Do you ever wish you knew what your coach was thinking? We know it’s hard to get to know a high school sports coach beyond practice, so we sat down for a quick Q&A with Coach Jeff Ast to learn a little more about his life beyond practice.
Q: Where did you grow up?
A: I grew up in Colwich, KS.
Q: Where did you go to school?
A: I went to Colwich Elementary, Andale High School, and then to Wichita State University where I majored in physical education.
Q: How many sibling do you have?
A: So there’s me, and then I have an older sister, and then I have an older brother.
Q: What do you coach and where?
A: I coach middle school basketball at Andale Middle School, and then I coach track here at Andale High School, and I coach the throws.
Q: How long have you been coaching for?
A: This will be my third year coaching. I helped out with track my first year of coaching, and then last year I was at Colwich where I coached basketball, and then this year I coach middle school basketball at Andale, and I’m still doing track here.
Q: What inspired you to be a coach?
A: My Mom. She’s been in the teaching and coaching career path ever since…..Ever. So obviously she was a big influence. Here at the high school I had some good teachers. Obviously Coach Smarsh, Coach Schmidt, Coach O’Hare, so I looked up to those guys, Coach Buchanan too. I thought it was cool what they did, so I kind of followed in their footsteps and looked up to them and they were good role models so I figured it’d be a fun career to get into.
Q: What do you like about coaching?
A: Obviously since I’m really not able to compete, myself, anymore, it’s a good way to stay around competitive sports. You know, old man basketball, it gets competitive, but it’s still not as competitive as obviously an organized sport. So…yeah.
Q: What advice would you give to athletes training in those sports?
A: I wouldn’t say it’s specific to both of those, I think it’s specific to everything. Obviously, listen to your coaches. A lot of the people here at Andale have obviously been doing it for a long time. They know what they are doing and talking about, so listen to them. Obviously the weight room is very important, so putting a lot of effort in in there will give you great results
Q: What does a typical practice look like with you?
A: So first Coach Ryan will talk in the health room for about five or ten minutes then we will go do the warm ups all together. When we are done with those we will split everyone up in their own events with their coaches. Obviously I coach throwing so we will do our own throwing workout with all the throwers, which could be plyos, stairs, med balls or sprints. After that we will break up the throwers to go to their own throwing events. The typical practice varies but usually starts with some drills then we get into throwing.
We appreciate all that Coach Ast does for us and the time and effort he puts in every day at track practice. Not only does he coach track but he coaches basketball at the Andale Middle School and also teaches at Andale High School and Andale Middle School. Thank you, Coach Ast, for all that you do for the Renwick community!
