“Ninety percent of the game is half mental,” said Yogi Berra in one of his less focused moments. That may explain why I poured orange juice on my cereal one morning recently. (Don’t try it. It doesn’t taste good.) You see, we deep thinkers have a lot on our minds and sometimes don’t have our usual laser-like focus at the ready. But I digress. What was it I was intending to write about this week? Oh yes, Falcon sports, namely Cross Country, Track and Field.

I asked Andy Eggerth, Director of Cross Country and Track & Field, whether any of the 16 school records he set at Bemidji State University have been broken. He said his decathlon record was broken but that the rest still stand. “I think,” he said, “the decathlon could have been my best event. Based on marks, my pole vault (4.90 m) and 400m (47.10 OD, 48.32 on a flat indoor track) were my better events.”

Eggerth’s experience includes jobs at U. of Alabama- Birmingham, Kansas State, and Kennesaw State U. (Georgia). At the collegiate level he has received numerous coaching awards and developed many All-Americans and NCAA qualifiers. So why did he decide to seek a job at a D3 school like UWRF after all that success? “Honestly,” he said, “I’ve seen a strong shift in D1 to not caring about the coaches at all. Of course, every athletic director preaches ‘family’ and when everything is good, they carry that out. But when the rubber hits the road, most do not support their coaches. If anything goes wrong, they throw the coaches under the bus in a heartbeat. I believe that D3 cares about people a little more. Why UWRF? Initially, because I knew of it. It’s close to home, not far from the Twin Cities. But when interviewing and since, I’ve seen the true support of the administration and the sincere interest they have in being good in T& F and XC, as well as the support of alumni and community. That’s inspiring, motivating and invigorating. Since being here I’ve had offers from D1 schools (with higher pay) as well as coaching international teams, but I have a passion to build this program and it’s my only focus.”

Other experiences he’s had are instructing, writing a physiology curriculum, and holding various certification levels, including “elite coach” in multiple events for the US Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association and USA Track and Field. He is also a certified strength and conditioning coach. Could he qualify for jobs other than coaching?

“If I were smart,” he said, “I would have gone into engineering and made a WHOLE LOT more money. But I’m led by my heart and I love helping athletes achieve things they never imagined possible. It’s delayed gratification, but to be able to mentor young men and women and have a positive effect on their life is more valuable than gold.”

Where does he see Falcon Track and Field headed? “We’re headed in the right direction! There are two limiting factors that we’re working through. First is the last 10-15 years of being at the bottom of the WIAC. High school coaches and athletes look up those results and don’t want to give us the time of day. However, as a staff we’ve been out there beating the weeds, spreading our message that it is a new era for UWRF T& F/XC. They are starting to listen. We are starting to get better recruits. But it’s going to take at least a few years of improved results before we can really turn the corner.”

“The second limiting factor is budget. Being last in the conference puts us in a position where we have to spend a lot of time fund raising for recruiting and equipment money, and to pay assistant coaches salaries still well below the poverty level. We also need to fund raise just to travel the whole team to the minimum number of required NCAA competitions. The good thing is that fund raising has been going well. The challenge is that the time spent raising money is time not spent recruiting or coaching. Though I enjoy teaching, I do not have time to teach while trying to recruit and coach six sports (WXC, MXC, WIDT, MIDT, WODT, MODT) involving approximately 100 athletes. I could not teach with just two full-time coaches if they had to split duties with teaching. Even with our setup we have the fewest number of full-time coaches in the conference and we were just bumped up to two with Meghan Koski.”

“Those underpaid assistant coaches are Emmy Farago, Gerard Uchytil, Klara Berghuis, Klara’s husband Brandt Berghuis, Peter Place, and Jordan Gray. Meghan Koski is the new head XC coach and assistant T& F coach. She is the lead recruiter and our only fulltime coach, and is paid adequately. She has D1 and D2 racing experience and D1 coaching experience and is doing a fantastic job.”

The other coaches are well qualified as competitors/ coaches. Farago is a decorated distance alumna. Uchytil has 50-plus years of pole vault experience. Klara Berghuis was a 13+ pole vaulter at North Dakota State U.; Brandt Berghuis, an agriculture professor at UWRF, is a volunteer throws coach and multiple time NCAA qualifier. Place, a 2022 UWRF grad, leads the throwers in the weight room “out of the goodness of his heart and a passion for the throws,” says Eggerth. Gray is a certified coach and professional athlete who holds the American and regional record in the decathlon and who has represented Team USA in the heptathlon.

Eggerth mentioned Lexi LeFever, Annika Gunderson, Rachel Amoth, Kemari Stewart, and Yaih Marial as individual athletes most likely to “move the needle soonest” competing in T& F/ CC. LeFever, from Hudson, has won numerous awards and set UWRF records in jumps and sprints. Among those records, in 2021-22 she was D3 All American in the Long Jump (third nationally), and WIAC Long Jump champion. In 20202021 she was All American in the Long Jump (second nationally), a national qualifier in the 200m dash, all WIAC in Long Jump, 200m, 100m. She also was a member of the WIAC Scholastic Honor Role.

Eggerth has several thoughts on motivation. “With our sport the athletes must be intrinsically motivated. That said, they are motivated by different things. Some by success/ glory/recognition, others by relationship/connection. I do not consider myself a big motivator. I think my passion for the sport, their excellence, and the time I commit is largely what motivates them. They see that I care about their success. I’m naturally introverted and so I form great relationships with those that come by the office or reach out for a little more relationship. But I make a concerted effort to know everyone and speak with each athlete/group and mentor everyone in need. I try to ask what’s going on when I see something wrong and give a hug when needed. I truly care about my athletes and think the majority of them see that I’m genuine. That’s also a rewarding thing for me as a coach, especially when I think they will run through a brick wall for me. That may be because we’ve developed a strong enough relationship that they want to make me happy or because they see that I’m doing the same thing for them.” What about weightlifting? «It›s a super integral part of my program. We accomplish so much in the weight room from mobility development, injury prevention, raw strength, coordination, explosiveness, team bonding and the list goes on and on. Weights are a large way that I set up our peak at championship time, and strength is the prerequisite to power. I think that what we do in the weight room is in many cases our ‘secret weapon’ as it provides so many benefits when executed correctly.”

Finally, is there support for and collaboration with other coaches/programs? He said he thinks T& F is one of the most collaborative sports, as it is the basis for all other sports. He continued, “Having volleyball, basketball, and football players on our team is both helpful and enjoyable as it drives support and collaboration between athletic programs. We even have athletes on the Electronic Sports team. I believe Crystal Lanning is driving this department into one that is more competitive, more fun, more successful, and more encouraging. In addition, the true support, (not just words) demonstrated by Chancellor Gallo for athletics is inspiring. Seeing some of the things other sports get is enviable and I love to see it for them! “

Wow, now I realize Yogi Berra is right: this column may be more than half mental. If so, considering that focus is important in sports and in life, and that mine is somewhere short of laser- like about 99% of the time, I was struck by a recent Wall Street Journal article titled “How to Restore Our Attention Spans.” In it the writer notes that “research shows that on average people check their inboxes 77 times a day.” Actually, I’m more interested in ESTABLISHING an attention span. Checked your inbox lately?

Don’t forget to remember not to forget that you can watch the Falcon T/F team in action on Saturday, Feb. 11, at Knowles Field House in the UWRF Winter Classic.