By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Washburn University track and field assistant Rick Attig doesn’t have anything left to prove in a coaching career that has included outstanding success at the high school, NCAA Division I and now Division II levels.
But the 68-year-old Attig is still enjoying himself too much to even think about walking away from the sport he loves.
“I don’t think I could do that,’’ Attig said. “I think it would drive me nuts. We have three acres and I could mow my grass. I still do that, but I just couldn’t imagine doing anything else than coaching. I’m still loving it.
“It’s one of those type of things that if I was retired, I would still want to do it as a hobby because I get lots of enjoyment out of it.’’
Rick Attig is in his fifth season as an assistant track and field coach at Washburn, continuing an ultra-successful high school and college coaching career. [Photograph courtesy of Washburn Athletics]
Attig may be best known for his work as a jumps and multi-events coach at the University of Kansas and Nebraska, but also enjoyed success at Raytown South (Mo.) High School early in his coaching career and at Blue Valley North before joining Washburn head coach Cameron Babb in 2016 to help relaunch the Ichabods’ track and field program after a long hiatus.
“I recruited Cameron to help me there at Blue Valley North,’’ Attig said. “I would try to recruit decathletes or heptathletes to help coach at Blue Valley North and Cameron came in and did just a really good job. He’s a really good coach and I really like him.
“Then he left to come here and he asked me to be his assistant and I thought it would be great to try another program.’’
Attig tutored many of the nation’s premier pole vaulters during a stint at KU from 1984-2000, including American record-holder and United States Olympian Scott Huffman, who cleared 19 feet, 7 inches to set the American record.
Attig’s stable of 18-foot-plus vaulters also included Jayhawk greats Pat Manson, Cam Miller, Cedric Fuller and Chris Bohannon.
All totaled, Attig coached 33 All-Americans, 34 Big 8/Big 12 champions, 4 USA national champs and 3 Pan American winners at Kansas.
Attig, who studied bio-mechanics as a student, quickly earned the reputation as an innovator as a coach.
“I guess I was never really afraid to kind of think out of the box and do stuff that was different,’’ Attig said. “And as I look back, it’s like, 'Boy, that was really helpful.’ ‘’
Attig went on to coach at Nebraska from 2001 to 2005 and coached two NCAA national champions, one USA national junior champion, 15 NCAA All-Americans and 13 Big 12 champions before making the move back to the high school level at Blue Valley North.
“We left Nebraska because our kids started having kids,’’ Attig said. “Marci, our daughter, has three girls and my son (Garrett) has two boys and a girl and I would be up there (in Lincoln) and I would fly out to some meet and my wife (Stephanie) would drive back down to Lawrence to see the kids.
“She’d do that every weekend and one day I just thought, ‘Man, she’s put up with my running around with college kids for a long time and I just hate her being away from the grandkids.’ I felt bad, too, that my job sort of took the kids away from their grandparents and it was hard to leave Nebraska, but we did.’’
Both Rick and Stephanie accepted teaching jobs at Blue Valley North where Rick continued to have success with the Mustang program until jumping at the chance to join Babb at Washburn.
“It really is a good fit,’’ Attig said. “This is great. We like being able to live in Lawrence because it’s close to our kids (who live in the Baldwin area) and at the same time it’s not a bad trip over here.’’
Attig has already coached 10 All-Americans in the pole vault and two in the high jump at Washburn and feels like the Ichabod program continues to be on a steady upswing, particularly with the addition of WU’s impressive new indoor facility.
“This is quite a facility,’’ Attig said. “We’re getting better and better and this will be a big help. We just need to get kids in here to see it.’’
And Attig can’t wait to see what the future holds in a career he’s very thankful for.
“I’ve been very fortunate to have a lot of kids that I loved working with and they’ve done pretty well as well.’’
