People that inspire me - Pat Wilson

There are 40 weeks left in the year and once a week I will write about someone in my life that is inspiring or motivating to me.  Hopefully others will read it and gain a little bit of inspiration in their life as well.  There is no particular order to these writings, just a bunch of people I am fortunate enough to know.  So without further ado ….

Inspirational person #11 of 50 – Pat Wilson

Pat Wilson is the pole vault coach at Wichita State University and I’ve been fortunate to work with him for almost the entire time I’ve been at WSU.  He was coaching across town at Friends University at the time and made the short move to his alma mater in the Fall of ’06.

Coach Wilson grew up in Leon, Kansas, and attended Bluestem High School before becoming a Shocker and contributing to the 1994 MVC team championship.  Pat has always been a Shocker at heart even though he took a long and winding path to get back to WSU.

Pat is a very unique individual.  He’s probably the funniest guy on our staff that no one realizes.  He can fall asleep sitting up in his office chair.  He was the drummer in a band.  Any kind of creative or manual labor job we think of … he is the one who ends up actually doing it.  He loves South Park, Beavis and Butthead and fishing.  If you want to know what his sense of humor is like … go to YouTube and watch Guy on a Buffalo.

More below but first …

I asked Pat five questions, here are his responses …

Question 1:  What advice would you give the 15-year-old version of yourself?

Pat:  Listen more, and talk less. You have a lifetime to form ideas and opinions. Never miss an opportunity to learn and grow.   And pay more attention in algebra...

Question 2:  What is your favorite non-professional thing to do and why?

Pat:  I guess it's no secret that I love the outdoors. Fishing, hunting and camping have always been some of my favorite things to do when I have spare time. 

Some of my earliest childhood memories were fishing with my grandfather, so I suppose there's a lot of nostalgia involved.  We all have something we like to do that puts us in a philosophical state of mind. For me, fishing is something that helps me recharge and feel normal again.

Question 3:  Where is the best place you have ever traveled and why?

Pat:  That would probably be a tossup between Northwest Ontario, Canada, and Kenai Alaska, but I would give Alaska just a slight edge. The fishing and the scenery are spectacular. In fact, I found it frustrating showing people pictures of my trip because the images didn't even come close to what it was like being there. 

And, any place I can fish and wear a hoodie in July is a winning in my book!

Question 4:  If you could change one thing about society what would it be?

Pat:  I wish we weren't so divided politically. I think as a people we have many more things in common than we realize, and somehow we have learned to focus on only on our differences.

Question 5:  Who inspires you and why?

Pat:  My athletes inspire me. 

There is always something satisfying about witnessing a new personal best, a newly developed skill, or a victory. It's especially inspirational when you're there every day to see the struggles that preceded them. 

My athletes probably think I'm never satisfied with their effort, technique, or their performance. 

But what they may not realize, is how amazed I am when they do something new, acquire a new skill, or compete at a high level.  I can't explain the feeling, but it never gets old. 

Final thoughts … Why is Pat Wilson inspirational to me?

A lot of people only see a college coach at practice or competition and think, “I’d love to have that job!”  And while I admit it’s an awesome job, getting to a workable situation isn’t always easy.  Pat Wilson is proof of that.

Obviously, Pat has always been a pole vaulter and loved the event.  He coached for many years in the Wichita City League working with young pole vaulters and then eventually worked his way to the college level at Friends University.  When he got hired at WSU it was as a part-time coach.  I can tell you that for a fact it wasn’t nearly enough money to live on, yet alone prosper.

Pat would get up way before the sun rose (around 3 or 4am) to work on the Wichita loading docks, then come to the office for a while before practice, then usually go to practice as long or longer than any coach (Pole Vault requires lots of practice time), and then do things like recruiting into the evening before falling asleep and doing it all over again on a daily basis.  He didn’t do this for weeks or months, he did it for YEARS.  Finally, WSU was able to put Pat on full-time and he was able to solely focus on working for the Shockers – something I assume has always been his dream.  And no one has ever given him anything in reaching his dreams.

I also admire his creativity in figuring out how to work around any problem he finds.  I think this is why he’s such a good coach too.  He’s able to think outside the box to develop a new training tool or another way to communicate something to his athletes.  It helps me as a coach to take another look at what I do.

Sometimes we take the people we see every day for granted.  And when you work with someone who is generally as humble and unassuming at Pat Wilson I imagine I’ve done the same.  But Coach Wilson, just know that all of us are really fortunate to work with you and are better people and coaches because of it.  I’m sure lots of your former athletes feel the same way!