Baked or Fried? A Closer Look at Wisconsin Rapids Lincoln Girls Golf Coach Justin Weinhold
OnFocus: What sports did you play in high school?
Weinhold: When I was in high school I got involved in the cheer and stunt team at Lincoln High School. The tumbling and gymnastics part was my favorite part of the program and the total body work out of throwing fellow classmates into the air and balancing them was a great challenge and I grew so much from my involvement in that program and continued to be a part of that sport throughout high school bringing home state and national titles in team and partner stunt competitions.
OnFocus: How do amateur sports benefit students, parents, and the community?
Weinhold: I think that sports offer such great life skills to the students that get involved. You learn that through hard work and dedication you can achieve just about anything that you put your mind to. You build confidence in yourself and great communication skills that will benefit you later in life in career pursuits. I think that you also learn how to be a team player and work cooperatively with others, even when you come from different backgrounds or beliefs, you can overcome obstacles to achieve common goals and that is very important as you become part of the community that you live in.
The benefit to Parents and the community with amateur sports is affording opportunities to our children that maybe we didn’t have as kids ourselves. Parents learn how to be supportive and engaged in programs that represent their community. There is the opportunity to display pride in your child’s work as well as encouraging and lifting up one another through competition.
The community benefits by having others come to your hometown and see all that it has to offer, not only from the site of the competition, but also to the local businesses that are around the help to provide those services that a city needs including the food service but also the hospitality industry. One of my favorite things to see heading into another community is the signs and banners of the various sports teams and the listings of their successes. The whole community support and pride makes you feel connected builds memories for the families that live there and were a part of those successes.
OnFocus: How have you been involved in sports in your adult life?
Weinhold: I have been involved in many different avenues of sports in my adult life, ranging from coaching cheer camps and tumbling camps both across the state of Wisconsin and also Internationally across Australia to coaching a small curling club for elementary and middle school students. If there was a need for a coach in a sport, I would rather step up and coach and learn alongside the athletes, than to see a season potentially never happen for those athletes. I coached for many years (13) doing middle school tennis for both boys and girls, coached High School Gymnastics for 2 years before having my own children. My boys are now 8 and 10 and I have coached them in Tennis, Golf, Baseball (tee-ball), and currently soccer for my youngest. I also established a sport stacking club and have run tournaments for that for the past two years in our school district for elementary students even taking a few of them to the AAU Junior Olympic Games in Iowa and North Carolina. My most recent coaching adventure has been joining the High School Girls Golf team here at Lincoln High School and I am truly enjoying my experience this season with my team. They are hard working and very dedicated to putting in the time to get better at a challenging sport.
OnFocus: What do you enjoy about your involvement in athletics?
Weinhold: There are two things that stand out to me in my involvement in athletics, 1 would be the connections that you build with the athletes and also with fellow coaches. You can form some great lifelong friendships with those that you work with and it is great to see your athletes grow from students into adults and see and share in their successes in careers pursuits and in life in general. The second thing that I enjoy about being involved in athletics are those moments when a difficult skill is achieved or when it finally clicks for an athlete, what you are coaching them on and they then too recognize and can correct their form. Those moments where you can share in their success after crushing a drive shot that reaches the green and they putt the ball in for their first Birdie or Eagle. Those moments are fun to share with the student athletes and create great memories to carry with them for the rest of their lives.
OnFocus: If there could only be one concession food in the world, what would you want it to be?
Weinhold: I think that popcorn is a pretty solid concession food and can be enjoyed just about anywhere.
OnFocus: What would you do with the money if you won 10 millions dollars in the lottery?
Weinhold: I think there is the obvious pay off the house, buy a new car that you like, travel the world, take care of family members and their debt, donate to your community to help build stronger school facilities / athletics opportunities, but then…
This maybe the weirdest response you will ever hear, but if I won that much money, I would buy socks with some of it as a personal item for me. I think the best feeling in the world is a new pair of socks on your feet. Once they have been washed, that magical feeling and softness often doesn’t stick around.
OnFocus: Is there something most people don’t know about you?
Weinhold: I always joke that I’m kind of an introvert. Most people see me, and yes I am outgoing and a people person most times, but I have worked on this for a long time and it took me a while to come out of my shell growing up.
OnFocus: What job did you want when you were growing up?
Weinhold: So I remember coming across some drawings that I did as a kid where I wanted to be a football player for the Miami Dolphins (I loved Dan Marino Growing up) and I also apparently wanted to be an astronaut, but I mean what kid doesn’t want to be at some point, right?
I think that I am in the right place in my physical education position that I ultimately ended up pursuing. I mean I get to play games for a living, how cool is that?!!
OnFocus: What do you most enjoy watching on television?
Weinhold: I love watching the NFL and rooting on my fantasy football players that I have in my family league, I also really enjoy watching the olympics when that comes around, both winter and summer. I also enjoy comedy shows and I’m currently working my way through Ted Lasso which also inspired my halloween costume a few years back where I grew out a mustache to go as the main character.
OnFocus: Who was an influential coach that has made a difference in your life?
Weinhold: Sue Poeschl was a coach for the Lincoln High School Cheer and Stunt program when I was in high school. She was a great leader in our sport and genuinely cared for all of her athletes. She was creative, motivated, kind, and connected to her athletes and I always appreciated her and still enjoy connecting with her over 20 years later.
OnFocus: How do you unwind and enjoy your free time?
Weinhold: I am a busy body and always need to have some type of project to work on, so I don’t just relax and that kind of drives my wife crazy. I enjoy going on vacations with my family to National Parks and doing hiking in them. We have been to Alaska, Colorado and Utah in the past two years taking in what nature has to offer. I also find mowing the lawn to be just about the most relaxing thing where I can tune out the world and responsibilities for a bit.
OnFocus: What would be an appropriate Super Hero nickname for you, and what would your powers be?
Weinhold: I’m not sure of a super hero name, but the ability that I would love to have would be the ability to fly, that seems pretty cool.
OnFocus: Who are your favorite athletes?
Weinhold: My favorite athletes would be Giannis from the Bucks, I like his work ethic and the way he gives back to the community. How can you not also appreciate JJ Watt for those same reasons.
OnFocus: Who is your role model(s)?
Weinhold: My Dad is probably one of my biggest role models. He was a kindergarten teacher for over 30 years and I remember going into his classroom as a kid and seeing all the cool ways that he would teach his class by transforming his classroom into an underwater experience with a paper mache whale that kids could go inside to read books in, and a plastic bubble to read inside for his space units. I loved the way that he transformed his space to create a learning experience for his students. I try to replicate that in my own teaching and create an experience over just a lesson for the students that I work with. It takes a lot of time, but again it is creating memories for those that we are connected to and that is what it is all about.
OnFocus: Baked or Fried? If you could pick only one, which would it be?
Weinhold: If we are talking fish, then absolutely fried. There is a great place in Wausau called Wiggly Field that does a cajun seasoned fish fry that is one of my favorites to order.
If we are talking chips, then baked, I love a good baked lays chips to go along with a sandwich, brat or burger.
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Author: David Keech
David Keech is a retired teacher and works as a sportswriter, sports official and as an educational consultant. He has reported on amateur sports since 2011, known as 'KeechDaVoice.' David can be reached at [email protected]
