KUTZTOWN, Pa. – Coach's corner is a weekly segment where fans get acquainted with Kutztown University head coaches. Our next coach in the spotlight is KU men's and women's cross country and track & field coach Ray Hoffman.
 
Hoffman enters his 23rd season at Kutztown University in 2020-21. It will be his 23rd season as the cross country head coach, and 15th season as the track & field head coach. In 2019, Hoffman led the Golden Bear women's track & field team to a PSAC Indoor championship, their fourth, while being voted the PSAC Women's Indoor Coach of the Year and KU's Female Coach of the Year that year. This past fall, men's cross country's top-two runners, Evan Adanatzian (Manahawkin, N.J./Southern Regional) (2nd) and Andrew Sulon (Mechanicsburg, Pa./Mechanicsburg) (15th) both finished with All-PSAC First Team honors, giving Hoffman two First Teamers for the first time since 2002.
 
Hoffman holds a bachelor's degree in psychology and earned his teacher certification in health and physical education from East Stroudsburg in 1994. He is also a coach in youth football and basketball.
 
What makes Kutztown University the destination to be a coach? "All of the coaches that I get to work with here in Keystone Hall. The support that you receive from the staff is phenomenal and keeps you motivated. I also think our grounds crew does a super job keeping our campus so appealing. Its great coming to work and being in such a comfortable setting."
 
Favorite place on campus and/or in town? "I love our cross country course. We are one of four schools in the conference that have a cross country course on campus. It's always a great setting on a fall day to be sitting on top of water tower hill with the sun setting and the team doing intervals on the farm course."
 
Why did you get into coaching? "I've been an athlete my entire life. I started playing baseball at four years old and played for 11 years. I played football, basketball and even wrestled for a year, but we don't want to talk about that one. I could not picture myself doing anything that did not involve athletics."
 
Favorite memory as a coach and athlete? "I have been coaching for a total of 27 years, so I have a lot of great memories and it would be hard to narrow down to just one. I've been very fortunate to be part of a program here at KU that has won numerous team titles on both the men's and women's side, as well as a great number of individual PSAC title's and All-American accomplishments. It's been more than I could have imagined."
 
What are any gameday rituals? "I don't have any meet day rituals. Let's get to the meet, focus up and go compete."
 
Favorite professional team and/or player? "I've always been a Yankees fan. Baseball was my first love, and growing up in Central Jersey that was your team. I can still remember staying up late at night when I was a kid watching Reggie Jackson, Bucky Dent, Thurman Munson, Greg Nettles and the rest of the crew play. I loved when Goose Gossage or Dave Righetti took the mound."
 
If you weren't coaching, what would you be doing? "If I never got into coaching I would probably be teaching health and physical education."
 
Favorite thing(s) to do outside of coaching? "Honestly, I don't do much outside of coaching, except coach. I coach my youngest sons peewee football team and travel basketball team and it's a blast.  Watching these younger kids have fun and be successful is so rewarding. My older son runs cross country and track & field at Parkland High School. My wife and I spend a good amount of our time traveling from athletic event to athletic event coaching and supporting the boys."
 
Any sports heroes growing up? "I don't think that I ever had a single athlete that I looked up to or thought, 'hey, I want to be that guy'. I admired many athletes from many different sports. As I grew up I realized that my real hero was my dad. He was never an athlete, but he was the hardest working man I knew and was the glue that kept us all together. He was diagnosed with MS when he was thirty, but he never let that stop him from working and supporting his family. He had an awful time keeping his balance and still worked a job that he was on his feet for 50 plus hours a week. He never wanted anyone to feel bad for him, nor did he expect special treatment. I look back and am amazed by him."
 
Favorite movie and tv show? "My favorite TV show right now is The Goldbergs. It's set in the 80's and one of the main characters, Barry Goldberg (Big Tasty) is the age I was at that time. I can relate to everything going on and it brings back some great memories."
 
What advice would you give prospective collegiate student-athletes? "The best advice I can give a prospective student-athlete is to put in the work, both in the classroom and at practice. Your years leading to college are so important for development in both areas. Listen to mom and dad, they know what they are talking about."
 
Any inspirational quotes you've heard that stays with you? "Well, it's not so much a quote but something that was told to me by my college coach. He told me that three kinds of athletes exist: 1) Those that have talent, but are lazy... they are frustrating, 2) Those that have limited talent, but work their tails off... they are fun, and 3) Those that are talented and work their tails off... those are rare. Just don't be the first one. For some reason that always stuck with me."