Those who make it happen: Kenny Wilcox

Tell us a little about your high school running experience--events you ran, highlights, that sort of thing.

 

I have an older brother and sister who introduced me to the sport of cross country. Had it not been for them I may have continued playing football beyond middle school. There wasn’t any middle school cross country at our school. The more I was around the sport, the more I fell in love with the history and the names associated with it.

 

My high school running career at Maquoketa High School (Iowa) was pretty up and down with more success coming in track. I managed to run a high school 5k pr in the 16:40’s, but I struggled to reach the level I had hoped for due to anemia and the fact I didn’t have a good grasp on how to train properly. I was an all-conference runner, but never qualified for state in cross country. We had a tight-knit team that spent a lot of time together hanging out on my friend’s trampoline and eating.

 

Track produced better results as I managed to run at the state meet three of my four years in high school. My main events included the 4, 8, and mile. On a couple of occasions I moved up to the two mile. My junior year our 4X8 team was ranked second going into the state meet. Unfortunately we got our doors blown off at the state meet. I was teammates and ran at the state meet with future NFL quarterback Sage Rosenfels. The debate will live on and both of us shall live with the uncertainty regarding who was the faster quarter miler. Our 4X4 team qualified for the finals of the state meet my senior year as well. A major highlight was getting to run at the prestigious Drake Relays as part of a sprint medley relay team during my junior year.

 

Were there any other sports?

 

I played baseball as early as I could pick up a ball and glove and spent many days playing mock games by chucking a ball against the retaining wall by our garage. It was always the Chicago Cubs versus another big league club. I continued playing through high school and was an all-conference selection my senior year as an outfielder. Baseball is a summer sport in Iowa and made it possible to do both track and baseball. My grandpa, Don Casteel, played ball in the service during World War II. He was a pilot and taught other pilots. For a time he was stationed in Pueblo, and he always talked fondly about his time in Colorado. We spent a lot of time together when I was young and he taught me a great deal about sports and life.

 

Editor's note: At this point, I was sorely tempted to ask if his retaining wall Chicago Cubs were as cursed as the real-life version of the Cubs, but thought better of it. I kind of have a hunch, though, that his retaining wall Cubs were perennial winners of the World Series.

 

You went on to run collegiately at Wartburg. What were your events and highlights there?

 

Wartburg was, and still is, a great place run collegiate cross country and track. As a Division III school, we were able to avoid the pressures of running for a scholarship. The sport was pure. My teammates and I were training and competing out of a love for the sport, commitment to one another, and a desire to see how far we could push our bodies and minds. Our men's team qualified for nationals during my sophomore, junior, and senior years. Our men's and women's teams during my sophomore year became the first program in Iowa Conference history to win all varsity and junior varsity conference titles in the same year. I was chosen as a captain of the cross country and track teams my senior year. Tom Zirbel, one of my teammates and a fellow captain, won the 2013 national time trial championships in cycling. I’ve had the honor of watching him compete in the Pro Cycling Challenge and hope he’ll be riding again this year when the race has a stage finish on top of Monarch Pass.

 

Like high school, I ran a lot of 4’s and 8’s. Indoor track was much the same, but I’d also include the 1000 and 1500 to my schedule. I really hit the weights hard in college and was carrying a little extra weight so the longer distance events weren’t as attractive.

 

Sara (for two years) and I (for one year) were assistant cross country coaches at Wartburg after graduation. Both of us had the honor of coaching future cross country national champions in Missy Buttry and Josh Moen. Missy went on to make the Olympic Trial finals in the 5000m in 2004.

 

Was Wartburg where you met your wife Sara?

 

Yes, I was fortunate enough to have met Sara at Wartburg. Before I even knew her I would often see her walking across the Wartburg campus from my second story dorm room. She seemed to float when she walked. She resisted running collegiately until her junior year...it took even longer for me to convince her to marry me!

 

Kenny and Sara Wilcox in a quieter moment in their lives. Contributed photo.

 

Fill in the pieces for us on how you got from Waverly, Iowa, to Salida.

 

I worked as a camp counselor at Rainbow Trail Lutheran camp near Westcliffe, Colorado, during the summers following my sophomore and junior years of college. A college friend of mine convinced me to apply for this position. In the end I got the job, and my friend didn’t even come along! It turns out that it was one of the best decisions I would make. Our staff had 24 hours off each week in between each set of campers and on occasion we would come to Salida. On one particular instance we came to watch the band Jefferson Starship. 

 

During my first summer at Rainbow Trail I changed my major from pre-veterinary to camping ministry. Even after returning to Iowa to finish college, getting married to Sara, and begining my career, I continued to dream of Colorado.

