhow to fight.” he was happy to get it. Our mom was always the one pleted his senior season wrestling for the Gophers. It wasn’t just Brett, or just Brett and Chris, who who thought he was spending too much money on the “Looking back now, I agree with him. At the time I was learned to fight on the farm. Thanks to some ingenuity shop,” said Brett with a laugh. probably a little more upset about it but now I realize from their parents, the property came to include a “We have a corn stove that burns in the winter, so the value in our upbringing. I don’t spend a lot of time wrestling room that welcomed a collection of young we could always train in there,” he added. playing video games or watching TV. I invest my time wrestlers to develop their craft. The convenience of training without having to in athletics and academics and cultivating relationNo more than 20 yards from the front door to the travel was a rare and appreciated luxury for the Pfarr ships.” That investment has paid off for Brett, who leaves the University of Minnesota as a two-time All-American at 197 pounds – one of 52 multiple-time All-Americans in program history – and one of the 20-winningest competitors to ever wear the Minnesota singlet. He’s also an Academic All-American with a collection of Big Ten academic awards. Chris, just 11 months younger than Brett, has also seen the benefit of a life spent working hard. Like his (only slightly) older brother, Chris is an agricultural and food business management major in the U of M’s College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences (CFANS), with a decorated academic record of his own. He has stepped into the lineup at three different weight classes during his career, catching on this season at 174 pounds and qualifying for his first career NCAA tournament. Brett celebrates Chris’ meet-clinching win over Wisconsin on January 15. While both attribute some of their success to family and farming, it’s the loving rivalry they have with each other that has helped them reach their current positions. “We have always pushed each other academically and athletically,” said Brett, talking about his younger brother. That continues even now. “We always have a lot of the same classes together, so we're always competing on who gets the best score. I've been beating him lately,” said Chris. Brett chimed in by saying, “I get better test scores in our classes. I think that's where we're most competitive, we always want to get a better test score than the other.” That pushing goes back to the beginning, and is more or less what led them to wrestle in the first place. On first glance, it’s obvious that Brett Brett celebrates his 2017 NCAA semifinal win to and Chris are brothers. They share the same advance to his first NCAA championship match. Chris qualified for the NCAA Championships for the blond hair, blue eyes, broad nose and first time in 2017 at 174 pounds. squared face. When they speak, they use

PHOTO: ERIC MILLER

higher level. Among the Division I offers Brett had, his home state school had welA farmer’s mentality of creative problem-solving helped keep those challenges comed him to be a part of its program. It was a natural fit for Brett, whose father and from reaching the Pfarrs. In another common trait among farming families, the Pfarrs all of his siblings either have or will hold a degree from the University of Minnesota. shared with their neighbors. “Since I was a young boy, being a Minnesota Gopher has been a dream of mine. “Brett has been a leader since about seventh grade. He would bring other The University means so much to my family,” said Brett. wrestlers from different communities, competitors actually, into the room … and work For just one season, Brett’s freshman year at Minnesota and Chris’ senior year at with them, just for the love of the sport,” said Robyn. Le Sueur-Henderson, they weren’t teammates. It was the first time either could reWhen other wrestlers couldn’t make the journey, it didn’t matter. Brett had Chris member wrestling for different teams. They reconnected one year later, when Chris and Chris had Brett. walked-on at Minnesota. “We were pretty close in size, so we “I knew I wanted to go to Minnesota to be wrestled quite a bit,” said Brett. “Farming is one of the toughest lifestyles you can in CFANS and I was already accepted. Brett “That brother aspect is big for a sport like wrestling, just to have that support, and have. Your whole livelihood is out there in the fields. encouraged me to walk on, and so did some of his teammates,” Chris said, admitting it someone to do it with,” said Chris. “I can’t Everything has to go right [and] bad things, they took a good deal of convincing to get him imagine if it were just me, an only child … I down into the Gophers’ wrestling room. It’s a wouldn’t always have that partner that was happen all the time. You prepare for the worst and decision he does not regret. helping me out.” hope for the best. That’s just like wrestling.” Brett became a full-time starter as a redBrett and Chris will be the first to admit shirt sophomore. He reached the Big Ten that neither were wrestling phenoms growtournament finals at 184 pounds but had a ing up. Don’t be mistaken, both were good disappointing national tournament in which he did not place. That same year, Chris wrestlers. Both were multiple-time all-conference and all-state honorees by the end lettered by stepping in for an injured starter at 197, even though he barely weighed of their careers at Le Sueur-Henderson High School. Brett won Minnesota’s Class A 180 pounds. state title at 182 pounds as a senior, a wonderful accomplishment but one that garThe next season, the two swapped. Brett made the move to 197 and had one of nered only marginal interest from Division I programs. the greatest seasons by a Gopher wrestler in the past 20 years, compiling a 40-4 Their older brother, Matthew, wrestled at Division III St. John’s in Collegeville, record and winning 25 matches with bonus points, wrestling vernacular for a variety Minn., where he was an All-American. He encouraged Brett to pursue wrestling at a

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Brett finished his Gopher career as a two-time All-American, placing second in 2017 and third in 2016 at 197 pounds. Over those two years, he went 71-7 and was unbeaten in dual meets (30-0).

