Holidays generally revolve around long-established traditions and family. But what if your situation doesn’t reflect convention, or you have to work during the holidays? Therein lies the challenge TCU women’s basketball team dribbles against every holiday season, as they grind towards their goals in practice or travel to games and tournaments.

Coach Raegan Pebley (Photo/Sharon Ellman)

I asked Coach Raegan Pebley, in her ninth season as Head Hardwood Frog, how she and her players celebrate the holidays. “[I grew up in] a group of six children, so resources as a kid were limited.” The former University of Colorado star and inaugural WNBA draft selection said her family values togetherness, and gifting was done with small gestures. Pebley’s childhood inspired her team’s Secret-Santa tradition. Patricia Morris, TCU’s senior center, excitedly described the team’s gifting extravaganza: “We usually buy three small gifts that are given leading up to Christmas, and then one larger gift at the end.” Coach Pebley said the exchange is so popular among the players they start planning for next year as soon as Christmas is over.

Every family is eclectic in their own way, but a roster of Division I athletes competing in a popular international sport are more eclectic than most. Tara Manumaleuga, a senior shooting guard from Queensland, Australia, is unable to visit her family during Frog basketball’s longest break during the winter holidays, a whopping three consecutive days. “If I did, I’d probably be home for about 20 minutes with the time changes.” Manumaleuga has a Stateside uncle who played football for the University of Arizona, but most of her family is Down Under. She said Australians don’t have a Thanksgiving-equivalent holiday, but her Christmas back home is quite the event thanks to her extended family. “We’ll have full on basketball or volleyball tournaments at my house [where they have their own courts] or go and cookout on the beach.” (Christmas in Queensland is in the height of summer.)

Patricia Morris
(Photo by/Sharon Ellman)

For most of us, holidays are about food as well as family. Pebley had a mobile childhood. The daughter of a coach, her family moved across the country, from North Texas to St. Louis to Utah, where she played high-school basketball. (She started her head-coaching career at Utah State.) Her mom, in addition to raising six children, is a talented cook and would assign holiday cooking duties to Raegan and her siblings. “Baking was my area, and I’d most often make buckeye peanut butter chocolate balls, or sugar cookies.” Cooking with her siblings in her mother’s kitchen led to preparing meals for her athlete family. Pebley usually hosts her players for holiday meals and cooks, giving her players a little taste of home. Manumaleuga recalled last year’s dinner of Chipotle, Coach’s cranberry salsa, Pebley’s mother’s famous rolls, as well as traditional African cuisine ordered from Mama B’s International Kitchen in Grand Prairie.

When asked her holiday must-have, Morris says it’s all about the dressing (or stuffing, depending on how you identify it). Her dad’s cornbread-based recipe with celery and onions is non-negotiable for her. Growing up, Morris helped cook her family’s holiday meal as her father’s sous-chef. The WNBA hopeful’s plate typically includes turkey, ham, greens, and mac and cheese. The dessert of choice is her aunt’s incredible fruitcake.

Tara Manumaleuga
(Photo/Gregg Ellman)

Manumaleuga’s Christmas meal has a Polynesian flair, thanks to her Samoan roots. The psychology major, who plans to continue her career back in Australia or possibly Europe, explained that pavlova, a dessert of baked meringue, whipped cream, and toppings which can include fruits or chocolate, is the food that means the holidays to her. Unfortunately, it isn’t something you see in America much.

Coach Pebley, who has children of her own, said that no matter where her family is on Christmas Eve – which can be just about anywhere – they’re going to make s’mores. Her family modifies them to their liking: graham crackers and marshmallows are the mainstays, but the Pebley kids have been known to get creative, doctoring them with peanut butter, Nutella, sprinkles… The combinations are almost endless.

Regardless of where they are, for TCU’s ladies of the court, holidays are special because of the people they are with. Family can take many forms, and it’s obvious that these women are just that, with their own traditions as they make Fort Worth their home. The rest is just dressing, so to speak.

The post Teaming Up for the Holidays first appeared on Tanglewood Moms.

Travis Lutter doesn’t fight professionally anymore, but his eponymous gym is as dynamic as ever, and he can teach all of us a thing or two about how to roll on the mat.

