Name – Nick Sattler
UW-Stout graduation year – 2002
Major – Business Administration
Sport(s) Played – Baseball
Years Played – 1998-2002
Hometown (High School) – Wausau, WI (Wausau East High School)
Currently Reside – Mendota Heights, MN
Give us a brief synopsis of your life since graduating from UW-Stout?
After graduation in May of '02, I moved to the Twin Cities and took an outside sales position with Heinz North America. I was responsible for selling Heinz foodservice products (like ketchup) through distributors like Sysco Minnesota and Sysco North Dakota. My girlfriend Brenna Jones (now wife) was from St. Paul and had graduated the semester before me and was living and working there. We got engaged during Christmas of 2002 and were married in November of 2003. We now have two kids (Kira age 13 and Ben age 11) and live in Mendota Heights, MN which is just south of St. Paul. In 2010 I took a position with VerticalXchange which is a technology search firm specializing in helping companies and their C-Level executives find strategic relationships and partnership opportunities in many different industries. I currently am the Executive Director and a Partner in the company and oversee sales for our food process engineering, design build mechanical engineering, and commercial/residential building divisions. I work with senior engineers and executives from companies like Tyson Foods, Carrier, JBS Swift, Mitsubishi/TRANE, and Hines Property Group with purchasing needs, capital projects, and sales opportunities.
How are you using your Stout education in your occupation? In your daily life?
When I initially went to college, I had no idea what I wanted to do other than play baseball. I was a competitive person who liked to talk to people and enjoyed working to make money. My mother suggested that I take some general business classes to start and to see if anything resonated. During my sophomore year, I took a sales class from professor Thor Burntvedt and learned that I could make money by convincing people to do or try things that could help them and I knew that was what I wanted to do. I spoke with him about creating an emphasis area in Sales & Marketing for my business degree and the rest was history. Dr. Anne Kelly Hoel was also another professor of mine that I truly enjoyed and helped guide me to a career in sales.
Now, at VerticalXchange, I get the chance to recruit and work with "buyers" like the Senior Director of Engineering for Tyson Foods. He allows me to represent his capital projects and needs in his processing facilities nationwide and it's my job to uncover potential solution providers. I then sell the opportunity to meet with him to those various solution providers and their senior sales teams that believe they have a solution for those needs. It's kind of like matchmaking for business.
Nick Sattler
Why did you choose to be a collegiate student-athlete at UW-Stout?
I was looking at a few other schools to play baseball at after high school, but both of my parents went to UW-Stout and they wanted me to take a visit. After going on a tour with Coach (Terry) Petrie, he asked me to come to his office with my dad. We were sitting there, and he gave me his pitch about Stout and how I would fit into the team. Then, to end his pitch, he says "there is one last thing" and he gets out of his seat and goes into a file cabinet where he pulls out a black and white picture of a guy in a Stout uniform in a pitchers stance. After looking at the picture for a minute, I looked over at my father who was nodding and grinning. Coach Petrie then said to me, "you will be my second, second generation player when you come here." The picture was of my father as a senior who had also played for Petrie when he was at Stout and I was hooked.
If I remember correctly, your father attended Stout and played baseball here. How did that affect your decision to attend Stout…or did it?
Yes, my father did play for UW-Stout and was very good. Coach Petrie told me once that my father got two wins and a save pitching for a team that only won four games. I know that when I graduated in 2002, he was still in the top 10 for most of the career pitching categories in the school history. I also think it is pretty cool that we both got to play college baseball for the same coach in Coach Petrie.
What did you like most about competing in collegiate athletics??
My teammates. We had a group of guys and a culture that I think was different from a lot of other universities. We would work hard in practice and played hard outside of practice. Everything we did was together, and we always had each other's backs like brothers.
I also liked the competition college athletics provided. Not only would we have to compete in the games, but we also had to compete in practice just so we could play in those games. As a catcher, competing with guys like Eddie Young and Justin Biever every day was tough, but I think we made each other better in the long run because of it.
What is the greatest lesson you learned from being a collegiate student-athlete?
