Welcome to Kenmare

Feature Stories (Vol. 109 No. 46--11/28/2007)

Jason Schwarz begins coaching role at KHS
"This isn't a job to me!"

By Caroline Downs

"My life is coaching. I don’t ever take a break," said Jason Schwarz of Minot, the new head girls basketball coach for the Kenmare Honkers. "This isn’t a job to me!"

He views his coaching role as something more than merely calling the plays. "A big part of my coaching has to do with who they want to be in the game of life," he said. "During practice, we’ll talk about some aspect of that."

Schwarz believes students who participate in extra-curricular activities gain an advantage and go on to accomplish more with their lives because they’ve already learned something about handling adversity through sports or other competitions. "If I can help them do better at the game of life, it doesn’t matter how many games we win or lose," he said.

He paused just a beat before adding, with a smile, "But we want to win as many as possible!"

Schwarz is dedicated to the Honkers girls basketball team right now, but he coaches nearly year-round. When school started, he led the junior high football program at Jim Hill Middle School in Minot. Come spring, he’ll coach one of the two JV baseball teams at Minot High School, then fill in his summer schedule with his son Hayden’s baseball team before starting all over again. He also has volleyball, track and golf stints on his coaching record.

When he’s not coaching, Schwarz can be found teaching physical education and driver’s education at the Souris River Campus in Minot, an alternative high school with an enrollment of 40 to 60 kids ages 16 to 19. He’s been there eight years, and taught in Lakota prior to that, where he also coached girls basketball. Readers of The Kenmare News may recognize Schwarz’s name from his seven years with the boys basketball program in Berthold.

Schwarz was a graduate of DLB, where he also participated in sports. He attended Dickinson State for one year, where he played football and baseball, then enrolled at Minot State University where he earned a bachelor of education degree in physical education. He completed a master’s degree in education administration from North Dakota State University during the summer of 2007.

He attributes his passion for coaching and teaching high school students to his own experiences as a kid playing sports and thriving on competition. "I really looked up to the coaches I had," he said. "I was fortunate to have such great mentors. They were someone I thought I may want to be."

Schwarz has been married to Patty Luetzen-Schwarz, formerly of Berthold, for four years. Luetzen-Schwarz teaches at Minot High and coaches the high school volleyball team. In fact, the two of them have coached the team together some years, and they constantly seek feedback from each other to improve their own skills. "It’s something we have a passion for," said Schwarz. "We share those traits, which has helped us become better at what we do. And both of us travel outside the state to learn more."

The couple’s oldest child, Dani Luetzen, is a senior at Minot High, where she plays volleyball and basketball. Son Kent Luetzen is a sophomore who divides his time among soccer, basketball and track. Eleven-year-old Hayden Schwarz fills in any empty slots in the schedule with football, hockey and baseball. Schwarz emphasized all three also maintain quality grades in the classroom.

He laughed as he described the family’s dedication to school activities. "In the winters when Patty was still coaching the speech team, on any given night you could find all five of us going different directions," he said. "That’s typical for us. We wear out the fast food drive-through restaurants!"

The family encourages each other and enjoys the support of the grandparents, all of whom live in Minot. In fact, Schwarz said Kenmare girls basketball fans will get to know his parents as they follow the Honkers’ games. "We’ve got to find them some Kenmare attire!" he said.

Schwarz means it when he says he studies basketball all year long. When he watches televised college or professional games, he frequently grabs a notebook to jot down ideas or strategies he sees.He also learns from talking with other coaches about their experiences, including Bob Knight of Texas Tech and Indiana University, Lute Olson, a native of Mayville and the head men’s basketball coach at the University of Arizona, and Dale Brown, formerly of Minot and retired from the men’s basketball program at Louisiana State University where, among several stand-out players over the decades, he coached current NBA star Shaquille O’Neal.

"I traveled to LSU, where I observed practices and sat down to pick [Brown’s] brain for three days," said Schwarz. "Then he helped me with other connections."

Those connections led to three trips to the University of Tennessee, where Schwarz met the Lady Volunteers basketball coach Pat Summitt, and to some one-on-one time with coach Orlando "Tubby" Smith, former head men’s basketball coach at the University of Kentucky, now of the University of Minnesota.

Schwarz also traveled to California to meet with UCLA’s legendary men’s basketball coach John Wooden. "His house is like a museum, with all the national awards and championships," said Schwarz. "I love doing this stuff--watching how these other coaches get these kids to compete."

Every practice he observes, every workshop he attends, every camp he conducts leads to the same goal--becoming a better coach to serve the student athletes working with him.

And Schwarz asks one thing in return. "I want these kids to come out and work as hard as they can for me," he said, "because I’m going to do the same for them."