Pul Twenge on Minnetonka Athletics
Posted by Steve Frazier
Our Speaker for October 19th was Paul Twenge, the baseball coach and assistant athletic director at Minnetonka High School. His talk was an answer to John Ahern's concerns during lunch, not what he had originally intended to talk about. John, as an alum of the U of Minnesota was concerned about the football coach situation at the U.
Paul said that athletics is now considered a marketing tool by most colleges; a good football, baseball, track, or basketball team gets the school lots of publicity, and that publicity attracts students. In addition, the good programs generate revenue that the board of regents can use to help academic programs. In some cases, there are situations where the athletic concerns overrule the academic ones, and schools start down the wrong path. The NCAA often has to deal with aspects of college programs that are violating rules, and suspend or otherwise punish erring programs. The choice of the football coach at Minnesota is important to the entire athletic program because the football team is one of the most visible programs. A good football program attracts not only good athletes, but also good students.
Paul was raised in North Dakota, and was baseball coach at Valpariso U in Indiana before coming to Minnetonka. He is very pleased with the environment for athletics in Minnetonka, and he talked about Pagel Center, Veteran's Field ,and the football stadium as top notch facilities in the region. As a side note, he mentioned that the baseball fields at Veterans hosted 263 baseball games so far this year. (Story by Tad Shaw and posting and shoto by Steve Frazier)
Paul said that athletics is now considered a marketing tool by most colleges; a good football, baseball, track, or basketball team gets the school lots of publicity, and that publicity attracts students. In addition, the good programs generate revenue that the board of regents can use to help academic programs. In some cases, there are situations where the athletic concerns overrule the academic ones, and schools start down the wrong path. The NCAA often has to deal with aspects of college programs that are violating rules, and suspend or otherwise punish erring programs. The choice of the football coach at Minnesota is important to the entire athletic program because the football team is one of the most visible programs. A good football program attracts not only good athletes, but also good students.
Paul was raised in North Dakota, and was baseball coach at Valpariso U in Indiana before coming to Minnetonka. He is very pleased with the environment for athletics in Minnetonka, and he talked about Pagel Center, Veteran's Field ,and the football stadium as top notch facilities in the region. As a side note, he mentioned that the baseball fields at Veterans hosted 263 baseball games so far this year. (Story by Tad Shaw and posting and shoto by Steve Frazier)