Why, after 35 years, strength coach Kerry Rosenboom decided to leave Wichita State
After 35 years as the head strength and conditioning coach at Wichita State, Kerry Rosenboom has decided to leave the university’s athletic department at the end of the school year.
It’s the only job the Wichita native has known: he was hired as a 23-year-old fresh out of college in 1987 on an interim basis, then earned the job permanently by impressing men’s basketball coach Eddie Fogler and baseball coach Gene Stephenson.
He has presided over the strength and conditioning program during the most successful era of Wichita State sports, when the baseball team was routinely reaching the College World Series, the volleyball team was winning conference championships and the men’s basketball team was cutting down nets regularly in March.
“Chief,” as WSU athletes called him, became an institution at Wichita State, which made it no surprise when he was recently voted into the Wichita Sports Hall of Fame. He had trained hundreds of professional athletes in all different sports who had come through Wichita the past four decades.
Rosenboom considers himself a Shocker through and through, which makes the decision to leave — at age 58, he’s not ready to retire yet — a painful one.
“There’s a great sadness that it didn’t work out here at Wichita State,” Rosenboom said. “I had 100% thought I would retire here. I’m going to miss working with the athletes that I trained on a daily basis. I’m going to miss game days at Koch Arena, there’s nothing like it. I’m going to miss Shocker nation. I’m going to miss a lot, but I think whatever the Lord has planned for me next will make up for that.”
Why Kerry Rosenboom is leaving Wichita State
The decision to leave Wichita State was not a snap decision by Rosenboom, rather one that had been brewing for many years stemming from a feeling of lack of respect and appreciation for his work from the university.
The tipping point seemed to come in the summer of 2019 when Rosenboom said he was a finalist for the vacant strength and conditioning coach position for the KU men’s basketball team.
It was the first time he had seriously considered leaving WSU, even though he said he has received — and turned down — nine offers from MLB teams, two offers from NBA teams and more than 50 offers from power-five schools over the years.
He was hoping to receive some appreciation from Wichita State’s athletic department and maybe even a plea to stay. Instead, he said he felt indifference.
“Everyone close to me knew I was up for that job and nobody really said anything to me,” Rosenboom said. “It was almost like, ‘Maybe it’s time for you to go.’ I never felt like I was really appreciated.”
In a statement sent to the Eagle, WSU athletic director Darron Boatright thanked Rosenboom for his career.
“We appreciate Kerry’s service to our athletes and wish him the very best in the next chapter of his career,” Boatright wrote. “35 years is a long time and his devotion to the Shockers has been consistent.”
But the lack of appreciation from the athletic department predates Boatright’s time, according to Rosenboom.
“I had one year where I had just turned down an NBA job and a major-league head strength job and a power-five men’s basketball job and I didn’t even have a contract to work (at WSU) that year,” Rosenboom said. “The AD at that time told me that I needed to prove myself. And this is after double-digit years as a head strength coach.
“People will think, ‘Well, he enjoyed 35 great years,’ but I’ve had a lot of years where I didn’t feel any love or respect from up top and had major frustration set in.”
Another frustration that has festered over time for Rosenboom has been the state of the weight room for the men’s basketball team, which has gone without an upgrade since being introduced more than a decade ago.
In his return last summer for the TBT games at Koch Arena, Fred VanVleet tried to “start a conversation” about what he felt were necessary upgrades to the weight room. Rosenboom said his pleas for weight-room upgrades have fallen on deaf ears, well before the pandemic made money tight.
“I know upgrades for the weight room are in the plans and on the books, but it really needs to be a priority,” Rosenboom said. “It’s hard when you ask for things that you view as a necessity for your job and a need and you’re told you’re unable to get them. And I’m talking about $200 and $300 items some of the time.”
Rosenboom is adamant state-of-the-art facilities do not guarantee success. He still chuckles remembering the 1989 College World Series championship team working out the entire season underneath the stadium, which sometimes led to workouts being postponed due to leaks when it rained.
But after traveling with the WSU men’s basketball team around the American Athletic Conference the last two years, Rosenboom has seen the difference in quality from the football-playing schools and WSU.
“When the strength coaches from around the conference come in, they can’t believe that this is our men’s basketball weight room,” Rosenboom said. “I hope the fans understand these are things that are needed in the recruiting battle. I know over the last few years, the men’s and women’s basketball teams tended not to bring recruits to the weight room. I had to meet them somewhere else. I’m hoping whoever gets my position will keep fighting for those things and hopefully it will happen for the student-athletes because they deserve it, they really do.”
What Rosenboom cherishes most in his WSU career
It didn’t take long for Rosenboom, who was a standout baseball player himself at Newman, to find his specialty training baseball players.
The first WSU baseball team he helped train was the 1988 team that ultimately reached the College World Series. He was barely older than the stars on that team like Eric Wedge, Mark Standiford, Pat Cedeno, Pat Meares and P.J. Forbes, but Rosenboom quickly earned their respect by putting in the time and effort.
“I just loved it right away and I really couldn’t get enough of it,” Rosenboom said. “I would always try to dissect the athlete’s motions and try to learn better what I could do to help them.”
For the start of his career, Rosenboom created and helped implement training programs for every sports team at WSU. But as assistants and graduate assistants were hired over the years, he began to specialize more in men’s basketball. Since WSU’s move to the AAC, Rosenboom has worked almost exclusively with the men’s basketball team and the cross country distance runners, whom he greatly enjoys working with due to their work ethic.