In their 25^th year of operation, Travis Lutter Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu [sic] is on Camp Bowie, just east of the Benbrook traffic circle and Cowtown Farmers Market. The gym, which has a membership close to 300 members, offers an array of combat-based classes including muay thai kickboxing, wrestling, boxing, and mixed martial arts, in addition to various classes for kids. Lutter, a former college wrestler transplanted from South Dakota to North Texas, has been coaching fighters for more than half his life.

Ultimate fighting and the practice of jiujitsu have been linked for Americans since the sport’s inception in 1993. “At the time there were two gyms [for ultimate fighting training] – one in Los Angeles, and one in New York…” A derivative of the more traditional Japanese martial art of judo, modern jiujitsu was developed in Brazil when a touring judo master from Japan introduced the art to the five Gracie brothers in 1917. The Gracie family then modified judo and marketed it as a self-defense style. One of their descendants, Rorion Gracie, co-founded the UFC, and one of his brothers, Royce Gracie, won three of the first four UFC championships.

Photo courtesy of Travis Lutter

Lutter initially learned Brazilian jiu-jitsu (BJJ) – a more common name for the Gracies’ method – through instructional VHS tapes and sparring with his college wrestling teammates. Jiujitsu and wrestling are naturally complementary since both see practitioners working from the ground to hold and control an opponent using the opponent’s own force.

“It’s mostly based on disarming,” said Lutter when describing the origins of jiujitsu and judo. Both were invented after the feudal samurai system in Japan was disbanded and traditional weapons-based training was outlawed by the government. “The primary difference between jiujitsu and judo is [jiujitsu practitioners] kind of forgot about ‘the rules.’ If it works, we’re going to do it; if it doesn’t, we won’t.”

Lutter was intrigued with BJJ because he saw smaller fighters have the advantage over larger opponents. “I had to learn this,” he said.

While in college, Lutter was presented with the opportunity to participate in a national college exchange program, moving to Denton to attend the University of North Texas (UNT) while receiving credit at his home institution. While at UNT, he started training with Carlos Machado, a cousin of the Gracie family and a BJJ grand master.

Machado may not be well known, but he was Chuck Norris’s primary jiujitsu instructor after the two met in Los Angeles in the mid-90’s. Machado moved to Dallas where he coached while assisting with fight choreography for Walker, Texas Ranger, as well as appearing in several episodes. “It was the best thing I ever did for myself,” Lutter said of moving to Texas and learning from Machado.

Photo courtesy of Travis LutterMa

Lutter, who still coaches most classes himself, spends half a class teaching a new skill or technique, then allowing students to practice with each other situationally. His average student is in their 30s and is looking for variety and challenge, but the community is what keeps them coming back. “I have everywhere from five-year-old members to my oldest student, who is 73.” Lutter’s first client, almost 25 years later, still trains weekly.

Lutter, who doesn’t coach but will demonstrate for the kids’ classes, said most martial arts gyms are child-focused; however, his membership tends to be predominantly adults. He says he prefers coaching adults because he values being honest and forthright about where they can improve without pulling punches. “Sometimes people aren’t honest with themselves. I’m going to be.” When asked what a new member should expect after training with him for six months, Lutter was on brand with his frankness. “You’re going to be able to win a fight and be able to kick you-from-six-months-ago’s ass.”

The post Lessons from a Life of Coaching first appeared on Tanglewood Moms.

The median sale price of a single-family home in Fort Worth is more than $300,000, up more than 20% over 2020. Someone who bought a home for less than $200,000 five or more years ago is likely sitting on 50% more equity (home value if sold) than what they originally paid.

The raw prices appear intimidating, but that shouldn’t keep you from looking at an upgrade. Trends show that investing in your home, especially in Fort Worth, is a good bet. When the American real estate market crashed in 2008, the Metroplex was the last major metro area to be affected and the first to rise from the ashes of the subprime mortgage crisis.

Investing in real estate favors the patient and the prepared. Despite the popularity of buying distressed properties to remodel and sell at a profit (known as “flipping”), the recent debacle involving Zillow, who recently disbanded their home buying division after overpaying for thousands of homes, stands as a cautionary tale. The sharp increase in local values coupled with expansive population growth (Fort Worth was the second fastest growing large city in the United States in 2020) equals tremendous stability for residents who can weather short-term fluctuations and commit to staying put.