of wins that show particular dominance over an opponent. He placed third at NCAAs to become an All-American. Chris dropped down to 184 and had a challenging season, with a record of 9-21. He did not qualify for the national tournament. “Every weekend just felt like I was getting beat down and beat down. It was tough to keep my head up. By the Big Ten tournament, I just wanted to be done,” said Chris. Their upbringing had taught the Pfarrs the value of hard work, of commitment, and a sense of trust that investment in the process would pay off long-term. Brett had seen that in the jump he made from his sophomore to junior year. Chris, living by those same values, also saw his fortunes improve this past year, his junior season. While Brett remained one of the top wrestlers in the country at his weight class, marching all the way to the NCAA finals before falling to an Olympic bronze medalist, Chris found a home at 174 pounds. He defeated several ranked opponents, including a meet-clinching victory in January in the final match against rival Wisconsin, and qualified for the NCAA Championships for the first time in his career. This March, in their final season together after a lifetime spent wrestling on the same team, the two brothers were able to compete side-by-side in the biggest event in college wrestling. “I’m really proud of Chris,” said Brett. “He’s really shown a lot of improvement in the past few months. It’s incredible to see how much better he’s gotten.” “Brett has always been there for me, so being able to go to NCAAs with Brett is like a dream come true,” said Chris. Then, showing the understated emotions only possible for a Midwestern farmer, he added, “It’s really cool for my parents, too. They’re pretty happy about it.” The Pfarr brothers are undeniably farmers. Ask Chris about farm technology or crop yields and he’ll start spitting out facts about soil management and time-tested numbers regarding seeding and growth per acre.

The Pfarr brothers are also undeniably wrestlers. Ask Brett about how to a certain shot (wrestling terminology for an attempt to get a takedown) and he’ll break down how to execute it successfully, or how to fend it off. Beyond the labels of farmer or wrestler, the shared mindset of the two pursuits make up who each of the Pfarr brothers are at their core. “Farming is one of the toughest lifestyles you can have,” said Brett. “Your whole livelihood is out there in the fields. Everything has to go right [and] bad things, they happen all the time. You prepare for the worst and hope for the best. That’s just like wrestling. You could have a career-ending injury or maybe your work doesn’t pay off in the end. For me, that kind of blind faith, you have to believe in it, work hard, and know it will work out.” “There’s a saying that I heard once, ‘Have the faith of a farmer,’” said Chris. “You put in seed and have faith it will grow. It’s the same as wrestling. All the training you put it, you hope when the time is right, it will all pay off.” Jake Ricker is an associate athletic communications director for Gopher Athletics. Contact him at rick0127@umn.edu.

PHOTO: JERRY LEE

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ROW THE BOAT MEETS SKI-U-MAH The Gophers’ new head coach brings a unique, collective culture combined with his relentless positive enthusiasm that aims to energize and unite the state. STORY BY JUSTINE BUERKLE

eather Fleck constantly hears the same question about her husband: “Is he like this all the time?” New Golden Gophers football coach P.J. Fleck exudes so much energy that even his wife was skeptical when the pair first met.

“I thought, ‘There is no way this guy is real, and there is no way that he is like this all the time,’” Heather said. “Literally after I sat down and talked to him for five minutes, I was like, ‘Oh my gosh. This is just who he is.’ He has never wavered from that first impression that I had of him. He’s always been just exactly what you see. What you see is what you get.” Before Minnesota athletics director Mark Coyle hired Fleck to be the youngest head football coach in the Power Five conferences, the 36-year-old was already nationally known for his enthusiasm, his ability to transform a program, his participatory approach to

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practice and his Row the Boat mantra. Fleck gave Minnesota a taste of his lively vocabulary at his introductory press conference, and has been teaching it to his Gophers team since Day 1. Fleck’s Gopher Talk handbook defines a checkers piece as “one dimensional,” while a chess piece has “multiple values.” Fleck is not interested in being a checkers piece. Coyle hired him with confidence that he would hold Minnesota football to high standards academically, athletically and socially. For Fleck, it has always been about more than football, and he pours the same energy into each role or facet of his life.

“KING OF THE TOOS” Fleck was a multi-dimensional student back at Kaneland High School. The “A” student, student council member and middle school mentor/tutor was a standout, year-round athlete. Fleck set the Illinois record for career receptions and helped Kaneland win two state football championships. He was also an all-state competitor in basketball and track. Despite his academic and extracurricular success at Kaneland, Fleck received only one scholarship offer to play football in college. He refers to himself as the “king of the toos,” realizing most coaches viewed him

PHOTO: ERIC MILLER

PHOTO: COURTNEY ANDERSON

“

For me, it’s always been the ability to prove to myself I can become whatever I truly think I can become, and not letting anybody get me to quit, or not letting anybody influence me in a way that takes away from that.

