The News-Gazette's All-Area boys' track and field team: West wins Coach of the Year
Jul. 2—Why he’s Coach of the Year
Bismarck-Henning/Rossvile-Alvin delivered a successful season, winning team titles at the Vermilion County Meet and the Vermilion Valley Conference Meet before winning a Class 1A sectional title on May 21 in Bismarck. The Blue Devils, backed by a 400-meter relay team of
Dylan Davis, Mason Cunningham, Isaac Cahill and Gavin High that placed second at the Class 1A state meet on May 30, finished 10th at the 1A state meet. Staff writer Joey Wright caught up with BHRA coach Nathan West, along with his wife, Devon, their two children Colt and Ella and his mother, Melody, to talk about what fueled the Blue Devils’ success on the track and in the field events during the 2026 season:
What factored into your team’s success this season?
➜ Nathan: Well, it kind of all started last year with our senior group as juniors. We had graduated a few big names, had a state champ when I first started there and so everybody thought we were going to fall off because we didn’t have the big names. Those guys just bought in from that point. I think it was the Monday after our football season, Gavin, Mason and Dylan all asked me ‘When do we start?’ I said, ‘When do you want to start?’ And they said, ‘Tomorrow.’
We have a lot of two-sport guys. We have guys that play basketball, but they got in the weight room, we started sprinting, we started doing all of those things that led into the season. We finished third in the indoor 800 relay. I put a lot into relays indoors just to get a lot of people involved, and so then, it just rolled into the season. We won the county championship and then went to St. Teresa, and that was when we knew we could probably be pretty legitimate. Got a lot of mentions on the PA, and a lot of people congratulated me afterwards, saying we ran really hard. We hosted our first sectional in school history — that was a big undertaking, so kudos to our athletic director, Murad Abbed, for doing that — and won it by 69 points. Going to the prelims at state, getting through all of that and then obviously the state finals. Then, it was like we can finally breathe.
What made this senior class a special group, and how much does it benefit having multi-sport athletes?
➜ Nathan: I think it was because a lot of them weren’t superstars in junior high. We don’t have the AAU guys or anything like that. All of our guys kind of made themselves. The senior class was just really bought into each other. We had 14 seniors, and they just handled things themselves. When you’ve got a team of 40 athletes and over 25 percent of them are seniors, you’re probably going to do pretty well.
That is the huge culture of Bismarck is having multi-sport athletes. We don’t have basketball players or football players or track athletes or baseball guys. We truly develop every kid as an athlete. We don’t worry about necessarily the sport-specific stuff. Coach (Mark) Dodd brought me in, so to have the blessing from the Hall of Fame football coach, that really helps things. I got connected with Murad, and he does the strength portion of things. He’s nothing but supportive on the athletic side, and we just work together. We probably see 160 athletes a day in the summer between junior high and high school.
Along with the success in the sprints for your team this year, Conner Powell and Vince Lane also stood out in the throwing events. What was key in that aspect?
➜ Nathan: That all goes back to our throws coach, Jon Rutter. He’s been invaluable to me. Having an All-State shot putter in Conner and an All-State discus thrower in Vince, he most definitely deserves all that credit. He came back to the program after a year off, and our throws are significantly better with him involved.
Your kids are here. Will they be track and field athletes one day?
➜ Nathan: Colt will always go with me to practice if he’s available, because I want him to be around the guys and just see what it’s about and to see that dynamic that dad’s a coach. He ran a 400-meter dash at practice, and most kids would think that that’s awful. I had a couple of my hurdlers who were like, ‘Man, Colt, that was great.’ So, Colt takes off on another one by himself, and then as he’s going around that time, then all the throwers see him going, and they start clapping for him. I was like, ‘Buddy, you’re one 400 short of a mile. You might as well just finish it.’ And while he got deterred in the sand pit for a brief moment, he actually ran a mile at practice, which I thought was pretty funny.
How do you deal with having two young kids along with coaching and other personal and professional responsibilities?
➜ Nathan: You’ve got to have a good support system at home. That’s number one. When Colt was born, my mom retired, so she’s helping taking care of Colt, and then obviously Ella came along, so she’s done that. To have a wife that will travel wherever the team is at to take care of things, I know sometimes it can be crazy, me talking about these kids like they’re my kids, as far as the athletes are concerned, but she’s just as bought in as I am.
➜ Devon: I’ve always said he’s doing what he’s meant to do. I enjoy watching him coach, and it’s really rewarding when we see things like this because he puts a lot of work into it. A lot of stressful nights and days before the meets just trying to make sure he puts everybody in the right spot. It’s really cool watching it and having our kids grow up around it. They already know how to get down in the blocks to start, so that’s really cool for a 4-year-old and a 2-year-old.
➜ Melody: Nathan ran track when he was in high school. I’ve gone along with that, and so I go along to help with the kids and I do the extra babysitting and whatever needs to be done. Even though I don’t know these kids personally, I feel like I know them because he’s always talking about them all the time.
What do you like most about track and field?
➜ Nathan: I think the endless pursuit of speed. When I was in high school, speed was just something that you were either born with or you weren’t. And if you weren’t, you were a distance guy, and if you were, you were a fast guy. I think the one thing that we’ve really done at Bismarck is we have all bought into that we can make kids faster. Kids chase their miles per hour just as much as their bench press. Track is the ultimate individual sport with a team score in it, so to be able to see those times just go down and see those kids chase kind of their own success. Being able to see them and see that individuals have ownership over themselves and their success, I think that’s pretty cool.
