Simpson College’s head cross country coach, Heath Moenck, is stepping in as Simpson’s interim athletic director in place of former director, Marty Bell. As he enters his 15th year at Simpson, Moenck is ready to steer the ship until a new athletic director is hired.
“(I) thought it would be exciting, I’ve been here for 15 years now, I’ve had a wonderful 15 years, and I thought this would be a good time to add a few responsibilities and keep our momentum going,” Moenck said. “You know that’s my goal, we’ve got so many great things going on right now and it’s my job to make sure we don’t lose any momentum, and I’m there to support all of our programs and student athletes.”
Moenck gives great credit to Bell, and assistant athletic director and senior women’s administrator, Tara Rehmeier, for laying such great groundwork in years prior.
“I look at her as my partner in this, as this new role and she has a wealth of knowledge,” Moenck said. “She’s been around a long time, so her and I are really going to work together this semester helping to make sure everything goes smooth.”
Moenck also gives major credit to the current cross country and track and field staff for staying flexible and allowing for a smooth transition to take on this new role while keeping his current head coach position.
“We’ve got a terrific track staff in place, which allows me to kind of take some of these additional undertakings on without missing a beat on our track and cross country side of things,” Moenck said. “Coach Hoffman, Coach Burton and Coach Berkey are tremendous, and we’ve been together long enough to know what kind of needs to get done on a week-to-week basis, which allows me to not have to guide them as much any longer.”
Junior cross country runner Ethan Haus praised Moenck for his ability to juggle the responsibilities of being the head coach and new interim athletic director.
“I mean, realistically right now I don’t see a difference,” Haus said. “He still prioritizes us and I feel like going into his office, I’m still able to see him the same amount of time that I do when he wasn’t an interim athletic director.”
Moenck was a strong influence on Haus’s decision to attend Simpson, and thinks Moenck’s leadership traits will transfer well to being the interim athletic director.
“He is the definition of a person that puts student first over athlete,” Haus said. “He knows the importance of having a job after college instead of just worrying about running.”
Moenck expressed how fun it is to be able to connect with and form more relationships with people as the interim athletic director.
“The part-time coaches, it’s been fun to get to know them a little bit,” Moenck said. “The coaches who aren’t on campus daily, because my interactions would be very slim and none with part time coaches who don’t have an office and who aren’t coming to our staff meetings because they have full time jobs. It’s been enjoyable getting to know the individual and also hearing about their programs.”
