Loras College Athletics

• One of the most successful coaches in Loras history, Flanagan has earned 100 victories in two sports while maintaining the highest academic standards for his teams. In wrestling, Flanagan helped establish the Duhawks' reputation as a national power with six All-Americans including one national champion. On the tennis courts, he has produced five Iowa Conference champions, four national qualifiers, 35 All-IIAC individuals and doubles teams, two Volvo Scholastic All-Americans and a GTE Academic All-American.

• All-time winningest head coach in wrestling (1966-81) and women's tennis (1981-89, 93-97), recording a 127-46-4 mark in wrestling and a 149-39 in tennis.

• Head men's tennis coach from 1988-90 recording a 27-6 record.

• Director of the Loras 80/80 intramural program (1966-2002) where 80 percent of the student body participates in one or more of the 100 intramural activities.

COACHING PHILOSOPHY

• My philosophy developed into recruiting the PERSON-STUDENT-ATHLETE in that order.  I want chemistry with the person first.  We need to be on the same page as we work with each other.  The student is what college is all about.  I want the student to be motivated to be successful in the classroom and have a goal of graduation in four years.  Yes, despite the sport being the reason for my initial contact with the person, the athlete comes third.  I am more interested in what the athlete wants to accomplish more than what the athlete has done in the past. 

• I coach with a middle school philosophy: IMPROVEMENT.  I have coached high school state qualifiers and players who never competed on a high school team.  All I expect from everyone is to work hard to improve his or her abilities to the highest level possible.

 
HISTORY-NAIA National Wrestling Tournament

• The first wrestlers to qualify competed in Omaha, Nebraska in 1968.  They were JIM FIGGINS, BILL HUERTER, and PAUL MEINTZER.  Jim declined the invitation to concentrate on his grades; Bill competed, but lost his first match and was eliminated when his opponent failed to reach the semi-finals.  I still treated Bill to an interesting evening of entertainment!  Paul won the first match ever for a Duhawk.  At the end of the three-day tourney, Meintzer placed seventh!  Unfortunately at that time only the top six grapplers were All-Americans.  Hard luck later happened in the 70’s when Mark Bertsch, a senior, also placed seventh.  The following year the top eight finishers became All-Americans!!

• There is no better joy than seeing a wrestler place in a national tourney.  I had the privilege of seeing it with JOHN DUFFY, twice with KEN BEYER and SAM FIORELLA.  Sam was the only national champion that I coached.  His opponent from Whitewater had an effective Russian arm bar, which he used for many of his takedowns.  A difficult move to counter, but Sam found a way by going against a cardinal rule: turning your back to your opponent!  Sam did so with such quickness that he gained the takedown and the national championship. 

THE LONGEST WRESTLING APPLAUSE

• I coached KEITH COLSCH and he qualified for nationals as a freshman.  Keith’s weakness was being on his feet.  Tongue-in-cheek says Keith should shake hands with his opponent, drop down to his knees, and let the opponent jump on top of him for the takedown because he usually got it anyhow.  Now Keith was where he wanted to be to do HIS wrestling-down on the mat.

• Keith’s first match at nationals was like I just described.  After the first period the score was about 10-5.  His opponent took him down and simply let him escape so he could take him down again.  Keith was in the down position for the second period and his opponent immediately let him up so the score after two periods was about 20-10.  A freshman nightmare, but not for Keith.  He loved to be on top, which is where he started in the third period.  He turned his opponent once for back points, but the second time was a charm as he pinned his opponent.  I stood and applauded Keith for so long that I think the next match was going on before I finally stopped.  I probably looked foolish, but I would gladly do it again.  Keith lost his second match but he later did become a national champion with Coach Mike Early.

WRESTLING SEEDING MEETINGS

• Most of our tournaments were with eight teams.  If appropriate, each coach would tell the credentials of his wrestler, e.g., record, common opponents he beat, etc.  You “usually” wanted the top three seeds as #4 “usually” meant meeting the #1 seed in the semi-finals and that “usually” resulted in a loss.  After all is said, the coaches normally vote for the top four wrestlers.

• I am a quiet person, however, I will speak up for our wrestlers.  Twice I was quiet though. PAT TOBIN at the Carthage Tourney was only 1-0 so I remained silent. I failed to mention that his only win was the previous night over an excellent Lewis College wrestler.  Pat was the surprise of everyone at the Tourney.

• The Wheaton Tourney was our largest regular season competition with about 25 teams.  There were at least seven wrestlers with better records than TOM KETTMAN so I was silent.  He wrestled a seeded wrestler in his first match.  As Tom was easily winning his match, one of our wrestlers told me the opposing coach was yelling--at me.  The polite terms were that I was a “sandbagger” for not speaking for Tom at the seeding meeting.  Remember, there were seven wrestlers already with better records going for the top four seeds.  Speaking up would have gotten Tom noticed, but never seeded.  Tom made it to the finals…

• Side note about the Wheaton Tourney was that Drake U. always won it and we usually placed ahead of Notre Dame.  

HISTORY-WOMEN’S TENNIS

• The longest point belongs to SUSAN ANDRUKAITIS, more than 100 hits between her and a Simpson opponent in a conference tourney match. 

• The longest interrupted match (due to rain) was with MARTHA O’CONNOR playing at North Park College.  The match was interrupted by rain a couple times.  The actual playing time was in excess of three hours!  The uninterrupted record (without rain) belongs to MARIA HERBIK, also played in excess of three hours.

• I believe we won all three matches.

• Integrity in tennis says your #1 player plays the opponent’s # 1 player, #2 with #2, etc.  Only once did I see that rule blatantly violated and the opponent was Knox College

• Knox’s #1 and #2 players, were junior varsity players-if they were that good!!  Once we won those matches easily, they disappeared.  Top notch players always play doubles-they went to dinner instead!

• This means our #3 player is actually playing Knox’s #1 player.  A great disadvantage for her and the rest of our line-up. 

• By the way, the varsity head coach was not there and his assistant coach was in charge. When I questioned him about the line-up, he said the varsity head coach said this was a non-conference match so it was okay to switch the line-up: bull crap!!!

• We played well in doubles and the score was tied at 4-4.  AIMEE BOHRER and JOELLE ROPARS won a very tough match and we won the match 5-4.

 
HISTORY-MEN’S TENNIS

• Burnout from coaching the men and women tennis team and intramurals resulted in coaching the men for only three years.  Like my first year with women’s tennis, I inherited a strong team.  Women with student-athletes like KATHY DIRKSEN, LINDA HOPPMANN, KATHY SCHREIBER, JILL PALM, JOYCE GEARY, JAN HANTEN, etc.  Men with student-athletes like SCOTT WELU, KEVIN WOODS, MIKE BECKMAN, JIM POMMERICH, CHUCK LAMPE, RAVI SHANKAR, etc.  Both teams rank among the best at Loras!!