Mile posts: Q&A with Indian Hills track coach Brent Ewing

This spring's track and field season might have been canceled, but don't tell that to Brent Ewing.

The Indian Hills head coach continues to make the 93-mile drive from his home in Ankeny to the college campus in Ottumwa approximately three times a week to check in with his assistants and a student-athlete still on campus. He also remains busy recruiting, both with video chats and phone calls, to prospective athletes despite the coronavirus pandemic.

Ewing, 29, is in his second stint as the Warriors head coach. The former Centerville High School and Central College standout brought in a 2018 class of more than 40 student-athletes to the southeast Iowa campus. The hustle by Ewing, a Cincinnati, Iowa, native, and his assistants paid off last spring when the Warriors, led by sprint great Kenny Bednarek, finished ninth at the NJCAA national meet last May.

Ewing has coached 19 All-Americans and two national champions in track and field. He insists next year's men's team will be better than the one that finished 18th at indoor nationals in March. The same holds true for the women, who were a program-best 21st at outdoor nationals last spring.

Ewing, who can be seen running around the streets of Ankeny when he isn't in Ottumwa or driving his three kids to activities, chatted with me last week for a Q&A. We talked about his injury-filled career at Central College, becoming an instant stepdad to three children after his marriage last summer to Katie, the recruitment and development of Bednarek and how the coronavirus epidemic has actually helped his recruiting: 

LB: Hello Brent. Did you dodge the rain before your run this morning?

BE: Just barely. I had just gotten done.

LB: I was walking outside when it started raining. I delayed mine until this afternoon. I just got done with mine. It's been a strange spring for you.

BE: It has. Everything has gotten bumped up. 

LB: I would have thought everything has been pushed back. 

BE: It's from a recruiting standpoint. It's a little bit different for us being a juco. We get a large wave of athletes after state meets. Some of them start to trickle around to us. We saw a gigantic increase in commitments and people showing interest as soon as stuff started closing down. I know there was a day last week we signed seven different kids from seven different states. The only downside is with NJCAA and NCAA rules, we can't do any face-to-face recruiting. We couldn't get anyone on campus. I think a lot of athletes were ready to make that decision quicker than what they might have been before.

LB: Are you getting some NCAA Division I prospects you normally wouldn't have?

BE: We do have some. With a lot of those NCAA D-I and D-II schools, a lot of their money has been offered. The NCAA made that rule change about the testing and test scores. A few opened up their commitment process. They think there's a lot of money still left over and will get a big offer, but from what we know that's not really the case.

LB: I believe you got through NJCAA indoor nationals before the coronavirus changed everything. Tell me about that time.

BE: I remember our last meet was the NJCAA indoor meet and the talks were just starting about the virus and cases were outside of our country. It was almost like a joke. People were telling others about washing your hands at the airport. I think it wasn't being taken seriously. We had no idea. It left a sour taste in coaches' and athletes' mouths. We walked away with six All-Americans. We were really getting excited about the outdoor season. It definitely affected the athletes a lot. Our sophomores, a lot of them were in the recruiting process. It cut their recruitment process a little bit short. It will have a trickle-down effect to next year. It's stalling the recruitment process. They don't have a full season of results to show. High school juniors are in a similar situation, too. We are recruiting them off of their junior times. That is what scholarship offers are based off of. Juniors have nothing to show for it. It will be interesting if colleges do save more money for springtime. It's a whole different situation that nobody's been in.

LB: Are any of your current sophomores coming back?

BE: They're all leaving. It didn't really affect us at all. All of our sophomores except for four have signed. I don't have anybody coming back.

LB: Current junior college sophomores could have come back, though, from what I've read.

BE: They get to come back for the full year. It didn't really affect us a whole lot. It's put a little bit of a hold on some of their recruitment offers. We've got four left (who don't have offers). Those are the four who would have benefited from an outdoor season. That's something that we are heavily involved in with the athletes, regardless of division. We try to find a school that fits their needs.

LB: Have you gotten pretty good at recruiting from afar?

BE: We have a really good video campus tour on our admissions pages. They redid it this fall. I have been able to send it out to recruits. I do Facetime visits with them. I am on campus a couple times a week. It has been unique to rely on a video and not have the true feeling of being on campus.

