Story by Eva Dean Folkert. Photos by Jon Lundstrom and Hope College Archives
The man with the most emphatic handshake in America is not politcally campaigning right now hoping to get a new job.
No, the man with the fly-in-full-palm-knuckle-squeezing-hold-it-for-five-seconds grip has already been chosen by a small electorate, already has the job he wants. For the past five days, with every mitt-clasp of congratulations, introduction and hello-again — and there have been hundreds of them — Peter Stuursma has been engaging in a reverse campaign, one that is as authentic and strong as the man warmly crushing four fingers together.
On Monday, a college press release officially informed the public that Stuursma had been hired as Hope's seventh football coach, a role that gets filled every couple decades it seems. On Tuesday morning, a press conference at an ebullient DeVos Fieldhouse introduced Stuursma and his family in person. With many members of the media, athletic department faculty, upper administrators, and young men from the football team in attendance, the blue-suit-orange-tie-wearing new coach took five confident strides to the lectern, thanked several important people, and then enthusiastically started his remarks with a Stuursma-patented, "It's a great day to be alive in America!" Click here to see a photo gallery from the press conference.
And who didn't doubt him over the next 10 minutes? He spoke of opportunity and transformation, academics and athletics, character and influence while rarely looking at his notes. He used words, often, like "awesome," "incredible," "special," "excited," and "great" to convey his upbeat sentiments and future goals. At a time when cruel negativism is dominating national conversations, Stuursma raised his campaign banner high for optimism and, with it, a starting point toward knowing the man behind the persistent smile.
Who is Peter Stuursma, Hope College Class of 1993? It's going to take a list.
I. Peter Stuursma is a coach, sure, but he is much more than that.
"Yes, his record indicates he is a successful coach," says Tim Johnston, athletic director at East Grand Rapids High School, the place from which Stuursma comes to Hope, "but Pete has always been and will always be much more than that. He's a husband, father, leader, administrator, and friend. Too often coaches get defined only by their records, what shows up in the win-loss columns, what they do in athletics. To do that to Peter would be a disservice because it limits him and disregards all the other great things he does and is."
Johnston is not downplaying Stuursma's impressive record (162-34) as the head coach at East Grand Rapids for 16 years. It would be nearly impossible to do that since Stuursma took the Pioneers to the state playoffs 13 times, winning seven championships in nine years, including a MHSAA record-tying five in a row between 2005-2010, practically owning the 2000s in MHSAA Division 3.
Instead, Johnston wants sports fans to know that coaches like Stuursma are full-picture people; that they live outside the field lines more than as they do within. Stuursma, or "Stuurs," as he is called by those close to him, wants others to be reminded of that, too.
"I've never identified myself as just a football coach," he confirms. "I mean, I love my sport, don't get me wrong, but I also love kids, I love education too. My family means the world to me. I have a lot going on in my life outside of football."
II. Peter Stuursma is a storyteller who teaches when he tells.
"This one time when I coached at the University of Northern Colorado (during graduate school where he received his M.A. in physical education and sports administration), I was walking into an opponent's stadium with [head coach] Joe Glenn," Stuursma starts. "We had to make our way through some rowdy tailgaters and they start yelling at us, pointing fingers. I mean, it was intense. But then Joe stops and asks a guy how he makes his chili. They banter about special ingredients and then the guy gives Joe a taste. And Joe loves it. He's high-fiving the cook and his friends, and then another tailgater gives him a taste, more high-fiving happens. In the end, we walk out of there intact. Joe could always turn a riot into a party."
This is just one example of Stuursma didactic storytelling. He weaves his yarns to teach others as well as to remind himself of lessons worth learning, or relearning, especially from mentors. He readily recalls from memories long banked, stories about the way his youth hockey coach, John Barnes, taught him organizational skills, how freshman football coach Dave Mehney showed him daily ways to care for kids, what his Hope football coach Ray Smith did to display integrity, when former high school principal Pat Cwayna unknowingly gave him leadership pointers through actions if not words. Each sometimes-funny, sometimes-poignant tale is told for a purpose: to give credit to the protagonists and to declare the values in their messages, such as learning how to turn enemies into friends, even temporarily, through positive interaction and influence. Who doesn't need to hear and remember a story like that?