The key to that stability is preparation, and we’re not talking about repainting your bathroom. Finding a well-connected agent is the first step for anyone intending to compete in a such a hot market. Most Fort Worth real estate sales now are “off market,” meaning desirable listings rarely reach the Multiple Listing Services (MLS) database before they’ve been sold. Realtor Walker Turney, of The Turney Group for Williams Trew, said, “Fort Worth’s prices are lower than the four other large cities in Texas (Houston, Dallas, Austin, and San Antonio), despite being the 12th largest city in America and second-fastest growing. Considering that, the affordable luxury prices won’t last forever.”

Historically low interest rates have kept consumers in the hunt despite price increases. Mike McCoy, a mortgage banker with Susser Bank, noted an uptick in new mortgages over the last year. He suggested vetting your lender ahead of time for their standards regarding employment status, debt-to-income ratios, and credit scores to make the buying process smooth. There are concerns that interest rates might rise to combat inflation, but thus far, rates have stayed in their lowest range since the Emergency Home Finance Act was established in 1970.

Traditional homes aren’t the only means to build assets. Raw land purchases are increasing in popularity. Who hasn’t dreamed of ditching city life to homestead or ranch? Allen Crumley, of Lands and Dwellings Allen Crumley at Williams Trew, specializes in ranch and land sales. Crumley emphasized, “Find something with desirable natural assets and don’t max out your budget. Great wealth has been built through land investments, and time is your friend. The longer you can hold on to something, the more likely you will be able to sell it at the right time and see greater returns.”

Crumley said that prospective land buyers should expect to pay slightly higher interest rates and be prepared for a bigger down payment on a prospective purchase. However, “a common exit strategy in land investments that is not available on your primary residence [is one that] allows you to sell a property and purchase another one while avoiding paying income tax on the gain from the sale of the first.”

Commercial real estate is an exciting option for those who want to participate in a sector which is extremely competitive. Chris Powers, founder and executive chairman of Fort Capital LP, said that businesses are expanding, and vacancies are low, leading to higher rents for commercial properties and better values for owners. When asked how best to enter the commercial market without buying an expensive commercial property outright, Powers suggested, “Look at finding a professional sponsor and participating in limited partnerships with them. It’s more passive and still provides great risk-adjusted opportunities.” Despite an expansion in employees working from home, office leasing is back to pre-pandemic levels, and industrial warehousing has skyrocketed with vacancy at all-time lows and market rates up between 20% to 30% according to Powers.

The Fort Worth area real estate market continues to grow. If you play a smart long game, investing in our community will continue to provide for your and yours for years to come.

Buck Elliott is a DFW native and graduate of TCU and UTA. He’s also an alumnus of Joe T. Garcias. During the day, he’s a full-time teacher and varsity tennis coach at Denton’s Billy Ryan High School. After hours, he’s usually at home spending quality time with his wife, Madeworthy’s own Jackie Elliott, or his three rambunctious children. Otherwise, he’s acquiring a new injury at a local CrossFit affiliate, or writing his sports column for The Fort Worth Weekly. His love for TCU and educational policies fuel his passion for writing about sports, social justice, and everything in between.

The post Playing It Smart: The Future of Fort Worth Real Estate first appeared on Tanglewood Moms.

Both men’s and women’s Frog hoops have tipped off their stacked non-conference schedules and are hopping past their opponents in Schollmaier Arena. There are other options for attending live sports, but none as convenient or affordable as supporting your local Frogs. Just in time for the holidays are special ticket packages with unbeatable values for your super Frog fans or aspiring athletes.

Show up and support head men’s coach Jamie Dixon – already a member of the Horned Frog Block T Association Hall of Fame – as he strives for his fifth national coach of the year award and TCU’s second NCAA tournament invitation. Fresh from leading the U19 USA men’s team to a Gold Medal in the FIBA World Cup (including star Frog point-guard Mike Miles Jr.), Dixon brews upsets as deftly as hot chocolate. Miles, who leads Dixon’s squad in scoring, is a pre-season All Big-12 honorable mention amongst a stacked conference which has four squads in the top-25 rankings. The best way to gift Frog hoops for the fanatics in your life is with the Keep It Purple Mini Plan. This package is the only way for non-season ticket holders to guarantee a seat to witness the TCU men rebound with the defending national champion Baylor Bears, the LSU Tigers during the annual BIG 12/SEC Challenge, top-20 ranked Iowa State, or the top-10 ranked Kansas Jayhawks.

