Former Coal City athlete Looper now track coach
COAL CITY — First-year Coal City head track coach Jim Looper makes sure to keep busy.
In the fall, he's the Coalers' head freshman football coach, and moves to assistant wrestling coach in the winter before taking over Coal City's track program in the spring.
"What little time you get to relax, you definitely take advantage of it," he said. "You get a couple weeks, you take advantage of it, you relax. You just have to go back and get after it. It helps I'm young."
Looper has been an assistant track coach for three years, coaching the team's throwers. He's coaching at his alma mater, as he graduated from Coal City back in 2003. He was a three-sport athlete with the Coalers, participating in football, wrestling and track. He was a state qualifier in wrestling back in 2003.
After his prep career, he went on to wrestle for four years at North Central College in Naperville. He played football for two years.
"It can be nervous, especially those first couple of years. I know (former Coal City track coach Mark) Masters. He runs a tight ship and how he wants things," Looper said about being back at Coal City. "He was my coach and I know what he expects from the kids and what he expects from the coaches."
While he's kept busy throughout the season while coaching three sports, Looper's biggest challenge as head track coach has been keeping busy during meets.
When he coached the throwers, Looper would sit and watch the shot put and discus the entire meet. Now, he's worried about going around to the sprints, jumps, relays and distance races.
"He kind of helps us all I guess you could say," said Coal City senior Brittany Halliday, who qualified for the IHSA State Meet in the 200-meter dash and was part of the Coalers' state-qualifying 4x200-meter relay. "If you have a question or if you don't know how to do something or if he can't help you, he'll find a coach who can. He'll take the extra initiative to make sure your question or concern gets taken care of."
All season, Looper has been trying to learn more about each event. One thing he has been concentrating on is learning about certain times and marks, as far as which ones are solid.
"I know what a good throw is, but a lot of times I was like 'is that a good time?' Especially in the first three years, I'm like 'is that any good?'" Looper said. "Now I can get an idea in a sense and being the head coach I pay more attention to the times that the other kids are running.
"I've got to took at what do the sprinters have to do, what do the distance kids have to do, what do the relays have to do rather than just being focused on this handful of kids or so."
Looper has learned a lot from Masters, such as running a practice, how to run a meet and how to go about receiving awards.
While he has picked up a lot from Masters, there is one big difference that Looper's athlete's see.
While Masters was a more intense coach, Looper just isn't like that.
"Little more laid back than years past," Coal City senior Colin Stiles said. "I like it, makes it more fun. ... We're nice and loose at the meets and we're performing pretty well this year."
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