PLATTEVILLE - College hasn't turned out the way Patrick Klein expected.
The horror stories of cramming for finals and torrid tales of crunching out 20-page papers on deadline haven't held their intended sting for the 2007 Monroe High School graduate.
Instead, he's finding the pace both in the classroom and with his standout Pioneers indoor track team incredibly manageable.
"I thought college would be more tense than it is," Klein admits, "that there would be tons of tests and projects, but there's a lot more free time and it's not so much getting everything done as it is having discipline to do everything right."
Sounds like the affectionately-nicknamed P.K., who finally gets to compete with older brother and fifth-year UW-Platteville senior Cameron, got some good preparation along the way, particularly from high school coach Dave Hirsbrunner and Co.
The book on running written by Pioneers seventh-year skipper Jim Nickasch is eerily similar for Cheesemaker running enthusiasts. In fact, if you subbed out the author's name with that of the coach that wrote Klein's prep manual, little would change.
"Hirsh really drives it home to do as well in the classroom as on the track and that really transferred over," Klein said. "Coach Nickasch teaches the same things as Hirsh and it's a unique opportunity to have such great coaches. I've met some bad cross country coaches."
Admiration is a two-way street between David Hirsbrunner and Nickasch, who taught and certified the Monroe coach in the first level of the U.S.A. Track and Field Coaching program.
"I think we have the same moral fibers going and have the same attitudes about competing and training," Nickash said. "We're always pleased to get athletes from Monroe because we know the coaches they're coming from."
The hardware just keeps coming as "Hirsh" recently was awarded his fourth Wisconsin Coaches' Association District 5 Coach of the Year honor, his first in track and field. Its gold setting doesn't match the silver of his three cross country plaques, but all of them paint a perfect image of teams past.
"It's a neat thing to know that other coaches think you're doing something right," Hirsbrunner said of the award voted on by about 80 coaches, "but you don't set out to win a coach of the year award, the only way you get it is as a direct reflection of your team and your coaching staff."
"That brings up the word program," he adds, "and that's something you never think about in your first years of coaching."
DEFINING MOMENTS
When Patrick Klein was in eighth grade, he witnessed a feat that he'll never forget.
Five years later, only he could find a way to do something as improbable.
A network of tree roots, deceptive turns, gravel and blacktop couldn't stop then-Monroe senior Cameron Klein as he finished his rainy run at the Badger Conference Meet in Oregon.
"Our whole team and everybody that was watching, you just saw everybody go, 'Oh my God, did you see that kid from Monroe?'" Hirsbrunner reflects.
Somehow, Cameron had plowed through the last 4,300 meters of the run without either of his shoes. Hirsbrunner advised him to kick the second off after he lost the first just a couple hundred meters in. More than 20 excruciating minutes later, Klein's feet crossed the finish line, wrapped in bloody socks with the crimson stretching above his ankle bone.
"When I saw Cameron finish, I didn't think about it at the time, but that gave me all the motivation I needed to never not finish a race again," Patrick said.
But wait (for five years), there's more.
"Last year Patrick's appendix bursts in a race in the middle of the season and he goes on 28 days later and sets a state record (in the 4x800-relay) and one of the fastest times in the nation," Hirsbrunner said.
THE TRANSITION GAME
This weekend, Patrick Klein will compete in the 800-meter run during the WIAC Championships as a freshman less than a year removed from having helped set the aforementioned record along with Brandon Miles, Brett DeNure and Aron Kehoe at UW-La Crosse.
Klein's goals have constantly expanded from the moment he stepped on campus and he'll hope to fill in one of the two spots on the Pioneers' incredible distance relay team that will replace two seniors after this year.
After hoping to simply make the all-conference team, Klein has found his way into the five-man roster for the Pioneers' national squad by sticking toward the middle of the pack throughout the season.
He even swapped spots regularly with Cameron. Maybe too regularly for on-lookers' comfort.
"I've gotten numerous comments on how much we act, look and behave alike," Klein says with a laugh, "but I've never had a chance to compete with him until I got here so it's pretty different and special."
In addition to providing the pace for his kid brother, Cameron was also integral in helping Klein acclimate to his new surroundings.
"Hopefully Patrick keeps panning out like Cameron did," Nickasch said. "Cam's done a great job with being a leader for our program. It's an odd situation and I can't remember every having two brothers here. They're good kids and you can tell they're from the same stock."