If you’re looking for more flexibility, or perhaps to entertain a larger group, the Frog Flex Pack is just what Santa prescribed. Women’s hoops coach Reagan Pebley is leading the Frogs during her eighth season as head coach. Pebley’s Frogs – who finished second in one of the best conferences in the country in 2019-20 – is armed with fifth-year point guard and team leader Lauren Heard, the pre-season all-conference selection is leading the team by example with the most points, assists, rebounds, and steals on the roster. Watch as Heard, who is now a graduate student in her final season, wraps up one of the most decorated and record-book rewriting careers in TCU women’s hoops history. $40 guarantees you 10 vouchers, each redeemable for a ticket to a game of your choice; attend 10 games by yourself or take nine friends or family along to one game, the Frog Flex Pack gives you the freedom to choose. Each customer is limited to four packs, so act fast for the ability to make it rain gifts all-season long.

Even with all of the festivities and obligations that come with the holiday season, parents are often befuddled by entertaining their little miracles during their school break. TCU hoops has you covered there, too. Holiday Hoops runs the entirety of TCU’s student holiday break and offers $10 general admission tickets for men’s home games, and $5 general admission for women’s home games. In addition to copping your pictures with Santa, add a photo-op with SuperFrog that’ll become the family’s newest and most anticipated tradition. Follow this link to find the single-game or promotional package that will keep making memories all year long.

Buck Elliott is a DFW native and graduate of TCU and UTA. He’s also an alumnus of Joe T. Garcias. During the day, he’s a full-time teacher and varsity tennis coach at Denton’s Billy Ryan High School. After hours, he’s usually at home spending quality time with his wife, Madeworthy’s own Jackie Elliott, or his three rambunctious children. Otherwise, he’s acquiring a new injury at a local CrossFit affiliate, or writing his sports column for The Fort Worth Weekly. His love for TCU and educational policies fuel his passion for writing about sports, social justice, and everything in between.

The post Skip the Shopping Stress! first appeared on Tanglewood Moms.

Fort Worth’s North Side will soon be home to a kitchen serving up dinners with a familiar culinary pedigree, prepared and delivered different from anything we’re accustomed to. This kitchen, which most of its patrons will never see, much less set foot in, lies less than a mile away from its roots.

Joe T. Garcia’s indubitably is the most famous restaurant in Fort Worth. That fame is due in large part because of their strict adherence to tradition and steadfast commitment to bucking change. Surprisingly, the continuing popularity of Joe T’s culinary legacy is challenging and changing the landscape of our city’s restaurants.

Lanny Lancarte, Jr. (known to many as Little Lanny) is the scion of the Lancarte family who continue to run their iconic restaurant at Commerce St. and 23rd, where customers happily pass margarita pitchers while waiting in line to sit on what is possibly the most recognizable patio in Texas. The only son of the oldest of the Lancarte siblings, Lanny sees the restaurant as much as his childhood home as his family’s business.

“My great-grandmother and grandmother lived in the back there in the apartment [on the property], and with how much my parents worked, if we wanted to see them, that’s where we were. I slept at Joe T’s most nights.” Lancarte laughed when remembering his great-grandmother making enchilada gravy in the small apartment kitchen. Now living in the Overton Park area, Lancarte attended Arlington Heights High School before graduating from TCU, and his culinary personality is a hybrid of his childhood at Joe T’s and his education at the Culinary Institute of America in New York. 

Lancarte ventured out of the stone walls of his families’ establishment when he opened a stand-alone fine dining restaurant, Lanny’s Alta Cocina Mexicana, in 2005. The restaurant, located on West 7th in the Museum District, served high-end yet traditional Mexican cuisine combined with classical European preparations, a far cry from the fajitas and enchiladas of Tex-Mex. The dishes were inspired by years of Lancarte’s tasting pilgrimages in Mexico, as well as time spent externing in Chicago with Rick Bayless, the father of modern Mexican cuisine in America.

“That was before I knew anything about public relations or marketing, I was just doing what I liked to do and hoping somebody noticed,” Lancarte said. He took on fine dining because he loved traveling to learn about food, and he wanted to experiment with the foods of different regions in Mexico.

