He went from YMCA to MIAC

Jerry Olszewski found himself out of football for three years in Mankato, but after his "hiatus" from coaching, he now is trying to maintain a successful program at St. Olaf.

By MYRON P. MEDCALF, Star Tribune

Last update: September 17, 2008 - 7:02 AM

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When Jerry Olszewski went to his Minnesota State Mankato office on a March day in 2002, he found all of his belongings strewn across the floor outside the office door.

Four days earlier, the school had hired Clarence Holly to replace Dan Runkle as Mavericks football coach. Olszewski had been considered among the favorites to replace Runkle, but now, he didn't have a job.

"Obviously, I'd been waiting a long time to get my own program," said Olszewski, who had spent seven seasons as an assistant at the Division II school.

Without many coaching prospects that wouldn't require him to uproot his family, Olszewski, 40, became the executive director at the Mankato YMCA. He remained in the position for three-plus years.

It proved to be an unlikely, yet perfect, segue for Olszewski, who replaced Chris Meidt at St. Olaf in April after Meidt became an assistant for the Washington Redskins. Under Olszewski, the Oles are 2-0 after shutting out Pacific Lutheran 17-0 over the weekend. They face St. Thomas at home Saturday in the MIAC opener.

"I took a little three-year hiatus there at the Y," Olszewski said. "It really prepared me in the administrative ranks, to be ready for all of the different hats you do wear at this level. It really prepared me professionally, better than I would have been served had I just gone right into a head coaching job."

The transition from coaching to the Y wasn't easy. After leaving MSU Mankato, Olszewski spent his Saturdays anxiously listening to Mavericks games on the radio -- "I cut my lawn four times," he said about the first time he tuned into a game away from the sidelines -- and relying on his Christian faith to help him through a tough time.

As the leader of a company with hundreds of employees and volunteers and a $3 million budget, Olszewski said his organizational and leadership skills improved. But he still missed football.

"I think he missed the kids, he missed the young men and the competitive side came out," said his wife, Deana.

So when Wisconsin-Stevens Point coach John Miech drove to Mankato and asked Olszewski -- a Stevens Point alum -- to join his staff in 2006 as a defensive coordinator, Olszewski took the offer.

And after helping the Pointers to a 12-8 record over two years, Olszewski received an offer to become the coach at St. Olaf, a team that went 8-2 and finished third in the MIAC in 2007. This season, St. Olaf has the top scoring (7 points per game) and rushing (42 yards per game) defenses in the conference.

Today, Olszewski preaches "faith, family and football" to his new team. He also makes sure his players get enough time to stay on top of their studies at one of the Midwest's top liberal arts colleges.

He encourages his coaches to bring their families to Oles practice -- his 8-year-old son, Jett, attends many of them. And he doesn't mind when the cross-country team interrupts practice to serenade his players with the school's song, and insists that players put on humorous skits to loosen up before games.

Olszewski said he has no regrets about his experience at Minnesota State Mankato. And he is happy that he made a few stops in between there and St. Olaf because he places a higher value on what he has now.

"I hold no ill will over that stuff," he said. "It's so far in the past now that my eyes are set on the future and those days are long gone. I'm just excited about the future and what that can bring to St. Olaf football and all those experiences I've learned."

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