Thank You, Wayne & Susan
7/19/2019 8:30:00 AM | Volleyball
Former program SID tries to encapsulate the Kreklows' profound impact on Mizzou and Mid-Missouri
For nearly 30 years, the word "volleyball" in Columbia has been synonymous with one name: The Kreklows. When folks in Mid-Missouri thought of the sport, they thought of Kreklow. Even before they arrived at Mizzou, they developed cross-town Columbia College into an NAIA powerhouse, winning 85 straight matches and a pair of national titles before rolling the dice to come coach at Mizzou.
In Mid-Missouri, their name has resonated with fans of young and old, from the VolleyZOU to the Golden Tigers. They've lifted trophies. They've seen their children grow up in a community that embraced them as much as it embraced their parents and Mizzou Volleyball. They made such a profound impact on the lives of so many student-athletes, so many staff members, and last night they announced their retirement. Today, I am burdened with trying to encapsulate their impact on Mizzou, Columbia, countless student-athletes, and even myself, into a 2,500-word feature.
I've known the Kreklows personally for the last decade, but obviously known of them for much longer than that. My relationship with the Kreklows dates back to 2009 when I was returning to Mizzou from Michigan State for a graduate assistantship in the athletic communications office. My main job responsibility was to serve as Mizzou's Volleyball SID – an opportunity that I relished. Looking back a full decade later, I can't even begin to think of where my life would be if I hadn't taken that opportunity. Wayne and Susan invested so much in me, personally and professionally, since the day I stepped foot back on Mizzou's campus and in the Hearnes Center.
My knowledge of Mizzou Volleyball was a little deeper than most and certainly did not begin in 2009 when I was assigned to serve as the PR guy for the team. You see, as a Columbia native and Mizzou grad, I remember growing up and going to Mizzou Volleyball games. Back then, they were in the Big 12 and played every Wednesday and Saturday – a perfect schedule for anyone with kids looking to get out of the house and away from television or video game systems. Who knew, that while watching those Mizzou volleyball teams with my mom and dad in the early 2000s, I was getting an early glimpse of life lessons that I would see play out first-hand when I took over as the team's SID in 2009.
Watching those matches as a kid, I could see what made the Kreklows special enough to take a team that went 0-28 two seasons prior, and develop it into a national power. Their teams personified so much of what makes them so special, so unique. So, what were those traits that allowed them to lay the foundation for nearly two decades of success? What did they do to take one of the Big 12's basement dwellers and transform it into a national power? Well, here's how they did it (from my perspective at least):
You get creative.
If you need proof of that, look no farther than the likes of three-time All-American OH Carly Kan. A Hawaii native, many wondered how Kan made it all the way to Missouri, where the closest body of water resembling an ocean is the Redneck Riviera an hour-and-a-half south at Lake of the Ozarks. Trust me, it's nothing like an ocean. Anyway, the reason Kan ended up at Mizzou was because at 5-foot-9-inches, every team recruited her as a defensive specialist. She was far too small to play on the outside and at the net. But she wasn't too small for the Kreklows, who offered her as a hitter. Three All-America Awards and 491 kills later (seventh-most in program history), Kan still ranks as one of the program's best players ever – at the net. Not bad for a player who every Power 5 team thought should play libero.
You invest in people, not things.
I've been in college athletics long enough to know that resources are a big deal. Schools with more money tend to have more success. They can invest more bells and whistles in their student-athletes – the best technology, the finest facilities, the gawdy recruiting pitches – all the best that money can buy. But so many of those schools lose sight of the investment that really matters; the investment in the student-athletes themselves. No one did that better than Susan and Wayne. Everything they did was for their athletes. My first couple years traveling, the Kreklows would rent four minivans for the team during road trips because it was cheaper than taking a bus. The money they saved all went back into giving the athletes a better experience in areas that mattered. Whether it was abroad summer trips to China or a new team room, they always made the greatest investment, and that was in the lives of their student-athletes. They maximized everything they had and they got the most out of everyone and everything around them. That's something that any Missourian anywhere can be proud of and is something I know that the Kreklows are proud of.
You hustle.
