Wife of ousted Tabor coach shares faith, frustrations, family, future
Editor's note: The following interview was conducted Friday by the Star-Journal's Tabor College correspondent, Debbie Miller, with Sheila Rubel, wife of ousted Tabor College football coach, Robert Rubel.
After one tumultuous season at the helm of the Bluejays' program, Rubel was notified Nov. 30 that his contract would not be renewed when it expires at the end of this month.
The dismissal comes at the end of a season in which Tabor students, who were recruited to play football but kicked off the team during the season for disciplinary reasons, made headlines on the police blotter as well as on the sports page.
(Because of an ongoing agreement with the college, Coach Rubel declined to sit for an interview).
Rubel is a journeyman coach who worked his way up from the high school ranks to the Tabor position, his first head college coaching job.
He came to Tabor in March from Abilene (Texas) Christian University, where he'd been an assistant coach.
While Rubel looks for another job, his wife, Sheila, a mother of two elementary school children, who had been Tabor's cheerleading coach, and part time Tabor student, has been putting up a Christmas tree, buying presents — and arranging for yet another move, to another team, another town, and another school for the children.
In this interview, she speaks with Miller about life as a football coach's
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wife, as well as her experiences at Tabor College, and in Hillsboro.
Star-Journal: After your husband accepted the coaching job, was Tabor and Hillsboro what you expected after you moved here?
Mrs. Rubel: I think it was. The town itself I think was even more than what we expected. I don't think I'll ever be able to say how great the elementary school has been here.
My kids are just in love with it. I taught at a private Christian school in Texas and I would say that it's even better than that, so we are just so very impressed with the school system here.
There are so many kind people in the community, who really were very kind to us. At Tabor too. It's a good place and I know that there are great, great kids there. I coach the cheerleaders and I have 18 kids on the squad right now and every single one of them I love to death.
There are very exceptional people here. So, I think the town was more than we expected.
In some ways Tabor, I guess, was not what we expected, but
Star-Journal: Do you think anything was misrepresented to you?
Mrs. Rubel: I don't think it was misrepresented. The school itself, I don't think was misrepresented at all. I think maybe we thought that there would be more support for my husband from administration, I guess.
Star-Journal: Do you think there were communication problems with the administration?
Mrs. Rubel: Definitely
Star-Journal: Did they have different expectations from him as a coach than maybe you thought would happen?
Mrs. Rubel: When we came to interview, my husband had a manual that he gave in the interview process. It outlined his coaching style, his philosophy, his discipline plan, everything, and they all liked it and liked what he presented and that's exactly what he came in and did.
No one ever told him that anything was wrong with his plan and or his coaching style, or his philosophy, or his discipline. He was never told that anything was wrong with that.
I don't know if you want this right here, but at, during the season there were problems with the team, that was obvious, I think, to everyone.
And It wasn't the whole team, it wasn't even the majority of the team, the majority of the team supported my husband, and liked what he did, but there were, I guess, veteran players that didn't want to change.
Change is hard, and they had been successful at what they had been doing, but it was a different team this year. They had lost so many players this year from all the starters that had graduated and moved on, they just didn't have the same makeup that they had the past two years, but the ones who were still hear didn't feel like they needed to change, but they had to.
Star-Journal: Do you think people were focusing on the wrong things this season?
Mrs. Rubel: Yes, definitely.
Star-Journal: What were some of the things they should have been focusing on?
Mrs. Rubel: Supporting the team. So many people, students, came to the games, not to come to support the team. They came to either yell ugly things at my husband or were just there to cheer on one person on the team. So many people just didn't come to support the team. And that's, that's one of the major problems this season, that there was no support.
Star-Journal: Do you think the school and the community came into this season expecting to see last year's [11-1, KCAC conference champion] team again?
Mrs. Rubel: I do. But that wasn't going to happen, not with the players that were left, no. It wasn't going to happen, but people did expect that, I think.
