Family: Wife – Stacey Children – Aubrey, Kade, Kressyn, Shadd, Zane, Delaney and Charlsey Coaching Career:
• Tarleton State University (2009-Present)
• Consultant, Ever Stronger & Head Coach BVCHEA HS Football (Bryan/College Station, TX) (2008)
• Texas A&M (2007)
• Kansas State (1993-2007)
• Dodge City (KS) Community College (1990-93)
• Mulvane (KS) Jr/Sr High School (1984-90)
Notes:
• Big 12 Conference Strength and Conditioning Professional of the Year Award (1997, 1999)
• National Strength Coach of the Year by Pro Football Strength Coaches Society (1998)
• Coached over 50 NFL draftees and numerous undrafted free agents
“For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline.” 2 Timothy 1:7 (NIV)
Bolstering athletes’ hearts as well as bodies at various levels ranging from junior high to Division I, Tarleton State University’s strength and conditioning coach Rod Cole has invested 30 years of power, love, and self-discipline into the lives of thousands of students.
FCA: Have you always wanted to be a strength and conditioning coach?
RC: I played football and threw the hammer and discus at Bethany College in Kansas. I loved the process as much as game day- I loved the practice and workouts. When I was a sophomore in college the light went on that I could be a strength coach and be paid for it. In January of 1982, I wrote down a goal that I wanted to be a major college head strength coach. Eleven years later, I became the head strength coach at Kansas State University.
All my wife Stacey knew when we married in 1989 was that I was a high school coach and I had a goal of being a major college strength coach. She went along for the ride, and we’ve done this college athletics thing together for 25 years and have seven children, so life has been an adventure.
FCA: How is spiritual training like strength training?
RC: Anything you do in athletics is long term. Not very many people are going to come in their freshman year and be a starter the first week. They have weaknesses they have to improve on and they have to grow and develop. It’s the same thing in your spiritual life- it’s not easy and you don’t do it on your own. The beautiful thing is God gives us His Spirit and power to work in us, and the biggest thing we do is surrender ourselves and let Him work in our lives.
FCA: How have you focused on player development in and out of the weight room?
RC: My philosophy in coaching is “power, love and self-discipline.” In 2 Timothy 1, the voice of experience, a guy named Paul, is telling the young man Timothy to fan into flame the gift that’s within him. And basically, that’s what I do for a living. I fan into flame the gifts that are within young people to be better athletes, improve their athletic ability, and to help them grow as people. As a Christian, you are going to stand for Christ. At the end of the day, every athlete I work with knows I care about him and try to love him with the love of the Lord.
The Cole family outside their home in Texas.
FCA: How has FCA played a role in your life?
RC: I grew up in small town in Kensington, Kan., became a Christian at age 13, grew up in a Christian home, and read all the old FCA Magazines. I was very involved in FCA at Bethany College. When I started coaching, we started a junior high FCA group, and when I moved up to the high school, I kept the junior high going and started an FCA at the high school. Then I went to Dodge City Community College and got an FCA started there, and I finally jumped into one that was already started when I went to K-State.
FCA: What does your relationship with Christ mean to you?
RC: The most recent thing that the Lord’s given me was something I saw in a video by Adrian Rogers, who was a preacher from Memphis, Tenn. On one hand there are five fingers- God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense. I want God's riches. Christ paid for them at the cross. God gives us those freely, because we’re saved by grace through faith. And on the other hand you have five fingers – Forsaking All, I Trust Him. It’s tough to truly forsake all, and give everything else up. You trust Him, and you trust Christ completely.
***
FCA Staff Quote:
“Coach Cole has had such great, eternal influence on so many athletes. He walks and talks his faith and is able to reach the students. I look at how many years he’s been involved with FCA, in his 30 years of coaching, he’s had impact on thousands of athletes. He’s brought a lot of experience to the table with what FCA has done for those communities and schools he’s been a part of.”
Carrie Normand
Erath County and Tarleton State FCA Representative
Originally Published May 2014
Photos courtesy of Nathan Bural/Tarleton State Athletics and Rod Cole