Sports has always been a large part of student life at Minnetonka, with prestigious awards and amazing scholarship opportunities up for grabs. One of the schools’ strongest and most popular sports is track and field. 

Jane Reimer-Morgan is the current head coach of Tonka’s girls’ track team. She graduated from Pillager High School and Bemidji State College where she was team captain for their track team. 

Reimer-Morgan has been playing sports her whole life: basketball in the fall, volleyball in the winter and track in the spring. Her dad, a coach, encouraged his three daughters to be active and participate in sports. Reimer-Morgan was successful in her high school sports, and she was both All-State in track and All-Conference in basketball.

Just as many kids dream of what they’ll be when they’re older, Reimer-Morgan had many ideas: a vet, a forest conservation officer, a teacher, and being a coach were on her top careers list. Although all of Reimer-Morgan’s ideas were good, she chose to follow in her father’s footsteps and become a coach. 

Reimer-Morgan has been involved in track and field since she was nine years old. She adored it so much that she got a subscription to Track and Field News. At recess, she would race with the other kids, and, on weekends, she watched her father coach meets. 

In 1976, Reimer-Morgan and her family attended the Olympics, and she remembered that “[she] got to watch many great track and field athletes compete.”

She set herself up for her career path when she was a junior in high school. Reimer-Morgan has been coaching for 45 years, and, out of all the coaches at Tonka, she has been here the longest. 

Her time as a coach at Minnetonka started in 1985 as an assistant coach “under the legendary Bob Rogness.” Reimer-Morgan also coached cross country beginning in 1990. Moving her way up the ladder, she became head coach in 1999. 

“I am very proud of the traditions we have in cross country and track and field. In cross country, we have won four state championships, and, in track, we won eight. We have phenomenal athletes and coaches, and I feel blessed,” she said. 

Everyone has weaknesses in everything they do. According to Reimer-Morgan, her biggest flaw in coaching is that she doesn’t know how to work technology. 

“It makes some coaching tasks take a bit longer, luckily I have assistants who are good at it,” she said. 

Even though tech is not her strong suit, coaching and track is. Reimer-Morgan is dedicated to her team and adjusting things to their needs. 

“The commitment for track is hard–planning meets, practice and actual meets themselves take a long time. Plus things can change in an instant due to weather. However, I have a random personality so I am generally flexible with change,” she said. 

Each sport has its own unique qualities that make it special and fun for each person. 

For Reimer-Morgan, it would be “ the different events we have. [There are] eighteen of them.”

As a coach, Reimer-Morgan inspires many people everyday. She embodies many professional track star’s qualities and Tonka is lucky to have her on its team.