”

as too small and too slow. Fleck made the best of his opportunity, excelling as a receiver at Northern Illinois under coach Joe Novak. “For me, it’s always been the ability to prove to myself I can become whatever I truly think I can become, and not letting anybody get me to quit, or not letting anybody influence me in a way that takes away from that,” he said. “That’s a credit to my parents. They gave me the choice to become elite. They never forced me to do anything.” Fleck was not selected in the NFL Draft after college, but later made the San Francisco 49ers practice squad. He saw limited game action, but helping to coach young players while on injured reserve gave him a taste of the coaching profession. “From then on, I was hooked,” he said.

to struggle connecting with people,” he said. “You go to London, it’s a different culture, but it’s the Coyle hired him with same language, so you can connect with a lot confidence that he would hold more people.” Fleck’s never-give-up mantra, “Row the Boat,” Minnesota football to high originated after the 2011 death of his newborn standards academically, athlet- son, Colt. It helped Fleck to get through the afically and socially. For Fleck, it termath, and provided a way to carry on Colt’s legacy. has always been about more Row the Boat became the rallying cry for than football, and he pours the Fleck’s team. As he explains, the oars represent same energy into each role or the rowers’ energy, the only thing propelling the boat. The boat represents sacrifice, giving up facet of his life. something in order to achieve a goal. A compass represents the direction set by the rowers toward their destination, a common goal. Rowers sit with their backs toward the future, which they can’t see. They row with their oars in the present, the only thing they can control. They decide whether to give up and stop rowing, or to continue and forge ahead. They look toward the past, from which they can learn. At Minnesota, Fleck will continue COACH to use Row the Boat while also working to spread the Gophers’ long-time Fleck spent seven years in various assistant coaching roles before he was cheer of Ski-U-Mah. hired at Western Michigan at age 32. He had achieved his goal of becomOther pieces of Fleck’s cultural vocabulary came from past coaches, ing a head coach, and began to make the job his own. He used “Row the players and experiences. He learned a lot about the concept of culture Boat” and other phrases, acronyms and definitions to provide a common working under Greg Schiano at Rutgers and with the Tampa Bay Buccalanguage around which he built the culture he wanted for his program. neers. When Fleck started to make his own culture known, not everyone “If you go to France, and you don’t know French, you’re probably going

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“When it gets to the end of it, I don’t want to be done learning about this stuff. It’s one of those things where I could sit there and listen to him teach that kind of stuff to us all day. For me it’ll be for the next eight months, but there are guys that are true freshmen right now that are going to get this for four, five years.” – Senior QB CONOR RHODA

believed in its merit: too gimmicky, too corny. “They laughed at it,” Fleck said. “They made fun of it. They didn’t want anything to do with it. The only people that actually really understood it were the players and the coaches. But it’s now evolved to where people do have understanding of it and appreciation of it. I think once people get past the silliness of it, they understand the substance of it. Most Fortune 500 companies have their own connectedness.” In 2013, Fleck’s first year at the helm, Western Michigan had only one win. In 2016, the Broncos’ only loss came in the Cotton Bowl. By that time, P.J. Fleck, Row the Boat and WMU’s rise to a No. 12 ranking had been featured in national media and captured college football fans’ attention. Fleck turned down other job opportunities in the past few years before choosing Minnesota. The Twin Cities’ multitude of opportunities and the statewide support the Gophers receive as Minnesota’s only Division I program were a few things that drew him to the job. The challenge of aiming for championships and Rose Bowls, which Minnesota has not done for decades, was another alluring factor. The new coach’s willingness to talk about big goals made an impression on quarterback Conor Rhoda. So did the energy level. Rhoda had planned to transfer until a conversation he had with Fleck the day after he was hired. “I expected Coach Fleck to be a little toned down compared to his press conference and all that, because I assumed that was, not an act, but that he was just that way in the media,” Rhoda said. “But it was the exact same way and it was like 7:30 in the morning. This guy’s the real deal. That’s who he is and he’s not going to change that for whatever the circumstance may be.” Fleck told Rhoda he would like to renew his scholarship. The senior decided to stay, and it has already been a unique ride. Fleck surprised the team by replacing a conditioning workout with a whiffle ball tournament, in which he participated. For the Gophers’ last winter workout session, they played dodgeball, tug-of-war and other games. Injured players could still compete in nonintensive activities like cards and a bubble gum blowing contest. Rhoda said his final spring practice season has been faster paced than his previous ones. It has also included more written vocabulary quizzes as the Gophers gradually master Gopher Talk. Fleck constantly runs around the field at practice, even stripping the football away from his players in ball security drills. When he is not offering tips for improvement or praise for an “elite job,” Fleck spends time working on mental preparation and life lessons with the Gophers. 3 0 / S K I - U - M A H / A P R I L 2 017

Rhoda is part of the team’s leadership council, a few dozen players elected by their teammates. The council meets for a class with Fleck each week to learn about leadership through discussions and media their coach shares with them. “When it gets to the end of it, I don’t want to be done learning about this stuff,” Rhoda said. “It’s one of those things where I could sit there and listen to him teach that kind of stuff to us all day. For me it’ll be for the next eight months, but there are guys that are true freshmen right now that are going to get this for four, five years.”

TEACHER

Fleck has been all over the Twin Cities during his first couple months as head coach, including the U of M Masonic Children’s Hospital where he makes monthly visits with the team (above). Fleck has also made a wide variety of media appearances including KARE 11 and KFAN (below). Fleck also visited the state legislature and Governor Dayton with Heather (bottom).

