When the owner of the company that provides the electronic timing equipment for track meets at St. Paul Central High School introduced himself to Treacy Funk last week, he mentioned he had a nephew who was a student at Central.
“I think he might play baseball,” the man said.
Nope, Funk told him, without even waiting to hear the young man’s first name. “He plays golf,” she said. “He’s a really great kid.”
There are close to 800 student athletes at Central, and Funk, the school’s athletics director, seemingly knows them all by name — and sport.
Funk, who has worked for St. Paul Public Schools for 32 years, the last 12 as athletics director at Central, is retiring June 17. It’s going to be a drastic change of pace for Funk, 55, who attends almost all of the school’s athletic events and is known for working 15-hour days — from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. — and on Saturdays, too.
“You have to love kids,” Funk said. “Part of that is just being there for them and showing up. When you go to the events at night, that’s the fun part of the job. That’s where you get to see the kids who have worked hard all three years, four years behind the scenes, and now you get to see that progress, the joy. You get to meet the families and the parents and the brothers and sisters.
“It’s a lot to ask, with the hours, but you don’t look at it that way when you’re having fun,” she said. “When you enjoy what you’re doing, it’s not work, it’s fun. Central is just a special place. We talk about family all the time. It truly is a family.”
Funk is an expert at building relationships “that bring people in and build community,” said Willie Taylor, Central’s track coach.
“She’s always been there for the kids,” Taylor said. “She cares about them. She doesn’t just know you as a coach, but what your family is like, what you’re doing, what you’re interested in — all the activities beyond just coaching that you do as a human and a person.”
Funk oversees a staff of 75 coaches, spanning 25 sports.
“She coaches the coaches,” Taylor said. “When the coaches screw up, she’ll let you know about it. When they do well, she’ll let you know.”
Funk, a former coach and physical-education teacher, “lives for the students at Central High School,” said Adam Hunkins, the school’s assistant athletics director and varsity baseball coach.
“Every decision that she makes is framed: How does this best serve our student athletes? How does this best serve our kids?” said Hunkins, who was a student of Funk’s at Central.
Funk “has spent literally a lifetime caring for our families and our children in the community,” said Mayor Melvin Carter, another former student of Funk’s. “It’s so special to have had her as my gym teacher and as my daughter’s AD — and that is a reflection of what Central High School is for our community. She’s fantastic.”
GREW UP IN HIGHLAND SPORTS
The youngest of seven children, Funk grew up in a sports family in St. Paul’s Highland Park neighborhood. Her father, Bill Funk, coached football at New Prague High School before coming to SPPS as a teacher and coach; he coached football and hockey at Humboldt and coached football, hockey and baseball at the then-College of St. Thomas in St. Paul.
“I don’t ever remember a time when I wasn’t playing sports,” Funk said. “Whether it was at the playground, in the neighborhood or on an organized school sports team, I was always playing something. Most of my younger experiences were playing on all-boys or coed teams — hockey, flag football, baseball — as there weren’t all-girls teams until middle school.”
Funk was a star three-sport athlete at Highland Park High School, graduating in 1985, and was in the first class of athletes to be inducted into the school’s Hall of Fame. She jokes that her claim to fame is that her photo hangs right next to former Minnesota Twins star and HPHS graduate Jack Morris.
“No one can believe I was a Scottie after all these years I’ve spent at Central,” she said.
After suffering a serious knee injury her senior year in high school, Funk, a catcher and third baseman, was unable to play softball her freshman and sophomore years at Mankato State University. She worked her way onto the team her junior year, becoming a team captain and receiving a partial scholarship.
After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in education from Mankato in 1989, Funk started working as a substitute teacher and coach in St. Paul Public Schools. She also coached volleyball at Central, basketball at Highland and softball at Central.
She was hired full time by SPPS as an adaptive P.E. teacher for the following school year — serving six different schools on the city’s East Side — and then moved to Central full time in 1991. She never left.
During her tenure at Central, she coached C-squad volleyball from 1989 to 2010, coached JV softball from 1989 to 1991 and coached varsity softball from 1991 to 2007.
A great coach “needs to be able to relate to kids,” Funk said. “They have to be willing to adapt and change and be good listeners. Kids, no matter whether it’s in a classroom or out on a field, they want to know that you care about them before they care what it is that you know and have to teach them. First and foremost is the relationship-building piece of it.”
Funk always had her finger on the pulse of what was going on with students at Central, said former principal Mary Mackbee, who worked with Funk for 25 years.
“There were no surprises. That’s what I liked about her,” Mackbee said. “She just knew what was going on all the time — and she was there all the time. Between the two of us, I think we practically lived there with all the after-school sports. But it wasn’t just being there. She really knew the kids well. Her office was always open for kids to drop in. She knew what their issues were in terms of athletics, as well as personal issues.”
Funk said she loves and watches all sports — from the pros to youth sports — but that her heart is at the lower levels.
“That’s when it’s still about the love of the game,” she said. “It’s about watching kids develop and grow from being a part of the game, and building relationships. I know how important it is to their lives, development and well-being.”
WOMEN IN COACHING
Funk said she’s especially proud of helping encourage more women to enter coaching. “I had one woman coach all through high school, and I was lucky to have a female college coach,” she said. “Other than that, they just weren’t around.”
“Now I look around, and maybe 40 to 50 percent are female coaches coaching women’s sports,” she said. “It’s important for young girls to see coaches who look like them — people of color, as well. Having that representation is very important.”
Funk “gets that representation matters,” said Morgan Wiechmann, head coach of Central’s cross-country team and assistant track coach. “Treacy has been such an impactful mentor to me. I know I am a better coach, teacher and person because of her. She has certainly set a precedent of excellence for Central athletics.”
Funk said she has always tried to be the coaches’ coach.
“I’ve always worked to take things off the coaches’ plates and make their jobs easier,” she said. “It’s not easy to coach. You’re giving your time, and there’s more and more placed on us every year.”
Alicia Ekegren, a track coach and P.E. and health teacher at Central, has been selected to be the school’s next athletics director. She previously served as athletics director at Ramsey Middle School in St. Paul.
Funk and her partner, Brenda Hanson, plan to spend summers at their cabin on Pelican Lake near Brainerd and winters in Brownsville, Texas. “That’s the plan for now, and we’ll go from there,” she said. “To have an open schedule right away is going to be very fun.”
Leaving Central is going to be hard, Funk said.
“It’s such a special place,” she said. “Once you’re in here, you don’t want to leave. This is home. It’s a very supportive community. I’ve enjoyed every single minute of it. It’s all about the people — from the staff to the families to the community to the students to the athletes. It’s just been a blessing.”
