Sports Spotlight on KFYR-TV North Dakota's NBC News Leader

Aaron Grinsteinner

Scott Westerberg

11/4/2009

There`s an important high school event at the Badlands Activity Center this weekend.

A playoff football game.

It`s not that unusual for a father to coach his son, but at Trinity High School, Aaron Grinsteinner has his dad both on the football field and the basketball court.

Growing up, Aaron Grinsteinner watched his dad, Gregg, coach both football and basketball at Dickinson Trinity. Now Gregg and Aaron are getting to share the Titans success together.

"I came to Trinity games cause my Dad`s been coaching for a long time and I`ve been watching them be successful and it`s always been a dream of mine to be a successful team and have him coach us," says Aaron.

Having your father as your assistant coach in the fall and your head coach in the winter has both it`s advantages and disadvantages.

"It`s good and bad because you get to have that personal relationship with him, but then you get done with practice and you go home and then you have to talk about practice," Aaron says. "Sometimes it`s not the thing I want to do the most cause I get critiqued at practice and at home, but overall it`s really nice to have that."

And there`s no questioning whether Aaron gets any special treatment just because his dad`s the coach.

"We have an understanding about that," says Gregg. "You need to know that I`m not going to cut you any slack and I think that a lot of coaches take that situation the same way. People think he`s getting special privileges because he is your son, but I`m a lot harder on him than I am other kids."

But after eight months of being together in football and basketball sometimes the spring season can`t come fast enough.

"Track season`s a nice break," says Aaron. "Get away from him a little bit."

But the one thing the elder Grinsteinner says he`s trying to do is soak up these last few months coaching his son.

"When the season`s going on it`s always critique or how can we get better, and I think it`s one thing I`ve been learning to do this year," says Gregg. "We`ll see what happens in basketball season, but that`s one thing I`ve learned to do this football season is be a little bit more of a fan and just enjoy the talent that he has."

And they both agree their passion for football and basketball has helped strengthen their relationship as father and son.

Grinsteinner and the Titans host Fargo Shanley in the Double "A" semifinals on Saturday.

Game time is set for 1:00 p.m. Mountain Time.

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