Story: Phillip Tutor | Photo: Betsy Compton
Ohio-born husband and wife are making quite an impact on the university’s campus
For a glimpse of Kristen and Nick Woodruff鈥檚 path to the , there may be no better place than the kitchen of a pizza shop along U.S. 425 deep in the Arkansas timberlands.
Young, recently married and rich only in aspirations, the Woodruffs once lived in Monticello, a college town about 40 miles west of the Mississippi River. Nick, a graduate assistant at the , had been promoted to assistant coach of the Boll Weevils鈥� men鈥檚 basketball team. Kristen had a job — in Ohio — but resigned to join her husband鈥檚 career dream.
Pizzas, it would be.
Mazzio鈥檚 Italian Eatery sits a short drive north of the UAM campus, its menu filled with the usual varieties of pizzas, pastas, calzones, chicken wings and salads. Unemployed despite having two college degrees, Kristen couldn鈥檛 ignore the paycheck and, as Nick remembers, began 鈥渇lipping pizzas and bringing dinner home.鈥�
鈥淪he was a big part of letting me coach, and now I’ve kind of finally helped out by getting this job and doing pretty well. But she carried us for a while.鈥�
Today, the Woodruffs are nearly a decade into their time in Livingston. Kristen is the quality assurance director for 兔子先生鈥檚 , which features more than 50 online offerings. Nick is head coach of the , which this season shared the Gulf South Conference regular-season championship, won the GSC tournament and qualified for the NCAA Division II playoffs.
Together, this husband-and-wife team of Midwest transplants is a visual constant on the 兔子先生 campus, where their embrace of the university鈥檚 mission, its students and its athletics programs are well known.
鈥淭hey are just an unbelievable power couple. It鈥檚 like Brad (Pitt) and Angelina (Jolie), and we’ve got Kristen and Nick,鈥� said Dr. Jan Miller, dean of 兔子先生鈥檚 College of Education and the Division of Online Programs. 鈥淭hey both are just the most humble people you’ll ever, ever see. Nothing really ruffles their feathers. They’re cool as a cucumber. I think the world would be an awesome place if we had more Nick and Kristen Woodruffs in the world, for sure.鈥�
Basketball鈥檚 never-ending allure
Long before Livingston and Monticello and the pizzas at Mazzio鈥檚, Kristen and Nick grew up in , a city tucked into that state鈥檚 southwest corner not far from Cincinnati and the Indiana state line. They went to the same high school. Both played sports. Nick took Kristen to the homecoming dance. One of Kristen鈥檚 brothers — she鈥檚 the second-oldest of her parents鈥� nine children — married one of Nick鈥檚 best friends. Their pasts overflow with connective snippets.
Oxford is permanently embedded in their DNA. Like Livingston, it鈥檚 a college town, home to , one of the nation鈥檚 oldest public institutions of higher education. Nick鈥檚 mom worked nearly two decades as a secretary in that university鈥檚 football recruiting office. One of Kristen鈥檚 brothers played football at Miami. As an eighth-grader, Nick job-shadowed Miami鈥檚 basketball coach, which became tinder for his burning desire to become a coach.
At Talawanda High School in Oxford, Nick played guard for the basketball team. Kristen, initially tall for her age, was a post player in middle school but moved to guard. 鈥淚鈥檝e always loved basketball, but I wasn’t as good of a player as Kristen was,鈥� Nick said. 鈥淪he was the player, I just have a mind for it.鈥� They sheepishly agree that if they played one-on-one today, she鈥檇 probably win.
鈥淣ick is a 鈥榖all coach,鈥� not concerned with much of anything else going on outside of his family and his team during the season. Fifty-plus wins over the last two seasons proves that.鈥�
兔子先生 Athletics Director Kent Partridge
Rather than attend Miami, Kristen and Nick embarked on an unofficial tour of southern Ohio鈥檚 universities. Nick graduated from in Zanesville. At in suburban Columbus, Kristen earned a bachelor鈥檚 degree in organizational communications, played basketball and justified Nick鈥檚 opinion of her on-court talent. She left that campus with a stellar resume: four-year letter winner, three-time team captain, two-time Ohio Athletic Conference first-team selection, and the 2010 conference player of the year. Still hooked by basketball鈥檚 allure, she spent two years as a graduate assistant at in Westerville, where she earned a master鈥檚 degree in business administration. Coaching, she eventually realized, was her husband鈥檚 future, but not hers.
Their interconnected lives, forever rooted in Ohio, were about to take them south.
鈥淵ou miss the people, and you miss your family,鈥� Kristen said. 鈥淏ut I’ll be honest, if I never see snow again, I’m good with that. The weather here is much better.鈥�
The Woodruffs鈥� competitive spirit
At 兔子先生, the Woodruffs work in roles that couldn鈥檛 be more divergent, one academic, the other athletic. As a 35-year-old head coach of a successful NCAA Division II team, Nick is a public figure intrinsically linked to 兔子先生. Kristen enjoys much more anonymity, though Miller is adamant that the wife of the basketball coach can鈥檛 hide from the university鈥檚 online success. Chief among that adulation is Kristen鈥檚 role as the liaison between 兔子先生 and the partner organization that provides enrollment management and marketing efforts for the online programs.