LB: So you are still going to campus every week?

BE: Uh, huh. I go to campus 2-3 times a week. It's not required or anything like that. We have one guy on the team who is still on campus who is an international student. I check up on him. I could go to campus seven days a week, but that gets old. We have been instructed we can work remotely. There's still stuff we can do on our end. My two assistants live on campus as well. It's nice to check up on them and do the little things to run our programs.

LB: Do most of the Indian Hills coaches work remotely?

BE: I would say I'm in the minority. We have a lot of coaches who live on campus as well. There's athletes still on campus from several different teams. There is still a coaching presence on campus. They are like me. They can only stay at home so long.

LB: You are a newlywed with kids. How does that work with you commuting to Ottumwa normally ever day?  

BE: Yeah, it's definitely an interesting setup. I don't mind it at all. I do a lot of administrative work in my car. I keep busy in my care. I am definitely away from work a lot during the academic year. I don't usually get home until 8 o'clock. We have three children, three stepchildren, enabled them.  

My wife, Katie, got a new position at Bergman Academy as head of enrollment. That played a big role in where we were going to live. I was the one who was willing to be the one to commute. To me I don't feel like I sacrificed anything. I get to work at the job I love. I love the program. I get to be with my wife. To me, it's the best of both worlds. 

LB: And the time you do have together is pretty special.

BE: Katie is super busy as well. She has a lot going on as well. With the three kids, 8, 12, 14, they were in a ton of activities before the virus came along. For about three hours straight we are picking kids up and dropping them off. 

LB: Have you discussed moving to farther south like Des Moines to be closer to your jobs?

BE: We have talked about it. We have talked about moving closer. I think the big thing is that the kids like this school system a lot. They all have friends. We would have to drive them up here to school. We are trying to decide if that's worth it. We have the kids every day except for Tuesday and every other weekend. We have them the majority of the time. Honestly, I like our location. I'm a mile off the interstate. It's super easy for me to wake up, I'm on the road and on the interstate. 

LB: How did you and Katie meet?

BE: We met on Bumble. Katie is quite a bit older than I am. It was a unique match. At that point I was living in Ottumwa. Katie was living in Ankeny. With Bumble, the female has to reach out to the male first. When she first reached out to me, I asked, "Why is this lady reaching out to me?" We were going on dates here and in Des Moines. Even though we are 14 years apart, we clicked right away. We were both open to anything. We realized pretty quickly that age didn't make any difference.

LB: How old are you?

BE: She's 43 and I am 29. I will be 30 in August.

LB: How has it been being an instant dad?

BE: It was a unique role to step in. I feel like I got lucky. These were kids who were raised quite well. We were starting to do fun activities. The middle child is a teenage boy. The oldest, Aubrey, is in band. They all have activities that they are involved in. I was able to introduce Keaton to track last year with the Ankeny Track Club. Last year was the first year he had done track. Kiernan, the youngest, is the gymnast. No joke this year we were in the car 2-3 straight hours some nights. Before you know it you are in the car 2-3 hours. We have been considering some townhomes. We've been looking at that option as well. In the next year we will be somewhere else in Ankeny.

LB: How difficult is it being a head coach of a college track program without a home track facility?

BE: We do have Schaefer Stadium in town. It's not our own track per see. But it is a gorgeous facility. They put in a new turf field and new track two years ago. We got lucky. The Ottumwa school system has been generous to us. We have opened our facility to them. 

LB: So it's a good trade-off.

BE: We are out there when the high school is not out there. We will have the facility to ourselves. We have an indoor facility.

LB: At the Hellyer Center. You have very nice facilities there. I spent five years in Ottumwa as the Courier's sports editor.

BE: Really?

LB: I was there during the heyday of basketball when they won back-to-back national championships. Their softball team was also really good and their volleyball team was pretty new.

BE: As a kid we would drive up and watch the basketball games. Indian Hills was a big part of my life. That's what drove me here. All of the programs on campus were very successful. I knew the entire university was supportive of the athletic program. I knew we had a very good base to build on.