“The thing I always prided myself in was trying to individualize my workouts,” Rosenboom said. “Sometimes you’ll see people give the same workout to men’s basketball players and baseball players and volleyball players. I don’t think that’s benefitting the student-athlete. I think you not only have to individualize for the sport, but also individualize for the player. Like in basketball, (6-foot-11 center) Kenny Pohto needs a different workout than (6-foot-2 guard) Craig Porter.”
As well-respected as Rosenboom became over the years for his knowledge, he became just as popular with many athletes for his gregarious personality.
He didn’t like to motivate by cursing, rather building relationships and putting a personal touch on things. Some modern athletes may have disagreed with his old-school methods, but no one can question how much he cared for his athletes.
“A great coach, but a better human,” current men’s basketball player Dexter Dennis tweeted. “I appreciate everything you did for me since I arrived on campus.”
“This man changed my life,” wrote Ramon Clemente, a men’s basketball player from 2007-09 who has enjoyed a 13-year professional career. “If it wasn’t for Kerry, I wouldn’t be who I am today. I literally made a career off of being aggressive and strong on the court and I owe this all to you, Kerry.”
“You helped me reach unbelievable heights with the game of basketball,” wrote Toure’ Murry, the former Shocker basketball star from 2009-12 who credited Rosenboom for adding 26 pounds during his career.
Rosenboom loved training athletes and seeing their year-to-year progression. He still tells stories about the work ethic of players like P.J. Couisnard, Murray, Graham Hatch and Garrett Stutz and even as far back as Claudius Johnson, John Smith, Tony Johnson and Maurice Evans.
But the thing he loves more is when his former athletes come back years later to come see him with updates on their lives, which usually include wives or husbands and children.
“Those 1-on-1 interactions are better than anything I’ve seen them do in front of 10,000 people will ever be,” Rosenboom said.
One of his favorite meetings came in the days following the 1989 WSU baseball team’s College World Series championship when Mike Wentworth, the unlikely backup-turned-hero who hit a pair of critical home runs during the Shockers’ postseason run, thanked him in private.
“I was sitting in the weight room and Mike and Pat Cedeno came in and Mike said, ‘Kerry, if you wouldn’t have stayed on me all that time when I wasn’t playing, I would have never been able to hit those home runs,’” Rosenboom said.
Another special moment was P.J. Couisnard’s senior day game when he scored 25 points in a 68-54 win over Evansville on Feb. 26, 2008, then dedicated the performance to Rosenboom’s mother, Joan, who had died five days prior from cancer.
“I remember I had finally dragged my dad out of the house to come with me to go watch the game,” Rosenboom said. “It was a great game and we’re going home and listening to Mike Kennedy on the radio like always and P.J. came on and said he had dedicated the game to my mom. It was just incredible. My dad teared up in the backseat and said, ‘That’s one of the nicest things I’ve ever heard.’”
So many memories from the past 35 years have flooded back in Rosenboom’s mind over the weekend since he announced he was leaving last Friday. It made for an emotional, but happy weekend.
“Reading all of those comments, some might be from 30 years ago and some might be from last year, but they almost make me emotional,” Rosenboom said. “I really truly want to thank each fan, athlete and former athlete who messaged me. I need them to know it means more to me than they’ll ever know.”
What comes next for WSU strength coach
Rosenboom still considers some of his first athletes — Billy Hall (1991 baseball), Pat Meares (1990 baseball) and John Cooper (1991 men’s basketball) — as some of his closest friends to date.
It had become obvious to his close friends that in recent years he had lost the joy he usually had when talking about his job. For so long, he wanted to stay in Wichita so he could raise his three children — Kayla, Tyler and Katie — with his wife, Jean, in the same city where both of their parents lived.
But now his children are older, Rosenboom was more prepared to make a major life move. After years of contemplating leaving, he finally reached that conclusion last week. When he finally decided to go public with the decision last Friday, he was surprised with how he felt.
“I could not believe just the overall relief that I felt and I just felt really good about my decision,” Rosenboom said. “I’m in the process of figuring out what my next step is, but even without having anything lined up, I knew God had to have a better plan for me than this.”
After serving as the strength and conditioning coach for seven different men’s basketball coaches, Rosenboom seemed genuinely excited for current head coach Isaac Brown to be able to hand-pick his replacement.
“IB needs to have his own person because that’s just being fair to him,” Rosenboom said. “Each coach has different beliefs and what they want out of my position and this will give IB that chance. He deserves it because he’s such a great person.”
While Rosenboom may not have another job lined up, he has plenty on his plate.
He plans on reviving his consulting business for baseball workouts, which he believes will be popular considering he says he has trained more than 100 major-league players. Rosenboom also said he has received interest from basketball agents who would have him train their players during the summer months of their offseason, as well as possibly volunteering time to work with Basketball Without Borders.
And Rosenboom still hasn’t ruled out a return to college athletics, although he says many things would have to align for that to happen.
“I’ve got a lot of logs in the fire and I’m more fired up than I’ve ever been,” Rosenboom said. “I’ve had some people say, ‘Good luck with your retirement’ and I’m like, ‘No, no, no. I’m 58 and I love what I do.’ I’m just moving on to the next chapter. This is far from retirement. I can’t wait to see what comes next.”
This story was originally published March 21, 2022 at 6:00 AM.
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