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Being the Hopkins head girls track and field coach since 2015, Andrea Yesnes has helped lead one of the largest track and field programs in the state to great individual and team success.
We recently caught up with Andrea to talk about her coaching career, philosophy, and her athletes.
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How did you first get into coaching? and What was your first coaching job and what jobs have you held since?
I grew up as a gymnast and in high school, my high school coaches had a private club. I started coaching when I was in high school. My job was part rudimentary gymnastics coach and part babysitting, really. I knew I wanted to teach and coach when I was eleven years old. That's what happens when you love a sport and have really good coaches you want to emulate.
My first coaching job as an adult was junior high diving (before they discontinued that event) and then junior high cross country. As a junior high teacher-turned-counselor, it was a great entry point for me. My oldest was a senior runner for Hopkins, and I had wanted to coach but didn't want to miss her meets. Mike Harris, the head coach agreed to incorporate the junior high athletes into the high school program. We warmed up together with the high school athletes modeling things like ballistics, strides, and generally how cross-country practices and meets should go. Our meet schedule was the high school meet schedule, so we only raced in meets with a middle school event. This way, I never missed my daughter's meets. What started as an accommodation for me turned into a really great way to build a program. Word got out that junior high cross country was different from other junior high sports in our district, and the program grew from 12 athletes to over 100 7th and 8th-grade boys and girls.
In 2012, I got involved in track and field as a program coordinator...really doing the jobs that are a pain for the head coaches...ordering busses, all communication to coaches and athletes/families, uniforms. It involved a bunch of small jobs that all needed to be done to make a big program run smoothly. Any remaining time I mostly spent with the distance crew. After three years of that, the girls head coach opened at Hopkins. I have been the head girls' coach since 2015.
Who are some people that influenced the way you coach and got you to where you are now today?
My biggest influences have been fellow coaches. Of course, the two coaches who come to mind have become two of my best friends-Mike Harris, the head cross country coach for Hopkins, and Nick Lovas, the boy's head coach for TrackTownMN. When you surround yourself with people who make you want to be better, you know you have been positively influenced. Cross country and the boys and girls track and field program work synergistically. The energy of one tends to be the energy of all.
Also, the Lake Conference has some of the finest coaches who have been around a long time and produce excellent results. All the women coaches are good friends and socialize a bit in the off-season. I am a competitive person by nature, and I cannot think of a better group to learn from!
How have you seen yourself grow as a coach and as a person over the course of your coaching career?
When I first started coaching track and field, I felt like such an imposter. Everyone knew more than I did, and I had a choice to fake it or admit it. I chose the latter and soaked in every bit of information I could as fast as I could. The funny thing is I thought I would someday know it all. I have come to find out, I will never know it all. The key is to find people you respect and trust and to understand you will always get from others. My hope is that I can give as much as I get.
How would you describe your leadership philosophy and style?
I work hard to let my girls know I care about them as people. Don't get me wrong, I want to have a high-quality team of the best athletes, but I have discovered separating the athlete from the person is impossible. The most important thing to me is that our student-athlete get as much as they can out of their experience with TrackTownMN. We start by asking any prospective captain to apply for the captain position like they would apply for a job. We then choose athletes who are in the running for captain, and we interview them. We want our athletes to gain life skills from being in our program. Our captains work on goal setting and communicating their goals to the team. I have really high expectations for my athletes. I want them to see strong women in their coaches and each other, so they can be strong women. This goes for the boys team, as well. Boys who see the girls team and female coaches as strong leaders is important as we continue to change the narrative and continue breaking down gender barriers in high school sports.
What do you like most about coaching?
The kids. Coaching is all about guiding, organizing and supporting young people. In the media, high school kids get a bad rap. But, I am the luckiest person to get to spend the end of every day with smart, talented, incredible humans. Even better? The entire coaching staff feels the same way. Our teams have some of the most gifted, most creative, biggest hearted and the funniest people in the school. Who wouldn't want to spend time with kids and adults in a way that is only positive?
