Travis Geopfert Officially Introduced as K-State’s Director of Track and Field/Cross Country

Watch Press Conference | Hiring Announcement  | Accomplishments (.pdf) | What They Are Saying (.pdf)

MANHATTAN, Kan. (Kansas State University Athletics) – Kansas State formally introduced Travis Geopfert as its new Director of Track and Field/Cross Country on Monday (July 15) in the Steel and Pipe Team Theatre at the Vanier Football Complex.

 

Geopfert, a four-time National Assistant Coach of the Year during two stints at national powerhouse Arkansas, was announced as the school’s seventh full-time Director of Track and Field/Cross Country by Director of Athletics Gene Taylor on Thursday (July 11).

 

Geopfert, a native of Panora, Iowa, has 22 years of coaching experience, including 12 with Arkansas, where he was a part of two NCAA Championship teams (2013 men’s indoor and 2023 men’s indoor), 21 top-10 NCAA team finishes and 25 SEC Championships as an assistant men’s track and field and cross country coach (2009-18) and associate head coach of the men’s track and field and cross country teams (2021-24).

 

All told, Geopfert has been part of two NCAA team championships, 24 top-10 NCAA team finishes and 37 conference team championships (MVC, SEC) during his 22-year coaching career at Central Missouri (2002-03), Northern Iowa (2003-09), Arkansas (2009-18; 2021-24) and Tennessee (2018-21).

 

Geopfert was joined at Monday’s introductory press conference by K-State President Dr. Richard Linton and Taylor as well as his family, which included his wife Nicole, sons Jax and Jones, daughter Ellyn and his parents (mother Teresa and father Gary and mother-in-law Barbara).

 

Geopfert, 45, agreed to a 5-year contract, which was approved by the K-State Athletics, Inc., Board of Directors and Linton.

 

“Good morning, everybody, thanks for being here. I apologize about the temperature in the room, but hopefully we won’t be up here too long, but a little warm. So, first of all, I want to again, thank everybody for being here and President [Richard] Linton, thank you for being here, it’s awesome to have you here. Obviously, it’s a big day for our track and field program, but before if I didn’t say how much thanks we owe our former track coach, coach [Cliff] Rovelto, 40 years of tremendous service, tremendous reputation of our track and field program. Coach, thank you very much, appreciate you being here and everybody you deserve a big round of applause. Part of the reason that I will tell you this, we had outstanding candidates for this position was based on what coach [Rovelto] had done in the past reputation of his track and field programs at a high level, both nationally and across, really across the world, and so we were really excited about our candidates that we had. But today I get to introduce you to our new track and field coach Travis Geopfert. Travis comes to us from Arkansas as associate head coach, had tremendous amount of success there. He was a former head coach at Northern Iowa, spent a little time in Tennessee. He’s got lots of family and friends here and that’s awesome to see and I can hardly wait to meet all of you. I know coach will have a chance to introduce us, but I can tell you a little story. So, he and [head football] coach [Chris] Klieman go back to their Northern Iowa days. And Coach Kleiman was one of the first ones to reach out to me and said, ‘Hey, there’s a candidate I think you should look at and it’s Travis’ and when you have a head coach that you respect as much as coach Klieman and for him to reach out and say this is somebody you should look at and get a chance to meet him for what he’s accomplished in Arkansas throughout his career is phenomenal. We’re fortunate to have him here, he’s going to be leaving here very shortly to go to Paris and coach eight of his athletes in the Olympics and that kind of background that kind of success, we’re very, very fortunate to have him so without any further ado, I’d like to introduce you to our next track and field head coach, Travis Geopfert.”

 

“All right. Thank you for the introduction, Gene. More importantly, I want to thank you for not wearing a tie. The staff here knows that that was my biggest debate this morning is whether I should wear a tie or not. And when I saw you without a tie, I was relieved. I appreciate everyone being here. You know, I’ve been coaching for 22 years now, and I can’t believe that it’s been that long already. And I’ve had a lot of experiences and a lot of lessons learned over the years. But one valuable lesson at this point in time was something I learned from Olympian Jarrion Lawson. And that is the five Bs of speech, be brief brother, be brief. There are no promises on that today, Jay, I’m certain you’re watching but we’re gonna see what we can do.

 

“To Jarrion and all my athletes preparing for the Olympic Games, I want to thank you guys for your excitement for me and my family and this opportunity and I want to assure all of you when I get back tomorrow we’re going to continue our prep for the Olympic Games to go there and not just participate, but compete and contend for metals, and so I’m excited to keep that going.

