I Still Need A Coach
I occasionally wonder where I would be today if I didn’t join my high school cross country team and benefited from the mentorship passionate and knowledgeable coaches for the past 30 years. Before I joined the Tottenville High School (Staten Island, NY) team in 1989 under the coaching of Pete Whitehouse and Joe Cicoria, I was an underperforming middle school student following the wrong crowd in life. My coaches instilled a culture of excellence at Tottenville, where it was cool to study diligently and run for two hours on Sunday mornings. They transformed me almost immediately. I became the top freshmen XC runner in New York City and more importantly, starting earning As in the classroom for the first time.
At the prestigious Penn Relays in 1991, I was the last runner accepted into the 3,000-meters and was intimidated to race in front of thousands of fans. Coach Whitehouse instructed me begin in last place and focus on executing my own race plan (72 second laps). I went through the mile in 4:49 all by myself, finally caught up to another runner at 2,000-meters and then proceeded past the majority of runners in the closing kilometer. I finished in 8:59, which was a personal best by over 20 seconds. If I didn’t buy into my coach’s special sauce prior to this race, I was definitely all in afterwards. Coach Whitehouse taught me to trust and execute my own plan. Starting in last placed scared the daylights out of my parents, but we believed in running negative splits and it worked big time!
Coach Whitehouse also taught me the importance of challenging complacency. After becoming one of the top varsity XC runners in New York City as a junior, he critiqued me more than ever. While everyone else was patting me on the back, telling me how special I was, he thought I had much more to give. Improve your form, push harder here, and slow down there. Thankfully, I listened and pushed the envelope with my training, nutrition and sleep. Later in my junior year, I won the national championship in the 2-mile and followed up with two more national titles in my senior year. We never talked about why he was so tough on me that year, but it has been quite evident ever since.
At Georgetown University, I experienced early success as a freshman, running on our top ranked relay teams at the Millrose Games and Penn Relays. Unfortunately, I struggled to perform to everyone’s expectations during the middle of my collegiate career. But coach Frank Gagliano (Gags) taught me the importance of persistence and never giving up. As a senior, I finally remembered again to stop following the crowd, to be unique and follow my own plan. I earned All-America honors and ran personal best time of 3:43 for 1,500-meters (~4:01 mile). Coach Gags even offered me the opportunity to continue running with his group of professional runners (Reebok Enclave). Being relentlessly positive and never giving up helped me that year, but even more as a coach at Duke University. I saw countless student-athletes struggle in their college adjustment, but I followed Coach Gag’s lead and just kept on believing and good things started to happen. One of those athletes was Abby Farley, who never lived up to her potential of being nationally competitive at Duke, but she decided to continue post-collegiately anyway. She lowered her 800-meter time by several seconds to 2:02.00, qualifying her to compete in the 2016 United States Olympic Trials and exceeding the fastest time ever run at Duke. Never stop believing!
I wanted to write this blog post for two reasons. First, to thank the coaches who helped me excel as a student-athlete and continue to help me be a better husband, father, coach and citizen. Thank you Peter Whitehouse, Joseph Cicoria and Frank Gagliano! Second, I want to highlight the importance of coaches for adults too. We continue to need an objective person to support, motivate and challenge us through the peaks and valleys of everyday life. Personally, I continue to benefit from the mentorship of coach Tom Cuffe, who was actually the coach at my rival high school. I hope you have a coach in your corner today and encourage you to take the time to thank the coaches in your life.