The horror stories of cramming for finals and torrid tales of crunching out 20-page papers on deadline haven't held their intended sting for the 2007 Monroe High School graduate.
Instead, he's finding the pace both in the classroom and with his standout Pioneers indoor track team incredibly manageable.
"I thought college would be more tense than it is," Klein admits, "that there would be tons of tests and projects, but there's a lot more free time and it's not so much getting everything done as it is having discipline to do everything right."
Sounds like the affectionately-nicknamed P.K., who finally gets to compete with older brother and fifth-year UW-Platteville senior Cameron, got some good preparation along the way, particularly from high school coach Dave Hirsbrunner and Co.
The book on running written by Pioneers seventh-year skipper Jim Nickasch is eerily similar for Cheesemaker running enthusiasts. In fact, if you subbed out the author's name with that of the coach that wrote Klein's prep manual, little would change.
"Hirsh really drives it home to do as well in the classroom as on the track and that really transferred over," Klein said. "Coach Nickasch teaches the same things as Hirsh and it's a unique opportunity to have such great coaches. I've met some bad cross country coaches."
Admiration is a two-way street between David Hirsbrunner and Nickasch, who taught and certified the Monroe coach in the first level of the U.S.A. Track and Field Coaching program.
"I think we have the same moral fibers going and have the same attitudes about competing and training," Nickash said. "We're always pleased to get athletes from Monroe because we know the coaches they're coming from."
The hardware just keeps coming as "Hirsh" recently was awarded his fourth Wisconsin Coaches' Association District 5 Coach of the Year honor, his first in track and field. Its gold setting doesn't match the silver of his three cross country plaques, but all of them paint a perfect image of teams past.
"It's a neat thing to know that other coaches think you're doing something right," Hirsbrunner said of the award voted on by about 80 coaches, "but you don't set out to win a coach of the year award, the only way you get it is as a direct reflection of your team and your coaching staff."
"That brings up the word program," he adds, "and that's something you never think about in your first years of coaching."
DEFINING MOMENTS
When Patrick Klein was in eighth grade, he witnessed a feat that he'll never forget.
Five years later, only he could find a way to do something as improbable.
A network of tree roots, deceptive turns, gravel and blacktop couldn't stop then-Monroe senior Cameron Klein as he finished his rainy run at the Badger Conference Meet in Oregon.
"Our whole team and everybody that was watching, you just saw everybody go, 'Oh my God, did you see that kid from Monroe?'" Hirsbrunner reflects.
Somehow, Cameron had plowed through the last 4,300 meters of the run without either of his shoes. Hirsbrunner advised him to kick the second off after he lost the first just a couple hundred meters in. More than 20 excruciating minutes later, Klein's feet crossed the finish line, wrapped in bloody socks with the crimson stretching above his ankle bone.
"When I saw Cameron finish, I didn't think about it at the time, but that gave me all the motivation I needed to never not finish a race again," Patrick said.
But wait (for five years), there's more.
"Last year Patrick's appendix bursts in a race in the middle of the season and he goes on 28 days later and sets a state record (in the 4x800-relay) and one of the fastest times in the nation," Hirsbrunner said.
THE TRANSITION GAME
This weekend, Patrick Klein will compete in the 800-meter run during the WIAC Championships as a freshman less than a year removed from having helped set the aforementioned record along with Brandon Miles, Brett DeNure and Aron Kehoe at UW-La Crosse.
Klein's goals have constantly expanded from the moment he stepped on campus and he'll hope to fill in one of the two spots on the Pioneers' incredible distance relay team that will replace two seniors after this year.
After hoping to simply make the all-conference team, Klein has found his way into the five-man roster for the Pioneers' national squad by sticking toward the middle of the pack throughout the season.
He even swapped spots regularly with Cameron. Maybe too regularly for on-lookers' comfort.
"I've gotten numerous comments on how much we act, look and behave alike," Klein says with a laugh, "but I've never had a chance to compete with him until I got here so it's pretty different and special."
In addition to providing the pace for his kid brother, Cameron was also integral in helping Klein acclimate to his new surroundings.
"Hopefully Patrick keeps panning out like Cameron did," Nickasch said. "Cam's done a great job with being a leader for our program. It's an odd situation and I can't remember every having two brothers here. They're good kids and you can tell they're from the same stock."