 

“To all of my current and my former student athletes, I want to thank you for your continuous support. You’ve always been there for me, I appreciate you, I appreciate your excitement, I appreciate your understanding, and all this transition and the change. But I value those relationships of all those athletes above all other things and so I want to thank all of you.

 

“This is not what I expected at the end of this summer, but it’s something that I’m certainly excited about. You know, it got started like Gene had mentioned when I got a message from (K-State head football) Coach (Chris) Klieman asking if I was interested in this job. And I received some advice a while ago from legendary coach at Wisconsin, Ed Nuttycombe, and that is to always listen. And so, I said okay, I’ll listen, and I did. And then as I continued to listen, I got more and more excited. And then what I saw got me even more excited. The facilities that had been built here for track and field are world class. What this team of people has done is a well-kept secret, but it is arguably one of the best training environments for our sport in all of the world. And when you look at those two facilities directly adjacent to each other, and the detail that has been so carefully thought out and planned, it is absolutely amazing. So, after I saw that the next thing you know, Nicole and I are sitting down and telling our kids like all right, we might want to be looking at Kansas State. And immediately our middle son Jax yells, ‘they have a good football team,’ oh yeah, they have a good football team. So, coach Klieman I know you’re on vacation right now as you should be as you prep for the season, but you have a fan in our son Jax, that’s for sure, and you have a fan in me. You know, I’ve always admired what you’ve done with your programs over the years and what you’ve done here at Kansas State and you’re just such a genuine person and I appreciate your time and the conversations that you’ve had in explaining what Kansas State is all about, for me and my family. And it’s no wonder that athletes want to come play for you, you’re a genuine person that have others best interests at heart and Chris I just want to say thank you.

 

“In my career, I’ve been mentored and learned a lot of things from some outstanding coaches, but I have a longtime college coach, head coach and friend in Chris Bucknam. Buck, you taught me perseverance, you taught me resolve and you taught me how to compete. But more importantly you taught me how to be a friend and I know that I can always count on you anytime in the past and moving forward. Longtime colleague, my college coach and friend Doug Case, I appreciate you, I appreciate our collaboration over the years, all the way back to even when you taught me how to play the guitar so I could propose to my girlfriend at the time appropriately, which is 23 years ago now and it worked, and so she’s sitting right there right now. So, Case I appreciate you man and all that we’ve gone through together. To my longtime friend and mentor Kip Janvrin, whose dad, Ken, was my high school track coach, you have and you continue to teach me to value relationships above all other things. I learned that when I was young, 14 years old, from Papa Jay and from you and so thank you. To coach Beth Alford-Sullivan, our time together for three years at Tennessee was invaluable, I’ve learned a ton from you and the staff there and I want to thank you and all of them, and I know you’re your friend and you’re gonna continue to be there for me for guidance along the way.

 

But to the foremost heroes, my family, first I want to give a shout out to my grandma Doris, who is watching back in Panora, Iowa, she’s live streaming this for sure, and I’m certain she’s proud, so what’s up grandma.  My grandma Doris and my grandpa Pete took me to my first Drake Relays in 1985 and got me started on this track journey. They did the same thing for my brother Tyler and Tyler is a high school track coach out in Arizona keeping me posted on all the good recruits out there. And so, they really got this thing started and I think it’s a special moment and just value them so much, so shout out to them to my brother and his family out and out in Phoenix, appreciate all of you. To continue on the grandma front, my mom Teresa and my mother-in-law Barb are here, and I just want to thank you both not only for your help with the kids and the chaos that we have but for loving our kids so much in the way they’re growing up with family around them it’s just been phenomenal, appreciate you both. We’re very excited to get you both moved up here to live near us and in the future, the operative word is near, not with, but to live near us. So, I’m talking to my dad Gary the other day and he goes ‘I don’t know how you do it man, you are busy.’ As I was driving to Memphis for a track meet in 11 hours there and back in one day. And then I’m thinking to myself, ‘I learned it from you, you’re the hardest working person I’ve ever met,’ and so I appreciate you tremendously. I want to be a great coach, but more importantly I want to be a great dad and I appreciate you teaching me how to do that. To our kids, Jones, Jax and Ellyn, you guys are awesome. You’re a little crazy, I think we’re batting 1000 on ADHD, but we’re living it and loving it and you all are amazing your caring, loving hearts and personalities and your genuine care for other people, I appreciate you guys so Jones Jax and Ellyn, thank you and I love you. We all know that you’re awesome because of your mom, the matriarch of our family, and in our track family, my wife of 22 years Nicole Geopfert. All of our athletes call her momma Nicole, some of our athletes and former athletes I should say that are now having kids call her big mama G, a nickname that I gave to her, and she absolutely loves. I just want to say that you’re the reason that I’m giving this speech, you’re the finger in my back to push me along the way for chasing my dreams. And so, I am going to really embarrass you and make you stand up and take a bow and if we could give her a round of applause.

