General | 10/12/2020 10:00:00 AM

WAVERLY, Iowa - The Wartburg College Athletics Hall of Fame Committee announced the class of 2020 inductees in July – Hannah (Baker) Bombei (women's track & field), Dan Hammes (football), Andy Hodge (men's cross country/track & field), Katie (Rapp) Houston (women's soccer) Collin Lane (men's soccer), Dusty Rhodes (wrestling), Matt Scherbring (baseball), Ryan Sturm (wrestling), and Bob Wachholz (football/men's track & field).

Wartburg Sports Information will be taking a closer look into each Wartburg 2020 Hall of Fame Inductees and their accomplishments as a Knight. Next up, Collin Lane from Muscatine, Iowa who competed in men's soccer during his time at Wartburg in the early 2000's. 

One of the top goalkeepers in Wartburg men's soccer history, Collin Lane earned four letters from 2001-04, graduating in 2005. The program's all-time shutout leader (20), Lane registered a 42-15-4 career record between the pipes, has made the most starts in program history with 64, and twice tallied Wartburg single-season records with eight shutouts in a season (2002, 2004). With over 400 career saves, Lane was a three-year team captain and helped guide the Knights to a pair of Iowa Conference tournaments titles (2003-04) along with Wartburg's first IIAC regular season crown and NCAA Tournament 'Elite 8' appearance during his senior year in 2004. Lane closed out his career with First Team All-Conference, First Team All-Region, and Third Team All-America honors in 2004 while setting a school record with a 0.56 goals against average, allowing just 11 goals in 24 games played. Collin is currently the Director of Programs at Junior Achievement of Central Iowa and is the head boy's soccer coach at Dallas Center-Grimes High School. He resides in Grimes, Iowa with his wife Jannae (Holubar) '05 and their children, Addy and Cora.

Q & A With Collin Lane

Q: What are some of you favorite memories from your time at Wartburg? 
Some of the highlights were probably just our 2004 season as a whole. When I think about some of the memories I have of games and of times with all the teammates, I think of that season. We were on the top of our game and we had such a great roster of players and everyone was really tight with each other. On the academic side, I was an elementary education major and seeing your professors on the sidelines cheering you on and supporting Wartburg soccer was a pretty special thing. You don't see that very often at a lot of places and there is usually a huge separation between athletics and education. At Wartburg, the teachers support you both at games and in the classroom and it was pretty cool to be a part of that environment. 

Q: Have you kept up with the soccer program since you left? 
More so when Kirk Artist was the head coach. Not only was he a teammate of mine, he was in my wedding as a groomsman. Coach Madigan and I are in close contact with each other since I am the head coach of Dallas Center-Grimes High School. He and I talk consistently and he always comes up and does a Wartburg clinic for our high school boys right before our season. I haven't been able to get up to campus as much with young kids but hope to now that they are older. My wife and I are excited to get up there every year once this COVID stuff gets out of here. Kids really throw in a wrench on how many times you can get away but now that they are old enough, it opens up some doors for us to reconnect. 

Q: What was it like helping Wartburg win its first IIAC regular season crown and NCAA 'Elite 8' appearance during your senior year?
That was a crazy year. We knew that it would be our best year in terms of who we had on our lineup. I was a senior and so was Verne Houston and we had a lot of solid senior players. Coach [Jim] Conlon, who was the head coach at the time, did a great job of recruiting for four years and that helped lead to that success. Verne and I ended up playing for a semi-pro team the summer before called the Sioux Falls Spitfire. I remember coming back that summer for my senior season and noticed a big jump in my game and I was just a different kid and player, so was Verne. I even remember our second round game that was out in Calvin College in Michigan, two of the players that Verne and I played with in South Dakota were now competing against us. It was one of those epic battles and it was an intense game against Calvin. It was probably one of the best games that I played that season, which helped us get past the second round and ultimately into the Elite 8.

Q: What was it like earning All-American honors during your senior season and setting a school record with a 0.56 goals against average? 
The All-Conference and All-Region honors came out early right after the season, so that was exciting. I remember sitting at Kirk Artist's house with a bunch of soccer guys and Kirk goes 'congratulations man'. I had no idea what he was talking about and when he told me I got All-American, I was in shock. It was totally out of the blue but I was tremendously honored to receive it. I think about that experience and my teammates consistently. Ian MacNaughton, who probably shows up in the book as the backup but Ian could've been a starting goalkeeper anywhere else in our conference. He was solid and I was scared of him freshman year because he was a big Texas goalkeeper that was playing at the highest levels and doing well. Then as I started to gain more minutes than he did, he was still a great friend and the best teammate I could ask for. You have a unique perspective as a goalie. I get to see everyone on the field and see how it all fits together. There is a lot of guys that don't necessarily get mentioned much but if they were off the field we would be a different team entirely. Those are the things I think about, watching all those players play and how well the team meshed and the high caliber group of guys we had. It's just awe inspiriting quite honestly. It is the best memories I have in my life besides my family. 

Q: What has life been like for you since leaving Wartburg? 
Receiving All-American honors my senior year led to my first big life decision after I graduated. I had a job waiting for me in Des Moines public schools as a teacher, which was guaranteed money. Or I was at the top of my soccer game and I could pursue that route. I was confident that if I had devoted my time and energy into traveling and trying out, I was sure I could've started somewhere and worked my way into who knows what. Ultimately, I decided to start the career and since then it has been amazing. I've coached soccer every year since. I was the goalkeeper coach at Wartburg during my first year out of college. Then, the goalkeeper coach at Simpson College for a couple of years, high school coach at Norwalk and now I've been at Dallas Center-Grimes for about seven years and head coach for three of those years. I've just been trying to contribute to the soccer community and to the sport that I love. 

Q: Who were some of the people at Wartburg that made your time memorable?
My teammates first and foremost. All of them were phenomenal and the upper classmen when I was a freshman were amazing. Jim Conlon was the best support system that you could have as a player. I feel like he knew me inside and out and knew what I needed. He knew who to push, who not to push and how to support his players. The professors as well, I can't say enough about them. How flexible they were with just the education part of things. You build those relationships with the professors just like you do with your teammates because it's a small place, small school and a small town. They know who you are and know what you are about. I remember I accidently slept in and missed a presentation. I think at most universities that is going to be a zero but that professor called me and made sure that I was okay because I have never been late before. That kind of stuff just doesn't happen at most places unless everyone there truly cares. I just had a lot of good experiences overall that I can remember and nothing really anything bad.

Q: What do you miss most about Wartburg and the soccer program?
I miss the camaraderie. I still see most of my teammates today. We are 16 years out of college and most of the guys I still see and interact with. Since we can't really celebrate the Hall of Fame stuff right now, we are thinking about having a big trip to Las Vegas in the future for all the soccer guys. Just to connect and celebrate and try to catch up from the last few years. You don't feel like you ever lost touch with the guys. I feel like I've lost a little bit of touch with the school, which I am excited to reconnect. The guys are always there and that is what I miss most. I miss hanging out, tough practices, traveling with the team and the intensity and focus of those games.