LB: Did you take a year off from coaching the Indian Hills teams?

BE: I did. It was a four-month hiatus. That was in December of 2018. I had met Katie that summer. I had decided to see what else was out there outside of coaching. I felt like someone had to make a move. I made the decision to go for the best move for us moving forward. I worked in insurance. It was pretty evident right away it was not the right decision. Katie and I both knew this wasn't the best decision to make. It was really hard to make that decision. Long story short an opportunity came up last April. The other coach was let go in the spring of 2019. I started at Indian Hills in 2016. That was my first full-time coaching gig. Before that, I was at Truman State where I got my master's degree. It would have been 2018 is when I got bumped up to the head position.

LB: That was a short stay by the coach.

BE: I got lucky. I knew I was going to get back into coaching. Indian Hills is where I wanted to be. But your options are what they are. I was looking all over. In the back of my mind I knew where I wanted to be. I got the phone call. Two to three days after I got the phone call I was working back at Indian Hills.

LB: What do you coach with track?

BE: What I do is I handle everything from the short sprints to the 400 to 800 guys. Middle distance guys on down is who I work with. The hurdlers as well.

LB: And one of your two assistants handles field events?

BE: Coach (Emmanuel) Dixon is our jumps coach and throws. Coach (Derek) Wilson is pure distance, 800 to 1,500 runners on up.

LB: You were a distance runner at Central and still run. Why don't you coach distance runners?

BE: Even though I am a distance runner, once I got to grad school I wanted to make sure I expanded my horizons and be more well-rounded. I have never had the urge to go back to distance. I think it was more of a challenge (coaching sprinters). It was something new. I had the option to choose which route I wanted to go. Once I got the head position (at Indian Hills), I had the option of where I wanted to go with my career. I wanted to stick with the sprints. I was still competing at the time on the local road running scene. 

LB: You are still fast. I see you running all the time around Ankeny. Do you do any races?

BE: I need to race. Once I became the head coach, I continued to race that summer and fall. Things were going good. Training was going good. It would have been the 2018 10-miler. 

LB: Capital Pursuit?

BE: Yes. I remember it was hot day that year. I just broke 55 minutes. I think I was fourth or fifth overall. That was the last race I've done. I still run. In the summer I run 60 to 70 miles. During the school year, 40 to 50 miles a week. I haven't done any specific workouts in a while.

LB: You must not miss racing too much.

BE: It comes and goes. Being a coach at the college level is all-consuming. I want to be really good at a few things. My racing kind of had to take a back seat to those two, my family and coaching. I wouldn't rule out the possibility of racing again.

LB: What could you run for a 5K now?

BE: Oh, man. If I had a few weeks?

LB: Right now.

BE: 16:30. The higher up in distance, the better I would be. Most of my runs are 6:20 or 6:30 average. Most of my runs start at 7:00 (minute-mile pace). Part of me is thinking about doing the mile. I was a 1,600 runner in high school. I love the 1,600. I won't have to log as much mileage. I sometimes think it would be fun to drop down and try that. I don't know. I had a goal to do a 30-mile run on my 30th birthday. It's something I'm thinking about doing for the heck of it.

LB: Have you done a marathon?

BE: No. That last summer I was training was the best shape I've ever been in. I did a 20-miler right under 2 hours, 1:59. But I've never done a marathon.

LB: You were on the track to a marathon and then coaching consumed your time.

BE: In my mind I felt like I was going that way. I wanted to get my half (marathon) time down. I became a head coach and life changed and all of that got put on the back burner.

LB: You were a part of one of the great Iowa Division III eras in history at Central.

BE: We had a pretty impressive team of Iowa kids. My junior year we placed 12th at nationals in cross country. Technically, that was my senior (academic) year. I came back for my senior (athletic) year. I had redshirted one season. We had Austin O'Brien, Eli Horton. We had just picked up Cole Decker. I wanted to come back because I felt like we were going to do something special. We placed sixth at (cross country) nationals. That was a difficult time for me. I had my first hip surgery. That would have been the March before my extra semester. 

