Has eight athletes at Paris Olympic Games
~by Taylor Teays for The Scranton Journal
Travis Geopfert, a Panora native and four-time National Assistant Coach of the Year while at the University of Arkansas, has been announced as Kansas State University’s seventh fulltime Director of Track and Field/Cross Country, agreeing to a five-year contract in Manhattan, KS. (Geopfert, pictured right, was introduced by KSU Director of Athletics Gene Taylor, pictured on left)
Geopfert was introduced during a news conference on Monday, July 15. During his introduction, Geopfert took time to thank the important people in his life, but was sure to note a valuable lesson he learned from Olympian Jarrion Lawson – the five Bs of speech: “be brief brother, be brief,” but said there were no promises to stick to that anecdote.
Geofert thanked Lawson and all his athletes preparing for the Olympic Games, saying “I want to thank you guys for your excitement for me and my family, and this opportunity, and I want to assure all of you when I get back we’re going to continue our prep for the Olympic Games to go there and not just participate, but compete and contend for medals, and I’m excited to keep that going.”
He went on to thank his current and former student athletes for their continuous support, saying, “You’ve always been there for me. I appreciate you, I appreciate your excitement, I appreciate your understanding, and all this transition and the change.”
The ball began rolling when K-State head football coach Chris Klieman reached out to Geopfert, asking if he was interested in the job. Geopfert listened to the opportunity and began to get excited, especially when seeing the facilities that had been built for track and field, Geopfert calling them “world class.”
Geopfert then thanked Chris Bucknam, a longtime college coach, head coach and friend. From Bucknam, lessons on perseverance, resolve and competing were learned, but most importantly, said Geopfert, was the lesson on how to be a friend. Geopfert shouted out college coach and friend Doug Case and the collaboration they’ve had throughout the years, not to mention teaching Geopfert to play the guitar so he could propose to his girlfriend (now wife) 23 years ago.
Kip Janvrin, whose late father Ken was Geopfert’s high school track coach at Panorama, was also thanked as Geopfert’s friend and mentor. Coach Beth Alford-Sullivan was thanked for the time she and Geopfert spent coaching together at Tennessee.
“But to the foremost heroes, my family, first I want to give a shout out to my grandma Doris (Bennett), who is watching back in Panora, Iowa. She’s live streaming this for sure, and I’m certain she’s proud, so what’s up grandma? My grandma Doris and my grandpa Pete took me to my first Drake Relays in 1985 and got me started on this track journey,” added Geopfert.
He added a bit of a conversation he had with his dad, Gary Geopfert of rural Panora, with his dad mentioning that Travis is always busy. Gary doesn’t know how he does it. To that, Travis responded, “‘I learned it from you. You’re the hardest working person I’ve ever met, and so I appreciate you tremendously. I want to be a great coach, but more importantly I want to be a great dad and I appreciate you teaching me how to do that.”
Geopfert’s children, Jones, Jax and Ellyn, as well as his wife Nicole, were also thanked for their support over the years.
The decision to move to K-State came from various factors, including, “The family, the family atmosphere, and when you look around and see family on every name building around campus, it’s pretty awesome.”
Geopfert has eight athletes who have qualified for the Olympics this summer in Paris, which will be his focus prior to the official move. He said, “This group of young people, they are not participants, they are competitors. They are going over there to try to win medals. And that’s what we’re going to go over there and do.”
Geofert has also coached three Bowerman Award finalists (track and field’s version of the Heisman Trophy) in his time at Arkansas. He has helped train 20 national champions in his career, as well as 106 NCAA First Team All-Americans, 182 NCAA National Finals Qualifiers, and 89 conference champions.
He has also coached 15 Olympians. Competing in Paris will be Romaine Beckford, Tara Davis-Woodhall, Jaydon Hibbert, Jarrion Lawson, Carey McLeod, Jah-Nhai Perinchief, Ayden Owens-Delerme and Wayne Pinnock. Geopfert’s athletes have qualified for the World Championships 30 times, earning five global medals and breaking various records.
Geopfert is looking forward to the upcoming move, noting “I want to do some type of meet and greet with the student athletes and their families and the staff, so everybody can get to know each other a little bit better. We’ll start with that and get cross country rocking, and go from there.”
In addition to Geopfert making the move, Kip Janvrin (a Panora-Linden graduate and former Olympian in the decathlon) will also take up residency in Manhattan, KS, after a long coaching career at the University of Central Missouri in Warrensburg. He is retiring from that position Aug. 31.
“It’ll be neat to have two hometown boys coaching together at a big school,” commented Travis’ dad Gary.