But when you have a player like [all-star fullback] Ben Brown, in this conference, a player like him is going to make all the difference in the world. That's just how it is, and we didn't have him this year.
Star-Journal: The team lost about half of its returning starters
Mrs. Rubel: Returning starters this year [compared to] the year before, plus a whole new offense to learn.
Star-Journal: [Under Rubel, Tabor had its sixth straight winning season, with a 6-4 overall record, and 5-4 in league play for fifth place]. It was a building year, and they still won despite the problems, they still had a winning season.
What do you think were some of the other good things that your husband was able to do this year with the team?
Mrs. Rubel: He's a coach, but more than that he wants to prepare his team, those guys, the individuals, he wants to make sure that they're prepared for life after football. And he did that.
I mean, on campus, part of his discipline plan is that they had to go to class. They had to come to meetings and practices on time.
He does those things because he knows that's going to prepare them for their future jobs. You can't be late to work, you have to show up.
So he tells them, "This is your job you're not here to just play football; you're here to get your college degree. That's the most important thing."
That's why he stressed it so much. And going to chapel. He didn't just say you have to be at chapel. He was at chapel. He was there with them, and he was, and he tries to be a good example, a role model for them.
Star-Journal: And yet there were discipline problems on the team. The coach held talented players out of the game because of their academic and discipline problems.
Mrs. Rubel: I think before the fourth game there were seven players suspended because they weren't going to class or they showed up late for practice and things like that.
He works on a point system, and once you get, I believe, it's five points, you're suspended. It doesn't matter who you are. If you don't do the work, then you're not going to play.
A lot of people questioned why certain players were standing on the sidelines, and that's the reason. Because they broke the rules.
Star-Journal: Now we talked about your husband as a coach, tell me about your husband as a man.
Mrs. Rubel: Obviously I think he's the greatest man that I ever met. That's why I married him. He's the best father that I could of ever dreamed of. He's probably the most intelligent person that I have ever met. It seems like he can do anything that's asked of him.
He didn't grow up as a Christian, but once he met me and we started dating and he came to church with me and then we were married and we went to church and we had our children.
Our daughter came up to us just last spring and said, "I want to be baptized." And my husband looked at her and said, "That's wonderful, I'm going to be baptized with you."
And that's how he is. He's just a good man,
Star-Journal: How has [the sudden loss of your husband's coaching position] affected your family?
Mrs. Rubel: Probably not as bad as, as everyone would think. Our kids are kind of used to moving. This move will be hard for them, probably the hardest, because they are getting older and they have so many friends here and they love their school.
But we pray and we put our faith in God that he'll lead us where we need to be. And so, we're OK. We know that we'll find a place and it will be a good situation for us.
Star-Journal: I know that you really enjoyed this place. One of the players said that you wanted to raise your kids here. I understand that your husband turned down coaching jobs to stay at Tabor.
Mrs. Rubel: Yes, after the season was over I know he had at least two colleges called him to come and be their head coach.
Their jobs were open and they thought of him. They knew of him, they know what he could do, and they know that he's a great coach, and they called him.
One of the colleges was a place he'd had worked at before, and they remembered him, and their job was open. But he told them no.
They weren't really a step up from Tabor, and they were kind of the same kind of level and he said, "I'm not moving from Tabor." He [wasn't] going to take a side step to leave Tabor. The only way he was going to leave Tabor would be for a dream job.
Star-Journal: He did interview at Texas A&M [Kingsville]. Tell me about that.
Mrs. Rubel: Yes, Texas A & M-Kingsville was the dream job. That's the dream job that would have gotten him out of Tabor. [NCAA] Division II, the Lone Star Conference; a college of almost 7000 students.
He couldn't believe that he was even called for that job, he was amazed, and it was amazing to us that they had thought so highly of him to call him and he was one of the top two, I mean, it was between he and one other guy.