Lancarte remembers the late 1990s and early 2000s as a time when creativity was widely embraced. Food writers like Anthony Bourdain were educating the public as to what chefs really do to transport their customers to a different world through their inventive dishes. But the high didn’t last. “In 2009 or 2010, fine dining seems like it hit its zenith, and just died. It seemed like everything [after] that was being done was regurgitated and plagiarized.”  

photo credit: Jeremy Enlow

At the turn of the century, Lancarte said that Fort Worth was a city with a small-town feel. There were few independent restaurants in town. The restaurant “scene” was such that even chain openings seemed like a big deal. Lanny’s Alta Cocina Mexicana was an expression of its owner’s creativity, and it filled a void in Fort Worth. “Things changed as [Fort Worth] started to grow… it brought more diners to the table. We were still kind of a sleepy town when we opened. [Alta Cocina Mexicana was] was closed on Sundays and Mondays because there was absolutely no reason to be open. There were no diners out there. We could probably have been closed on Tuesday and Wednesday also.”  

Lancarte knows that Fort Worthians have always been interested in food but have traditionally patronized the same few restaurants that they have gone to since they were children. Compared to markets like Los Angeles or New York, Fort Worth’s restaurant industry is still in its infancy, but as new and more residents arrive, Lancarte expects to see more diversity and creativity in the food scene.

“When your audience is small, you can only have so much fun,” he said. “[In bigger cities] you can do something totally unique and funky, and you’d have an audience of people who’ll get it and be into it.” 

When Lancarte got married, he had to take a break from extended international tasting trips but staying closer to home rekindled his passion for outdoor sports. The avid snowboarder and cyclist also changed his restaurant. Righteous Foods emphasizes innovative healthy dishes which caters primarily to breakfast and lunch diners. Righteous Foods doesn’t require the late nights commonly associated with running a restaurant. “I didn’t want to work late every night, weekends, and holidays anymore.”  

Both Lanny’s Alta Cocina Mexicana and Righteous Foods were and are primarily focused on traditional sit-in dining, with catering and pickup as afterthoughts. As his family life evolved, the chef evolved as well, spending time training for endurance racing on his road bicycle and pouring himself into new dining possibilities. 

The idea for his first ghost kitchen grew out of another major life transition as the parent of two children. Lancarte and his wife Raven noticed that they were ordering food out more frequently. The father of two, who in his free time coaches his daughter’s soccer team, saw the need for something fans of good food can partner with their parenting lifestyles.  

Photo courtesy of Lanny Lancarte

The concept of a ghost kitchen is new to Fort Worth but has been around for several years. “They’ve been on the coasts… [they] started as a real estate play from tech investors who were buying… locations and carving them into small spaces for 20 or 30 microkitchens to operate,” Lanny explained. “They were leveraging the technology to exclusively deliver through third-party vendors like Door Dash, mostly in the fast-food genre.”  

The ghost concept is geared towards the busy weekday diner. After all, our busy lives tend to make it easier to go through a drive through even if we’re craving our favorite restaurant. “During the week most [traditional] restaurants are kind of slower, so during the weekdays [a ghost kitchen] provides an option for people who are leaving work for their kids’ practice or rehearsal that isn’t Chick-Fil-A or Whataburger.” The food is also intended to be more approachable, to be enjoyed on the go, and to feed a group watching a football game or a hungry soccer team. 

Lancarte was intrigued by the idea of a ghost kitchen and decided it was just what Fort Worth needed. “I began working on Eat Fajitas back in 2017,” when Raven was expecting their second child. The chef knew a kitchen offering high quality food for delivery was something other parents would want in their lives. The problem was finding a space from which to launch Eat Fajitas permanently.

COVID-19 sped up the plans for Eat Fajitas. Like many restauranteurs, Lancarte wanted to keep as many of his employees working as possible through the shutdown. Every staff member became a potential delivery driver for either Eat Fajitas or Righteous Foods. “It’s different having a friendly, trained, and uniformed employee of the restaurant you’re ordering from to deliver your food… it makes for a better experience.”  

