interview settings Monday, Apr 26 2010

During the interviews, Devin and I went to Ed’s office in the old gym to conduct the interview.  Ed has an office on the top floor of the old gym, which he shares with the assistant basketball coach.  The assistant basketball coach was present during half of the interviews.  Even though he was present, he did not effect the interview process.  He sat at his computer and did his work.  During the interviews, Devin and I sat on the couch in the office and Ed sat at his desk.  The door to Ed’s office was closed during the interviews.  During one interview a soccer player named Troy came to speak to Ed, so he sat through the interview.  Troy sat in the back of the room and did not say anything, he just listened intently and learned new information about his coach.  All of the interviews were conducted at midday right before lunch time.

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Leaving Mount Pleasant Thursday, Apr 22 2010

Ed Heberling has been a member of the IWC community for about a decade now, and will say farewell to the community this summer. Why? Ed has accepted a men’s and women’s soccer head coaching job at Tri-County Technical College. Tri-Count Technical College is located near Clemson in South Carolina. The college’s sporting program is only 3 years old. Not only will Heberling be coaching, he will also be teaching experience classes such as Wesleyan Seminar. Not only will Ed be coaching and teaching, but he also manages a sports apparel business which he will continue to run. Furthermore, Ed and his wife Laura are currently on a diet, which he is hoping to be a representative for the diet when they move because of all the weight they lost.

When asked why he was leaving, Ed responded with various reasons. The main reason was that he wanted a fresh start for him and his wife. Other reasons included: Laura’s family lives close to there, burnt out, Slurpie (his dog) asked to move, and that he had never been out of the Midwest.

We asked Ed what he thought his greatest achievements in life and at IWC were and he responded with the following. AT IWC, was creating a sustainable soccer program. It used to be that they were literally pulling girls out of the dorms to fill a team. Now, the girls team holds anywhere from 22-24 girls and the guys team has about 25 males. This year, the girls tied the school record for wins. In 2006, the men’s were two wins away from nationals. Clearly, the soccer program has come a long way from barely being able to fill a team. Furthermore, Ed’s connections with international recruiting has helped him in this. He had the opportunity to go to Florida, all expenses paid for soccer. In life Ed really had trouble thinking of one, but he decided that it was being able to coach soccer at the college level. He said, “I don’t know if that’s what you were looking for, but there aren’t too many college coaches.”

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Life After High School Monday, Apr 19 2010

