Tyson's Blog

Track and field coach Frank Wallace has been hired as the track and field coach at Morningside University after Dave Nash leaves the program.

Wallace was a track athlete at Briar Cliff, and coached at the college level at Wayland Baptist in Texas. He has been acknowledged as the NAIA coach of the week multiple times and has helped multiple athletes compete at the national meet.

Coach Dave Nash, who had been the head coach since 2003, stepped away to coach his son, Gabe Nash, who has shown a lot of talent through his high school years and the cross country team at North High in North Sioux City, South Dakota. Nash was beloved by athletes and others on campus creating some “big shoes” to fill.

Wallace took the opportunity to become a head coach for the first time after a lot of success as an assistant coach.

Sioux City is familiar to Wallace from attending Briar Cliff (Morningside’s cross town rival) which made the transition from Texas easier.

Jared Nicholas, a sprinter who specializes in the 200m and 400m said “I’m excited for change!” Wallace specializes as a coach in the same events that Nicholas runs. As for how preseason is going Nicholas answered “It’s definitely different from last year’s preseason coaching, I think we will be more prepared than we have been in the past couple of years”.

Nicholas also commented on recovery, “Our new warm up and cooldown is long, but I think it will help me stay strong throughout the entire season”. Wallace has put into place a much longer warm up than athletes were used to under previous coaching staff and has taken some getting used to, but should reduce the number of injuries that the team has to deal with.

Another member of the track team, Ashton Banker, had a few things to say about Coach Wallace. Banker is thrilled that Wallace is “tougher” than previous coaches and pushes athletes more than before. Also, Banker appreciates the seriousness and competitiveness Wallace brings to practice everyday to make his athletes better.

Later in the interview Banker talked about the changes in the weight room. The team lifts together at 7 o’clock on Mondays and Fridays. As for how the weight room experience has changed with Wallace as head coach, Banker said ” There is more energy in the weight room and we move quicker. We are always getting something done. We do less lifting than we did previously but the exercises seem more specific to track, hopefully our lifting will show in our results this season.”

Another athlete who is on both the track and cross country team at Morningside, Grace Lange, also shared her opinions on Wallace as the head coach.

Similarly to the rest of the athletes that were interviewed she is excited for the track season. She unlike the others though had more of a connection to Coach Nash who just left. She said ” I will miss Coach Nash. He was a big reason I chose to come to Morningside.”

Even though she was sad to see Nash go she said ” Coach Wallace seems to know what he is talking about and I think he will push us to be better runners”. She is both ready to be pushed harder than before but also a little nervous for some hard practices down the line, ” He is intense in good way! I’m a little nervous for some of the hard workouts he has been hinting at”.

As a group the athletes seem to be curious to what Wallace brings to the table. He has had experience with some talented athletes and has shown that he can improve their times. With the work ethic the Morningside athletes have, the athletes believe that a lot of improvements to times will be made this year and the program will grow as a whole.

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