While the original ghost kitchens were born to partner with third-party delivery services, Lancarte sought a different, and according to him, better design. Everything from his kitchens is delivered by the kitchens’ employees, with all accoutrements branded for a consistent experience. “We saw a lot of questionable things with pick-up services. One driver picked up an order from Righteous and took it into the bathroom with her… when she came out, we had to stop her and remake the entire order,” Lancarte recounted in horror. He wouldn’t specify which service the driver worked for, but he said they tried to train ones that regularly picked up to preserve the best possible customer experience.  

photo credit: Jeremy Enlow

Eat Fajitas might seem like a natural progression for someone from the Joe T’s family, but additional ghost concepts are coming, and they’re coming quickly. Lancarte has secured a location near his family’s restaurant on the North Side and is preparing to deliver chicken and pizza as well. The facility, located in a former Methodist church built in the 1930s, received its final inspections the day before we spoke, and he’s preparing to migrate the fajita concept from Righteous Foods to join his other micro kitchens. El Pollo Tocayo will feature smoked or fried chicken with sides cooked with a Mexican flair, while Pizza Zapasta will offer pizza on house-made thick or thin crusts garnished with plays on classical Mexican ingredients. These three concepts (for now) make up Lancarte’s Fantasma Kitchens.

Lancarte, despite his hectic lifestyle of parenting, partnering, and running his expanding restaurant empire, is still a big sports fan. While the TCU alum doesn’t consider himself a Frog Football fanatic because he doesn’t have season tickets, he admits that’s only because he used to spend so much time working weekends that he didn’t have the opportunity to attend many games. Now he and Raven, who is a Texas Wesleyan alumna, try to take their kids to as many football games as possible. The family also frequents TCU basketball games, for which they do have season tickets.

While he obviously enjoys football and basketball, Lancarte’s eyes lit up when our conversation turned to hockey. He energetically described trying to rig a television to watch the Dallas Stars’ Stanley Cup games on the Joe T’s patio, and he reminisced about the restaurant’s recreational hockey team. “In the late 90s, we had a hockey team for three seasons. One of the Fort Worth Fire [a semi-pro team which played from 1992-1997] coaches was friends with a guy who worked there.” When his life slows down, if it ever does, he’s hoping to pick up permanent seats for the Stars’ games in the American Airlines Center. 

Gameday eating, even from an award-winning chef, is typically unremarkable. Lancarte said if his family is at home watching a game alone, they’ll probably order food to avoid cleaning the kitchen. If they’re entertaining, the menu is largely dependent on their guests’ tastes. “We make wings and traditional things but might make little tweaks like cooking it over a live fire, or lamb ribs instead of pork ribs.” Lancarte admitted that he’s gotten carried away with some high-end modifications to traditional spreads when they hosted Super Bowl parties in the balmy pre-pandemic days. He is, after all, a chef, and chefs tend to go a little crazy when they’re cooking for friends.

Ever the entrepreneur, Lancarte has his eyes on promoting his new concepts through TCU athletes. Now that the NCAA’s Name, Image, and Likeness rules have changed, he’s planning on opening his doors to Horned Frogs to sample his dishes and possibly develop a promotional relationship.

Lanny Lancarte grew up in the Fort Worth restaurant world, but he feels he’s just getting started in the ghost kitchen world. But he’s already planning on expanding his ghostly dynasty and hopes to carry as many as five concepts out of his repurposed church on the North Side. There is even the possibility for an event space or even a small dine-in patio. “To me, [the North Side] is home – it’s cool, it’s funky, and it’s been largely ignored.”  

photo credit: Jeremy Enlow

Fort Worth is an old city, and like many old cities, it has its fair share of ghosts. Now it seems that kitchen ghosts (or ghost kitchens) are carrying new life into an old neighborhood. 

Buck Elliott is a DFW native and graduate of TCU and UTA. He’s also an alumnus of Joe T. Garcias. During the day, he’s a full-time teacher and varsity tennis coach at Denton’s Billy Ryan High School. After hours, he’s usually at home spending quality time with his wife, Madeworthy’s own Jackie Elliott, or his three rambunctious children. Otherwise, he’s acquiring a new injury at a local CrossFit affiliate, or writing his sports column for The Fort Worth Weekly. His love for TCU and educational policies fuel his passion for writing about sports, social justice, and everything in between.

The post The Ghosts of Kitchens Past and Future first appeared on Tanglewood Moms.