After high school Eddy was on his way off to college hoping to get a scholarship to a school for soccer, baseball, or both. He had two sisters go to Lincoln College in Illinois and one uncle. This was a place that he considered going but there would be some problems to come in the future. He went and worked out for the school and had an awesome tryout for them. Being one of the best forwards on the field and taking on the best defender during this try out the coaches were impressed with his performance. The coaches liked him but not well enough to offer him a spot on the team. Ed was offered a small scholarship to be a team manager. This was the last thing that he would expect to be offered by the coaches after the day he had. The biggest concern and deciding factor the coaches had with Ed was his weight. Even though he had an awesome try out, they pretty much didn’t want him because they thought he was over weight. Declining the offer, Eddy was out to show them that he was able to play college soccer. While sitting at home, Ed received a recruiting from Iowa Wesleyan College when they first started the soccer program. The school arranged a visit for Ed to come explore Iowa Wesleyan College and the beautiful town of Mount Pleasant. Upon his visit, Ed loved what he had seen and knew that it would be the place where he would attend college. Ed was also going to play baseball in college also but after the soccer season he had some problems with the baseball coach. In basbeall before he got to college he was looked at by the Texas Rangers and was seen as a utility player being able to play many positions. There was a misunderstanding about when and how soon he should join the team after the soccer season ended. The coach wanted him to join right after the soccer season ended but told Eddy that he could join the team when he recovered from the long soccer season. So with that being said Ed decided not to join the baseball team and started focusing strictly on soccer. While staying at Iowa Wesleyan College Ed stayed in Mckibben, the boys dorm on campus. Back then while staying in the dorms technology wasn’t what it is nowadays. They used a paging system in Mckibben to let people know they had a phone call. If you had a phone call you would be paged from the front desk over an intercom for your phone call. On each floor there was a couple of phones in the hallways that he would use. There were no phone lines in the rooms like they have today. Mckibben had two computers that people used and the were very slow since they only had a dial-up connection for the internet. When using the computer he would download songs mostly that would take about four hours per song. Ed was an active student at the time unlike most college students today. Participated in sports to keep himself busy during the day. You had to be active because everyone didn’t have video games, cell phones, and laptops in their rooms. There was some people in the dorms that had video game systems such as Sega Dreamcast and the original Xbox. Although some people who had and played video games, Ed was not a big fan of them. Eddy’s junior year would be the year that he got his first cell phone. The only problem was that you had to talk outside on the phone because you couldn’t get a reception inside. During his time at college he would have some great times and memories that he would never forget. Ed and a friend decided to take a road trip all of a sudden to visit some places they’ve wanted to see. While driving to Florida they stopped in Nashville, Tennessee to visit the Country Music Hall of Fame in Centennial Park. They were taking pictures in front of the building where they thought it was, all to find out that it was the old building and the Country Music Hall of Fame had moved. This was just the beginning of the road trip and they didn’t let one mistake ruin it. They went down to Key West, Florida where they tried to sleep on the beach and were awaken by the police for trying to do so. They would then just finish sleeping in the car until the next morning. Also while in Florida they decided to grill out on the side on the road, rent mopeds, and watch some spring training games where they got to see the St. Louis Cardinals play. The road trip would continue stopping by the Atlanta Braves Turner Field and then driving to Nebraska to watch the softball team play. On their way to Nebraska they would get pulled over a couple of hours after midnight in Oklahoma. The police asked them what they were doing driving at this time of night and where they were going. Since they had plates that were from out-of-town. After being drilled with questions, the officer told them that he pulled them over because drug traffickers usually drive at this time of night and they looked a little suspicious. He let them go and they would continue their road trip and make it safely back to school. Ed’s career at Iowa Wesleyan College would be full of good and some bad moments that he would never forget. While playing soccer he had the game of his life scoring three goals in one game and tied the school record. This was one of his favorite memories and games while playing because he just felt like his brother, who passed away when he was 14, was with him the whole time he played. Ed just knew where to go with the ball, when/who to pass the ball to, and the right time to take shots at the goal. Overall it was just the perfect game and one that he would always remember. Another great moment came when he and a friend decided to run for Student Government President as a joke. They ended up running against a guy who was the President since their freshman year and won after not doing much advertising for the job. The person who they had run against got up set and complained that Ed and his friend weren’t serious about winning. They were then called into the Dean’s office to see if they were really serious about it. At this point in time things would change about their attitude on being involved with the Student Government. They took it serious and got the job done. Out of all the good memories, bad ones would also come. Going into Ed’s junior year in college, he was in the best shape ever and had high hopes for the upcoming season. He was playing soccer, went to go kick the ball and hit the ground, ball, and the defenders leg breaking his toe. This was devastating to him as it would end his soccer season for the year. As an athlete Ed had some superstitions just like other athletes. In baseball bats could never be crossed, if his team was on a winning streak he wouldn’t wash his pants, you had t sit in the same spot for team rallies if things were going well, and also play catch with the same person. For soccer it wasn’t as much as it was for baseball. During a winning streak in soccer he would wear the same thing everyday to the games until the streak came to an end. A bunch of is soccer friends decided to dye their hair blonde and Ed participated in this of course. When he got done dying his hair it didn’t turn out so well since he had red hair. It just wasn’t the same as the rat-tail he had when he was ten that came down his back.With his college career coming to an end, Ed got an internship his senior year through the women’s soccer program recruiting for them. A couple of years later he would get many positions working at Iowa Wesleyan College. Ed got the head women’s coaching job when it opened up and was also able to get many other positions at the college. He was the residents director filling in for people who left the position in the middle of he school year, admissions counselor, directed intramurals, the men’s soccer team coaching position years later, assistant softball coach for two years, and also helped out with other sports recruiting. Over this time Ed had his hands full and seemed like he was or had experienced everything here at the college.

