Dedicated to helping

CEDAR RAPIDS - As football coaching legend Vince Lombardi once said, 'The price of success is hard work, dedication to the job at hand, and the determination that whether we win or lose, we have applied the best of ourselves to the task at hand.”

When coaching more than one sport throughout the year, these qualities are essential to perform the job to the best of one's abilities. For cross country and wrestling coach Kyle Mallie, the power of competition has led him to continue contributing to these sports beyond his own high school career.

'Coaching has taught me how to deal with different personality types,” Mallie said. 'I am still working on keeping everyone motivated all season long. It can be tough for athletes to maintain a positive attitude after they feel like they have underperformed.”

As the head coach for the boys' and girls' cross country team, he has used his motivational skills to help establish a formidable program with three individual state qualifiers, along with a girls' team qualifier over the past two seasons. He also is a teacher in the social studies department at Xavier and is in his first year as the moderator for student senate.

This winter, he is serving as an assistant wrestling coach for the second straight season. Last year, Xavier qualified four different individuals for the state competition at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines, one of the highest totals in school history.

'Coach Mallie is always pushing us to work harder,” sophomore wrestler Josh Gerke said. 'He always wants us to practice right so we perform right and to never take a rep off.”

Xavier gets back on the mat Saturday at the Webster City Duals.