Coach Tuke learned lessons - on and off the field - from Kansas State icon

Tom Matukewicz wasn’t even old enough to drive a car when he knew what he aspired to be throughout his adulthood.

“I would practice giving halftime speeches in the bathroom,” Matukewicz recalled. “Who does that?”

A future football coach does that is who.

Matukewicz is now in his 10th season as the football coach at Southeast Missouri State. He will take his team, which is ranked 11th in the FCS, back home to Manhattan, where the Redhawks will open the 2023 regular season against No. 16-ranked (FBS) Kansas State on Saturday at 6 p.m. (ESPN+).

During his freshman season at Silver Lake (Kansas) High School, a long fade route (40 miles) away, Matukewicz watched Kansas State football be mired in its historical low point.

The Wildcats didn’t win any of their 11 games that fall and the university administration made a fateful decision that has positively impacted the institution to this day, and probably will for decades to come.

Kansas State hired Bill Snyder to rebuild its football program from the ashes, and as Matukewicz grew through his days at Silver Lake, and later coaching at Kansas-based schools Fort Hays State, Coffeyville Community College, and Emporia State, he got to witness coaching excellence, as Snyder miraculously constructed a beleaguered program into a national power of consistency.

“I really idolized Bill Snyder,” Matukewicz said. “I wanted to be a coach my whole life, and I was just captivated by what he was able to accomplish.”

The stadium that the Redhawks run into on Saturday night bears the name of Snyder, who led the program through two stints and 27 years total.

Not only was Matukewicz impacted by Snyder’s success, as he won 215 games and was a five-time National Coach of the Year honoree, but the SEMO coach also learned from the words of Snyder, particularly at his first retirement press conference following the 2005 season (Snyder would later return to lead the Wildcats from 2009 to 2018).

“I listened to that press conference,” Matukewicz said. “It’s not what I thought it would be.”

Matukewicz said that “there was a lot of pain there,” in Snuder’s speech, “because I think he regretted how he handled things with his family.”

That made an impression on Matukewicz that he carries with him to this day.

Yes, the Redhawk coaching staff works hard. You don’t build THIS program to THIS point without effort. However, Matukewicz also is cognizant of allowing himself, and his staff, to have a reasonable work-life balance.

“That was a big moment for me,” Matukewicz said. “I didn’t want to get to that spot, and look back, and be like that.”

Matukewicz has placed a priority on spending as much time, as reasonably possible, with his wife, Lenna, and ever-growing daughters, Georgia and Shelby.

“(Coach Snyder’s words) helped me to do the hard work and understand what I really want out of life,” Matukewicz explained. “This game is awesome, and I love it, but when the dust settles, I’m going to make sure that my family is there.”