As time went by after graduating and working here at the school, Ed would find his future wife over the internet. He received a message from Laura, who was just his friend at the time they met on MySpace, talking about coaching jobs in 2005. She was at Williams Woods University in Missouri and had just graduated. Ed told her about some coaching jobs here that opened up, soccer and softball, and they began talking on a personal level not long after. In May 2006, after talking for so long they would finally meet face to face. Laura had worked at William Woods for about 18 months and in 2008 she moved to Mount Pleasant, Iowa. Ed proposed to Laura on February 18, 2009 and they got married July 11, 2009 in North Carolina. There isn’t any significance in the dates at all, but he didn’t want to propose to Laura on Valentines Day because it seemed a little cheesy. He wanted to come up with something original that the both of them would always remember. They went out looking for rings for the wedding and Ed had told Laura that he didn’t have the money to buy them at the moment, even though he did. He knew that Laura had always wanted a pair of cowboy boots and he came up with a great idea. Ed bought the cowboy boots and the ring also, he put the ring inside of the boots gave them to Laura. He surprised her with the boots and when she got the boots she had another surprise founding the ring inside the boots. The theme for the wedding was Seven Eleven, like the convenience store, which they also got the name of for their dog Slurpee. They wanted to go to Costa Rico for their honeymoon but they didn’t have the funds for it, so they decided to take a road trip. After they got married in North Carolina they went to three baseball games, a soccer game, the crayola factory, and also a bat factory where they got a bat made for the two of them. During the road trip they went to North Carolina, Delaware, New Jersey, Missouri, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, and back to Iowa. During this period they stayed in eight different hotels, one each day, and drove 300-400 miles a day.

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Miscellaneous Monday, Apr 19 2010

 

Growing up in a small farming community, Ed and his family didn’t have to do much shopping. They usually butchered their own cows and animals for meat. For all other shopping that they would need to do, they went into town to the local stores. The biggest store they had in the town was Walmart. If you wanted name brand clothing or anything of that sort, you would have driven a half hour to Springfield. 

Eddy was raised Lutheran but when he got to college he changed his religion to Non Denomination. It seemed to Ed as if Lutheran were made up of more personal stories. He didn’t agree with a lot of the Lutheran religion and thought it was too ritualistic for his likings. 

Nowadays you find some people who go into the military after high school. For Ed, this wasn’t a hard decision to make. He never thought about going into the military, but he did have some family go into the military. He didn’t have anyone that he knows of in his family fight in World War 2, but he did visit the memorial in Washington D.C. when he was younger. 

Out of the 13 years Ed has lived in Mount Pleasant, he’s only been to Old Threshers twice. His family asks him about it since he came from a farming town and lives in Mount Pleasant. He only went to Old Threshers to see some of the singers and concerts they would have. To him its one of those things where you only have to go to it a few times to get the full experience out of it. To some people, like Eddy, Old Threshers is annoying at times. You got the huge crowd that comes in and brings in a lot more traffic than this town is used to. Traffic to some people who’s never really had to deal with it is a hassel. Even though it disrupts things going on in the town a little bit, at the same time it’s good for the businesses.

At the age of 25 Ed started driving education and drove his mothers car. He first car he drove was stick. He had a couple problems driving it because his mother left out a couple steps involving the clutch, but caught on quick and got the hang of it. Out while driving with his mother Eddy passed a car who was taking pictures and it turned out to be his dads ex-wife. She was taking pictures thinking that it was some other woman with his stepdad in the car. This was by far one of the weirdest things to happen while he was learning how to drive. His first car that he would own, Ed bought for $500.00. It was a navy blue four door Chevy Spectrum that started to shake once he got to 55 mph. His dad hit a deer and Eddy had to give up his car to his stepdad, which he would also wreck hitting another deer totaling the car.

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Friday, Apr 16 2010

Q: What kinds of gifts did you receive for birthdays or Christmas?

A: Socks, underwear, and clothes usually. There was the occasional toy or basketball. When I got older I could pick out stuff that I wanted. I do remember I got three pairs of the Wal-mart version of Converse Chuck Taylor’. I had them in black, red, and white.

 Q: Who were your playmates?

A: Mostly neighborhood kids. Like I said, the neighborhood that I lived in was very kid friendly; a lot of kids at the same age.

 Q: Who was your best friend?

A: Jason Bough, he lived three blocks from my mom’s house. Our parents were also good friends. When we got older we kind of drifted apart, he became interested in automobiles and I was into sports. When this happened, my new best friend was Joe Enlow. He was into the same sports that I was into: baseball, basketball, and soccer.

