(Audubon) Audubon’s Eric Borkowski joins the “Why I Coach” series. He’s the head softball coach and an assistant football coach at Audubon.
Borkowski says he enjoys helping the athletes become both better people and better players. Initially he’d hoped to coach baseball, but…”In 2005 when I officially started coaching, I wanted to coach baseball. But they told me I would not be able to because it would be my brother’s senior year. They did not want any conflict between him and I or anyone on the team. They asked if I would be interested in coaching softball. So in 2005 I coached softball with my cousin.”
That arrangement lasted one season and he says it was a lot of fun. He took a venture into baseball program for the next couple of years before returning to softball. “I kept watching the little league program and there was talent coming up in the softball program. Baseball had talent too, but I’d been around softball since I was really small because my father played it. I’d been around a lot of those old-timer guys down in Exira. I just have always been around softball and it has a lot of similarities for the most part with baseball. You have to score runs, hit the ball, field the ball, throw the ball, so I just wanted a different adventure and softball was the way I went.”
Borkowski says he’s had a great relationship with AD’s during his time as head coach between Randy Spies and now Sean Birks. “It’s been a great experience with coach Birks and then Randy Spies as the AD. They’ve done a great job helping me get things or get the field ready or improvements on the field. As everyone has seen in the last five or six years the new lights, the new fence, after the season was over we got the restrooms re-done. There’s a lot of good things that those guys have done, the school board has done, athletic boosters have done. Having everybody all on the same page has been awesome. The AD’s have been great and everybody that’s in the system with the school has been awesome. It’s one of those things that if you can get everything to work together and mesh together it makes everything a lot easier and a lot of fun.”
One of the biggest things he’s learned is you have to adjust with your personnel and best fit your current team’s skill set.
Previous Coaches
(Click to listen)
John Kesselring, Adair-Casey alum
Eric Maassen, (AHST grad) Sheldon
Jerome Hoegh, Atlantic grad (West Sioux)
Gaylord Schelling, Atlantic and Tri-Center
Dick Strittmatter, Atlantic native
Chad Klein, Audubon Native (Kuemper Catholic and Boone)
In Memory of Bob Monahan, Audubon (Monte Riebhoff)
In Memory of Bob Monahan, Audubon (Steve Ahrendsen)
In Memory of Bob Monahan, Audubon (Scott Weber)
In Memory of Bob Monahan, Audubon (Curt Mace)
Jason Mehrhoff, Anita Native (Carlisle)
Eric Hjelle, Elk Horn-Kimballton grad (Underwood)
Brett Watson, Elk Horn-Kimballton alum (Waukee Northwest)
Warren Watson, Elk Horn-Kimballton
Chris Stimson, Elk Horn-Kimballton
Scott Yates, Elk Horn-Kimballton
Jan Jensen, Elk Horn-Kimballton alum
Seth Poldberg, EH-K grad and Guthrie Center coach
Marc Bierbaum, Griswold grad and Iowa Western track/cross country assistant
Trevor Gipple, (Griswold grad) SW Valley
Curt Schulte, Harlan graduate (Glenwood)
Angie Spangenberg, Harlan and Red Oak
Eric Stein (Harlan grad) Iowa Central
Darrell Burmeister, Nodaway Valley
Lanny Kliefoth, Nodaway Valley
Chad Harder, (Walnut Grad) Tri-Center
Josh Abel, (Walnut grad), Tri-Center
