9 minute read
Victory Bell
A GOOD COACH CAN CHANGE A GAME. A GREAT COACH CAN CHANGE A LIFE. – John Wooden, long-time UCLA basketball coach
CAMARADERIE, SPIRIT AND DETERMINATION ARE THE NORM ON AND OFF THE FIELD AT CULVER-STOCKTON. RECENTLY, WOMEN’S SOCCER COACH TYLER TOMLINSON ’03 AND HEAD BASEBALL COACH BRAD GYORKOS ’15 HAVE IMPLEMENTED OPPORTUNITIES FOR PLAYERS TO SHOW GRATITUDE IN WAYS THAT GRABBED PUBLIC ATTENTION.
Athletic teams across America faced new challenges during 2020 as the pandemic altered practice schedules, eligibility, and meant that many teams did not play at all. At CulverStockton College, the women’s soccer team knew from the very first practice that this season would require focus, drive and sacrifice unlike anything they had experienced before. In true Culver-Stockton spirit, they rose to the occasion and inspired each other, the coaching staff and the community along the way.
During the pre-season, the team wrote notes on scraps of paper expressing their appreciation for the chance to play and for each other. Senior Kendyl Pritchett collected the notes and stuffed them in a bag, unbeknownst to Coach Tomlinson.
“We told the team our job as a coaching staff is to get (them) through the season, and some days, it’ll seem like we’re being harder on (them) than other days,” he said. “Their response was, ‘Well, we want to do that too.’”
Mirroring the leadership of the coaching staff, the team reads one note from the ‘gratitude bag’ at each practice.
“The point of it is to keep our focus on why we get to play,” Pritchett told Matt Schuckman of The Quincy Herald-Whig in August. “Everyone wrote their own note to the team. It’s all anonymous. Everyone wrote why they want to have a season. After every practice, we let whoever breaks (the equipment) down draw from the bag. The purpose of it is to keep us focused on why we’re here. It makes us cautious about what we do and who we hang out with outside of soccer. It keeps the positive energy going into soccer.”
Tomlinson saw how the culture of the team was affected. “We have an A-plus culture, but people need to realize it’s player-driven,” Tomlinson said. “The group we have now just gets it. They have rules where the whole team stays until all the gear is put away. Instead of just dumping the gear on the freshmen and going home, everybody is talking after practice, talking about practice, talking about…how life’s going.”
In his second year as C-SC’s head baseball coach, Brad Gyrkos believes that, while winning matters, relationships matter more. “Do I want to put up banners on the outfield wall? Yeah, because I hate losing,” Gyrkos laughed, “But coaching is about a lot more than that.”
Gyrkos knew the 2020 season would present unique challenges for himself and his players both on and off the field and he was determined that the team would connect with each other, their families and the local community. He had no way of knowing his leadership would impact countless sports teams across the nation.
During fall practice, Gyorkos set aside time for players to make phone calls home to loved ones. Players walked around Nichols Field toting cell phones, anxious to tell their parents how things were going, play games with a younger niece or nephew, or visit with an aunt about home-cooked food they missed. The idea came from Gyorkos’ own self-reflection. “I was going to make the guys hold me accountable, and then it just turned into we’re going to hold each other accountable,” he said.
After tweeting about the initiative, Gyrkos was shocked by the community response, “I bet on Twitter alone, I saw ten other programs do it within the next two weeks… It’s the power of social media. I didn’t do it for recognition. It was done for my guys and their families. If it benefits somebody else, that’s great.”
Here at home, social media coverage of the initiative has led to signing more recruits and has greatly improved the camaraderie of the team. “Our guys are closer to each other. It’s been beneficial. We’re trying to change lives,” said Gyrkos. “Wins and losses come and go, but relationships are forever.”
OPEN DOOR:
Navigating the competitive job market in a city like Los Angeles is not easy at any age, but young alumnus Clarke Stacker counts his time at CulverStockton College as the best preparation he could have hoped for.
As a teenager, Stacker could never have imagined where his life would take him – from his upbringing in inner-city St. Louis to the incredible and even surprising connections he formed at C-SC, Clarke often contemplates the journey that led him to his current destination.
Nearing the end of his second year as a financial services real estate tax associate at PricewaterhouseCoopers, a large accounting and management consulting firm in Los Angeles’ downtown business district, Stacker shakes his head and grins when he thinks about that journey and the role C-SC played.
“If somebody had ever said to me, ‘You’re going to be doing taxes for a living,’ I would have said, ‘Hey man, you’re funny,’” Stacker said. “I never pictured this. I guess this is where the journey has taken me, and it’s been a great journey so far.”
