You had success at Hanover High School, Springfield College and Dartmouth College. What made you want to come to Hillsdale?
[Hillsdale] is really similar to Dartmouth academically. Honestly, when I came to visit here and have an interview, I felt like it was just a great place to be. It was my first chance to be in charge of my own areas; I had to work under the coach at Dartmouth in field events. He supervised me, and here I was supervised by a head coach, but I got my own areas to work with and I could do whatever I wanted. That was the first time I was able to do that at this level.
When did you decide you wanted to be a coach?
I went to school everyday being a teacher and also became the football and track coach. After a while, I felt like I got up every morning to go to practice. I liked teaching, but I felt like a lot of kids didn’t want to be there; while when I went to practice I felt like kids were there because they wanted to be there all the time. I really liked that environment. I love working with people that really want to get after something, and I like helping them get there.
You took on the men’s cross-country and track and field head coach position last fall. How has the transition been?
It’s been great. As the assistant coach, I was doing a lot of the day-to-day stuff anyways. This gave me more responsibility, but I think I am doing a lot of the same things I did before. Being totally in charge of the budget is really the only different thing, and I am still coaching the same event areas.
What are your goals for the team this year?
In cross-country, our big goal is to be in the top five in the region and make nationals. That is our ultimate goal. We also want to just keep moving forward and build the team to be a team that will make nationals every year. We hope to keep that momentum going into track. We also have some strong kids other than our distance runners. We want to take a good group of kids to nationals — not just one.
Are there any standout athletes that you think will achieve All-American status?
I believe Maurice Jones will do that again, and I believe that Matt Perkins and Joseph Banovetz will make nationals this year. One of my hopes is that Justin Fawley will make nationals this year. I am really hopeful that some of the other guys who have developed like Josh Mirth can. Our freshman Paul Ausum — he’s huge. They will all be guys who provisionally qualify in events.
Who is the best athlete you ever coached?
I have coached two people who became Olympians. I would say though, Mustafa Abdul Rahim. He was a guy from Dartmouth who went on to do the decathlon at the Olympic Trials a couple of times. He is probably the best pure athlete I have ever coached. The other would be Russell Brown — he was third at the Division I Nationals.
How do you like specializing in throwing and vertical jumping events and also being the head coach of cross-country? When were you first exposed to cross-country?
When I was a high school coach I worked with some very good distance runners and had three state record holders in the state of New Hampshire. That is where Russell Brown came in. He ended up going to Stanford. He has been to the world championships a couple times and also competed at the last [Olympic Trials.] He is still a guy who could be a medalist at the Olympics — that’s how good he is. He is the one who really exposed me to distance running. I never coached cross country until here. I helped with cross-country at Dartmouth and that’s where I got the biggest exposure to cross-country.
Can you tell about your bodybuilding days?
In my late teens — 18 and 19 — I competed in an amateur bodybuilding contest. The way it works out you are best off just training and competing when you’re 18 and 19. That’s what I did. It wasn’t for me.
How is the freshman class?
We did pretty well. I am pretty excited about Paul Ausum and the group that we have. We have a couple that have a lot of potential above and beyond what they did in high school that we can develop. Paul ran really fast in high school and we are excited because we think he will move forward and be the top guy for us. We got a pole-vaulter that is pretty decent and we have some talent in the high jump too. We think a couple of the guys are going to try the [steeplechase], and we think they will be good in that. We are pretty stoked about the whole thing.