As a kid, my mom and dad were season ticket holders for Mizzou Volleyball. I would tag along any opportunity that I got. We were especially hooked when the Kreklows took over. It was an affordable way for a family of four to spend a Wednesday night. And the matches were fun. I remember watching those games in the Hearnes Center as a kid and being impressed with the sprawling hustle displayed by the likes of defensive specialists Juliana Godoi and Rachel Taylor as they chased down every ball during the early 2000s. It wasn't until I started working with the Kreklows in 2009 that I realized the spirit that those two showed on the court was a direct correlation to the Kreklows' mentoring. It took me one practice to see where that hustle came from. The Kreklows approached coaching like that and it trickled down into how they ran the program. Susan's visionary approach to Olympic Sport marketing should be embraced by every athletic department in the country, all because she worked tirelessly to make sure that the Hearnes was full every time her players took the floor. And most of the time, it was. Almost everyone in Columbia has seen the volleyball 'yard signs' on gameday. In the beginning, who do you think put those up? It was the volleyball staff. That's hustle that any Mid-Missourian can be proud of.
You become versatile.
Another memory I have as a kid watching the Kreklow-led Mizzou Volleyball teams was the versatility of OH Naaron Branson. She was a six-rotation player, a great passer, a great blocker, great defensively, and man could she swing. Her attacks were thunderous and had the opposition on alert every time she stepped into the gym. She could adapt to any type of set, any type of match, at any type of pace. Again, these were all traits passed down to her from Wayne and Susan. In college athletics, you could make the argument that it is exponentially harder to be consistently good year after year than to be occasionally great every couple years. Wayne and Susan were both. Year after year, roster after roster, they found a way to win matches and lift trophies and advance in the NCAA Tournament. If they had big physical kids at the net, they used them – much like the 2016 team that blocked its way to an SEC title. In 2013, with smaller, quicker kids, they ran the nation's fastest offense. The results were a 34-0 record, an SEC title and the nation's No. 4 overall seed in the tournament. It was the versatility of their athletes and their roster year after year that led to 15 NCAA Tournaments in 19 seasons – 10 of which made it out of the first round. In more than half of their years coaching at Mizzou, they were one of the last 32 teams playing volleyball every year. There are 330 Division I volleyball programs. That's consistently good and way more than occasionally great.
You Serve.
This one is very personal to me. When I took over as the team's SID in 2009 I was a young, brash, abrasive kid who thought he knew it all. Looking back over the last 10 years, so much of my growth, both personally and professionally, has been because of the Kreklows investing time in me. While many of our conversations were around a bon fire, or in Wayne's patented hour-long talks in my office on the third floor of Hearnes, I learned so much from them. But not just about college athletics – I learned about life. They taught me to take pride in my relationships with others, to value experiences over things, and to invest fully in the lives of those who matter to you. So many people think that wisdom just comes naturally with age, but for so many of us it is because we meet people who pass down their wisdom to us. For me, the Kreklows were those people. Thinking back on that now, as I write this, one thing becomes very clear: if they invested that much time in me, imagine how much they invested in their student-athletes! I, after all, was just their PR guy. I still see it to this day by how many of their former athletes stay in touch with them, come back to camps, or just reach out to say hello. I've witnessed firsthand so many selfless acts from the Kreklows, and they did none for headlines or attention. That's just who they are – true servants.
The Memories
I'll never forget 2005. Wayne and Susan spent their first five years building and transforming the program, and those around Columbia were beginning to wonder if they had some super-secret Volleyball serum after winning two national titles at Columbia College and then bringing that mojo to the Hearnes Center. The fans followed. The Boyz of Wolperz Hall followed. VolleyZOU followed. News stations were broadcasting live. Matches were on regional TV (which back then, was a huge deal). The Hearnes Center was full all the way to the C level for the first time since basketball moved next door to Mizzou Arena. Mizzou Volleyball was Columbia's hottest ticket.
It all came to a culmination on Oct. 5 that year. Ranked No. 7 nationally with a 12-0 record, volleyball blue blood Nebraska was scheduled to visit the Hearnes. The Huskers were also undefeated and ranked No. 1 nationally. While Mizzou lost a close four-set decision, it did so in front of a program-record 7,298 fans, many of which were standing nearly the entire match. The previous record was 2,632. The Kreklow's first match had just 227 fans in attendance. It was that night that everyone knew that Mizzou Volleyball, and the Kreklows, were here to stay. In fact, they made it all the way to the Elite Eight that year with a team that was stacked with players like Lindsey Hunter, Jess Vander Kooi, Tatum Ailes and Shen Danru.
