Jay Schoenebeck interview
1. What years I played, and information about the team, coaches, players, etc.
•“I came to Gustavus in the Fall of ‘76 and graduated in the Spring of 1980. Dennis Raarup was our Head Coach and offensive coordinator, and Buster West was our defensive coordinator. The other main coaches on the staff were Moose Malmquist who coached the OL, but did not coach all four years. He was our AD as well. Barney Lewellyn, who was our Linebacker coach and coached for many years came to GA my junior year I believe. You can look in the archives, yearbooks, to find out who was there when.”
•“We had good numbers on our teams and we had some very talented players at that time. Our offensive teams still hold records today and you can look all that stuff up.”
•“One of the things I remember about those years is when our class came in 76, the older players had a challenging time with Coach Raarup and his style. He was very religious, never swore, and had some mannerisms that we still joke about today. But, our class really helped change that culture, and we understood his passion for the game and accepted him for who he was. He had our respect. I believe it really helped.”
•“The other thing about that time in history was that coaches weren’t viewed as they are today. We just played and our coaches coached. The media didn’t talk about coaches and “their offense” or “their defense” and there wasn’t as much pressure put on them publicly as there is today. Parents weren’t as critical publicly of the coaches or programs as they are today, and neither were we as players. Coaches coached and players played. If we lost, it was because we didn’t execute. We always felt we were prepared, and we either did it or we didn’t. That is not often the case today, as you know.”
•“We had a lot of fun, school was most important but football wasn’t far behind, and I look back at my time there as a very memorable experience! I still have many friends from those days, and there is a bond that we have that is hard to explain. Even though I don’t see my teammates that often (like your Dad ), when I do it’s like I saw him yesterday. Time does not deteriorate our relationships. That is what Gustavus was, and I hope still is.”
2. Daily Routine as a player.
•“We really only had an “in season” routine as a team, the off season everyone did their own thing. Some were two sport althletes, some were in to rugby or intramurals, or just did their thing. The weight program was all on your own, and some worked hard, some did not, but it was not anything like today. Most started thinking about football and training on their own pretty hard over the summer. We had the 12 minute run (conditioning test) in the Spring at the end of the year, and we did it again when we reported to camp. That was the one thing everyone got measured on. We did 40’s sometimes, but not every year.”
•“I participated in Track for 2 years, which took up my off-season. My last two years, Gregg Roberts and Dave Bucher were my work-out buddies, and we lifted and did some form of running every Mon-Friday every week. We usually took the weekends off from lifting, but would do some hoops or fun things over the weekend. We were involved in IM’s, basketball and softball.”
•“Summer I was home and increased my running prep to include more agility and speed work and conditioning. I usually lifted at our high school.”
•In season schedule was as follows.
o“Sunday: Review Saturdays game film at 6pm in the field house. That ended around 7:30 if I remember correctly. We watched the film as an entire team.
oMonday, was a scouting report meeting for about 30 minutes prior to a practice in half pads, with a little film of our opponent if we had it.
oTue Wed were full pad practices….no meetings.
oThursday was half pads a lot of the times.
oFriday was helmets, jerseys and just a short review.
oSaturdays we had a pre-game meal, time depended on whether we were home or away. If home we didn’t have to dress up, but we did when we traveled. We did not have any meetings. We had chapel that was voluntary in the morning on campus when we were home, or in the locker room if on the road. It was voluntary like today, and Coach Raarup did most of them. Occasionally he would invite a guest speaker.
oThe QB’s would meet with Coach during the week every day for about 20 minutes I think, and some of us would watch film during the week in our free time. But remember it was 16mm film and we only had that one copy of our opponent.”
3.Daily Routine as a Coach.
o“Off season, our staff met every Monday-Wednesday-Friday.
♣Players were involved in strength and conditioning program and helped with recruiting.
