Ron Mimick will be inducted into the Nebraska High School Sports Hall of Fame Sunday, Oct. 8 in Lincoln. He has been at Aquinas Catholic Schools since 1991 and was also at St. Cecilia in Hastings.
In addition to his teaching duties at Aquinas, Mimick serves as the school’s athletic director and coaches football and boys track. He talked with Dennis Kellogg, the director of communications for the Catholic Diocese of Lincoln, recently about integrating faith into athletics, his style of coaching and his future. What follows is an edited transcript of that conversation.
Dennis Kellogg, Southern Nebraska Register: Thirty-four years coaching at Aquinas Catholic. When it comes to coaching in a Catholic school, how do you integrate the faith into what you are doing?
Ron Mimick, Aquinas Catholic Teacher/ Athletic Director / Football & Track Coach: Thirty-four years here, and 39 overall in Catholic schools. It’s a blessing, personally, for me, just to be around people of faith and the priests and the nuns... It’s been good.
My children went through Catholic school. My wife taught in Catholic schools.... Our team, many times has been complimented, rather profusely, by officials. We do things the right way. And if we don’t, it’s a black stain on the school. There’s a certain way you handle yourself with class...
The game of football is a great example of life because sometimes you’re the star, sometimes you’re not. All different shapes and sizes and temperaments can play, trying to mold them into a team for a common goal. Their goal is to be a good family, hoping their team is a good team that accepts and loves each other. It’s pretty easy to integrate ideas of faith within a team concept.
SNR: We are surrounded by a culture that really emphasizes winning. Yet, I am sure at a Catholic school, not only emphasizing faith, but sportsmanship, morals, those kinds of things are very important. So how do you balance those two?
Mimick: Well, the morals, values, self-discipline, and structure lend very well to athletics. If you reinforce and you talk about those things and you really do live it, and the kids learn to use their God-given talent and sacrifice for the team, and move to a different position or whatever it may be, it actually makes the team better, makes it a little easier to win.
And you do try to win at the varsity level. The lower levels, we really don’t worry about that at all. We prepare to win. We don’t always win. We had our first losing season in 31 years last year...
I do enjoy the winning, but last year was a little bit of a down year, but I enjoyed the process and part of the process is seeing kids grow up. You don’t always see them grow in their faith. That’s something that’s very personal to them and you see that. But you see them acting mature and then seeing results of consistent efforts. Then all of a sudden, you see that things are starting to fall into place.
And that’s one of the big joys of coaching—watching a kid through a one- to two- to three- to four-year process.
SNR: You talked about winning. You have done a lot of that. You have over 300 career wins, seven state championships in football, a couple more in boys track. So when you look back, what means more to you—the seven state championships or seeing that young man grow in his faith and in his life?
Mimick: You know, realistically, the multiple state championships in sports is nice, and it’s nice to reaffirm that you do things relatively well in terms of the coaching end of it. But the cards you get, the notes you get, and the comments you get from other people really are the ones that kind of stick with you.
That “Boy, your kids were disciplined. Boy, your kids play hard.” We have been told several times over the years by public school administrators they really like seeing us on film because we’re doing things right, in terms of how we handle things. That is, in the end, a nicer compliment and a compliment that not a lot of people know, but I know it and I enjoy it and I usually relay it to the team. ...That’s more important and ...that’s the stuff that really is something I enjoy more.
SNR: You are about to be inducted into the Nebraska State High School Sports Hall of Fame. When that happens, when you are being presented that award, what is going to be going through your mind?
Mimick: Thanks. I’ve been at a good school for a long time. That makes a lot of difference. I’m not trying to sound arrogant in any way, it really is just kind of another day.
It’s a nice accomplishment. I’m not belittling that, but I’ve really come to just enjoy the process... As I get the award, it’s nice. But the journey is really fun.
I’ve been blessed being in a good school, with good administration, being in a Catholic school. I’ve stayed here mainly because it is a Catholic school. My kids have gone through it and I am a graduate of Catholic schools myself. It’s been a good challenge to my personal faith through the years. So, it’s been good because it’s been a Catholic school.
SNR: Following up on that, a lot of people, when they look at a coaching career, would think the goal has to be to get to the Class A school or to get to be a college football coach. You didn’t do that. I am guessing you had some opportunities to do that. Any regrets, or a different course you might have wanted to take?
Mimick: No, I’ve been offered a Class A job and multiple Class B jobs. Sometimes unsolicited; I just knew the administrators and they wanted a new coach. Absolutely no looking back on it.
The process of a small school is different. In a large school, you have a JV program and you play seniors, basically. A few juniors. You’re a little more “X and O” oriented.
In terms of what you see on TV and colleges, it’s a little more like that. Where we’re trying to piece an inexperienced sophomore together with a senior at the other side. We’re trying to build depth in case your second-best player gets hurt. That’s been a puzzle I’ve really enjoyed....
In how I think, how I coach, how I look at things, it’s really much more attuned to the smaller school, probably because I’ve been in a small school. I’m not an X and O guy. I’m more of a process (guy), building a team—foundation, depth, structure. You need that on all levels, but I think it’s more important on our level and not so much X’s and O’s.
So I just think the way I look at it is, it’s better at the small school, I would have had more of a struggle in a larger school. I really do believe so.
SNR: This Hall of Fame induction proves that you have had a successful career. How do you define success, though? And do you feel like you’ve had a successful career?
Mimick: Success is probably the team you put on the field and floor, and how they individually look within the team concept: Are they trying hard? Do they line up well? Are they pretty disciplined? Do they make a lot of mistakes? Are they pulling for each other? Hand the ball to the referee, get up off the ground, jog to the sidelines, don’t hang their heads?
I’ve turned on opponent films and they’ve been 0-8 or 1-9 and they’re well-coached football teams. I mean, they’re doing a lot of things right. They just don’t have the talent.
Then I’ll sometimes put on a team that’s 7-2 and they’re kind of sloppy and they’re getting by on talent alone. So, just the process of pulling it together and executing well and trying to do things right and trying to play within who you are and trying to play hard for the team.
You can tell the teams playing hard. We get that compliment quite often from schools: “Your kids just play hard.” I think that’s part of the process. If you’re talented, you’re going to be held accountable.
Those aren’t the fun kids to coach always. It’s the kids who are average or below average and work hard and just want to be part of it. They want to be part of a good team and they want to play. When those kids have success, that’s really a joy to me. I think that defines what a team should be—a team that just wants to be part of something bigger than themselves.
SNR: What does your future look like? Do you still have something to prove?
Mimick: No, not really. In terms of the coaching, I hope to go for some more years... I’ll probably slow down a little bit here in the future, but I’d like to maybe coach into my early 70s and we’ll see where it goes. I don’t know.
I just enjoy the process. It’s something I really look forward to. I realize when people get older, they may still farm 160 acres, or they might ... go to the job site every day. If it’s something you enjoy, it kind of gets you up in the morning and gets you going.
This has been great, being at Aquinas and before that, Catholic schools for another five years. It’s good for me personally in my faith, because I’m reminded of it. And it’s also a good place to teach and coach, a good place to have kids at, because they’re being, hopefully, formed in the image of a servant of God.
SNR: And when you finally do make the decision to step down, what do you want your legacy to be? How do you want people to think of Ron Mimick the coach?
Mimick: I hope I made them a little better people. Hope so.
Photos courtesy Aquinas C atholic.
Watch the full interview with Ron Mimick of Aquinas Catholic on the Catholic Diocese of Lincoln YouTube channel. While there, subscribe to the channel for more videos from the diocese.