TCU baseball coach Kirk Saarloos in Fort Worth, Texas on June 15, 2021. Photo courtesy of TCU Athletics.

Just in time for summer, Fort Worth has crowned a new king of baseball. TCU announced Kirk Saarloos as the new head baseball coach on June 15. Despite numerous demands from media outlets and a full recruiting season ahead, Saarloos spent the weekend following the announcement celebrating his 19^th anniversary with his wife Kristen by vacationing at Barton Creek outside of Austin.

The Father’s Day holiday is a no-recruiting weekend for the NCAA, but rest is in short supply for the couple who met thanks to a blind date contrived by the coach’s cousin during their college days. In addition to raising three children – Brady (14), Emery (11), and Lane (7) – their extended family of more than 35 adopted college-aged sons keeps life moving fast.

An All-American pitcher for Cal State Fullerton, Saarloos is a relief pitching specialist who spent seven years with Major League Baseball playing for the Astros, the Athletics, and the Reds. Saarloos might be new to the role of head coach, but his talents for coaching and recruiting have been appreciated by Frog fans since he joined the staff as an assistant back in 2013.

Friends wishing to congratulate the new first family of baseball will have to wait; July’s recruiting obligations demand Saarloos hit the road to find the next generation of TCU players to take the diamond. While Kirk is on the road in the summer, Kristen uses the time to return to her hometown of Seattle to connect with family and enjoy a reprieve from Fort Worth’s trademark heat.

“She’s a single mom most of the time; a lot of times she’s good cop, bad cop, everything,” Saarloos said of his wife. “[She’s] phenomenal in terms of being supportive, and [she does] a great job raising our kids.”

TCU baseball coach Kirk Saarloos in Fort Worth, Texas on June 15, 2021. Photo courtesy of TCU Athletics.

When home, Saarloos’ tries to be as present as possible. The cell phone, which Saarloos called his best friend and his worst enemy, is something he avoids during quality time. Family nights and unscheduled evenings, when possible, are a must for the Saarloos crew.

Even with his demanding job, the new head coach believes in dedicating individual time to each of his children. Lane, who Saarloos calls his Texas Tornado (and the only native Texan in the bunch), will sometimes join her dad on team road trips without Mom or siblings in tow. “She doesn’t lack confidence and [she] loves being around the players,” Saarloos said of his youngest.

When he is asked by parents how to best prepare their children for a shot at collegiate or professional athletics, Saarloos has two words of wisdom: “Play everything.” As a former three-sport high school athlete, Saarloos understands that parents want to give their children to excel, but he remains adamant about the value of letting kids try anything they’re interested in without finding a single focus too early. “That way when you do want to specialize, maybe late in high school, you’re already a really good athlete.”

“Play everything” is especially important considering the meteoric rise of overuse injuries in teen athletes who have played only one sport or position through several consecutive seasons. The former major leaguer credits part of his career to his experience in a variety of sports; playing different sports and positions gave him a competitive edge. “You can get hurt doing anything. Play it all, have fun, be a kid.”

The coach also cautioned parents against expensive national travel leagues and applauded the quality of Texas’ in-state tournaments. “If [they’re] good, your kid is going to be found,” Saarloos asserted. Due to the accessibility of social media and HUDL (a sports-specific scouting and recruiting software), “there are no hidden gems; everybody knows about everybody.”

When asked about his coaching style, Coach Saarloos said that he approaches coaching the same way he tries to be a husband and a father.

“You have to be firm, but you have to be fair.” Sarloos said. “Instead of raising three kids of my own, I’m raising 35 to 40 kids. I have to be fair and firm sometimes, and I have to be soft sometimes. There’s not going to be a one-stop shop on how to do things.”

Buck Elliott is a DFW native and graduate of TCU and UTA. He’s also an alumnus of Joe T. Garcias. During the day, he’s a full-time teacher and varsity tennis coach at Denton’s Billy Ryan High School. After hours, he’s usually at home spending quality time with his wife, TWM’s own Jackie Elliott, or his three rambunctious children. Otherwise, he’s acquiring a new injury at a local CrossFit affiliate, or writing his sports column for The Fort Worth Weekly. His love for TCU and educational policies fuel his passion for writing about sports, social justice, and everything in between.

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