January 16, 2025

Mount Ayr’s Yoder celebrates with Warriors

Assistant trainer calls experience ‘surreal’

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It’s not unusual for Drew Yoder to be on an airplane. It’s his life for the better part of eight months a year.

But there was some special cargo on his flight to Oakland, Calif., Wednesday afternoon.

Upon touchdown at Oakland International Airport, Yoder was part of the Golden State Warriors crew traveling back from Cleveland to show adoring fans the NBA’s Larry O’Brien trophy. The team and employees landed at 3:15 p.m. PDT after a night-long celebration and nearly five-hour flight back to the Bay Area.

Yoder, a 2004 Mount Ayr Community High School graduate, was part of the team staff accompanying NBA MVP Andre Iguodala, NBA MVP Steph Curry and the rest of the Warriors after Tuesday night’s 105-97 victory in Game 6 that clinched the NBA Finals series against the host Cleveland Cavaliers.

It was the Warriors’ first NBA title in 40 years, ending a dismal 39-year period in which the team missed the playoffs 30 of those years and won a grand total of five playoff series during that span.

“It’s still a little surreal,” said Yoder, 29, the team’s assistant athletic trainer. “Right after the game they bring out the stage real quick, and make all the presentations up there. Everybody was just hugging each other. The length of this season wears you down, and finally everybody could take a deep breath. It was all worth it!”

The Warriors had the league’s best record during the regular season, and Cleveland suffered two key injuries in the playoffs to Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving. Yet, the Cavs held a 2-1 edge in the final series and the title dream seemed in jeopardy.

Iguodala, who accepted his role as sixth man during the regular season, re-entered the starting lineup in Game 4 and ended up beating out LeBron James and his own teammate, Curry, as the NBA Finals MVP.

Yoder, a basketball and golf athlete at Mount Ayr, said the lineup adjustment was just one example of the effectiveness of first-year coach Steve Kerr.

“He knows how to put the right pieces together,” Yoder said. “Just like when he put his staff together. He knows the game extremely well, but as a first-year coach, he brought in great experience with (associate head coach) Alvin Gentry and Ron Adams, and younger guys like Luke Walton and Jarron Collins, who could relate with the guys really well. The great thing about coach Kerr is, he’s straightforward with everybody, and he trusts people to do their jobs. He’s great to work for.”

Yoder said it was a long night of celebration for everybody who was part of the Warriors’ traveling party.

“Back in the locker room there must have been 200 bottles of champagne,” Yoder said. “Everything in there was covered up, and champagne was everywhere. Harrison Barnes had said during the season that he would have his first drink of alcohol, ever, if we won the title. So, he had some champagne and the guys were having fun with him. The season is such a marathon, and once you hit the playoffs the intensity is so high in every game, that it’s just a big relief to be done and to end on top.”

The locker room was cleared out by about 2 a.m. eastern time.

Team dinner

“Steph and Andre had a lot of media obligations, and they had the trophy in a room with professional photographers and guys with the team could have their pictures taken with it,” Yoder said. “We went back to the hotel and then had a team dinner at Morton’s Steakhouse. We rented out the place and stayed until about 4 a.m. Eventually we shut everything down about 6 in the morning and we had to be on the plane at noon. I can’t even explain the emotions everyone had at that team meal, thinking back to the start of the season and how everyone wanted to finish like that.”

For a team to succeed, the players need to be in top form, and that’s where Yoder and head athletic trainer JoHan Wang are involved. For home games, there are also team physicians available, but for day-to-day rehabilitation, recovery and treatment of assorted ailments, Yoder is on duty.

“Counting the preseason, we played 111 games this year,” Yoder said. “It’s so hard to get it done night in and night out. My boss and I manage all the injuries and illnesses, the total health care of all 15 guys. These guys work so hard to stay ahead of it. Harrison Barnes has a routine he puts his body through every day to get ready to play, and he’s so focused about it. He’s definitely someone for the kids in Iowa to look up to.”

Iowa ties

Barnes is an Ames High School graduate who went on to play at North Carolina. On one off-season visit back home, Yoder saw a sportsmanship poster hanging in Mount Ayr Community High School and took a picture of it to send to Barnes’ teammates.

“I said, look, I can’t even go back home without seeing this guy!” Yoder said. “He takes it great. There is just great chemistry among the guys on this team. That makes it even better, because I’m guessing it’s not that way on every NBA team.”

Besides getting ready for Friday’s championship parade in downtown Oakland, Yoder’s work is not finished. He was already at the team’s facility for awhile Wednesday after the team arrived.

“We have guys leaving, doing their exit physicals,” Yoder said. “We want to make sure everything is taken care of, injury-wise, before heading off for the summer. We’ve had guys coming in for pre-draft workouts, and then after the draft we’ll have guys on our summer league team in Las Vegas, so we’ll be out there with them.”

Finally, in July and August, Yoder has some time to come home for awhile and take a vacation before the grind resumes in late September to begin his third season with the organization.

“It’s been great hearing from everybody back home, especially during the playoffs,” Yoder said. “A lot of people said they really don’t follow the NBA, but because of me they were rooting for Golden State to win. That was nice.”

It’s the second time in a year that someone with Mount Ayr ties has taken a high-level position in Bay Area professional athletics. Trent Bartling, son of former Mount Ayr Community High School principal Darrel Bartling, became manager of ticket operations for Levi’s Stadium, home of the San Francisco 49ers, in May 2014.

Yoder is also the second person with Mount Ayr ties to win a national championship in the past year. Ezekiel Elliott, son of Dawn and Stacy Elliott, was MVP of Ohio State’s football championship over Oregon in January. Dawn (Huff) Elliott is a graduate of Mount Ayr Community High School and the 1990 Des Moines Register Female Athlete of the Year in Iowa.

Brother’s footsteps

Yoder’s older brother Brandon, who went to high school in Mount Ayr with Creston athletic trainer Chris Leonard, is director of sports medicine at Marquette University. He oversees all of the athletic trainers there, and directly handles the men’s basketball training duties.

Drew said he wanted to stay involved in athletics somehow, and followed his brother’s vocational pursuits.

“I always looked up to him and I thought it would be interesting work,” Yoder said. “I graduated from Kansas State in 2008 and then went to the University of Missouri for grad school, and got a grad assistant position for the football team for two years while getting my master’s.”

The job market was tight in 2010 and Yoder ended up taking an internship with Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. While working there, he got connected with the Dallas Mavericks, who used SMU facilities for their training camp.

“I helped them out and I was their contact person for the training staff,” Yoder said. “They were looking for a game-day intern and I ended up doing that, along with working for SMU. The Mavericks won a title (2010-11) too, but I was in a much smaller role for them at that time than what I do now. I didn’t even travel with them.”

Still, he did such a good job that he was recommended to Golden State when the Warriors had a training staff job opening.

“My boss, now, called me and asked if I’d interested in working for the Warriors,” Yoder said. “I had kind of set my eyes on working in college for football or basketball, but I thought it sounded like too good of an opportunity to pass up. The guys with the Mavericks are a huge part of why I’m here now.”

Living in Berkeley Hills, just north of the University of California, and heading to work at the Golden State Warriors facility is a big change from driving north from the family farm to Mount Ayr High School every day. But Yoder hasn’t forgotten his roots.

“Now when I go back home, it seems so different, because I’ve been living in the bigger areas for so long,” he said. “But I still appreciate where I came from. Harrison and I talk about Iowa all the time. We’re grateful for the communities we were raised in. I love Mount Ayr.”

And, now, Mount Ayr loves the Golden State Warriors.