After almost three decades of coaching track and cross country at Bingham High School, Jeff Arbogast has made it to the Hall of Fame.
The longtime coaching guru becomes just the fifth Utah coach to be inducted into the National High School Athletic Coaches Association Hall of Fame.
"I was just kind of in shock," Arbogast said, after he got the word of his pending induction. The Utah High School Activities Association nominates at least one candidate annually to be considered for the award of a lifetime. The national organization has been inducting worthy entrants since 1996.
Last month, the NHSACA held its induction ceremony in Milwaukee, and Arbogast was honored along with 40 other coaches from around the country.
"It was fantastic ... they do nothing more than live and breathe coaching," said Arbogast in reference to the class of 2007. "I just keep thinking about all these guys I know and I was just blown away," he said.
Arbogast will take his spot in the hall next to four other Utah coaches: Bonneville's Tom Budge, Skyline's Roger DuPaix, Larry Wall of Bountiful and Wilbur Braithwaite from Manti.
Under Arbogast's guidance, Bingham's track and cross country teams have won 10 state titles since 1989.
Yet it might have been the '89 boys cross country team, which finished in 13th place, that got everything started for the South Jordan school. In a locker room meeting, Arbogast asked his players if they wanted to win state.
Of course, they responded affirmatively, and that's when the Bingham coach pulled out mileage charts and training regimens for them to follow, and it paid off with a state championship the next year.
"It was one of the most phenomenal turnarounds I've ever seen," said Taylorsville coach Robby Duncan. The former Bingham distance runner was on that team and knows why the coach's words had meaning.
"We had a great deal of respect for him because we knew if we did what he told us to do, we'd be successful," Duncan said.
Bingham's 1990 title team touched off a decade of success that would only be matched by powerhouse Mountain View. The Miners cross country teams won seven state titles from 1990-2000, and in 1995, Arbogast led his boys team to a National Championship.
As a young coach in 1980, the former shot put thrower doubted his coaching abilities but those inadequacies motivated him to find a niche for himself and his fledgling program.
"I think I was so driven because I wasn't like those other coaches out there," Arbogast says. "For me, there was a need to vindicate myself," he explained.
Twenty-eight years later, the former marathoner has more than justified himself as a coach. The Hall of Famer has gained a reputation as an expert in the art of building top athletes. Altitude camps, distance summits and motivation theories are just a few areas of the serious training arsenal that Arbogast uses to ensure his team's success.
Surprisingly though, these well-researched and time-tested methods are not secret. Arbogast will share them with anyone who asks. Even coaches half a world away in South Africa have contacted him in search of ways to better their programs.
"Teaching has been my life — I'd rather get 200 coaches to get a message to kids," said the two-time National Coach of the Year.
"It's a matter of educating as many people as I can. I think when you flash out of this life and you see those things, that is what I'm most happy with," Arbogast said.
Even when the longtime Miners coach decides to hang 'em up, his influence will continue to be felt through a half-dozen Bingham graduates who are now track or cross country coaches at various Utah high schools.
E-mail: tpeterson@desnews.com