Fleck has WMU rowing together

— -- KALAMAZOO, Mich. -- The youngest head coach in the country is elite. Just ask him.

"How ya doin', Coach?" a familiar barista greets soon-to-be 34-year-old Western Michigan coach P.J. Fleck.

"I'm elite," he replies, before proclaiming that the order at the drive-thru is on Coach's tab this morning.

Thank-yous go around. So, too, do congratulations, as Fleck has just been named to the semifinalist list for a national coach of the year award. There are also, of course, the good-luck wishes. Fleck's team is four days away from a Black Friday contest against Northern Illinois, the four-time reigning MAC champion and Fleck's alma mater.

A win, at the very least, would complete the Broncos' improbable rise from worst to first in the West division, from a 1-11 campaign in Fleck's debut season to a 9-3 mark in his second.

Success has arrived so fast for Fleck, whose personal tragedy and rapid ascent up the coaching ladder are sources for the seemingly light-hearted mantra that has come to define this overexuberant coach and his emerging program: "Row The Boat."