Nearing the finish line
Legendary husband-wife team coaching their final season
Staff writer
At the end of the school year, Marion will lose two coaches who have defined Warrior athletics perhaps more than anyone in the 21st century.
The two happen to be husband and wife.
Grant and Deanna Thierolf, both often referred to as “Coach T” (Deanna also got “Mama T” a lot in the ’90s) are retiring from coaching track and field at the end of the year.
They will move near Kansas City to be closer to their children shortly thereafter.
The pair will leave behind countless memories from decades with the high school and in the wider community.
Neither had been to Marion before when the couple arrived in 1988.
Upon arrival, Deanna worked as a paraeducator at Florence High School while Grant began work as the Marion high school football coach and social studies teacher.
“Didn’t know anything about [Marion] outside of what I had picked up from talking to other administrators and people who were familiar with this part of the state,” Grant said. “I applied and was asked in for an interview and was lucky enough to get the job.”
Deanna began her own coaching career a year later — first at Peabody-Burns, then at Marion in 1990, after a teaching job opened up.
She started out coaching basketball and volleyball, then added track to her resume in 1993.
One of the highlights of her long tenure as track coach was Amanda Janzen winning the high jump at state in Deanna’s first year on the job.
“She was my very first state champion,” Deanna said. “You don’t forget your first. And she did it in the rain. All the other girls kind of ran in and got under shelter, and Amanda stayed right in the open, just sat down, and kind of just buried her head, and she just stayed right out there, didn’t leave. And then when it resumed, she was just ready to go.”
In the downpour, Janzen jumped 5 feet 4 inches.
“Sometimes as a kid, and in this life, all you need is one person like Deanna rooting for you and everything turns out for the best,” Janzen said in 2013.
Meanwhile, Grant was thriving as a football coach.
His Warriors went 185-103 for a 64% winning percentage over his 29 seasons.
But the Thierolfs are not the type to rest on their laurels, and in 1998, while in the midst of his football career, Grant also took over as head track coach from Rex Wilson.
Wilson was a coaching icon, but Grant “kept the ship steady,” sportswriter Ryan Richter said.
Wilson, who died Feb. 1, is remembered fondly by the Thierolfs.
“In 30 years of taking bus trips with him, I don’t know if I ever heard the same story twice,” Grant said.
Since Grant stepped down as football coach in 2017, both Thierolfs have exclusively coached track.
Both expressed a love for the sport, particularly that students compete both as a group and as individuals.
While Thierolf had more personal success in football as a youth — he was a member of three of Beloit’s title-winning teams and later played for the University of Kansas — track and field was his first love.
“I fell in love with [miler] Jim Ryun,” he said. “As I grew. I realized I was never going to be a Jim Ryun-type athlete, but my love of track and field probably started in ’68 after watching him in the Olympics. I remember crying as he lost.”
A sprained ankle on the Jayhawk football field led to a chance meeting with Ryun.
“I had to sit in the ice Whirlpool after practice every night to keep the swelling down,” Thierolf said. “Jim Ryun was at the tail end of his pro career. At the end of practice, he would come into the training room. And so, for the fall of ’79, I got to spend three or four nights a week in the Whirlpool with Jim Ryun. It was one of the most enjoyable experiences I’ve ever had.”
The two would talk about all sorts of things — history, running, academics.
At one point, Ryun asked Thierolf to stop calling him “Mr. Ryun” and call him “Jim.”
“It’s going to be hard to do that,” Thierolf said in reply.
Another Olympian, Billy Mills, also practiced at the university at the time.
“Our society and our kids are so soft compared to what those guys did,” Thierolf said. “Holy cow, the workouts they did. You’d be locked up in jail for making kids do those things today.”
According to those who competed under him, Grant Thierolf’s coaching style is tough but fair.
“His athletes were well-trained,” Richter said. They competed hard.”
Grant himself said his goal was to help kids reach their full potential.
“Not every kid’s gonna have the same ability, but I think as a coach, you recognize what the top end of kids are, and where that top end is,” he said. “You want them to get to be better than they think they can be.”
