Some call him coach Windle, others call him Matt and a few call him Professor Windle.

“We call him DJ Windy because of his former DJ status,” sophomore Heather Gruber said.

He is Matt Windle: head softball coach, assistant volleyball coach, FY professor and former disc jockey.

Before Windle came to Baker, he worked as an announcer and managed a few bar and grills. Then worked as a paraprofessional at a junior high, were he began his coaching career.

When Free State High School opened in Lawrence, he took an assistant volleyball coach position and stayed there for 13 years. While at Free State, Windle coached Kelsey Allen, the daughter of Baker University head volleyball coach Kathy Allen. After he resigned from Free State, Allen offered him a graduate assistant position as her assistant volleyball coach at Baker.

Allen said it was obvious Windle should be coaching.

“He’s smart, he’s conscientious, he’s loyal, he knows his stuff, he really cares about the kids and truthfully, I don’t think you could ask for a better coach,” Allen said. “We’re very, very lucky to have him.”

After a year as an assistant coach, the head softball coach position opened at BU, and Windle was quick to apply.

“It was a good way for me to just be on campus full time,” Windle said. “So, when the job came up, I told them that would be something I’d be interested in.”

Between the two coaching positions, Windle spends a tremendous amount of time at Baker, but at the university he enjoys the time spent here.

“(Coaching is) the greatest job in the world. I get to come into my office, I’m doing something different everyday,” Windle said.

Despite splitting his time between volleyball and softball, as well as teaching an FY class to Baker’s newest students some semesters, Windle manages his time well.

“When it really comes down to it, when it’s our season, it’s our time. He’s 100 percent focused on us and does what he has to do for us,” Gruber said.

When Windle isn’t coaching or teaching, he spends time with his wife, Austyn, plays volleyball for a team in Kansas City and enjoys listening to music.

“Music is also a passion,” Windle said. “I listen to new music, old music. I guess that would be my stress reliever.”

Both Allen and Gruber said Windle’s inner-DJ comes out quite often.

“He knows every word, to every song ever written in history and he will happily sing those at the top of his lungs,” Kathy Allen said.