♣We had a Spring Competition with the team where the Seniors would draft players and that was their team for the spring. We competed in Strength and Conditioning testing, Whiffle Ball, Bowling, Razzle Dazzle Football, a Community Volunteer activity, and academics. The winning team got a T-shirt at our last team meeting before the summer.”
4.Teams that I coached.
•“This was my first head coaching position and I learned a lot. I had been an assistant for 13 years prior at UW, SDSU, and GA. There is nothing that prepares you for all that it takes being a head coach than experience. It was a great 15 years for me, ups and downs, but all very rewarding both personally and professionally.”
•Challenges and successes:
o“The last championship won at GA when I took over was ’87. Unfortunately we never won a championship in my tenure and that was very disappointing to me.
oWe were legitimately close to winning a championship 3 different years. In ’98 if we beat SJU in last game of year we share the title. Same scenario in ’99. And in ’08 if we beat STO and CON our last two games of the season, we share the title - Lost to STO in 2OT - Lost to CON in last minute of game. That also was very disappointing, especially how we lost those last two games.
oMy immediate challenge upon being hired was getting the program to be successful again and ultimately keeping the program successful and competitive. First 3 years we were 8-22 (‘94-’96). They were 2-8 the year before I took over and had not had a winning season in a few years, so starting out like we did was hard. But I knew we were improving, it just wasn’t happening on the scoreboard. Fortunately for me so did our players.
o We had to change the culture and the expectations of the entire program, and get everyone on the same page. It took three years. Next three years (’97-’99 we were 21-9.
o We had things rolling at that time, but the tornado had hit in 98 which impacted our stadium and we were unable to continue to improve and keep up with the improvements of our competitors in the league. Our stadium was old and damaged and the college did not want to invest a lot into it because the plan was to move it and build a new one. Over the next 3 years (’00-’02) we were 6-4, 7-3,6-4, but we were running off the success of the previous teams. It just took too long for the stadium to become reality to keep our recruiting edge.
oAnother huge challenge for me was developing and improving our staff. I’m proud of the fact that our program helped some of our coaches move on to better themselves and move up professionally, but it was challenging to replace them, as well as trying to keep continuity with your systems. Also, as time went on we needed to increase our full time staff to allow us to stay competitive in recruiting and match our competitors, but it wasn’t until ’07 season that we were able to add another full time coach (coach Shea) to our staff. As a result from ’03-’05 we did not have a winning season.
oThings changed in ’06 when we finally got the development of our new stadium underway and in ’07 when we were able to add another coach. This had a huge impact in our program, recruiting improved, it gave a boost to our staff, and we got back to being competitive again. From ’06-’08 we went 6-4,5-5,6-4. Like I mentioned earlier, in ’08 had we won our last two games of the season, we would have shared the conference title.”
5.“I chose GA because of the academic and athletic reputation of the school. During my visit a player by the name of Dave Pfeiffer sold me on it. When I left my visit I knew this was the place for me. I was from WI, and they didn’t know me from Adam, but they were proud of GA and they were the kind of student-athletes I could see being a part of, and they were great to me on my visit. Next to my marriage, that decision has had the most significant impact on my life as any I’ve made.“
Summary
“The opportunity to coach at my alma mater was most rewarding to me and my family. It was an experience I will cherish forever. To be a key player in the building of a new facility and see it through from design, to fund raising, to what we have today is something that I’m very proud of. I’m proud of the fact that our staff left the program in much better shape than when we took over. But I am most proud of how we treated each other, the respect we had for the game and our college and our league, and how we played on Saturday….tough, hard- nosed, disciplined football with class. That was very important to me. We always tried to do things the right way with integrity and class. If you ask the players that played during my tenure I believe they would say we accomplished that. And I can only hope that those players, whom I was fortunate to coach, left GA with a love for our program and their experience in it, and that they were better prepared for their future because of Gustavus. That is what really matters.”
Staff In Season Schedule 08.docx
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-LInk to the Coach’s Monthly Calendar
Staff Monthly Calendar 08.docx
- Link to the Staff’s duties