Deanna’s style is a bit more laid-back, at least according to her.
“I hope I’m light-hearted, and we can laugh and giggle at some things while we’re learning,” she said. “But you handle every athlete a little differently.”
Bill Griffith, who attended Marion High School from 1992 to 1996, remembered that his football and track coach held him accountable and raised his level of play.
“Along my journey, I wasn’t always doing the right thing, and Grant was there to call me out,” he said. “I remember running sprints our senior year. He goes, ‘Nope, gotta redo it. Griffith’s loafing.’ He called me out because he knew if I was giving my maximum effort, I’d be in the front.”
Griffith also remembered Grant introducing him to the mental side of athletics.
“It’s hard to run across a man that had a more diverse and universal truth, as far as just telling kids about being one heartbeat, one chain, one mind,” he said. “That’s one thing that Deanna and Grant really brought to this area: the power of the mind in relation to athletics. That’s why they both were big on track and field, because that’s how you could really tell how mentally strong somebody was.”
Griffith was an all-state running back and state champion in the javelin.
He attended Emporia State University, and has since coached football for many years — offensive line at Fort Lewis College, special teams and defensive line at Dodge City Community College, and more.
It is either bizarre coincidence or credit to the Thierolfs’ influence that many athletes who competed under them have gone on to become coaches themselves.
All three of Grant and Deanna’s children are teachers, and two are coaches.
Griffith extolled the Theirolfs’ impact on his and others’ lives.
“It’s hard to find people to understand the criteria of a job, or the expectations of a job,” he said. “Less than 1% of people understand how to go above and beyond. Grant and Deanna are those two people that come to mind when I think about going above and beyond.”
After Grant retired from coaching football, an article in the Hillsboro Free Press recalled his pink hats, faded from the original red after decades in the sun. (Sure enough, he was wearing one when the Record interviewed him on Monday.)
The article also noted Thierolf’s dedication to coaching — he mowed the grass in summer, showed up every day for early morning weight-lifting, and carried equipment to the practice field.
Bill Griffith, too, remembered both Thierolfs as driven.
“Grant went and worked in the summers for Davey Hett, pouring concrete or building buildings,” he said. “They just embodied hard work, and they embodied greatness in all aspects of life.”
Grant brushed the compliments aside when asked about extra work.
“If you want to have it the way you want it, sometimes you got to put a little bit more time in,” he said.
It was difficult for Grant to choose a specific coaching moment as his favorite.
“A couple of my biggest highlights are kids who we didn’t think were ever going to make a state track meet, or kids who ran their best race in the last race of their career,” he said.
Deanna found it easier to whittle things down. In addition to Amanda Janzen, she cited Braxton Skiles winning the triple jump in 2000 as one of her favorite memories.
“I’ll never forget his sophomore year, coming out of nowhere, being at the state track and field competition in Wichita,” she said. “I don’t know where he was seeded, but he wasn’t in the top eight. He was in the second flight. And he popped a big, beautiful jump, 2½ feet better than he’s ever done in his life. That caused everybody else to choke up a bit.”
The Thierolfs will miss Marion.
Deanna spoke about the residents, who are “amazing and friendly and giving and supportive,” she said.
Grant spoke primarily of the track students.
“In our last year coaching, we have as enjoyable a group of young people as we’ve ever been around,” he said. “Hearing them in there, they’re talking and laughing, and they enjoy one another, and they support one another.”
While both Thierolfs were vague about why now was the time to retire, they have certainly paid their dues to Marion and Warrior athletics.
“Between Jerry [Smith], Deanna, Rex [and myself], we have about 180 years worth of experience,” Grant said proudly.
But, as always, the couple made clear that it was not about themselves, but the students they have met and nurtured along the way.
“The track team, they are so close,” Deanna said. “They’re like family. They’re so supportive of each other, and it’s just fun to be around them. They just energize you. Whoever decides to take over this track program, they’ve got the golden egg, because these kids are just amazing.”