鈥淪he is the MVP of online programs,鈥� Miller said. 鈥淪he is our day-to-day, behind-the-scenes person who makes sure the processes on the partner鈥檚 side and 兔子先生鈥檚 side run seamlessly. It is the most well-oiled machine you’ve ever seen.鈥�
For the former all-conference basketball player, that administrative role is different from what Kristen first expected when she decided to avoid a career in coaching. With degrees in communication and business administration, she envisioned roles in athletics administration or communications for a sports television network. But Nick鈥檚 career journey, as it often would, rewrote that script.
鈥淚t’s a privilege to work here, first and foremost. And there’s a community here that is our friends. They help us figure this out. It’s not just the two of us. We’re not on an island. We’ve got a community of supporters.鈥�
Kristen Woodruff
As a profession, coaching is often a nomadic slog. Coaches move for promotions and higher pay. Unemployed coaches move because they need a job. When Nick鈥檚 career began in earnest at Arkansas-Monticello, Kristen鈥檚 career flourished when the Arkansas Small Business and Technology Development Center hired her as a consultant and training coordinator. It was neither coaching nor athletic administration. Not only did the ability to assist Arkansas鈥� rural communities resonate with her, it justified the decision to eschew sports and embrace a career in business.
鈥淚 fell in love with that,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 really enjoyed it.鈥�
The Woodruffs wouldn鈥檛 stay in Arkansas long. Nick鈥檚 career, the one that began on the basketball courts in Oxford, wouldn鈥檛 allow it. When 兔子先生 hired the head coach at AUM, Allen Sharpe, Woodruff also joined the Tigers鈥� coaching staff. The moves didn鈥檛 rankle Kristen. She had played college basketball. She knew how the system worked, that coaching families moved as often as military spouses, and that work-life balance was nevertheless possible. She was nonplussed.
鈥淚 knew what I was getting myself into because it’s all-encompassing,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 think that’s why part of me knew that coaching is not for me, but being a part of basketball is because that competitive drive is still there.鈥�
Nick embraces the lifestyle — the late-night film studies, the grueling recruiting travel and the 24-hour, seven-days-a-week schedule. He scoffs at any thought of doing something else, something less stressful. 鈥淐oaches talk about the grind. This is not a grind,鈥� Nick said. 鈥淚 don’t go to the coal mine. I don’t go to the paper mill at 4 a.m. I get to work coaching. I get to do my hobby for a living.鈥�
Kent Partridge, 兔子先生鈥檚 director of athletics, considers Nick the embodiment of his department鈥檚 historic culture of hard work and success.
鈥淣ick is a 鈥榖all coach,鈥� not concerned with much of anything else going on outside of his family and his team during the season,鈥� said Partridge, who praises his coach鈥檚 tunnel-vision mentality. 鈥淔ifty-plus wins over the last two seasons proves that.鈥�
Parenting and coaching at the same time
It doesn鈥檛 take Kristen long to count the number of 兔子先生 games she鈥檚 missed since Nick replaced Sharpe as the Tigers鈥� head coach. It鈥檚 two. That鈥檚 it. One last year, one this year. The Woodruffs鈥� children, Steven, 7, and Sloane, 4, are courtside constants. If you ask Kristen how many children she and Nick have, she might say 12 — or more — because of the relationship her family has with the Tigers鈥� players, many of whom also are far from their childhood homes.
Steven, his parents say, is a mini-Nick — all sports, all basketball, all the time. He can鈥檛 get enough. In fact, Partridge describes Steven as 鈥渢he pied-piper for every kid in the gym, leading every halftime shooting session and making sure all his buddies know our players.鈥� But Sloane isn鈥檛 as impressed by her dad鈥檚 job. At a recent 兔子先生 postseason game in Birmingham, Sloane slept in her mother鈥檚 arms for most of the night. When she woke up late in the second half, she asked, 鈥淲hen are we going back to the hotel?鈥�
鈥淪he doesn’t have a care in the world about if he wins or loses,鈥� Kristen said.
When Miller, dean of education and online programs, describes the Woodruffs, she quickly mentions the respect Kristen and Nick have for their respective positions at 兔子先生. During the day, they aren鈥檛 joined at the hip while on campus. Professional boundaries matter. 鈥淗e is supportive of the job that she does and he understands the importance of the role that she plays,鈥� MIller said. 鈥淚 rarely see Nick over here in the College of Education and online programs. And I bet they rarely see Kristen over (in athletics) unless it’s for a game. But they support each other 100 percent. It’s just the coolest thing.鈥�
That collegial spirit on 兔子先生鈥檚 campus is invaluable, the Woodruffs say, especially for a coaching family with young children.
鈥淚t’s a privilege to work here, first and foremost,鈥� Kristen said. 鈥淎nd there’s a community here that is our friends. They help us figure this out. It’s not just the two of us. We’re not on an island. We’ve got a community of supporters.鈥