 

“So, as you get a little bit older you turn into a storyteller and my athletes know that that I tend to distract practice on occasion with some stories. And so, I’m at my first USA versus Germany meet, the Thorpe Cup, back in ‘03 in Bernhausen, and I’m a young coach, I’m a GA for Kip (Janvrin) at Central Missouri and I’m considering taking the assistant coaching job at Northern Iowa. And after the meet, we had a great meet, and a lot of the athletes went out to hydrate after the competition, and I didn’t, I stuck around the hotel a little bit and I got to have a conversation for hours, until about four in the morning, with legendary coach in Cliff Rovelto. And it was an awesome conversation, you know, over 20 years ago now that I valued very much and I actually asked Cliff if when we got back if you could send me some workouts and so a couple of weeks later I got an envelope that I’m sure Karol [Rovelto] put some stuff in there and it sent it my way but it was not workouts. It was articles so I could learn how to write workouts by myself, and I appreciated that, and I valued that very much. And so, along the way, Coach Rovelto, I observed, and I watched you and what you did, and I observed the hand signals, whether you’re at the Olympic Games or sometimes even 10 feet away, I saw the hand signals. I saw the note taking that you did as you were coaching and teaching and I saw the gravitation towards excellence and the attention to detail that you did. You’re a legendary coach, coach Rovelto and I’m humbled to follow you in this journey. You know, we have a lot of past Olympians and alumni here at Kansas State that are certainly a foundation of this program but I think you’re the foundation of K-State Cliff, I think your lifelong commitment to this place to this team to these facilities has made this one of the most attractive opportunities in NCAA track and field and I can promise you that our staff is going to work tirelessly to make not only alumni proud but you proud we’re gonna get after this thing.

 

“With that, my commitments to the current athletes on this roster and the future athletes in this program, we are going to gravitate towards excellence both on and off the track, in the classroom and in life. I want coming to the track to be the best part of your day. I want you to know when you walk into those facilities that you’re just going to feel the positive energy, it’s just in the air. We’re going to work hard and we’re going to enjoy the process while we’re doing this. Athletes, I want you to listen, future athletes I want you to listen. Winning is fun, being part of something bigger than yourself is fun. Having coaches and athletes and teammates that push you beyond what you thought you could do, is fun, and I promise you we’re going to have some fun.

 

To Gene Taylor, [executive associate AD] Kenny Lannou, and [deputy AD] Jill Shields, thank you for this opportunity. Thank you for believing in me to replace a legend. I believe in servant leadership, serving our student athletes, serving my staff, serving my bosses and serving K-State nation. It’s my job to make all of you look good. And I can promise you that I’m going to do everything in my power to continue the legacy of Kansas State track and field. We are going to continue to push to be one of the elite programs in all of the NCAA. I want to thank all of you, and I want to thank all of K-State nation for believing in me to lead this program. Thank you.”

 

“You know, when I walked through there [indoor track complex], I was just I was just in awe. I walked through with Kenny and Jason [Brummet] and what that facility is and it’s going to continue to grow to be in phase two, it’s just phenomenal. You know, looking at it with my track dork mind, I’m looking at these adjacent facilities directly right next to each other and the attention to detail for the athletes and the ability to train right along the way. Obviously, the track itself is fast, the runways are great, all that stuff, the throwing areas is every coach’s dream, it’s just phenomenal. But then you look at the details, you know you look at the incline decline runway at the outdoor track, you look at the pole vaulting setup, you look at this, the 40 meter sandpit, you look at the adjacent soft surface area right next to the other track and then you look at the brand new weight room and training room that’s built right next door to that. So, the proximity I think is invaluable, you know for the simplicity of the student athlete’s day but every detail that you that you could want as a track coach, and I know Cliff pushed the agenda all along the way, it’s just, he didn’t miss anything. And the administration and the staff didn’t miss anything, it’s awesome. I’m excited to continue to build on it for phase two as well.”