Coaching and teaching are intertwined occupations, and education runs in Fleck’s family, with a teacher’s aide for a mother and a kindergarten teacher for a sister. Fleck can still rattle off the names of his grade school teachers and counts them as his biggest influence. “I faked reading all the way to third grade,” he said. “My third grade teacher held me accountable and actually taught me how to read. She changed my life forever and I’ll always owe that to her.” In high school, Fleck dreamed of going into the profession that most affected his life. He even did some work in an elementary classroom as part of a senior project before going on to earn an elementary education degree at Northern Illinois. Between college graduation and the invitation to play in the NFL, Fleck briefly taught sixth grade social studies. “I remember us in togas studying Ancient Rome, developing our own city,” he said. “They were in groups. I remember a lot of them trusting me with a lot of personal and family issues that they would bring to me. That’s what I really wanted to help with. A lot of the kids who didn’t have the good fortune to have the background or the parents to be around in their life, you were that for them. And people knocking on the classroom door telling me to just be a little quieter.” Fleck enjoyed building a curriculum because it allowed him to use his creativity. Grades 6-8 appealed to him because he felt he could be the most influential to that age range. “You still have the spirit of children, but they’re on their way to becoming young adults,” Fleck said. “That’s the area I wanted to be able to handle.” Fleck may have left sixth grade, but similar concepts apply to coaching college football. Every player learns differently. Coaches and teachers alike must identify ways to make their message relatable to the world of the age group they are teaching. Fleck’s skill in relating his message has been one of the biggest factors in his success as a coach.

ORATOR Fleck gave long answers at his first press conference, and opened his National Signing Day press conference with a 37-minute statement before starting the Q&A portion of the event. He has come a long way since his first speech class in school. “I was afraid like everybody else initially for public PHOTOS: COURTNEY ANDERSON (top), PAUL ROVNAK (two middle images).

speaking, but you become so used to it, it becomes part of your message,” Fleck said. Fleck’s comfort in front of a crowd and “built-in microphone” come in handy on the practice field and in locker room speeches. He rarely needs an actual microphone. “He always says that your voice is your confidence, and I noticed he was very loud,” Heather said. Fleck’s confident voice was responsible The Fleck family (left to right): P.J., Paisley (4), Heather, for much of the naGavin (9), Harper (3), Carter (7) tional media attention Western Michigan received in recent years. He has been invited to speak at coaches’ conferences and numerous other engagements. Fleck said he enjoys media interviews, even when there are tough questions. One of his most memorable one-liners on his first day in Minneapolis was: “I eat difficult conversations for breakfast." Fleck’s ability to hold attention impressed Coyle in their initial meeting.

FLECK FIRSTS First Impression Before taking the job, Fleck first had to impress his future athletic director. In addition to his energy and his track record, one thing Coyle heard from Fleck in their interview stood out. “Any coach will talk about the importance of recruiting and making sure you get the right young men and women to come to your program and compete on your campus,” Coyle said. “But he talked about how important it was to recruit your current studentathletes and make sure your current student-athletes understand that they’re at the best place in America, the University of Minnesota.”

First Weekend on Campus

“I tell people when you meet him you’re on the edge of your seat, because you want to get more from him,” Coyle said. “He has so much energy and passion. When you talk to him, you just kind of find yourself drawing closer and closer to him because you want to see what he’s going to say next.”

FAMILY MAN Fleck wants to involve his family in the Gophers program as much as possible. Heather goes to the Gibson-Nagurski Football Complex every day, often to get lunch with P.J. She has gradually been getting to know the Gophers and hopes they will feel comfortable approaching her for life advice if they need a resource. She also wants to be involved with the team’s community outreach efforts, especially with the U of M Masonic Children’s Hospital. Fleck will occasionally wake Heather up in the middle of the night to discuss ideas that pop up about football or family. They’ll turn the light on, discuss and make sure the idea is recorded on paper or a phone memo. The Flecks have four children: Gavin, Carter, Paisley and Harper. They

Fleck and Heather flew to Eden Prairie’s Flying Cloud Airport after a busy night discussing and accepting the job. At the Gophers’ football complex that day, Fleck spoke with a few dozen of his players in person with those who were off campus for break looped in on video chat. “I made sure the first message I told them was, ‘You did not pick me, and that’s okay. But I picked you. And I picked you for a lot of reasons.’” In the afternoon, Fleck and Heather walked on the snow-covered field at TCF Bank Stadium before meeting Goldy and participating in a photo and video shoot in the locker room. Up next was Fleck’s first Minnesota press conference. Fleck made multiple appearances at Williams Arena that weekend. He gave a halftime radio interview at the women’s basketball game. He shared his vision for the program over the public address system at the next day’s men’s game, hearing “Row the Boat” chants started by the Barnyard student section. Fleck assisted the famous Red Panda acrobat with her halftime act by tossing bowls to her as she sat on her unicycle. The first weekend in the Twin Cities did not feature much downtime. “It was a whirlwind, but that’s okay,” Fleck said. “You don’t sleep much but you just go, because this is a very unique opportunity, and that’s why I took it, and I was very excited about the challenge. When you have those things and they come that fast, you attack them so fast and you love doing it because it’s worth it.”