After a brief detour to a junior college in his hometown, Clarke landed a scholarship to play soccer for CulverStockton in the fall of 2014, which he now recognizes as the first step towards a future he could never have imagined. Clarke’s connections on the soccer team would eventually lead him to an interest in accounting, as he watched his teammates successfully snag jobs in business before graduation.
“That’s where I think Dr. (Dell Ann) Janney helped,” he said. “Dr. J was my advisor, and she definitely persuaded me into going into accounting.”
At Culver-Stockton, Stacker said he confirmed his priorities, learned valuable skills for the classroom and the boardroom, and learned how to communicate, “That first year in college sparked this young professional to get things done and get it straight. On a small campus, you are being held accountable, knowing that everybody knows who you are, and you have a reputation.”
“It wasn’t what I expected, but (Culver-Stockton) definitely grew on me,” he said. “Being around there was good for me. It was a lot of fun. It was a lot of growing and learning. I’m very thankful for Culver-Stockton and what they gave me, what they did for me and how they helped me.”
His hard work at Culver-Stockton paid off and Clarke spent the summer of 2015 in a general internship doing tax audits with PricewaterhouseCoopers in downtown St. Louis. He returned the next summer for another internship, this time in private financial services, but even after two successful internships, he never envisioned receiving a full-time offer to work for the company.
“As soon as (the internship) ended, I was looking at what’s next?” Stacker said. “For them to call me back, it was like, ‘Oh wow. This is amazing.’ I felt like I did well and did what was asked as far as an intern. I just didn’t think that’s where I would be, given all the other applicants
FROM “THE HILL,” OPPORTUNITIES ARE UNLIMITED
coming from much bigger schools.”
After graduating from C-SC, Stacker chose to complete his master’s in business administration before beginning his full-time position. He spent the fall semester in 2017 assisting with the C-SC men’s soccer team, then completed his coursework from his St. Louis home during the spring 2018 semester while preparing for the big move to Los Angeles.
“At first, I was very nervous and felt unprepared,” Stacker said. “I thought some of the other people had so much more than I did at the time, but my professors and mentors told me to remember what they taught me at school and the only thing I could take with me is what I knew. I stopped trying to compare myself. Once I got in there and did it, I saw I was more prepared than I thought I was. I was still nervous, but I definitely was prepared.”
Now fully settled into his position, Stacker prepares corporate and partnership tax returns, calculates quarterly earnings and profits, files federal and state extensions, prepares memos and issues opinions for consulting clients.
“It makes me realize that anything really is possible. I would tell students to move towards what you want and really pursue it. There are so many doors out there. You may think one door is for you, or you may think one path is for you, but sometimes the door you never thought about opening can be the best opportunity for you.”
Alumnus Kevin Ferry ’98 is not one to shy away from a challenge, no matter how difficult the task at hand may seem. In fact, when discussing his life with a macular degeneration diagnosis, which results in blurred or no vision in the center of the vision field, it is clear that Kevin puts no limits on his life or career success. In discussing his challenges and triumphs, he is quick to identify the short list of things he cannot do.
“Drive,” he said. “Well, I’m sure there are other things. I’m not very good at ping pong or pickleball, but 95 percent of the things you do in a normal life, I can do.”
Growing up in Maquon, Ill., a tiny town of 300 people about 20 miles southeast of Galesburg, Ferry knew from an early age his life would look a little different from his peers.
“I can’t see the big E on the eye chart,” he said. “Everything I see, I see out of the side of my eye. I have no tunnel vision. To see what is in front of me, I have to look to the side.”
His early interest in music eventually led him to CulverStockton, where he became involved with the Delta Upsilon fraternity, worked part time in the admission office, and was a member of the 1995 cheer squad who went to the National Cheerleading Association national championship convention in Dallas.
Ferry said the faculty and staff at Culver-Stockton took an active role in helping him overcome his visual impairment, going above and beyond to make him feel included.
“I don’t remember anybody at Culver-Stockton not doing what they could. It was four fantastic years of wonderful people. I loved being there.”
Ferry adapted to his impairment and has not allowed it to prevent him from excelling in his education or career as an award-winning music educator, a 20-year career that began at Bloomington (Ill.) Central Catholic High School, then continued at Avon (Ill.) High School for nine years before he took the job at Monmouth-Roseville High School, where he has been since 2009.
As for his teaching philosophy, Ferry carries the lessons he learned from C-SC faculty into his own classroom. “When you show a passion and a knowledge, it becomes infectious,” Ferry said. “I tell younger teachers that if you invest in students, they will invest in you. I go to their volleyball games or their basketball games or their speech contests or academic challenges, and they feel like I care about them as a student, not just as a choir member. If you show you care, they will want to see what you’re about.”