I had torn my labrum that fall (of your junior year). We had no idea what was going on. I would wake up the next day after a race or workouts and I couldn't walk. We didn't know what the issue was. That went on all the way from September until March when I got diagnosed. I had my first surgery then. At that point I was very confused at what to do with my life. All of a sudden it was March and I didn't know what my running was going to look like. I decided to go with my gut and hope I was ready to go by August. I had to sit out until basically July. The surgeon said not to run ever again. I was running five miles a day at the start. I got myself in shape. I reported to camp. I got through the season. I knew at that point in time my hip was messed up again.

That Christmas Eve I had my second surgery. They went back in and cleaned it up a little more. More impingement they had to shave away. That wasn't as intense of a surgery as the first one. I was only out 6-8 weeks. That was when the coaching side of things started coming into play. I still had some track eligibility. I decided to go the GA (graduate assistant) route. From that January on to the following fall I was just working from home. My position at Truman started in the fall of 2014. At that point my running was struggling. I was trying to get strong enough to handle the overall volume of being a distance runner. I knew my right side (hip) had the same issue. It just didn't have a tear yet. It was just a matter of time before it happened. My first year of being a GA I had my third hip surgery, on my right hip. I fractured my pelvis.

LB: That's a lot to overcome to run again.

BE: I was just really in a rut in my life with my running. I knew I was having the same feelings I had before in my other hip. I ended up having the surgery that December. "Mentally (I thought), I'm done for." Three hip surgeries in two years. I don't know what changed. I didn't start doing any road stuff until I got to Indian Hills in 2016. I put a lot of work in strength and core work. I eventually got myself up to doing decent mileage again, 40-50 miles a week. I was just doing a lot of quality stuff. Zach Baker and I were friends growing up. I decided to do that (join Runablaze) and racing on the roads.

I wouldn't have ever imagined that there was any way I would get back to doing high mileage. There were weeks I was getting up to 60, 70, 80 miles a week. It was a good thing. I'm glad I didn't listen to the surgeon. I remember talking to the physical therapist. He gave me hope. He said, "If a doctor tells you that you can't do something, find a different doctor." I had a lot of bumps in the road that I felt I was wasting my time. Running was a big part of who I was and it wasn't something I was willing to give up.

LB: Is it important for you to get your daily run in?

BE: There's a lot of self-discipline you have to have to do our sport. It's not for everyone. I fell in love with the process, with the lifestyle. It fit my personality. It's my outlet.

LB: What position were you on those teams?

BE: I was always somewhere in the top five. My junior year before I had my surgery I was the No. 1 guy. The first two races I was No. 1 or No. 2. Once October came, I was pretty much done. I was more like the fourth or fifth guy. When I came back, I was fourth or fifth (on the team). I was able to get myself back into decent shape. 

We had a lot of guys who had a similar mindset. It was tough coming back that last term. I don't feel like I ever got to show what I could really do. That junior year I started off so well. I was just happy to be back in some sort of shape and make it worth all of the money I spent. The money for the surgeries. I'm glad I made it back.

LB: Do you keep in touch with Austin, Eli and Cole?

BE: We keep in touch quite a bit actually. Whenever Cole comes back into town, we see each other. Eli is in Moravia. He was teaching and coaching at Seymour. He just took a position at Chariton High School. Cole just took a position with Hormel in Cincinnati, Ohio. 

LB: And Austin O'Brien just qualified for and ran in the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials.

BE: Out of everyone in that group, he's definitely had the most impressive postcollegiate career.

LB: What did you originally major in at Central?

BE: I was searching. I went there as a freshman as a biology major. I went to be a physical therapist. I don't know if I knew what I really wanted to do. I was interested more in exercise science. Exercise physiology really interested in me. I did an internship out at Billings, Montana. I thought at one time I thought I was going to be a lab rat. That was kind of where I was heading. At the same time I had a work-study job with Coach (Joe) Dunham. I would get a list of kids who were interested in track and field. I would input all of this information in a database. Coach Dunham and I had a really good relationship. I was one of his first recruits. I was there for a track camp. He was the No. 1 reason I went to Central. I was familiar with the campus. At that point in time Central wasn't known for their distance guys. I knew he was going to do something big there. (I thought), This could be fun. Something that had never been done before. I felt comfortable with coach Dunham. 

