- Robert Plaschke ’22
It is no secret that Sacred Heart has a phenomenal sports program. Getting players and teams prepared and ready to dominate in the upcoming season takes a lot of work. There are many components that go into getting ready and staying in shape to be successful in a season. There are the coaches, the ones who help players learn new plays and get them integrated into the team. There are trainers who do an amazing job making sure they are in the best shape for their season and that they stay healthy during the season. But, behind every great team there are incredible weight coaches. Both Coach Blaugrund and Coach Haack work with SHP athletes to get them in the best condition for the upcoming season. Everyday, they help different teams in different sports to get in the best physical shape for their season.
While they are not helping our teams, they are training individual athletes to make these individual athletes more reliable and effective teammates. Sacred Heart sophomore Thomas Molpumpy said, “[The coaches] are actually insane, they make drills look easy,” showing the respect the student body has for these weights coaches. In an interview, the coaches explained their experiences coaching and why they do what they do. When asked what sports they played as kids both coaches answered similarly: “A better question to ask us would be what sports didn’t we play,” said Coach B. Both coaches played almost every sport growing up.
In high school and in college Coach B played competitive golf while Coach Haack played water polo in junior college. What makes these feats so great is that these coaches didn’t even have a weight program at their high school. Coach B said, “No we didn’t have anything like [this], we had a physical education program in my high school.” When asked about the difference from their time in high school to what we are doing now, they had many opinions. Coach B said, “It’s the exposure that we’ve gained with all the technology that allows us to improve.” He further explained, “Coaches are better equipped now with coaching qualification.” Coach Haack added, “Nobody would talk about technique but now we know how to protect our guys.”
After all this they talked about what made them want to get into this line of work. Coach B said, “I was only going to be able to play sports for so long, so what does a life out of sports look like. That would be coaching and since I was more science oriented I decided to pursue both of these things at once.” Coach Haack said, “I always had a passion for coaching, I had the talent and passion for this line of work which was a strong motivation for me. I also didn’t have anything like this as a high school athlete so, when I could see the effect it had on its trainees, it was pretty life changing.”
After all these questions, they were asked what sports they were keeping up with these days. They both had similar answers with Coach Haack mentioning, “I love watching baseball, UCLA Bruins, any of our local guys is great especially our SHP gators” but also commenting “we are invested in you guys so being able to see you guys in here and translating that to success on the field is great to see. I’m more invested into you guys than pro teams because I’m with you guys so much.” Coach B said, “it’s great to watch alumni in our community, anything that has that Sacred Heart tie is great.”
These coaches are key components to the success of athletic program. They work countless hours trying to figure out how to maximize our potential and make sure we are in perfect condition for our games. Without Coach B and Coach Haack these teams would not be as great as they are. They are really the secret weapon and the backbone of Sacred Heart Athletics.
Photo provided by Nicholas Zamboldi ’23