First National Signing Day Fleck said National Signing Day was one of the most special parts of his first month on the job. Being hired less than a month before Feb. 1, he had a short window of time to assemble a coaching staff and recruit a class of newcomers. On Signing Day, Fleck and his staff monitored the fax machine, rang a gong and displayed magnetic oars with signed recruits’ names as NLIs rolled in. After they had seen 22 signees join four early enrollees on the Gophers’ roster, they celebrated with a balloon drop and a toast. “I’m living my dream right now,” Fleck said in his Signing Day press conference. “I’m committed 100 percent to that every single day, to make the University of Minnesota something that it’s always dreamed of becoming: a constant, consistent champion. And it starts with recruiting.”

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“

I think people see how genuine he is. That’s not a show. That’s who he is. He loves spending time with people. He loves interacting with people.

PHOTOS: COURTNEY ANDERSON

”

signed mock National Letters of Intent on February’s Signing Day, and have lived up to their imaginary commitment to the Gophers. Fleck kids have been spotted at spring practice, in the football lounge playing games against Goldy and Minnesota players and at Mariucci Arena cheering on Gopher hockey. “They’re at practice all the time,” Fleck said. “Every time practice ends, we usually have a nice baseball game we play. We have traditions and we have things we do because, as much as I love being a coach, I love being a dad way more. I don’t get that much time, so when I do I’ve got to make it very impactful.” Family is more than one word to Fleck. F.A.M.I.L.Y. is also one of his favorite acronyms, standing for, “Forget about me, I love you.” “A lot of coaches will kind of give you what’s left of them when they come home instead of the best of them,” Heather said. “When he says, ‘Forget about me, I love you,’ the sacrifice is for one, how much he’s away from his family, but when he does come home I don’t get just what’s left of him. I get the best of him just like everybody else did throughout the day.” Sometimes Fleck’s energetic return home even in3 2 / S K I - U - M A H / A P R I L 2 017

terrupts the kids’ bedtime routine. Heather and the kids have a tradition of dancing in the kitchen every morning, which P.J. will join when he is home. All this fun doesn’t mean the family is exempt from adhering to the principles outlined in Gopher Talk.

their kids. “My kids are why I do what I do every day,” Fleck said. “I think every dad wants to leave a legacy for their children. Mine’s not about work. Mine’s just about accomplishing things that you truly want to accomplish and knowing that it doesn’t matter where you come from or what your name is or how much money you have.”

PEOPLE PERSON

“We use ‘elite,’” Heather said. “We use ‘Change your best.’ We don’t say ‘try.’ We don’t say ‘can’t.’ Our kids don’t say ‘try.’ Our kids don’t say ‘can’t.’ Everything that he preaches in the program, we live by at home.” Fleck said his main hobbies are spending time with Heather and “creating moments and memories” with

For Fleck, F.A.M.I.L.Y. stretches beyond his literal family and his team. He said his mission, and Gopher football’s mission, is serving and giving. Visiting the children’s hospital and participating in volunteer events will be part of that. Being involved in other Gopher teams is part of it. A “Fleck Olympics” of sorts is in the works. Fleck hopes to participate in a practice with every Gopher sports to get to know those teams and help bring them wider recognition for their accomplishments and hard work. Fleck wants Row the Boat to extend to people who do not even like football. A program to distribute custom oars to different people and organizations is in its infancy. “I think he’s united everybody,” Coyle said. “I think

HISTORY BUFF “I love artifacts and the history of how we got here,” Fleck said. “How did we get here today as a country?” Fleck taught his favorite subject, social studies, during his brief teaching career. When he takes a timeout to watch TV, it’s usually History Channel or the Smithsonian Channel. Here are some of Fleck’s historical favorites.

people see how genuine he is. That’s not a show. That’s who he is. He loves spending time with people. He loves interacting with people.” Fleck is active on Twitter and was flattered one day to see the beginning of a new trend: Fleck Friday. What started as a group of Gopher staffers wearing Fleck’s signature game day look of a quarter-zip jacket over a shirt and tie has taken off on social media at the end of each work week. “I love that people are so supportive,” Heather said. “I love that he’s a guy you can approach. I love that he is willing to sign autographs and take pictures with people. That’s who he is. He’s really a people person. I love that people feel comfortable enough to approach him.”‘

WATER ENTHUSIAST In the course of his research before taking the job at Minnesota, Fleck came across the Gophers’ motto of Ski-U-Mah. Legend has it the phrase originated with a canoe race. With canoes, paddles and the North Star for a compass, how could Fleck say no to Minnesota? “It was one of those signs that you’re not looking for but it finds you,” he said. Row the Boat may primarily be a metaphor, but Fleck will have a chance to take it literally with the Gophers rowing team and their on-campus boathouse. Fleck owns a boat and enjoys being on the water, fishing, wake surfing and jet skiing. “Water is my release,” Fleck said. “If I can get around water, I’m okay.” In that case, Fleck is in the right place. The Mississippi River runs through the University of Minnesota campus, and the Land of 10,000 Lakes more than lives up to its nickname. Ski-U-Mah and Row the Boat should get along just fine.