Q: What did you do for recreation?

 A: On Mondays and Wednesdays I would play baseball. On Tuesdays I would play basketball, and Thursdays I went bike riding on trails around town for 5 or 6 hours. At night time we would play flashlight tag or hide and seek.

Q: Did you participate in 4-H or scouting?

A: Scouting, yes. I didn’t go on to become an eagle scout though. I replaced scouting with work and sports. My mom saw work and sports as a fair trade off for scouting.

 Q: Where did you go to school? Describe your school.

A: I went to school three blocks away from my house in elementary school. It was grades kindergarten through 5th. It looked like any normal school. My junior high was four blocks away from my house and it was from 6th grade to 8th grade. In junior high is where people begin to meet everyone, in grade school you only go to school with part of the town, but in junior high the whole town goes to school together. I went to Taylorville High School, a three story building, for grades 9 through 12. We were the tornados. Our school colors were purple and gold. I graduated with 170 other kids.

 Q: How did you get to school?

 A: I walked to school with my sisters.

 Q: What do you remember about your first day of school?

A: It was a half day to kindergarten. My dad picked me up and we went out to lunch. After that I spent the rest of my day with my grandma and grandpa.

 Q: Were winter walks to school a hardship?

A: No, winter was cold, but the walks were not a hardship.

Q: What were your favorite school Subjects?

A: Well, math. It came naturally to me. When I was young, I was into reading because teachers praised me for my reading skills. I was not a fan of science. When I was young I didn’t like English, but as I got older my skills English skills improved; so, I liked it better.

Q: Who were your favorite teachers?

 A: Mrs. Doyle, my third grade teacher, Mrs. Pennock my high school business and accounting teacher. In high school there were these dirty old man, I didn’t have him for a teacher but they were funny. They would pound in rhythm with cue sticks on the ground, or hit them against lockers to get people to settle down. I remember one of them kept showing the JFK assassination footage to gross out girls.

Q: What education did you get after high school?

A: I graduated from here (IWC) with Bachelors in sports management in 2002. I’m currently working on my Masters in Athletic Administration at Concordia in California.

Q: Did you live away from home while you were in college?

A: Yes, home was 3 ½ hours away. Which is pretty close, and it worked out because Mount Pleasant is similar to my hometown.

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Travel Thursday, Apr 15 2010

Growing up Ed didn’t travel much at all. The only time he would travel is when he had baseball games or practice in a car. Although he’s never been on a train, he want to ride one to experience it. Eddy has flown only a couple times throughout his life. One of his first times flying was to Washington D.C. for his 8th grade field trip. He saved up his allowance for spending money and entered a pizza eating contest, which had money for the first place winner. Ed figured this would be perfect for him to enter the contest with the hopes of winning the cash prize for his trip. At the end of this exciting event, Eddy was declared the winner of the pizza eating contest. He had ate the most pizza out of all the rest of the competitors. At least that’s what everyone had thought. Ed cheated to win the pizza eating contest. With a few tricks up his sleeve, he had slipped a couple slices of pizza underneath the table. With the prize money in his pocket Ed was off to Washington D.C. When he arrived off the plane he began spending his money right away. He bought  a Cal Ripken Jr baseball jersey that was popular during the time. During the trip the chaparral was warned for j walking with 25 kids, which the kids thought was hilarious.

One of the other times that he had flown was during his time here at Iowa Wesleyan College. He used to be the assistant softball coach in the past. Every spring break they take a trip down to Arizona to play other teams. At this age and time in Ed’s life, I must say he isn’t a big fan of flying. To start off he’s afraid of heights and also its very uncomfortable for him. Being a bigger fit person that he is, Ed has had terrible experiences with the chairs and bathroom on the plane. Its simply just not the thing for him. Not to mention he had to deal with a guy that puked the whole plane ride. If you could only imagine something like that going on for hours, you wouldn’t be a big fan of flying either.