 

I was working as a youth pastor at Heritage United Methodist Church in Waverly, Iowa, and was dreaming of the mountains. Sara and I had no real plans to move to Colorado, but I had apparently spent a little time on a real estate website and included what my occupation was. 

 

As it turns out, the gentleman, Omar Richardson, who ran the real estate company was also the current volunteer youth pastor along with his wife, Ann, at the Salida Vineyard. At that time, the Salida Vineyard was looking to hire a youth pastor and had already begun the search. They had already received and were reviewing several applications, but Omar thought my interaction on his website might be more than chance and passed along my information to the head pastor, Dave Blakeslee. 

 

To make a long story shorter, Dave called me up in Iowa and we had several conversations during the next few months. During June of 2002 my wife and I came to Salida for an interview. 

 

Colorado was literally on fire that summer and the usual beautiful scenery was a charred smoky mess. Despite the less than ideal conditions, Sara and I fell in love with the town and people of Salida. On August 1, 2002, we had packed up our few newlywed belongings in a U-Haul and headed west. For a guy who was familiar with the relatively flat contours of Iowa, it was more than a little disconcerting to encounter Crow Hill by Bailey with a fully loaded U-Haul that was also towing my car. I apologize to anyone that I cut off that day! 

 

We feel strongly that God set up our move to Salida.

 

I don't know much about the details of your hiring at Salida. I just know one year Wilson Butacan was hanging up the whistle and a year later you were coach. Tell us a little about how you got hired as the coach at Salida.

 

Butacan retired in 2004. Rene Frazee coached the high school teams in 2005 while my wife and I coached the middle school teams that same year. My wife was gracious enough to offer me one of those “dollar” contracts reserved for assistant coaches. The following year the high school job opened up, and I was hired.

 

For a number of years, you were coaching the high school team at Salida and Sara was coaching at the middle school. Were the two of you a package deal?

 

Not exactly a planned package deal, but it sure worked out well. From 2005 to 2012, Sara took only one year off after the birth of our second child. This year Sara made the tough decision to stop coaching as she went back to teaching for the first time in six years. To continue coaching, she would have missed out on family time too much. Our fourth and final boy turned one on Christmas day.

 

What was your first inkling things were going to be special coaching at Salida?

 

It took a couple years to get things moving in a right direction. My first year of coaching the high school team there were only four guys on the team and two of the four were freshmen. The main goal that year was the same as it is now--to help each kid maximize their potential as runners and as people. 

 

There wasn’t much pressure to win league, regional or state titles early on. After that first season in 2006, we were able to slowly add one or two runners each year who really matched up with the type of student athlete we wanted. We felt really fortunate to have had a handful of girls and guys who made the decision to go all-in with the program that we were trying to build. Without the commitment of those young people, the program would have never gotten off the ground. I have to give them a lot of credit.

 

Admittedly, when our girl’s team finished second at the state meet to TCA in 2008 we were a little shocked to have finished that high. That result helped us turn a corner. We had gained a little more credibility in the eyes of our athletes and parents.

 

The following year the coaches and athletes brought a new-found confidence and a higher level of expectation into the season and it hasn’t stopped since. That level of focus, born out through every day of practice, has allowed us to compete at a very high level for several years now. The school and town has really supported the team.

 

What has been the highlight of your coaching tenure at Salida thus far?

 

Winning that first state title in school history for the guys in 2009 and the girls this year stand out, without question. However, my two favorite moments come from just barely qualifying for state on the guys' side in 2007 and 2011. The sense of team unity and sacrifice was through the roof in 2011. We had to leapfrog two teams for that last state-qualifying spot and the guys overachieved and made it happen.

 

Those are the performance highlights. The coaching highlight that happens almost every year is watching a bunch of individuals come together to become a family. We often call ourselves a family, not because we always get along perfectly, but because we continue to stick together even when we don’t get along.

 

Every successful coach has a dream or two tucked away that helps to keep the fire burning. When you dream big, what's your dream?

 

Honestly, most often I simply dream about having the next opportunity to coach the young people currently in high school, middle school, or even younger. I really look forward to spending time with these incredible people as they develop as runners and as they go through life. Cross country provides the context for this coaching staff to build meaningful relationships with these student athletes. The day it becomes just about coaching will be the day I walk away.

 

Performance wise, the dreams are always evolving. After watching Nike Nationals this year I couldn’t help but feel like, “Hey, we could do that!” As a relatively small school, it would be extremely satisfying to mix it up with the larger schools on the biggest stage.