III. Peter Stuursma is both a killer bear and a huggy bear.
The coach who demands excellence from a football team—"I want things done one way, my way; that's my mentality on the practice field"— is the same man who openly wept when he told his East Grand Rapids colleagues about his departure to come to Hope. Ask him about the role his family—wife, Amy Cook '93 Stuursma; children, Hannah, 16; Robbie, 14, and Mitchell, 11—played in supporting him in his decision and his eyes well up again, the gravel in his jingly voice getting caught in his throat. As the East Grand Rapids Middle School principal for the last 11 years, he has stood outside every morning, winter wind or sideways rain make no never-mind, to greet 705 students… by name. "A simple hello goes a long way at their age," he explains.
Education, whether in the classroom or on the field, is essentially a people business, he declares, and Stuursma is wired to make all relational aspects of that business work in both a tender or tough way, whichever is needed.
"Joe Glenn would say 'I want our players to be killer bears on the field and huggy bears off the field,'" acknowledged the former Hope running back (from 1988-92) at his press conference. "There is no reason [a player] can't be that person, that athlete who can't expresses yourself in a physical way, in football a physical game, help your opponents up and then after the game, take [his] helmet and shoulder pads off and say hi to [his] nieces and nephews and loved ones who came to see [him] play. I think you can do that."
Because, well, he did, and does, do that.
IV. Peter Stuursma's batteries only have a positive charge.
And he could beat the Energizer Bunny into a pink puddle of submission. It's hard to believe the energetic Stuursma has ever been tired a day in his life. He is no Tom Brady, though; Stuursma admits to drinking one cup of coffee a day (a substance the NFL quarterback says he's never even tasted) but that "cup" holds 22 ounces. To keep pace with him, it would be best to get a comfortable pair of shoes and a good night's sleep. You're going to need it.
"When I recruited Stuurs to come to Hope as a player," recounts Smith, "I remember thinking, 'Oh my gosh! Is this guy for real? He was always upbeat, ready to go, full of energy and life. Fast forward 25 years later and he's still the same way. His positive spirit has remained and maybe even grown."
Case in point: Just last fall, when the East Grand Rapids cross country team was about to leave for an important meet, Stuursma enlisted his football team to be its send-off party. There in the parking lot, as each runner boarded the bus to go compete, stood an entire football team cheering them on. It was vintage Stuursma.
"Peter Stuursma is going to transform this place with his energy and enthusiasm," adds Tim Schoonveld, Hope's co-director of athletics. "He is a unifier. He's going to bring people together and that is exactly what our football program, our department, and Hope College was looking for when we went looking to fill the head football coach position."
V. Peter Stuursma is not perfect
You would be hard pressed to find someone who doesn't like or respect Stuurmsa. The man is a soul-catcher of sorts. Yet while he is intentional about doing what he says and saying what he does, he admits that sometimes his mouth can get ahead of him, and a message and actions gets mixed. Who can't empathize?
And then there was that time when an official threw him out of a Blue-Orange scrimmage for unsportsmanlike-conduct. "I think it was only, like, five plays into the game," Stuursma confesses. "He's the only guy in my 25 years coaching at Hope who ever got thrown out of our intra-squad game," chuckles Smith.
VI. Peter Stuursma wants to get this show on the road
It's time now for the introduction to end. Peter Stuursma is ready to go. He will start officially on February 1, and begin by sizing up the 2016 recruiting class and assessing his coaching staff. He will schedule numerous player meetings and overindulge in hours of last season's game film. The Stuursmas will maintain their East Grand Rapids address. "Our kids are too ingrained there to move," he reasons. So now he will have at least a half hour commute to and from Holland as part of his in-season 12-hour-plus days. No big deal, he says. It's not like he isn't used to it already.
And about that first day? What will it be like?
"It'll be, 'let's go!'" he says. "Better get ready to go 100 miles per hour. We only get one chance at each day and we're going to make the most of each and every one. So, "let's go!"