Then came the 2010 season, my second with the team. My grandmother passed away that Halloween and to be with family, I missed our Nov. 6 trip to Ames to face No. 12 Iowa State. The morning of the match, they reached out to me to see how I was doing. While they were fighting for their NCAA Tournament life at that point of the season, they took time to check in on me. That's the type of people they are. Later that night, I tuned into the match to listed to my friend Ross Taylor calling the match on an internet radio stream and two hours later, Paola Ampudia's 22 kills helped Mizzou to a four-set win in Ames. The Kreklow's team won seven of its final nine regular season matches to get into the tournament and then pulled off the NCAA Tournament's biggest upset ever, upending No. 5 overall seed Northern Iowa on its home floor en route to the Sweet 16. That was a sweet ride that I'll never forget. And no matter how sweet that was, I always appreciated them reaching out after my grandma's funeral that morning before the Iowa State match even more.
But of all the memories that are near and dear to me, none resonate quite like 2013. I've been to two SEC Football Championship Games, a Men's Final Four, Armageddon at Arrowhead and countless other events that so many would love to have been a part of. All of that pales in comparison to the run Mizzou Volleyball had in 2013. I had a chance to advance my career in 2012 and move on from working with the team, but I chose to stay with volleyball because I just knew something special was about to happen. What followed was a 34-0 regular season, the school's first ever SEC Championship in any sport, and countless memories. I'll never regret that decision. Mizzou was so dominant that year, it lost just seven sets. They were never taken to five sets. They broke school record after school record. I remember walking into No. 5 Florida's O-Dome knowing that if the Tigers won that match, we were going to lift a trophy the following week. Winning at Florida wasn't easy, but that night, Mizzou made it look easy with another sweep. A week later we lifted that trophy. I'll never forget the round of applause that team got on Faurot Field during Football's 28-21 win over Texas A&M to clinch the SEC East that year. Mizzou pride had never been higher.
Over their final six years, Mizzou claimed two SEC titles, finished second once, third once and fourth last year. They made it to the NCAA Tournament second round four times with a pair of Sweet 16s sprinkled in. Over the last two decades, Volleyball has been right there with Wrestling as the school's top programs.
A Humble Goodbye
After spending six years in the trenches with the Kreklows as their SID, and then over the last four when our friendship never wavered, I always knew this day would come at some point. A point where Mizzou Volleyball would no longer be spearheaded by the husband-wife duo that captivated the town.
I'll share part of a conversation I had with them earlier this week.
Me on how we'd make this announcement: "I think we have a really good plan in place for you guys."
Wayne: "We don't need a big deal though. You know us!"
They may not have wanted a big deal, but it is a big deal. In this profession, you don't often get to ride off into the sunset the way you want to do it. But they get to do just that, and they are leaving the program in more than capable hands – with a roster comprised of maybe its best talent ever. They've approached this announcement with the same humility that they approached their life, but I wasn't going to let them go out with the humble whimper that they desired.
I'm so excited to see my friends flip to this specific chapter in their book. They poured their hearts and souls into Mizzou, and every volleyball player who walked into the Hearnes. Now it's their turn to enjoy what I know they love to do best – travel and be around their wonderful children, who have grown into people the entire Mid-Missouri community should be proud of. I know they'll have some trips to Mexico and some hikes to the waterfall in Yelapa. I know they'll have plenty of bike rides out the Big Tree and back – I'm sure I'll get dragged on a few as well. If they attack retirement the same way that they did coaching, I know their best years are ahead of them.
In closing, Mizzou is a better place because the Kreklows were here. Columbia is a better place because the Kreklows made it their home. I'm a better person because they are in my life. So let's take today to celebrate one of the finest coaching careers in the history of our great school.
To my friends: thanks for having me along for such a small part of the ride. Thanks for memories, the moments and the laughs. Through all the adversity, thanks for always being teachers and demanding the best from everyone around you. It's been SWWWWEEEEEEEEEEEEETTTTT!!!!!