Historical Topics World War II American Civil War Leaders, especially: Martin Luther King, Jr. John F. Kennedy Winston Churchill Abraham Lincoln Shows About History “Men Who Built America” “America: The Story of Us” Musicals “Hamilton” “Les Miserables” Historical Places He Has Visited Statue of Liberty Alcatraz Island Washington D.C. monuments Dealey Plaza

9/11 Memorial Pearl Harbor Alamo Yellowstone Gateway Arch Freedom Trail Philadelphia monuments London Paris Places He Wants to Visit Gettysburg Mount Rushmore White House South Pass Smithsonian Normandy Berlin, including the Fuhrerbunker Warsaw Ghetto Auschwitz-Birkenau

Justine Buerkle is an assistant athletic communications director for Gopher Athletics and a true history buff herself. Contact her at jbuerkle@umn.edu.

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BACKPACK BRIEFCASE TO

year ago at this time, Jessica Ramberg was finishing up preparations to compete at the 2016 NCAA Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships. She qualified to compete on the 1 and 3-meter springboard diving events and the 10-meter platform. She went on to earn All-America honors on the platform and graduated in May with a degree in art and studies in cinema. However, Ramberg did far more than just go to class and compete in

the pool. The Forest Lake, Minn. native interned in the athletic communications office and Gopher Digital Productions area and served on the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee and ultimately was selected by the NCAA for one of its prestigious post-graduate internships at their headquarters in Indianapolis. Working in the NCAA office and traveling to various championship events, Ramberg continues to build her professional portfolio after college.

INTERVIEW BY MICHELLE TRAVERSIE

Q: Since graduating from Minnesota last spring of 2016, what have you been doing? A: Currently I’m in a 12-month post-graduate internship with the National Collegiate Athletic Association. The NCAA is a great place to work. They focus on enhancing the experience of a student-athlete. There, I work in the digital communications department where I am on the video, social, and web teams. We create clear and concise projects that really show the excellence both academically and athletically of student-athlete in the NCAA membership. Q: You were one of a very few to be selected to this group. Can you tell us more about it? A: The NCAA post-graduate internship program is one full of excellence. I was fortunate enough to be one of 30 from thousands of applicants. Now I’m able to go through this program, learn about intercollegiate athletics, and learn about my professional development. Q: When you arrived to Minnesota, did you have a plan for what you wanted to do after school? A: Arriving to Minnesota I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do after sport. I knew that I had a passion for learning, sports, and creative services. So I knew that

if those three components were in my future that I would be happy. Q: How did you develop your plan for after graduation? A: Having an academic counselor really helped me get into the start of finding what I wanted to do after sport. My freshman year I took a careers course and that really jump started what I wanted to do with my life. After that, I turned to the student-athlete development and really pursued opportunities to build the tools and skills to prepare myself professionally. Q: How did you stick to that plan throughout your academic career at the U of M? A: Having the conversation with my academic counselor, my coach, and the student-athlete development really prepared me to keep that plan throughout college, to get me in the right course, and to learn about myself and what I want to do after sport. Q: What tools did the University of Minnesota student-athlete development office provide you to help you in your professional career? A: The student-athlete development started off with

the first-year experience course my freshman year. There, I really learned the basics of what a resume was, how to be a professional, and prepare for a career after sport. Next, working on the resume workshops, critiquing and helping me get that to a very refined document was very helpful. After that, the young professionals etiquette dinner was another really great tool that student-development had. I learned how to not only properly eat a dinner with etiquette, but also learned the networking skills. Then putting that all together with Pro Day where I got to show my skills and talked with different organizations and companies to work on my networking skills. Q: What was/were the most helpful resource(s) provided by student-athlete development to help you segue into your career? Student-athlete development had resources and tools for student-athletes where we really got to engage with local organizations and companies, put yourself out there, talk about yourself and really learn how you work. That to me was very important and a huge learning experience on how to be a professional.

3 4 / S K I - U - M A H / A P R I L 2 017 PHOTO: ERIC MILLER

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Q: What is one thing that student-athlete development provided you that you didn't expect or think about beforehand, but has proven to be very helpful in starting your career? A: Student-athlete development not only provided the tools and resources I needed for my career but also developed me personally and met me where I was at in my journey in life. To me, that was huge. Learning more about my strengths, my weaknesses, my passions really brought me to where I wanted to be in a field or career or with an organization or company. Studentathlete development not only focused on what you needed to do in life after sport but also the personal growth to get you there. Q: How did being a college athlete from a competition and training standpoint, prepare you for the next steps in your career outside of the pool? A: Being a student-athlete and going through competitions really helped me prepare my mindset. Having a focused, hard-working, goal-setting mindset, especially with those tough competitions and that pressure. When you know how to control that and focus on the things that you can do, that helps transfer your skills to what you want to do in your career and how you can work with that day-to-day. Q: How did you coaches support your complete development as a person, not just an athlete, at the U of M? How did they help with that process? A: Coaches play a huge role in your experience as a student-athlete. Mine really focused on the effort and perseverance in day-to-day practices. My coach, Wenbo Chen, did his job to get me there, but he kept

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me accountable for achieving that goal. That mindset of being hard-working, resilient and really pushing through any troubles that come have become transferable in my career and my job. Q: Where do you hope your career will take you in the years to come? A: In the years to come I hope to continue in sports and developing young adults. I think sports has a powerful impact on young people’s lives and being a part of that is very rewarding. I want to use my skills to educate and communicate the opportunities that people have every day. Q: What have you taken from your student experience at the U and how can you apply it to the workplace? A: The biggest thing I have taken away from my time as a student-athlete is the relationships I have formed. These relationships will be lifelong with my coaches, former student-athletes, and athletic administrators. Q: What advice would she give to student-athletes today that are graduating soon? A: Advice I would want to give to current studentthletes is to be in the moment. Take advantage of all the opportunities and experiences you have here at Minnesota because you will never find anything else like it. Be in the moment, have fun, and learn a lot about yourself.

