Rau returns as newest Falcons coach

There will be a new but familiar face along the sideline of Abbotsford football games and at the helm of the Falcon basketball program this coming season. Abbotsford alumnus Garrett Rau, who was recently hired by the Abbotsford school district as their new physics and chemistry teacher, will be taking over as the Falcons head basketball coach, as well as assisting the football team as their defensive coordinator.

The last time Rau donned Abbotsford’s black and red was in 2016 as a senior in high school. That year, he helped lead the Falcons football team to their first conference championship in over 50 years and scored 16.1 points per game in basketball. He took home first team all-conference honors as a defensive back and punter, was named an honorable mention for his work as a quarterback and garnered a second team all-conference award for basketball. Rau also earned an honorable mention allconference honor his senior year as a member of the baseball team.

Now he is returning, though his role will be significantly different than the last time he stepped onto the field for the Falcons. This homecoming will pair him with football head coach Jake Knapmiller, who he played for during his high school football career, and allow him an opportunity to give back to a community and organization that he said has given him so much.

Rau will be bringing with him a wealth of experience gathered over the seven years since his graduation from Abbotsford high school.

While studying secondary education and chemistry at Knox College in Galesburg, Ill., Rau also played for the Prairie Fire’s football team. Under the guidance of head coach Damon Tomeo and defensive backs coach Andy Gibbons, Rau flourished as a player. He quickly became the team’s starting punter as a freshman and would be named to the first team of the Midwest Conference as a sophomore. He would continue to earn himself all-conference nods at the position and would go on to add second-team all-conference honors at defensive back during his junior and senior years. As a punter, Rau ended his career with the second most total yards and the second highest average yards per punt in the school’s history, as well as the most punts downed inside the 20 yard line with 41, eight more than the next highest punter.

Not only did he find himself etched into Knox’s record books, but his coaches also deepened his knowledge and love for the game. While his graduation in 2020 meant the end of his playing career, Rau was not ready to step away from sports. Instead, it opened an avenue for a new venture for the Abbotsford native: coaching.

Rau’s first teaching job put him in familiar territory, taking a position at Galesburg Junior Senior High School. It was also there that he started coaching, taking on assistant football and basketball roles. He would later work at the nearby Williamsville, coaching basketball there and taking on an assistant coaching position at Knox College for his old Prairie Fire football team.

With each step of his career, Rau has picked up something different from each of the coaches he played for or worked with, tools that he has added to his repertoire and lessons that he hopes that he might be able to pass on to his players.

At Knox, Rau notes how he learned a great deal about leadership from Tomeo, the team’s head coach.

“We had a leadership group while I was there,” Rau said. “We did book studies on leadership and that kind of helped me grow a lot in that way.”

Andy Gibbons, the defensive backs coach who recruited Rau, was also a huge influence during his time with the team. Gibbons was the one who convinced Rau to stick with his collegiate football career after a bout of homesickness was causing him to reconsider his options during his freshman year. He also taught Rau the importance of connecting with players and how to do so.

At Galesburg, Rau saw the benefits of two very different coaching styles. Michael Washabaugh, the Silver Streaks head football coach, was one of the most organized people that Rau had met, demonstrating the importance of such a skill while managing a program. Meanwhile, Ryan Hart, Galesburg’s head basketball coach, was on the opposite side of the spectrum, with Rau noting his abilities to adapt on the fly and remaining cool under pressure to be ones he hopes he can emulate. Being flexible and able to change gameplans that are not working in the middle of a contest can be paramount to success, something that Rau collected during his time under Hart.

Grant Gullstrand, the head coach of Williamsfield’s football team, showed him the importance of developing training programs, especially after getting Rau to join the track team’s coaching staff. There he demonstrated the effects that proper speed and vertical power programs can have when crossed over with basketball and football. He also worked with Bob Anderson, who is one of Illinois winningest head basketball coaches, ranking in the top ten in all-time victories. Anderson pushed home the virtue of preparedness; there was never a situation, no matter how obscure, that Anderson’s players did not know what to do. In basketball, quick decisions must be made in the moment by players and putting those players in a position where they do not have to question what the right play is because they have already practiced such a scenario was a key point Rau picked up in his time with the team.

Each of these coaches offered something different to Rau’s own growth from player to mentor, a journey that he is appreciative of.

“I definitely would not be here in the position that I’m in without all of these coaches,” Rau said. “So I’m super grateful for them.”

Now Rau has come full circle, back with the coach that helped first cultivate his interest in coaching while playing for him in high school. And while some things have changed, Rau says that the conversations he has with Knapmiller aren’t all that different from the ones that they had back when he played quarterback for him in high school.

“It’s been pretty seamless,” he said of the transition. “When I played, being the quarterback, I had a little extra responsibility. So I would come in early and talk about things that he liked, things that he thought I could do better or things that we could work together teamwise and I was kind of the liaison between players and coaches. So coming back and being able to work with him, those conversations are pretty similar to what they were before.”

Rau hopes that he can use all of his accumulated experiences, both playing and coaching at the collegiate and high school levels, to help enhance and bring new ideas to the Abbotsford Falcon programs. While a big part of why he decided to come back to Abbotsford was to be closer to family, he also said that he hopes that he can give back to a school and community that helped him to get where he is today.

“Coming back to a place that played such a huge part in molding me into the person I am today and being able to give that same opportunity to all the kids that are there now, to give back to a place that gave me so much was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up,” Rau said of his return to Abbotsford.

With the football season underway and basketball looming on the horizon, Rau’s newest chapter in his sports career is just beginning, but he has already been impressed by the energy and effort from the players. Getting the same level of buy-in and a willingness to learn are half the battle when it comes to high school sports, Rau noted, so he is excited to see where the season will take the team.

Athletics has had a huge impact on Rau and he hopes that he can pass along the same life lessons to his players.

“Outside of just the physical part of building and maintaining a healthy lifestyle, sports are important for the development of character,” Rau said. “Athletics teaches you how to be on time, how to work with others, how to communicate and you can take those to the real world and they are skills that you need in order to succeed.”