For only the third time in school history, Regis Jesuit is searching for a head track coach.
Rod Card retired after the state meet, where the Raiders’ boys finished third, the best of his career. A former track star at Regis, Card has been a coach 43 years.
“He was an institution,” said Tim Kissel, an assistant under Card. “I just can’t imagine there being anybody at Regis besides Coach Card.”
Big shoes to fill? You could say that.
“And it’s not even just the coaching thing,” said Kelly Doherty, Regis’ athletic director. “It’s in the community itself. He was such a stable factor in the school.”
Card was hired in 1967, a year after graduating from Colorado State, by Guy Gibbs, the former AD and basketball coach for whom the school’s gym is named.
That first year, Card coached all 16 events with the help of only one assistant. It was an early lesson in what would soon become commonplace. Card would leap from coaching one event to another. Soon he had coached them all.
“I just moved around,” he said. “I was always the guy that figured out what everybody else could coach and I’d coach whatever was left over.”
Card’s passion: coaching the average athlete.
“The really good kids, honestly, they don’t take too much coaching. But then you get some of these kids that come out who don’t know too much about track and field. If you can take those kids and help them have a great experience and also improve each year, I think that’s probably the thing I enjoy most out of coaching track.”
Added Doherty, “He really just wanted to help kids.”
Doherty would marvel at how Card seemed to love the mundane tasks that came with track: setting up the mats and the hurdles, roping off the infield.
“He’s hard to describe,” Doherty said, “but he loved the day-to-day grind of coaching track.”
Kissel recalled his first day on the job two seasons ago, when he was helping Card unload equipment.
“He looked at me and said, ‘I just love this. I love being outside, I love being with these kids, I just love this whole thing,'” Kissel said.
“Imagine doing that for 43-straight years,” Kissel added. “I just found that amazing.”
But Card didn’t just retire from coaching track. He’d also spent 43 years teaching health, physical education and science, and had coached other sports, including football, cross country and wrestling.
“He was kind of a jack of all trades,” Doherty said. “Wherever he was needed, he pretty much jumped in and helped.”
Card won’t stray too far from the track. He said he might be an assistant for Regis, and he also plans on continuing to work as a track official.
“I plan on staying in touch with track and field,” Card said.
Ryan Casey: 303-954-1294 or rcasey@denverpost.com
