Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1349632
If the task is worth doing, it's worth doing yourself. That was one of Ty Howle's big takeaways from his father's three-decade career as a high school football coach in North Carolina. David Howle was hands-on when it came to every aspect of his job as head coach at Bunn High, a small school in a rural area about 10 miles northwest of Raleigh. If the field needed to be mowed, he would mow it. If there was trash in the parking lot, he would pick it up. If the uniforms needed to be washed, he did that, too. Those kinds of mundane chores might seem far removed from the excitement of game night, even at a school in one of North Carolina's smallest divisions. But the elder Howle realized that there was as much satisfaction in the daily behind- the-scenes preparitory work as there was to be found under the Friday night lights, and he passed that attitude on to his son. "That's the kind of thing that stuck out to me when I was a kid watching my dad," Ty Howle said. "I saw how much fun he had with it, coaching the players. He always said that his favorite times were Sunday through Thursday. On game day, they just had to go out and do it. But he enjoyed the daily process. I enjoy it, too, the daily process of getting guys better. You can see it, day after day after day. If you're putting in the right work and doing the right things, you can see guys grow." There probably won't be any grass to mow in his new job, but Howle is going to be bringing that detail-oriented, process-driven approach to Penn State's coaching staff. In February, James Franklin announced that Howle would be taking over as tight ends coach fol- lowing Tyler Bowen's decision to leave the Nittany Lions for a position on Urban Meyer's new staff with the Jack- sonville Jaguars. In some respects, the move evoked an older business model at Penn State, one in which former players who understood the culture of the pro- gram and the university as a whole were seen as the best candidates for just SCHOOL TIES Howle (right) graduated from Penn State in 2013. He returned last year as an offen- sive analyst. Photo by Steve Manuel NEWS & NOTES F O O T B A L L For new tight ends coach Howle, preparation meets opportunity |