Link to Story in the Alton Telegraph

FOOTBALL: Tim Nelson named new Marquette coach
Former Calhoun player was Marquette assistant last season

By GREG SHASHACK The Telegraph
Jun 4, 2008 11:28 pm

ALTON - In the six decades preceding Y2K and the revolving door that followed, Marquette Catholic football coach was a job to grow old with.

And while a 32-year-old Tim Nelson won't commit to a run lasting to retirement, he does hope his tenure as Explorers coach extends at least to the age of a mid-life crisis.

"I sat down and discussed this with my fiancee Katie and we talked about how I want to be around here for a long time," Nelson said. "I don't want to use Marquette as a steppingstone. I work in the private sector and (Marquette) is a place I want to be for the next 10 years, or until they kick me out of there.

"It's an honor to take over a program that has such a strong tradition, much like the one I played for at Calhoun. I'm very grateful for the opportunity that the Marquette family has provided me."

Nelson, a member of the 1992 Calhoun Warriors team that won a Class 1A state championship under coach Ric Johns, was named Marquette head coach on Wednesday. He replaces Rick Reinhart, who left after one season to return to his prep alma mater as coach at Tuscola.

In the 62 seasons from 1941-2002, Marquette needed just five coaches. The shortest tenure in that time was the nine seasons for Mike Slaughter, who gave up the job in 2002 and is currently the school's principal.

Since then, no coach has lasted longer than two seasons, with Reinhart righting the ship after tumultuous two-year stints for Geoff Dalton and Tom Pagliaro. Nelson, who spent last season as an assistant on Reinhart's staff, hopes to provide a long-term remedy.

"I just felt there needed to be some stability brought back into the program," said Nelson, reciting a list of coaches prominent in Marquette's proud past.

Marquette athletics director Jerry Montague said Nelson was chosen from a pool of nine applicants. That total was trimmed to three finalists. And by the end of the process, Nelson was a unanimous choice of those making the decision.

Montague said some of the applicants required a teaching job at the school, but none is available.

That is not an obstacle for Nelson, who works in St. Louis as an engineer for Thomson Reuters, a news and data provider with about 50,000 employees in 93 countries around the world. Nelson said flexibility with his work schedule enables him to be at Marquette when needed.

A more traditional obstacle is coaching experience that is limited to just his one season at Marquette. Before that, Nelson did help Reinhart, who came to Marquette after 18 seasons before retirement at Civic Memorial, in a scouting capacity.

"Obviously, people are going to question that," Nelson said of his experience. "But I've been around football my whole life. I started with Pee Wee football in Alton playing for the Little Giants. It's never been away from me, but I never really pursued it until the last couple years."

Nelson also calls on the knowledge gleaned from long friendships with former teammates in Calhoun, which is building quite a coaching network of Johns proteges.

In addition to former Calhoun assistant Scott Hamilton, who has already compiled an impressive resume at Tolono Unity, three other players from the state championship teams at Calhoun took new head coaching positions before Nelson this year. Aaron Elmore is at Beardstown, Nate Lorton is at Sullivan and J.D. Lorton is at Granite City.

"We bounce ideas off each other," Nelson said. "I'm much more experienced than people know because of the great coaches and people I surround myself with on a daily basis. I feel like I am well-organized and I believe those skills can put our kids in a position to win."

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