Time management. In addition to playing baseball and going to school, I had to pay my tuition which meant I had to have a job during my time at Stout. During the spring semester of my junior year at Stout, I took 17 credits, played baseball, and worked about 30+ hours a week bartending at The Buck and working in the clubhouse at Chippewa Valley Golf Club. I did not have much free time, but I learned how to manage my time and I actually got some of the best grades of my college career while I was the busiest.
Who was the most influential person(s) in your athletic career?
My father. He was my coach from when I was little up until I was 16 years old and then he was my No. 1 fan. He was at every game after he stopped coaching and we always had long talks after the games were finished. Now that I am coaching both of my kids, I take a lot of what I learned from him and apply it to how I'm coaching my kids.
Ed Sattler
Which former Blue Devil student-athletes are you still in contact with? (If so, who?)
Besides my father, my wife Brenna was a student athlete at Stout. She was an All-American gymnast for UW-Stout during her four-year career and by far the best person I have ever met. She also was instrumental in making sure I stayed focused on graduating. She is my best friend!!
I also see and stay in touch with most of my baseball guys. I played golf with Jake Streich, JW Dachel, Nick Kalina, Matt Lunde, and Dave Rueber this summer. I also call or text fairly regularly with Rob Govek, Brad O'Connell, Eddie Young, Justin Biever, Scotty Meyer, Zak Arneson, Rich Young, JR Dachel, Josh Johnson, and Brian McQuillan.
How would your teammates describe you as a person and as a student-athlete?
I think they would describe me as a good guy who would be there for them if they ever needed me. As a student-athlete, I wasn't the most athletically gifted guy, but I worked hard and probably got the most out of what God gave me to work with. I think the pitchers I played with would also say I could call a pretty good game as well.
What are some of your career highlights, both athletically and academically?
Graduating from Stout was the biggest highlight for me and my family. I am very proud of the fact that I was able to play baseball for my entire time at Stout while also working and paying my own way through school.
As for my career highlights, I was never an all-conference performer, but I was named conference athlete of the week during my freshman season. That was pretty special because only 7 or 8 guys a year get that honor in the entire conference.
During my junior year in 2001, we had a great team which was really deep in talent. I only got 44 at-bats that year, but I managed 21 hits in those at-bats for a .477 average which I'm still pretty proud of.
Finally, I remember playing a stretch of games down in Florida where I was seeing the ball so well and it felt like I couldn't get out. I remember a game where I went 3-5 with six RBI's and hit close to .650 for the week which was definitely a highlight for me.
What are some of your most memorable or favorite sports moment(s) at UW-Stout?
I hit a 2-out, bases-loaded double that scored three runs for a 3-1 win over La Crosse my freshman year which got us in the playoffs. That will always stand out as a highlight memory for me.
My one career triple is memorable because I got thrown out at home plate trying to score an inside-the-park homer. My teammates still give me grief on that one because the center fielder fell over the fence, but the ball stayed in the park. I was not a fast runner. LOL!
Our Stout teams made the conference playoffs two times while I was there!
Playing with Brad O'Connell (who is the best ball player in school history in my opinion) and catching for Matt Lunde during both of their Hall of Fame careers at Stout is a highlight for me.
In 2001 we almost swept St. Thomas in a double header. That is the year they won the national championship. We won the first game and then lost in the second-to-last inning of the second game which we were winning. That showed us we could play with anyone that year!
Finally, taking our annual spring trips to Florida to play baseball and everything that went with that produced some great moments and quotes from coaches. When I get together with the guys from Stout it always seems like we laugh about those old stories!
Brenna and Nick Sattler
What are some other activities you were involved in on campus (or off campus) while in Menomonie?
I was also involved with the Student Athletic Advisory Council (SAAC) as vice-president my senior year. I participated in Society for Human Resource Management one year as well.
Anything else we should know about your time at UW-Stout?
Attending UW Stout was one of the best decisions I have ever made. I had an opportunity to learn in an environment that was hands on, but also challenging. I was able to play the sport I love and meet some of my best friends along the way. Finally, Stout is very meaningful to my family because my Father, Mother, Sister, Wife, and Sister-in-Law all attended Stout.
