Thank you, Cardinals.

Well, after serving the last 5 years as the Director of Athletic Performance at William Jewell College, I'm moving on to something new. I've been blessed to work with amazing coaches and administrators, but most importantly, outstanding student-athletes that made my job very enjoyable and fulfilling.

Looking back on when I started at William Jewell College in April 2016, I had no idea what I got myself in to. Fresh out of grad school at Northwest Missouri State University, working with a couple teams and spending a good amount of my time cleaning the shake machine, I found myself in charge of 20 teams and 400+ athletes. Luckily, I was able to find some part-time help with Liberty Sports Medicine to help out that first year. Thank you Daiven Ruddock and Adam Long. I think I spent the majority of my time just making sure all of the athletes were in the right spot and not doing anything too dumb that would get them hurt. I'm not sure how good of a coach I was that first year but I learned a lot. My time with Joe Quinlin at Northwest prepared me for the madness. It takes a lot of preparation and thought to get 5+ teams, 150+ athletes, trained between 5:30-8:00 am, especially by yourself. Thank you Joe for teaching me how to organize and run a weight room under schedule, time and staff constraints.

In Spring 2017, I added Jake Vollstedt to my staff as an intern. He was an intern, but I treated him like a graduate assistant and he worked full-time hours. He was my first staff member that I could rely on consistently. I knew Jake as a bad-ass, hard-working athlete from Northwest and he brought that same mentality to Jewell. He taught a lot of our athletes about the dedication it takes to excel at the NCAA D2 level. He would work at 12 hour day coaching, then spend another hour dragging a sled in our Mabee Center for conditioning. Meanwhile, I went home and was asleep by 7:30 most nights. Thank you Jake. You made a big impact.

We were able to take the next step with the program when we hired Miles Clifton as our first graduate assistant in July 2017. Miles and I worked our ass off to grow the department in any way we could. I think one of the most valuable things we did was take the time to think through and nail down our mission, vision and values as a department. Not just throw cliche words and phrases, but be intentional on what objectives we were working to accomplish and what values and behaviors we wanted to see in our athletes. During that time we also added Teambuildr to streamline our programming and data collection, which was a game changer. We really moved the needle that year and half or so Miles was on staff. He was even the MVP of Faculty/Staff basketball game.

In February 2018, Miles took a job at Luther College. Luckily we had a volunteer assistant, Jimmy Carrington, who was able to step up and handle some of the workload. He would come in from 4:30-7:00 every morning then go work his full-time job. Thank you Jimmy. I'm very thankful for the work Miles and Jimmy put in during that time. They made a big impact and are both off doing bigger and better things.

When it came time to fill our open GA position, I knew I wanted to step outside my comfort zone and bring in someone outside my strength and conditioning "circle." I thought it would be valuable for my development as a leader and coach if I added a coach to my staff that didn't share my ideas and experiences. In July 2019 we hired Jill Brown. Jill was not the most qualified candidate, but she showed qualities through the interview process that I knew would be a great fit for our staff and athletes. I can't underestimate the value she has brought to our department, especially for our female student-athletes. She has empowered our female athletes to get strong in a way that I never could. Thank you Jill.

One day in December 2018 I was sitting in my office and our AD, Tom Eisenhauer, knocked on my door. I remember thinking "uh oh, this might not be good." I was wrong. He informed me that Jewell was adding a powerlifting team, which meant we would be hiring a head powerlifting coach, who would also double as my assistant. In January 2020 we hired Devin Hance to fill that role. He worked his tail off learning how to recruit, in addition to coaching three of our teams. He is a great coach and brought even more perspective and experience to the staff that was extremely valuable. Thank you Devin.

Then COVID hit. We all had our challenges, but I'm very proud of how my staff adapted and overcame those challenges to provide quality training for our student athletes. We were reduced to 50% weight room capacity and had to keep everyone spaced out during the lift. We adapted and figured it out without sacrificing too much training. I'm very proud of that. Thank you Devin and Jill for your work and commitment to our program and the athletes.

Thank you to all of my staff that have come and gone the last 5 years at Jewell. We've had several other volunteer and student-assistants who made my job easier and were great help. Thank you.

Moving on from staff thank you's... to the student-athletes. I'm not going to list anyone specifically because there are just too many to mention and I don't want to venture down that path and leave people out. Thank you for all of your hard work. Most of you had to lift early in morning and you still brought great effort... most of the time! I truly admire your dedication to the "student" side of being a student-athlete.

One of our department goals was for the weight room to be the best part of our athletes' day. As I said my good bye's, many of you told me just that. I'm glad we were able to create an environment that the athletes enjoyed and looked forward to training in. We wanted to get you strong and powerful, but more importantly, we wanted to teach you how to succeed in life through discipline, personal responsibility and service. We weren't perfect by any means, but I think we did a good job of making the weight about more than just how much you can squat and bench press.

Many of you told me thank you for making you better. It wasn't me, it was you. You did the work. You showed up tired from school and practice and still trained. Those of you who were consistent with your attitude and effort made huge strides in your development. Day-in, day-out you showed up and gave your best. Not everyone made that choice. Thank you to those who did. You make our jobs as coaches very easy. I was just the guy with the plan and gave direction. You did the work. Thank you. And, thanks for laughing at my dumb jokes... most of the time.

Some last thank you's...

Thank you to the Northwest crew for introducing me to strength and conditioning. Thank you Joe Quinlin for being my mentor and friend. I owe a lot to you. Thank you Preston Pedersen, Jake Niedermann and Dakota Steiner. I miss coaching with you guys!

Thank you to the Mizzou strength staff in 2014, especially Ryan Jackson and Kayln Sticher. I learned a lot from you and you taught me how to get out of my comfort zone.

Thank you to Darlene Bailey and the rest of the hiring committee that hired me in 2014. Not sure why you hired a 24 year old to run your department but I'm glad you did.

Thank you Tom Eisenhauer for trusting me to operate the athletic performance department the way I wanted to. Your trust and support allowed us to create a great experience for our student-athletes.

Thank you to all the sport coaches I've worked with at Jewell. I've learned a ton from you about coaching and leadership. You trusted me and my staff to work with your teams. I'm very thankful for that.

Most of all, thank you to my wife, Ashley. Thank you for putting up with rants after a long day, for me falling asleep at 7:30 because I had to get up at 3:30 the next morning, for getting two crazy kids ready every day while I was at work, and for much more. I'm excited for our next adventures with Mac and Row.

Though my time at Jewell has ended, I'm excited to keep coaching through R/Strong Performance. To any of my former athletes, if you need help with anything let me know.

Thank you.

Coach Rosier