Out of all the places that Ed has been there was a couple of places that he loved to go to. When he was younger, Ed loved to travel to his Grandmothers house for some of her home cooking. Everyone knows there’s nothing like a hot home cooked meal from Grandma. He also enjoyed traveling to the baseball field to play baseball with his friends. Even if he isn’t playing baseball Eddy loves to be around the ball park. When he was in boy scouts he would attend professional baseball games, but they barely went. Nowadays, even though he’s not a St. Louis Cardinals fan, he attends their games two to three times a year. The that he is a fan of he can’t really see play, which happens to be the Los Angeles Angels. A solid baseball team I must say every year. Ed would also go up to the field and play fantasy baseball with friends. They would make their own cards with people from the MLB (Major League Baseball), have a draft, and play fantasy baseball. As a kid Ed didn’t move around too much. He lived in the country with both parents until they got divorced and then he lived with his mother. At the age of 18 Eddy moved in with his father because there was two foreign exchange students from Venezuela and Germany who were the same age as him. Even though he didn’t travel much as a kid he would make up for it in the near future when he started to take road trips.

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Memoralibilia Thursday, Apr 8 2010

Eddy didn’t have a lot of things or memorabilia that was handed down in his family. There was only one thing that he could think of that his Great Grandma had collected over the years that would be handed down in the family. It wasn’t anything that many other people would think of getting through the family but it was important to his family and that’s all that matters. Eddy’s great grandma had a collection of porcelain dolls that she collected over the years. When she passed away she put them in her will to have them passed down to her grand kids throughout the family. The porcelain dolls aren’t as cheap as many people would think and lots of older people back than collected them. Eddy never had the dolls in his possession though. His mother decided to hang on to them for a while, but at any moment he could ask for them.

Growing up his dad had a 1971 Ford Mustang that he had always admired but never got a chance to drive. He only rode in it with his dad but several years down the road he was given the opportunity to finally own it. His father told him that he would be able to have the car when he owned his first home. The car has been sitting in the garage the past 15 years and needs some work. It hasn’t been driven in a while but Ed has plans to fix it up and get it back on the road to where he could finally get in the driver’s seat. He was planning on getting a new royal blue paint job on it with a shimmer coat. He would have gotten the car fixed up a while ago but he had a brother who was sick a while back and decided to help pay for medical bills. Ed and his wife will be buying their very own house soon so he would be able to get the car and get it repaired. He has big plans for the car and is very excited to get it fixed.

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Hello Ed Herberling! Monday, Apr 5 2010

Q: When did your family first move to Henry County?

A: I first came here in August of 1997 as a student thru 2002. During ’02 and ’03 I was not here. My wife moved here in the summer of ’08.

 Q: Where did your family live before Henry County?

A: Taylorville, IL near Springfield.

Q: What type of house did you live in as a child?

A: I split time between my parents’ houses, but mostly I was at my mom’s. It was a very kid friendly neighborhood. My dad lived on a farm where we had a yard, a swing, flowers trees and a lawn.

 Q: How was your home heated?

 A: By gas forced air.

Q: Was it warm in winter?

A: Yeah, in the house.

Q: Did you have a fire place?

 A: No.

Q: Did you burn wood? Coal?

A: Wood, not coal.

 Q: How did you keep cool in the summer?

A: You didn’t on the farm. No one was around so we kept the air conditioner off. At my mom’s we had one window air conditioning unit in the kitchen, so it never really got “cool”.

Q: Did your family have a cellar?

 A: Actually, yeah, outside about 50ft. away from the house. Have you ever seen the ones (cellars) in movies? It was like one of those, in the ground and everything.

 Q: Where did you store apples, potatoes, canned foods?

 A: In the cellar. We kept canned veggies and the water tank. We did all of our own canning on the farm at my dad’s.

Q: How many brothers and sisters did you have?

 A: Technically, I’m an only child; but, I have 6 half brothers and sisters. Nancy 35, Shannon 35, Wendy 33, Amy 14, Matthew 21, Justin deceased. I don’t really have a family tree; it’s more of a family bush.

Q: What’s a family bush?

A: Well it’s confusing and I’ll try to explain. So, my mom’s was married and my dad was also married. My dad’s car was broken down and my mom’s husband was going to fix it, so his wife took the car to be worked on. While she was there my mom’s husband was working on my dad’s wife as well. So, out of feeling sorry for one another about their spouses getting together, my parents got together long enough to pretty much have me. Not only that, but my dad and my mom’s ex-husband are cousins; but, there is no incest in the family. Because my family is all close and crosses I call it my family bush not my family tree.

