Windy City Bulls head basketball coach has a unique history
There are plenty of interesting things about Nate Loenser, who was named head coach of the D-League's Windy City Bulls on Thursday.
It just happens that one of them tends to jump out at people right away.
Loenser, 37, was born with a partial left arm. He was a multisport athlete in high school, managed to play one year of college baseball and jumped around to a wide variety of jobs in the basketball world.
He just did it all with one arm. And he's perfectly fine if that's the first thing people notice about him.
"I'm very comfortable with who I am," Loenser said. "I don't look at it as a handicap. I don't ever use that word. I don't look at it as a disability. I have the perspective that this was essentially how I was made, this is how I was born. I've never had it any other way.
"I used to be an elementary school P.E. teacher. I've dealt with different reactions all my life and a common question is, 'How you do things with one hand?' My response is, 'How do you do things with two hands?' - because I've never done it."
As a kid, Loenser learned to tie his shoes with one hand, just as he figured out how to play baseball, basketball, football and golf at Northern University High School in Cedar Falls, Iowa. He also took on a couple of musical instruments, learning the cello and tuba. His parents, Larry and Genie, wanted him to be well-rounded.
"I don't know when or how it started," Loenser said. "For whatever reason, I had a passion for sports. I liked sports. I liked watching sports. I liked baseball cards, football cards, basketball cards. I liked studying it."
In some ways, Loenser has plenty in common with Chicago Bulls coach Fred Hoiberg. Both grew up in an Iowa college town and were multisport, star athletes in high school. Hoiberg is from Ames, home of Iowa State, while Loenser hails from Cedar Falls, home of Northern Iowa.
Loenser's high school football squad played its home games at the UNI Dome, the same building used by the college team. He played wide receiver as a junior, using a prosthetic on his left arm that had a rubber suction cup on the end of it. As a senior, he played mostly free safety and nearly set the school record for tackles.
In baseball, a coach switched him from a right- to left-handed batter. Loenser struggled at first, but hit nearly .600 as a senior. In college at Iowa State, he successfully walked on to the baseball team for one season, was used frequently as a pinch-runner and walked in his only plate appearance.
After college, Loenser worked for former Iowa State basketball coach Larry Eustachy at Southern Mississippi, as director of basketball operations and a variety of other tasks. He returned to Iowa and became a high school coach, then found inspiration from Hoiberg. He quit the high school job to become a graduate assistant for Hoiberg at Iowa State.
"My path has been up, down, side to side," Loenser said. "I was at Southern Miss for six years. I moved to Iowa and was a high school coach. I enjoyed it but I missed college."
Two years later, Hoiberg left Iowa State to coach the Bulls and tabbed Loenser to serve as the team's video coordinator. Loenser said the organization approached him about becoming head coach of the team's D-League expansion franchise, which will play at the Sears Centre in Hoffman Estates. The Windy City Bulls will make their home debut on Nov. 11.
"I know he will be a great asset in an expanded role in our organization," Hoiberg said. "His relationships with our players, ability to relate to people, developmental background and knowledge of our system, as well as his coaching background, make him a natural fit. I have leaned heavily on Nate the past three years."
Loenser plans to implement Hoiberg's system in Hoffman Estates. A trait unique to coaching in the D-League, however, is the players can change frequently. It's impossible to predict how often Windy City will utilize players from the NBA Bulls roster.
"We don't really know what our roster is yet. That's sort of the nature of what our team is and what it's always going to be," Loenser said. "There's got to be some sense of an identity, which we will have, regardless of who the players are. There's going to be a blueprint of what we do and how we do things."
During his year as video coordinator, Hoiberg felt comfortable with Loenser handling a variety of tasks. He helped with scouting, player development and contributed to the playbook on offense and defense.
For Loenser, leading a new D-League franchise fulfills his goal of being a coach, but is mostly just another challenge on a unique path through life.
"I was with coach Eustachy at Southern Miss, who was a very well-known defensive coach," Loenser said. "Then I've been fortunate the last three years to be with one of the most brilliant offensive minds in the world, in my opinion (with Hoiberg). I've been very, very lucky to be around some great coaches and that's how I've ended up here."
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