Offers were already on the table from the University of Michigan, Wisconsin and more. The list went on, but it couldn't hurt to send something in response, Hyde recalled thinking.

He dug the letter pitching the program he knew so little about out of the same dingy waste bin and mailed it back.

Hyde remembered the coach's name attached to the letter, the same one he saw coaching with Central Michigan in the late 80s, beating up on Big Ten opponents.

His name?

Walt Drenth.

"I said, 'you know out of respect for Walt, I'm going to send this back,'" Hyde said. "... Walt was a great, young coach. He was building a program there and that excited me. I wanted to be a part of that. It was just a great fit."

Drenth, a Charlevoix, Michigan native with an affinity for jazz and tea, was just the guy for Hyde.

He became the right coach for hundreds. Drenth coached 180 All-Americans in his nearly 40 total years as a cross country and track and field coach across multiple Division I programs.

Only ever coached by Drenth, who Hyde said, " You’d want to run through a wall for," Hyde progressed from his time at William & Mary under Drenth's tutelage to running the 1500 meter at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta.

But after 30+ years, 16 of them as the director of both the cross country and track and field programs at MSU, Drenth announced on Monday he was hanging up the stopwatch and whistle.

"It's a cool way to make a living," Drenth said.

Many alumni of the programs he led over his career told The State News Drenth did things the right way on his way to five Big Ten Championships and the 2014 national title in women's cross country — all while at Michigan State from 2004-2020.

While last season's Big Ten title was the final championship Drenth would win as a head coach, his impact on the student-athletes he coached reached far beyond the podium and his term at MSU.

'I could trust coach Drenth with this thing that I love the most'

Clark Ruiz, a former MSU cross country runner and now software engineer, was a preferred walk-on to the MSU cross country program. He had scholarship offers elsewhere and at other levels, but there was one coach he never forgot.

Lisa Senakiewich ran at MSU and was named the interim in Drenth's place after serving as his assistant since 2010.

Brent Colburn said he utilized all Drenth taught him at William & Mary in the 90s with vigor.

Kenzie Weiler handed the sport she loved over to Drenth, and he challenged her during her time at MSU more than any adult in her life, she said.

All of them learned something from Drenth.

"I love running, it's one of my favorite things in the world," Weiler said. "... I gave him (Drenth) my favorite thing in the world and trusted him with it. That relationship between the athlete and the coach is essentially giving them something that you love and you're saying, 'protect this, but help me grow it' and I just think that when I chose MSU, I chose it because ... I could trust coach Drenth with this thing that I love the most."

Colburn used what he learned both in running and in life.

"As an 18-year-old coming out of high school into college, encountering that type of leadership was a formative experience," Colburn said. "I was thinking ... there really kind of were two lessons that I learned from Walt."

The first? Hard work doesn't guarantee success but without hard work, you can't be successful.

The second? Time spent making excuses was wasted time.

As an 18-year old college athlete, Colburn hung on to those messages with his life. It made him into the person he is today.

Although he was only a runner under Drenth for two years, it was enough time to grow up because of Drenth's lessons.

Senakiewich steps into a role with a mouthful of a title and with a sense of sadness since Drenth isn't by her side, but she's still excited for her mentor and friend.

"(I learned) so much: What it is just to be a good person, a good human being, about a willingness to help no matter what the chore may be," Senakiewich said. "He was always willing to provide a helping hand or provide support. He's the type of person that would literally drop everything just to help you, so I think that part is really meaningful."

Simple humanity and a demand for excellence set the bar for Senakiewich and did the same for Ruiz, who ran under Drenth at MSU from 2013-2018.

"I don't know if it's hyperbole but he was almost like a second father figure," Ruiz said. "... The respect he commands, not that he demands it but when you are as successful and as thoughtful and as good as he is, people give him his respect."

And when Drenth decided to hang it up, he said in a statement that he couldn't thank the friends and those who helped him along the way enough.

In his wake, it's obvious they can't thank him enough either.

This article is part of our Women in the Workplace print issue. Read the full issue here