 

“(Current Arkansas head coach) Chris Buckham following (Hall of Famer) John McDonnell at Arkansas and myself following legendary coach, Dick Booth, you know, so it’s not unchartered territory for me in that regard. But ultimately, you know, I’m not Cliff Rovelto and I never will be and can’t be, but I can promise that I’m gonna focus on these student athletes and I’m gonna give them everything that I’ve got and that’s all you can do. You know, focus on the kids and coach to the best of your ability and hopefully positive results follow.”

 

“The family, the family atmosphere, you know, when you look around and you see family on every name building around campus, it’s pretty awesome. You know, I did mean it and so much of my time is with other people’s kids, you know, and coaching and traveling and all of it and so, to have a family atmosphere here for for our kids and my family, it’s something I had to have. I’ve had other opportunities along the way and, and to be honest, I probably should have listened in the past and more. I digress, they weren’t places I was going to move my family, it wasn’t going to happen, and this was, I knew it could potentially be and then when we got here and saw it. Huge, huge, huge part in our decision.”

 

“Yeah, they grilled me, man. No, it was it was good. It was some great questions and just honest conversation, which I appreciate. You know, I don’t know how to say this, just straight shooting, right? Like, I appreciate that tremendously from the staff, from Gene and the staff. When you just have 100 honest conversations and get right to the point, and it just is what it is. And so, you can see that and I want to work for a team of people like that.”

 

“Well, we didn’t work out together, we probably should have but we didn’t. So, we’re at Northern Iowa, I can’t remember exact years in crossover. But for like four years, I was ‘05 through ‘09 maybe it was ’06, ’07, ’08, somewhere in that zone. And so, in recruiting, you know, he’s a great recruiter and got after it and on the track side, I got after it on the recruiting front as well. And so, we had a number of football track guys that we co-recruited together, which was awesome putting some speed on the field. And so, it started with that but then we shared a facility, in the UNI-Dome at Northern Iowa the turf rolls out over the flat indoor track. And so, when the turf was down, track didn’t really have a place to go and so we would run up and down the sidelines or whatever we could makeshift do. And coach Klieman was always awesome, ‘hey Chris, can we just do some strides right here,’ and he was just always so gracious and approachable. And when he went on to North Dakota State, I was a fan and then when he got the head job at North Dakota State and started winning, I was a fan. And then when he got the job here at Kansas State, I became a closet Kansas State fan and always watching. Our son and I were watching that, I told the story earlier today, we’re watching the Big 12 championship game with the fourth down stop. You know in previous years I’ve texted coach Klieman a few times, maybe once a year, and somewhere along the line he had changed changes number. So I knew that was a critical play in the game, right, and so I’m videotaping as we’re watching it and our reaction to it and the fourth down stop happened and we’re going nuts and then so I texted that video to coach Klieman, who I thought was coach Klieman, and I get the text back like I think you have the wrong number. It was pretty funny, but I’m a huge fan of him. He does things the right way, you know, he does what he says, and he says what he does and that straight shooting from a football coach. I’ll elaborate just a little bit more, when we’re making a decision, we’re driving around and all that stuff and coach Klieman called me and so I wanted to park and talk and my family sitting in the van at a gas station for 30 minutes as I’m walking up and down the sidewalk and talking to Chris and so he just gave tremendous advice and explained a lot about what Kansas State is all about so I appreciate it tremendously.”

 

“Yeah, I’ve been fortunate to coach a number of Olympians in the past. It’s a big group, you know, we have we have eight going over there and I am very excited. You know, I’m doing my best, and that’s what I appreciate about Gene and the staff as well, like, I’m gonna get here and I’m gonna get after it with Kansas State. But they’re letting me in this moment in time focus on these young student athletes because this is an opportunity for them, there’s a couple of two-time Olympians in there, but potentially once in a lifetime and everything that goes with that. So, I am excited, I’m not missing very much practice with them, I’m missing it today, but I will be back there tomorrow. And we’re gonna go after them and we’re gonna get after it, this group of young people, they are not participants, they are competitors. And they are going over there to try to win medals. And that’s what we’re gonna go over there and do.”

 

“Well, obviously we’re trying to put everything together and it’s still more conversations to be had and process to go through and all that stuff but getting the staff boots on the ground here to get things going even in my absence is going to be really important and getting this the staff and the athletes connected. You know, and then once we get here, I’d like to eventually, probably should have ran this by Kenny, but I want to do some type of meet and greet with the student athletes and their families and the staff and do some of that so everybody can get to know each other a little bit better. We’ll start with that and get cross country rocking and then go from there.”