The other guy there had more head coaching experience and they ended up offering the job to him. Just to be interviewed and to be one of the top ones in that job was really incredible for him, but that would have been the only kind of job he would have left for would have been a job like Texas A & M Kingsville
Star-Journal: The letter informing your husband that his contract had not been renewed came shortly after he returned from going on that interview. Do you think [his dismissal at Tabor] it had anything to do with that?
Mrs. Rubel: I don't know, I have no idea, I don't know. It came the day after we returned from that interview.
Star-Journal: Did your husband have any idea that his contract wouldn't be renewed?
Mrs. Rubel: No, he did not. And I know some people will tell you that there were two meetings held, one with just the athletic director and one with the athletic director and Dr. [Lawrence] Ressler [vice president of academics and student development, who has administrative oversight of the athletic department] in which they, in one of those meetings, I think, the athletic director gave my husband a list of things they wanted him to work on with the team, and I'm not sure the specifics of that list.
I know a lot of things on the list weren't specifically dealing with my husband, they were other things they wanted my husband to take care of.
But both of those meetings ended with my husband talking with the athletic director about what they were going to do next season, so it came as a complete shock on November 30th.
Star-Journal: Do you have any idea what you're going to do next?
Mrs. Rubel: He has his applications out everywhere, so we'll just see where that leads us and see where God leads us, I guess
Star-Journal: It must have been difficult to go from being a finalist for a dream job to suddenly being dismissed by Tabor.
Mrs. Rubel: Yes. And we, I mean, we kind of joked about it, you know. We went from the penthouse to the outhouse real fast. That was definitely an emotional week. We had really high emotions and then really low emotions in a real short amount of time.
Star-Journal: Is there anything you'd want to say to the community or ask of the community in this time, where you are with your family and probably a move coming up?
Mrs. Rubel: I would probably just like, I guess, to thank the people that have supported my husband. There have been people from the community coming to us and saying that they're sorry that this is happening to our family — at this time of the year especially — and wanting to know how we're doing and if we've gotten a job yet.
People are concerned and they show it and I'm thankful for that. I'm also thankful that people haven't talked to my kids about it, you know, so my kids are happy, and they've been treated so well, they really have.
Star-Journal: I don't know if I have anything else to add, do you have?
Mrs. Rubel: There is one thing with all of the stuff that's been in the paper about recruits, new recruits that have been in trouble with the police and on campus.
I don't really think that it's fair that it's been insinuated that that's all my husbands fault. Two of the players, or actually, most of those players that have been in the newspaper were kicked off of the team by week three because they didn't follow the rules.
Two of those players my husband was asked to recruit, he was asked to recruit those players
And one of those players came highly recommended by his pastor. So, I think that's been a really unfair thing, to put all the blame on my husband for those problems.
Star-Journal: I guess that's maybe one of those unfair things that comes with the territory of coaching.
Mrs. Rubel: I guess so, I guess it is. The only thing else I guess I would say is that I wish his supporters had been as vocal as those who, I guess, didn't support him, but it always seems to be that way.
People that don't like you are very vocal about it. Because it wasn't a lot of people, but it seemed like it was.
The other thing is, you asked how my family is doing at this time. My husband's main concern has been the players that are still here.
He said, you know, we've got 70 players here, and they don't know what's going to happen next season, and my concern is for them.
He's worried, he's worried about his team. He still feels like they're his team, you know. He's worried about them because, you know, them losing another coach in such a short amount of time. It's not good for a football program, it's not good for any athletic program.
But he's very concerned about them, and worried, and we pray for them. That's his major concern, because he knows he'll get a job, but they are the ones that are suffering.
Star-Journal: So it's interesting that even though it was Tabor's decision not to renew his contract, it's Tabor's program that he's worried about, because of the team he's built and his concern for the players.
Mrs. Rubel: Yes. Because he believes in the mission of Tabor. He believes in it strongly. That's his mission in life; to bring people closer to God, and that's his mission as a coach at a Christian institution. He likes that job and, and he respects Tabor and what they're trying to do.
He does fit with the mission of Tabor. He does. But unfortunately it didn't work out, and we don't really know why.
