PiPress: Tracy Claeys stays true to small-town Kansas roots

BleedGopher

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per Greder:

When the restaurant Tracy Claeys owned in his hometown ran into snags, manager Teresa Claeys telephoned her older brother.

If Coach's Grill and Pub in Clay Center, Kan., had a problem with an employee or a dissatisfied customer, Tracy Claeys, the Gophers' new head football coach, would give advice to his sister, the same wisdom he has imparted on young men as a football coach since 1994.

"I learned a lot about shrugging things off that you can't control, paying attention to things that you can control and how to always find the positives," Teresa Claeys said Wednesday. "He's been a great mentor to me as well."

During his introductory news conference Wednesday after receiving a three-year, $4.5 million contract, Tracy Claeys recalled his humble beginnings in the rural Kansas farming town.

Being the first from his family to earn a college diploma, Claeys graduated with a degree in education from Kansas State in 1994 and began teaching math and coaching football at Santa Fe Trail High School in Carbondale, Kan. He left after a year to join Jerry Kill at Saginaw Valley State, a Division II school in Michigan.

He forfeited a full-time teacher's salary for $3,000 a year to coach the defensive line with Kill, the man Claeys succeeded.

http://www.twincities.com/gophers/ci_29105588/gophers-football-tracy-claeys-stays-true-small-town

Go Gophers!!
 




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