A Valpo Life in the Spotlight: Mike Prow

Mike-Prow-1Mike Prow, Valparaiso High School teacher and coach, is a Valpo Life in the Spotlight because he is more than just a teacher or a coach, he is a mentor.

Prow has always wanted to do something with athletics. He participated in sports as a kid himself, participating in football, basketball and baseball. He never even considered track and field or cross country until his football buddies talked him into going out for track and field his freshman year of junior high school. His love for running was ignited when his Ben Davis High School coach John Jarosinski invited him and some of his buddies to the high school for a few practices.

“Jarosinski was excited about me. I had some success with running and I liked that,” Prow said when remembering how it all got started for him; his love for running.

Prow has continued to inspire future high school runners in the same manner that Jarosinski inspired him. Each year he takes the former Ben Franklin or Thomas Jefferson students that are currently on the high school cross country team to visit those schools and encourages the middle school cross country runners to keep up the hard work, stick to their goals and to never give up. He tells each of them how great it would be to have them run at the high school level.

“One of our favorite practices each year occurs when the VHS boys cross country team comes to visit and encourage our middle school athletes in their own efforts and invite them to continue their careers at the high school level,” Thomas Jefferson Middle School teacher and cross country coach Molly Joll said.

Prow is not just a coach, but he is a teacher first. He has taught physical education from the elementary level to the high school level for the last 32 years with 23 of them being in Valpo. He especially loves teaching at the elementary level because “They remember stuff and will remember who they learned it from and will hopefully pass it on.” In his curriculum, whether it is teaching a class or coaching a team, Prow puts setting goals as the first thing of importance.

Mike-Prow-2He also insists of his athletes that academics come first. No better example can be said than that of Ahmad Aljobeh. Aljobeh ran varsity cross country and track all 4 years of his high school career.

“He worked hard and was a leader not just on our team but in everything he was involved in whether it be in an afterschool club, sports or in the classroom he was a leader in everything he was involved in," Prow said.

Aljobeh’s example inspires others on the team even today to keep working hard. In 2011, Aljobeh won The Mental Attitude Award.

“Ahmad winning the award was a better feeling than having an individual win the state championship,” Prow said.

Believing in his team is something that he learned from his Butler University coach, Stan Lyons.

“He believed in me, he kept me in college, he was more than a coach; he was my mentor,” Prow said. “I hope I can achieve what he did. He knew nothing of running, he was a pole-vaulter, yet he was the only coach for track and cross country and he did everything. He was able to manage it all.”

Lyons went on to coach at Ohio State and was inducted into the Hall of Fame. Jarosinski, was inducted into the Indiana Association for Track & Cross Country Coaches Hall of Fame.

“I want to be up there with them and make people proud of what I’ve accomplished,” Prow said.

“My coaches are who made me who I am today and I want to be up there with them.”

Mike-Prow-3In the last 23 years of coaching in Valpo, Prow has coached the VHS cross country team to state victory in 1997 and in 2007 making it to the podium with a third place win this year in 2012. They have finished in the top five 12 times.

“What I didn’t accomplish as a runner, I wanted to accomplish as a coach,” Prow said.

Assistant coach Aaron Crague considers Prow his mentor.

“I have worked with Coach Prow for almost ten years now and during that time he has been a great mentor and friend,” Crague said. “We have had a lot of ups and downs, good times and not-so-good times, big wins and near misses, fast runners and slow runners and every kind of runner in between...so while there are many things I could say about Coach Prow, I think the one thing that stands out to me the most about him is that he is always all about doing what's best for the team and the kids on it...and everyone can easily see that he definitely practices what he preaches. He's not in it for the paycheck. Valpo Cross is his life, and all you would have to do is spend five minutes with him and that would become incredibly obvious. Nothing makes Coach happier than to be out on the track, out on the course, out on the trails or out on the roads coaching his athletes and teaching them about what it takes to be successful, not just in running but also in life. He wants his athletes to not only be good runners, but also good people.”

Inspiring students and athletes to continue to study hard, set goals, encouraging every type of athlete to not quit; being a teacher, coach and a mentor is why Coach Mike Prow is a Valpo Life in the Spotlight.