Q: What were your duties as a small child?

A: chores, trash, supposed to mow the lawn before 5PM. When that wasn’t done I had to do it at 5:45AM before my mom went to work in the morning. As I got older and more involved my chores became less because of things like boy scouts and work.

Q: Did your family buy or make your clothing?

 A: We bought our clothing from local shops in town.

Q: What do you remember about family pets?

A: My first dog was an English sheep dog with long hair named Digby. Digby was the most loving dog about 2 or 3 years old. My first St. Bernard, his name was Duke. On the farm, we bred St. Bernard for 10 years. My sister had a gerbil; it died from overheating while we were cleaning. We also had a cocker spaniel named Spot, and we had a beagle I can’t recall his name at the moment. We also had a cat that my sister rescued named Freddy. That was a fat cat. I’m not really a big fan of cats. We had a lot of other animals, I can’t remember them all right now, and we had a lot of farm animals at my dad’s.

Q: How did the family spend its evenings?

 A: Well since I spent most of the time at my mom’s there wasn’t much family time. My mom picked up a second job or was taking me to sports so there wasn’t a lot of family time. We had grab and go dinners.

 Q: What did your family do for a living?

A: My mom worked in insurance; I think she was a claims adjuster. For her second job, she worked as an assistant manager at a restaurant. My dad, well he was a farmer. Now he works for a corporate farm. My step mom was a factory worker.

 Q: When did you get your first job outside of the family?

 A: I had a paper route at 12. At age 16 I worked as a dishwasher for green gables family restaurant, which I held through sophomore year of college.

Q: What were meals like in your home?

A: With my mom, not good. She couldn’t cook. If I had to pick favorites, I’d have to say Mac n Cheese, mashed potatoes, green beans. When I got older I liked McDonalds. With my mom it was mostly just cheap, quick meals. My dad had all the good food; it was all homemade farm food.

Q: Did you eat together as a family?

A: Not really, I was always on the go with sports.

Q: What were your favorite meals?

A: Roast potato and carrot, oh and breakfast for dinner.

 Q: What recipes or meals are traditions in your family?

A: My mom, she didn’t really have any because her family was pretty distant; on Christmas Eve though she would cook Italian beef. My dad’s family gets together for every major holiday and family reunions. A week before Christmas Eve, my dad’s side of the family would get together and have brunch. At the last family reunion, which was the fourth ever, there was between 75 and 125 people there.

Q: Did your family have a garden?

A: Yeah, (laughs to self) I tried to grow pumpkins when I was young; it didn’t work. At my dad’s, I guess you could call it a garden, but on the farm we grew everything. Including soy, corn, and clover. My step mom did all the canning of the crops for the year, and we kept them in the cellar.

 Q: Who took care of the garden/crops?

A: Mostly, my step mom, dad, and little brother. They were big into 4H farming where I’m from, it’s where they get the communities youth into farming. It’s a student group to help with agriculture. My brother was in it, he ended up winning a prize one year for growing champion-size vegetables in a county contest. I think the H’s all stand for something: heart, health, head, and … I can’t remember the last one.

Q: Did you raise animals on the farm?

A: We raised pigs, cows, and of course chickens.

 Q: What did you do for recreation?

A: Since about 4 years old I’ve been in sports, whether its soccer, baseball, basketball, or tennis I was always playing sports. I spent all of my summers at the YMCA, through a daycare type program for kids. In my neighborhood, it was really kid friendly, so the kids were always doing stuff together outside. We would go on bike rides on dirt trails, organize wiffel ball leagues, or play capture the flag through a 5 or 6 block radius. In our wiffel ball leagues we even made baseball cards, taking pictures with a Polaroid camera and recording stats. We really got into it; it was a lot of fun. When I was 16, I got a Nentendo. It wasn’t like kids nowadays where everyone is always playing video games or on the internet, we were always outside.

 Q: How did you celebrate holidays?

A: For holidays we were always on the go. We would visit one side of the family and then have to pick up and leave to go visit another. My mom’s family was more spread out, and we didn’t always have a holiday get together, but my dad’s side of the family always had a get together. My dad’s family always got together on the 4th of July. We would go boating, swimming, skiing, and tubing.

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