Waterloo Warriors track and field team has much praise for their coach Kate Bickle-Ferth, who has been with the team for 14 years.
Bickle-Ferth is a UW alumna, and competed in the track and field team during the five years of her undergrad.
Before becoming the head coach in 2016, Bickle-Ferth started off as a team manager and assisted in sprints and relays since 2008.
When it comes to the UW track and field team, Bickle-Ferth wants to see the program to grow into a funded full-time program and see her team become gold medalists.
“Since we are one of the smaller teams in USports, I want to see as much success as possible and to be competitive with the funded paid programs,” Bickle-Ferth said.
As a former track and field varsity athlete, Bickle-Ferth understands the struggles and experience of being a varsity athlete.
Bickle-Ferth wants to “see the motivation in them and I want them to be confident as athletes and compete with the best out there.”
Bickle-Ferth hopes the team “learns and understand why we do what we do,” as well as remember her advice, trust the program, and have confidence going into the competition.
Of Bickle-Ferth’s impact on students, second year geo-chemistry student Owen Babcock said, “She’s been such a good combination of friendly and competitive. She’s very fierce and wants to win but is never intimidating.”
The long-time track athlete met Bickle-Ferth early last year, during her first year as head coach and his own first year at UW.
Having Bickle-Ferth as head coach has “made being an athlete at Waterloo so much more enjoyable knowing that my coach cares about me, as well as all the other athletes,” Babcock said. “I would not want to be anywhere else because of… the environment that she’s created.”