What have been some of the more memorable moments of your coaching career?
We had an exception boys cross country team in 2015 who qualified for NXN. The boys were all on my team as 7th graders, and to watch them get to that high level was a proud moment-really for them, not me. They were excellent athletes, they trained hard, earning every accolade they received.
Another really fun moment was in the spring of 2019 when three of four relays advanced to the state meet. We were expecting to qualify one relay, and the girls surprised themselves race after race.
We work hard on culture at TrackTownMN. Every year we get better and better focusing on the kinds of activities that make our athletes want to come back and up their investment. Sometimes it is their performances, but most of the time it is our goofy games and our Royal Pride Week where we incorporate competitions in the even group practices like the high jump team limbo, the non-dominant hand discus roll and the pole vault relay. TrackTownMN athletes go all out this week; whether the athlete competes as a varsity of junior varsity member doesn't matter. These are the experiences our athletes will remember and are what bring our team together.
Who are some of the more memorable athletes that you have had the pleasure to coach?
Many of my memorable athletes are the ones who competed beyond where they thought they were capable. They didn't win their events, but they raced into a new time threshold, a new training group or measurement expectation. Some of them raced again after chronic injuries.
I get to see many of my athletes grow up in front of me: Reed Fischer is one who comes to mind. As a 7th grader, the most important thing for him was to have fun and clown around. It was a blast to have Reed on the team because he was a typical 12-year-old boy hiding in bushes and involving himself in acorn fights with his teammates. I got to watch the shift in Reed, too! He seemed to become an actual runner when he was a sophomore in high school and by his senior year, he was looking at D-1 colleges. Now as a professional athlete, he is one of the coolest stories...not just because he is making a living running, but because of the adult he has become: grounded, focused and hard working. Reed is the definition of self-made.
Joe Fahnbulleh also ran for me as a 7th grader. His story is different. He was a super clueless 11-year-old when he started with us. He rode his bike to practice rain or shine every single day in the summer once practice started. I am not sure he even knew what cross country was at first, he only knew he liked running and he LOVED being a part of the team. Breaking the news to him cross country would be done in October was really hard-he didn't realize it was only a fall sport. He still visits the junior high when he is in town and is one of the most likable, authentic humans I have ever met.
At one point or another, I had all six Klecker kids somehow a part of cross country or track and field. All of them are vastly different as people and athletes, and what a great family!
I currently have a large group of young women who are memorable for all sorts of reasons, but because they are current, I don't want to leave anyone out.
Tell me about some of the teams you've coached and how you coached them.
My first year as a head coach, I had a complicated group. The athletes were talented as individuals, but they didn't gel as a team. That year, I stressed team performance goals over individual goals. It was an exciting year as my first, but we had a lot of work to do as a team of individuals. Luckily, in Minnesota we have True Team, and at TrackTownMN, that has always been our focus. We speak True Team up until that season is complete. All our athletes know making the true team roster and helping to find who will complete the event groups is a top priority.
My 2020 team was a heartbreaker. One of my senior captains started as a 7th grade jumper during my first year, so when she graduated, I would have seen her all the way through 7-12. My captains that year were some of the most outstanding humans I had the pleasure of coaching. They were the perfect balance of serious and fun. That year, I probably had the largest group of talented athletes and strong teammates. On March 12th, Day 4 of the season, we had our showcase practice where all athletes compete against the clock and the tape in real and simulated track and field events. The results got the coaches excited about what our season could look like... and the kids saw it, too. The next day practice was canceled. For a few weeks, we were told we could not hold formal practice, but we could give the kids workouts. The kids ate it up. They waited for each week's workout plan, and we talked them through it through google meets. Three weeks later, the season was canceled. Our athletes asked for workouts anyway. We coached all the way through a canceled season with athletes who never stopped working out and never once competed.
The silver lining of 2020 was our 2021 Track and Field returners took nothing for granted.