Augustine prospers as track & field coach

Don Augustine is another former Cardinal Mooney High football player who has wound up as a successful college coach.

The only difference between Augustine and the growing list of other Mooney graduates choosing the coaching profession is that the New Springfield native does not coach football — but instead men’s and women’s track and cross country.

A 2001 graduate of Westminster College where he played football and also competed in track, Augustine is entering his second year coaching both men’s and women’s sports at St. Norbert College in De Pere, Wis.

Previously, he coached Westminster’s men’s and women’s track and field teams for three years while at the same time serving as the Titans’ assistant football coach, before leaving the school and taking a break from college coaching for one year.

During that year-long hiatus, he taught at Sharon High during the 2006-07 school year while assisting coach P.J. Fecko as the Mooney football team won the 2006 state championship.

Then he landed the St. Norbert coaching jobs in the summer of 2007.

“It was sort of my transitional year after leaving Westminster and coming to St. Norbert,” said Augustine, who sometimes gets ribbed about not being a college football coach like many of his fellow Mooney alumni headed by coaches Bob Stoops (Oklahoma), Mike Stoops (Arizona) and Bo Pelini (Nebraska).

But Augustine is comfortable with his career choice.

“I think the fact that I graduated from Mooney, I sometimes get static as to why I’m not pursuing football because so many great coaches come from Mooney,” said Augustine. “But I have found my niche here and I see myself starting to pursue this.”

Augustine said he feels more comfortable coaching track and cross country than football.

“It doesn’t brother me since I broke out of football. I still keep in touch with Coach Fecko. Coaching track and cross country is a different lifestyle than coaching football, one that I think suits me better,” said Augustine. “Football is a lot more demanding. I mean we still travel a lot, but I like the lifestyle better. I can manage everything in my life better.”

However, Augustine did give football coaching good shots. A standout middle-distance runner on the Westminster track team, he also was a two-year starting linebacker for the Titans.

After graduation, he served as a graduate assistant football coach for Temple during the 2002-03 season while pursuing his master’s degree.

Then he returned to Westminster as an assistant football coach and men’s and women’s track coach for three years during which he got a taste of success that attracted him more to track and field.

“I got to the point at Westminster in the track program that we were taking off and gravitating toward success and having success, so I see myself down the road pursuing this instead of football,” said Augustine, who continued to prosper at St. Norbert.

In his first year there in cross country, he led the Green Hornets’ men and women to a runner-up finishes in the Midwest Conference, and he was named conference coach of the year.

In track and field, Augustine led the 2009 women to their highest national finishes ever in both indoors (eighth) and outdoors (tied for 10th). The 2009 men’s track team placed second in the conference.

Augustine recently was home to visit his mother, April Augustine, who still lives in New Springfield, and to attend some weddings.

He also visited Mooney and intends to remain close and true to his alma mater, including friends Fecko and freshman football coach Paul Mahin, “because it is special to me. It helped me to get where I am right now.”

XJohn Kovach covers college athletics for The Vindicator. Write to him at kovach@vindy.com.