LB: When did you know you wanted to go into coaching?

BE: I'm not entirely sure. Coach Dunham played a big role in that, too. He was a big mentor for me. When you're an 18- to 22-year-old, he was someone who you went to for guidance and direction. I wanted to give back to people like he had given back to me. That resonated with me. That's when I eventually decided I love this sport too much. This is what I want to do. I was applying for graduate assistant jobs and having him as a reference.

LB: And now you're trying to knock off Iowa Central. 

BE: It is the goal. It doesn't happen overnight. I have a lot of respect for Iowa Central. I've known (director) Dee (Brown) since he recruited me to Iowa Central. It's a slow process. When I first got here as an assistant, we didn't have anything. You have to build some sort of momentum. When I first took the job, I felt like I had everything I needed to be successful. I knew we would be supported well by our administration. I worked my butt off. You have to have a vision and I really believed in that. That's how we got Kenny (Bednarek). That brought a lot of publicity to my program and got our name out there nationally. 

They're (Iowa Central) not just the best team in the region. They're the best in the nation. A lot of kids we're recruiting, they're recruiting. A lot of times it comes down to us and them for a recruit. Dee has always been really nice to me when I've had questions. We're in a different position. They've been around the block. They've won national titles. We're not at that point yet. We still have a ton we can accomplish yet. That's what motivates me. Our coaching staff is like-minded. They (assistants) are busting their butts off recruiting, trying to put a dent into Iowa Central.

We had a big growth spurt (in the program) in the last couple years. I told Brett Monaghan (executive dean, student development & athletics), "If we are going to do this, I want to do this right." He got it. He was on the same page with us. Dr. Marlene Sprouse, the president, they saw the value of our program. They really bought into it.

LB: Did you know you were getting a great runner with Kenny?

BE: figure I would get a response. He got back to me. I found out shortly after he was going to have to do the junior college route. He visited Iowa Central and it came down to the two of us. My pitch to him was you could do something that has never been done before here. You could put your face on this program. That resonated with him. He liked the idea of something up and coming.

His state meet was just insane. Wisconsin's a state where you only get four weeks of nice weather. His state meet he ran 20.43 in the 200. I was just like "Holy cow. This kid's going to be something special." Flotrack had him as the No. 2 prospect in his class. We knew we were getting someone who could come in and contend for a national title. We didn't know we were getting someone who could contend for a spot on the (U.S.) national team. I said to him, "What are your goals?" "I want to run in the Olympics, for Team USA. That was in December of 2018.

That first indoor meet he ran 45.92 for the 400. I thought, "This is something special. We need to start thinking of something bigger than previously expected." He had never run a 47 or 48 (for 400 meters) in December. And then he ran 45.92. I said we really need to rethink this. 

LB: And then he got hurt running the 200 at the U.S. championships that was a qualifier for the world championships.

BE: That was a situation where we had stayed in contact. "How are you doing?" (He said), "I'm doing great. I was running low 10s in the 100. And all of a sudden, boom, I reaggravated it." He told me he was really concerned. "I'm an 18-year-old boy. I have a long future ahead of me." It was definitely a letdown for him. The way he's handled it says a lot about him. The way he handled himself was really impressive. He never lashed out at people. He took it on the chin.

LB: Do you still keep in touch with him?

BE: I was texting him about a month ago. He felt like last year he didn't get to show what he was capable of doing. It's tough when you go from an amateur to a pro. I'm pretty confident he will bounce back and be just fine. He trains with Justin Gatlin in Florida.

LB: That's really good company. He might not race this year. And your team would have been strong after a fine indoor season.

BE: I think we would have. Obviously you will never have another Kenny. I felt like we had some very talented guys coming back and some newcomers. The middle distance guys really stood out for us this year. Four guys had qualified for nine different events. I felt like we were poised to do some big things at the outdoor national meet. The positive thing is that we had 18 individuals who went to indoor nationals. All but three are coming back. We are pretty excited. We had some pretty good signees and with the people we have coming back on the men's and women's side, we can do some things our program has never done before.