PHOTOS: WALT MIDDLETON

I AM DRIVEN TO END WORLD HUNGER.

I AM DRIVEN TO HELP CROPS ADAPT TO CHANGING ENVIRONMENTS.

I AM DRIVEN TO GROW MORE FOOD WITH FEWER RESOURCES.

I AM DRIVEN TO USE BIG DATA TO REINVENT HOW WE FEED THE WORLD.

Together we’re solving the world’s biggest challenges. discover.umn.edu #UMNdriven

Crookston Duluth Morris Rochester Twin Cities

2016 ‘M’ CLUB HALL OF FAME INDUCTION PHOTO FRONT ROW: Amber Hegland, MaryAnne Kelley, Jeff Wright, Pat Neu BACK ROW: Dick Mattson, Al Nuness, Clay Strother, Jared Lawrence, Tim Harrer, Greg Eslinger, Howard Nathe.

2016 INDUCTION CLASS Greg Eslinger

Football // 2002-05

Jared Lawrence

Wrestling // 2000-03

Dave Gumlia

Golf // 1963-65

Howard Nathe

Baseball // 1959-61

Tim Harrer

Hockey // 1977-80

Pat Neu

Wrestling // 1973-77

Amber Hegland

Softball, Hockey // 1995-99

Al Nuness

Basketball // 1968-69

MaryAnne Kelley

Gymnastics // 1999-02

Clay Strother

Gymnastics // 2000-03

Dick Mattson

Distinguished Service Award

Jeff Wright

Football // 1968-70

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Left: Two-time All-American and Outland Trophy recipient Greg Eslinger and his wife, Stephanie. Top middle: Four-time national champion and 11-time gymnastics All-American Clay Strother. Bottom middle: Softball All-American Amber Hegland is Minnesota’s all-time career leader in batting average and was also a hockey standout. Right: 1977 NCAA wrestling champion Pat Neu with head coach Brandon Eggum and head assistant coach and 2015 ‘M’ Club Hall of Fame inductee Luke Becker.

theBIGNIGHT TH E ‘M ’ CLUB I ND UCTS TW E LVE GR EATS I NTO I TS H ALL OF FAME

Left: Football great Jeff Wright is still Minnesota’s career interceptions leader. Top middle: Tim Harrer still holds Minnesota’s record for goals in a season with 53 and was a First Team All-American in 1980. Right: 2002 Big Ten Gymnast of the Year and three-time All-American MaryAnne Kelley. Bottom left: Basketball great Al Nuness was an AllBig Ten pick in 1969. Bottom right: Howard Nathe is one of the great two-way baseball players in school history and helped Minnesota to the 1960 national title.

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Akeem Springs’ buzzer-beater against Indiana on Feb. 15 was one of the key plays of the season.

Four Gophers earn All-Big Ten honors. Nate Mason named First Team and Jordan Murphy Third Team. Richard Pitino named Big Ten Coach of the Year and Reggie Lynch earned Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year honors.

TIMELINE OF THE GOPHERS’ RISE IN THE BIG TEN 11/18

11/22

12/3

1/1

1/8

1/28

In his fourth collegiate game, Amir Coffey scores 30 as the Gophers defeat St. John’s 92-86 in the Gavitt Games.

Gophers handle future NCAA Tournament team Arkansas 85-71 at Williams Arena to improve to 5-0.

Gophers gut out a 56-52 win over Vanderbilt in Sioux Falls to improve to 7-1.

Nate Mason nets 31 points and Minnesota beats Big Ten champ Purdue on the road in overtime, 91-82.

Gophers defeat Ohio State 78-68 at home to improve to 2-2 in Big Ten play.

Minnesota loses to Maryland at home 85-78, marking its fifth-straight loss and fourth in a row in the final minute of the game.

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THE NATION’S BIGGEST TURNAROUND The Gophers won 24 games, advanced to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2013 with the highest seed (5) since 1982. Minnesota won eight straight Big Ten games for the first time since 1973 and claimed five conference road victories.

PHOTOS: ERIC MILLER, BRACE HEMMELGARN

2/8

2/15

2/22

3/2

3/10

3/12

Jordan Murphy has 25 points and 19 rebounds as Minnesota bests Iowa 10189 in double overtime.

Akeem Springs’ buzzerbeater sends the Gophers past Indiana 75-74 for a fourth-straight win.

Gophers crush Maryland 89-75 on the road for a second road win against a top 25 team.

