All Access Track & Field Practice: The 'Wartburg Way' - Developing 'Team' in an Individual Sport

with Marcus Newsom,
Wartburg College Head Coach;
2026 American Rivers Conference Coach of the Year;
2021 NCAA Men's Outdoor Track & Field National Champions;
5x NCAA Women's Outdoor Track & Field National Champions;
3x NCAA Women's Indoor Track & Field National Champion;
21x IIAC/ARC Women's Outdoor Champions;
18x IIAC/ARC Women's Indoor Champions;
13x IIAC/ARC Men's Outdoor Champions;
13x IIAC/ARC Men's Indoor Champions;
6x United States Track Coaches Association DIII Indoor Women's Coach of the Year;
6x USTFCCCA DIII Outdoor Women's Coach of the Year;
6x USTFCCCA DIII Indoor Women's Coach of the Year;
4x USTFCCCA DIII Outdoor Men's Coach of the Year

featuring Scott Ganshirt, Wartburg College Assistant Track & Field Coach

The Wartburg Track program has grown into a national power under Coach Newsom's watch. Wartburg has won 14 straight indoor women's conference championship titles and nine men's indoor championships. The women have a string of 17 consecutive outdoor titles. The men have won eight league outdoor titles since 2002. In 2009, his women's teams became only the seventh team in NCAA Division III history to sweep indoor and outdoor national titles in the same season, and earned the inaugural Deb Vercauteren Program of the Year award from the USTFCCCA. The program also won the award in back-to-back-to-back season (2012-14). The 2012 women's team swept the National Championships and set new all-time meet records in team points in both venues.

This unique, 'all-access' video exposes you to the training environment that has helped make Wartburg College a Division III track & field powerhouse!

Multiple team activities are documented that show how coach Marcus Newsom cultivates an environment that creates a group that seems more like a family than a collection of individual athletes. Examples include team warm-ups, team meetings, weight training and cross training activities.

Coach Newsom's basic philosophy is that every athlete is important to the team. Athletes make the program and everyone can contribute. It starts every day with team body and mental building. You will see:

• The benefit of the team warm-up
• The team meeting
• The work-out
• The cool-down as a team

Coach Newsom explains that coaches needs to work on the little things to develop a successful program. The athletes need to know they can maximize their potential by working together and knowing that what they accomplished in every practice mattered.

Everyday Practice Break Down

Coach Newsom demonstrates how he works a typical day and week of practice by breaking down the team warm-up, cardio, meeting and weight lifting.

An extensive review of Wartburg's weight training program is included, which shows how to best organize resources to promote optimal performance while minimizing injuries. Wartburg's Melissa Norton takes you into the weight room and explains the ins and outs of getting a large group of athletes through their workouts in an efficient manner. Explanations are given for many of the exercises. Squats, dead lifts, one-legged lunges and power cleans are all shown.

Get a comprehensive look behind what a coach needs to not only start a program, but how to build a successful, winning program.

88 minutes. 2017.