TEN QUESTIONS WITH...

What are the advantages and disadvantages of heading a track & field program out of Buffalo?

You have a situation where you can’t go after the sprinter that runs a 10.1-second 100-meters, because he’s not going to come to Buffalo, he will go to a different part of the country. From that aspect, it makes it a little more difficult to recruit. Fortunately, our football coach Jim Hofher is going to allow a number of his players to run for us. He happens to believe that his kids should be competing in other sports in the off-season.

This is actually a pretty good place to recruit to, however. The academic side of it is so good. UB is a quality institution. It’s easy to sell the school and the idea that you will get a great education here.

You were the Sport Chairman for the 1993 World University Games held in Buffalo. Also, in 1998 you were the Director of Competition at the NCAA Division I Championships held at UB Stadium. Detail the process of bringing the Championships to Buffalo, and the work involved in that type of project.

When the World University Games were held in Buffalo, many of the coaches from USA Track & Field and some of the top NCAA coaches got to see our facilities and saw how well the meet was run. So, they were looking for a place in the East to have the Championships. The stadium, the proximity of the hotels, the old track to use for practice… everything was here.

UB Stadium was built for track & field. What that means is that you can hold every event inside the track. This is probably one of the fifth or sixth best tracks in the country.

In 1994, Bill Breene who was the Associate Athletic Director at that time (currently the UB baseball coach) and I went through the bidding process and made a presentation to the NCAA. We were awarded the 1998 Championships. We went to the ’96 meet in Oregon and the ’97 meet in Indiana to pick up any little thing we could add to our meet.

There was a lot of community involvement, as was the Convention and Visitors Bureau. So much work was done in preparation. Bill served as the Meet Director, and I was the Director of Competition.

You called hosting those ’98 Championships your “proudest moment” as a coach. What meant so much to you about that experience?

To have the best of collegiate track & field here at that time – and be fortunate enough to have one of our athletes (Shelly Hamilton) make All-American at that meet in the high jump – is something that I will find hard to duplicate.

How different are the indoor and outdoor track seasons?

Not very much. Other than some events that are not conducted indoors, for example – outdoors they have the hammer throw, and indoors they have the 35- pound weight throw (men) and 20-pound weight throw (women). Obviously we don’t throw the javelin indoors, but most of the other events are pretty much the same. Any other differences are minor.

On the preparation level, we try to set up our training program on a year- round basis so that our kids are ready pretty much at the end of each season for the Mid-American Conference meet. As far as participation, there are very few that don’t run both indoor and outdoor. All of our cross country runners don’t run track, in part because of squad limits that are in place.

Talk about the athletic facilities at the University at Buffalo.

For outdoor track, the facilities our outstanding. Here at UB Stadium, we share the weight room with the football program. During the indoor season, we share the Alumni Arena weight room with all of the other programs.

Most other teams in our conference either have an indoor facility – at least a 200-meter track – or are in the process of building one. We are behind in that respect. We’ve got a 200-meter track at Alumni that runs around the basketball court. You can’t wear spikes. It not bad for training, but it’s not good for the legs. But we can’t really conduct meets here with any big name programs coming in. And that hurts our schedule, because we find ourselves on the road a lot. So it not only means that our kids have to travel a lot, but it also hurts from a budgetary standpoint.

What changes have their been, specifically the track program, in your 17-year tenure at UB?

When I first arrived, the women’s program was only a year old. The men’s program had been in effect for quite a while. So, there was a pretty wide gap between the two programs.

In all fairness to the athletes I had when I started here – because there were some pretty decent athletes back then – the quality of athletes has really improved since we went Division I, and more recently into the MAC.

My mindset when we go to recruit is different. The MAC is an outstanding conference for track & field – only a couple years ago they had 20 All-Americans. With moving into the MAC, the quality of our athletes has gone up significantly.

What type of weightlifting program do you have members of your team on?

The lifting program is really set up on an individual basis. The distance runners lift twice a week, while everybody else lifts three times a week. Sometimes the throwers lift four times a week. So, each coach of a particular event designs the workout program, or designs it in conjunction with Rachel Lewis – our strength and conditioning coach.

What responsibilities does each assistant coach have?

We have a throwing coach who is new this year, Jim Garnham, Sr. The sprint coach is Perry Jenkins, who is in his third year here. We work with men and women together, so we don’t have a separate men’s sprinting coach and women’s sprinting coach. Jack Hartman works with the horizontal jumpers, triple jumpers and the pole-vaulters. Jim Garnham, Jr., and myself work with the javelin throwers and the multi-event athletes – the decathletes and heptathletes. I also work with the hurdlers and high jumpers. Vicki Mitchell works with the middle and long distance runners, and pretty much runs the cross country program.

Having been at UB during the entire shift to Division I athletics, how much change has their been in the athletic department as a whole?

I have no idea how many people are in the department now because there are so many. Because of all of the safeguards put into place by the NCAA at the Division I level – as far as certification and other paperwork – to keep things on a level playing field for all teams, you need a lot of peripheral help.

When I first got here, I was the only track coach. My complete budget for everything – including salaries, travel, and equipment – was $13,000. Now, we spend more than that on our spring trip. The needs to run a program are much greater. There are a lot more people to help. I still have a lot of paperwork to do, but I can’t imagine trying to do everything that has to be done with the staff that was in place when I started.

You coached 22 years of high school track before you came to UB. Other than athletic ability, what are the major differences between track & field at the high school and collegiate levels?

For the most part, everyone that’s here wants to be here – even if they’re a walk-on or just trying out for the team. They are doing it because of the love of the sport.

In high school you only get a few kids like that. Invariably, you’ll have ‘my best friend is on the team, so I will join too,’ type of situation. So, the level of seriousness isn’t there – but that’s not always a bad thing.

Just generally the attitude and maturity are different between the two levels. Surprisingly, though, a lot of the things are the same. One of the things I found in high school was that the most productive track seasons for the kids came during their junior years. Because in their senior year, they become focused on moving on to college and a number of other things.

It’s the same at this level, by their senior year a lot of them are thinking about what job they’re going to get or what grad school they will attend. A lot of times they are not necessarily as focused as much, and that shows in this sport. If you’re not focused all the time – especially for our distance runners – you miss out, because we are almost always in season. So there’s another big difference – our athletes have to be dedicated all the time, and are participating eight to nine months out of the year.