Gophers win eighth in a row with a Senior Night 88-73 win over Nebraska.

Minnesota defeats Michigan State 63-58 to reach the Big Ten Tournament Semifinals for the first time since 2010.

Minnesota is awarded a 5-seed in the NCAA Tournament, its best seed since 1982.

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GOPHER ATHLETICS UNVEILS NEW FAN ENGAGEMENT PLANS The brand-new Gopher Loyalty Program and Gopher Fan Advisory Board are two pieces of a broader effort to engage and reward loyal Gopher fans

opher Athletics will launch a series of programs within a new fan enopportunities that excite them. It also goes beyond providing these opportunities gagement initiative that will provide fans more access, more engageonly to donors. This new program will include everyone who has a Gopher Score – ment opportunities and more benefits than ever before, Athletics all donors and all season ticket holders to any Gopher sport. Like many other deDirector Mark Coyle announced in February. partments around the country, Minnesota had previously outlined “We ask our fans to invest in us and our studifferent benefit levels for only its donors, levels that aligned an“We ask our fans to dents, and it’s been a priority of mine since my nual giving totals to pre-assigned stewardship opportunities. first day at Minnesota to find ways for us to in“Each fan is unique. They have different reasons why they’re a invest in us and our vest back in our fans in new and better ways,” said Coyle. “Our part of Gopher Athletics. We recognize that fans have different students, and it’s been a new fan engagement initiative will create opportunities for us needs and wants. That’s what’s so great about this program – every to listen to our fans, get them more involved with our depart- priority of mine since my fan can customize it to include what they want. It’s a program made first day at Minnesota to for our fans, dedicated to our fans, and committed to improving ment and celebrate their loyalty and investment in our programs.” their experience with Gopher Athletics,” said Coyle. find ways for us to The focus of Monday’s announcement were two key pieces As an example, in previous years individuals who donated invest back in our fans in through in this set of new initiatives – the Gopher Loyalty Program and the Golden Gopher Fund received a pre-assigned set of new and better ways.” benefits. In this new program, everyone with a Gopher Score will the Gopher Fan Advisory Board. The new Gopher Loyalty Program is a departure from how have access to a menu of benefit options, ranging from invitations – MARK COYLE the athletics department has offered benefits to fans and to special Gopher Athletics events, discounts on purchases, endonors in the past, moving away from a one-size-fits-all apgagement opportunities with coaches and student-athletes, and proach and instead offering fans the ability to opt-in to engagement and reward much more. Access to purchasing parking and complimentary club room passes will

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Fan Engagement Programs Timeline Feb. 27 Public announcement of fan initiatives; Fan Advisory Board applications open

April Applications close for Fan Advisory Board. Notifications sent to selections in mid-April and first meeting in May.

remain unchanged and will continue to be provided to fans based on annual fund contributions. In addition to the Gopher Loyalty Program, the department also shared its plans to launch the Gopher Fan Advisory Board. Fan advisory boards are not a new concept in college athletics. Many schools form these organizations as a way to solicit feedback, discuss opportunities and challenges for the department and collaborate on new ideas. Coyle and his staff created fan advisory boards at both of his previous stops as athletics director, Boise State and Syracuse. “We want our fan advisory board to look at everything about how Gopher Athletics interacts with our fans, from ticket pricing, to game day experience, to how we advertise and market our teams. It’s incredibly helpful to have that perspective from outside the department, especially from people who invest in our programs and come to our events. Their honest feedback will help us improve,” said Coyle. The Gopher Fan Advisory Board will be the first for Gopher Athletics. Online applications for all interested fans are open now at mygophersports.com. Final selection of the board will take place in early April. The group will meet for the first time in May and set a regular meeting schedule going forward. While these two programs are the cornerstones of this new fan engagement initiative, there are other events and proj-

MidJune

June 30

Early Aug.

Update sent to all Gopher Score members announcing details of how to select rewards as part of loyalty program

End of fiscal year to make contributions and increase your Gopher Score

Selection of benefits begins

“We want our fan advisory board to look at everything about Gopher Athletics interacts with our fans, from ticket pricing, to game day experience, to how we advertise and market our teams.” – MARK COYLE

ects that will accomplish the same goals of giving fans a greater voice in their experience with Gopher Athletics. That includes the game day and season ticket holder experience surveys the department has conducted (and will continue to conduct) throughout this year. The first of these came out in October and were specific to football. Similar surveys tied to men’s basketball and men’s hockey have been sent to fans in recent weeks. The department will be surveying fans of other Gopher programs in the future as well. While a standard practice for collecting feedback, this year’s fan surveys were the first issued by Gopher Athletics in several years. This new fan engagement initiative will continue to add points of contact between fans, the athletics department and athletics’ leadership in the future, including ticketholder, donor and fan events to hear directly from Coyle and other administrators and coaches. As they become available, details about new events and programs will be shared on mygophersports.com “Relationships work two ways, and I think that it’s important to have authentic relationships with our fans,” added Coyle. “We are creating those touch points where fans can be a part of what we’re doing every day. That’s what has me excited about these new programs.”

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PARTING SHOT Goaltender Sidney Peters peeks through Gopher defenders against North Dakota on February 10. PHOTO BY ERIC MILLER

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