I want to coach college xc/track. I believe I'm qualified to, but where do I start?

Find an institution that will take you on as a graduate assistant. Most universities will want their staff to have a Master's degree(though the subject area doesn't count for much) and it will get your foot in the door coaching wise. Graduate Assistant jobs are harder to find these days than they used to be but I'm sure someone out there is looking.

First off posting on this site, which may be the most anti-coaching place in the world is not productive. If you just want to coach distance geeks then get in line with the other million or so wanna-be coaches around. You really want to coach? Learn other events, and do not focus exclusively on distance running. Whenever low paid distance jobs open up there are literally hundreds of applicants. Getting a job in college athletics is mostly about who you know. Volunteer or serve time as a graduate assistant and work hard at non-distance events. You may get to your passion some day of coaching collegiately but you have to broaden your horizons. Just to let you know I am a college coach and have hired many, many assistants many of whom have gone on to be head coaches. I forced all of them to get out of their comfort zone and learn about the entire sport, not just their specialty event. When hiring new assistants anyone who indicates a desire to only coach distances I throw their resume away. Learn the hurdles, or a field event. In that way you make yourself very marketable since you can do more than just work with distance. Just recently a young man who wanted to be a college coach volunteered for several years with me. But he did many other things for the program. When a distance job opened up I called all my friends and they in turn called the head coach at the school that had the opening, and my friend got the job. If he had not been well rounded I would never have helped him. Look at your local colleges and get busy helping them.

while I applaud your self-confidence it is arrogant of you to believe you are qualified at this point in your life. The other posters gave you great advice, listen to it. But let me add one thing. The ability to motivate young men and women is your primary responsibility. You need to establish relationships first, x's and o's come afterward.

Volunteer, kiss a ton of ass and network yourself. Also helps to choose the right parents. You don't need qualifications although being an Olympian sometimes helps.

I know you specified "college" xc and track, but if you're main interest is in coaching distance runners then you should simply start your own business as a coach/consultant. Your current educational and competitive background will be enough to lure in a boat load of middle-aged hobby joggers who want to run their first marathon or break 45:00 for a 10K.

The best part is that these are all people who are gainfully employed and will pay you handsomely. Quite frankly, once you build a client base, you will make more money doing this than you would ever make as a college head coach (or program coordinator). Money may not be your biggest concern, but earning a living is still a fact of life you need to consider.

Now before you cringe at the thought of coaching suburban housewives for the rest of your life, bear in mind that you will gain more competitive clients once you have a proven track record (no pun intended) for coaching runners to substantial improvements. Eventually you'll get clients who are on the verge of Oly Trials qualifying who simply need help taking the next step. In today's environment of sub-standard high school coaching, you may also have opportunities to privately coach HS runners of All State calibur.

I am not a private coach myself, but I have a good friend who has taken the aforementioned route and had great success with it (both financially and in terms of his clients' improvement). Yes, he still has a huge client base of hobby joggers who have too much money to spend. But he has also coached several Oly Trials qualifiers and privately coached a slew of All State HS runners. And now he also coaches a local track club that provides training and financial support to recent college grads who are trying to extend their competitive running careers at the national and international levels.

Good luck.

I have heard similar thoughts from other coaches I have talked to. And to be honest, I am a fan of all the events of track. I used to pole-vault at decent level myself, and I feel like I have the analytic mindset to break down the sprint, jump and field events enough to work on the individual aspects of what make them successful. Also, my certification is more geared towards working with anaerobic and explosive athletes, so I'm more than able to do that. I'm not afraid to work with more than distance runners in track. I guess just finding the opportunity to is the hardest part.

This ^

I was much in your situation 17 years ago and ended up going the high school route instead. My biggest mistake (at least from the persepctive of getting on as a college coach) was the fact that I did not do my Grad assistant work in the athletic department when I was getting my masters degree.

Teaching and coaching at the high school level in a lot of ways, takes way more work/skill/dedication than at the college level. At the college level you may get really good at the coaching aspect, but at the high school level you are exposed to many more challenges, a tremendosly wide range of skill/ability/motivation, not to mention the fact that you actually have to teach in the classroom as well. I look at friends of mine at the college level and think how much easier my life would be there, but how much more challenging and rewarding it is now.

How long can you live like a nomad? Seriously. You need to be like the Olympic athletes that give themselves X amount of time to make it work then move on to an other line of work.

If you think you can give yourself 3-5 years to really start making head way then go for it. Be prepared to move any where and take very very little pay. Raman noodles will be your friend.

CoachB wrote:

Teaching and coaching at the high school level in a lot of ways, takes way more work/skill/dedication than at the college level. At the college level you may get really good at the coaching aspect, but at the high school level you are exposed to many more challenges, a tremendosly wide range of skill/ability/motivation, not to mention the fact that you actually have to teach in the classroom as well. I look at friends of mine at the college level and think how much easier my life would be there, but how much more challenging and rewarding it is now.

I'd respectfully disagree with you. Not that coaching high school is necessarily any more "easy" and it certainly is different than college coaching...but life would be easier? Spending your weekends on the road with the team the majority of the nine month season, spending your evenings (while boiling your ramen) on the phone with high school kids (and summers traveling around to meet them), needing to be prepared to deal with a whole other range of life issues and social problems from your athletes? I'm not complaining, but I think they each have their pros and cons...I envy my high school colleagues being able to "leave it at work"...and from what I understand they usually make a lot more if they teach as well.

To the original poster - like others have mentioned, be ready to move any where, make nothing, check your ego (everyone should) at the door and drive a van and hold a clip board for AT LEAST 3 - 5 years while doing so. You won't be "coaching" anyone in that time. If the grad assistant thing doesn't work, start contacting programs to see who needs free work.

Thank you. This is also an idea I've explored. However. The area I live in is over saturated with under-qualified people doing private coaching and taking up all the clients. So this really isn't an option for me.

To the OP:

how are these coaches in your area under-qualified?

I do feel that you are under-qualified since you have yet to coach anyone..

But, I do think that you would be able to offer a lot to most programs with your degree and belief in what you can add.

Most college coaches are good at managing, but do not have coaching, mentoring or teaching abilities.

To Pope T-Bag II:

I think you have it wrong when you say new coaches need to check their ego at the door. With that, you have successfully closed your mind to anything new and therefore limited your athletes.

If the head coach were able to drop his ego at the door, he would be open to the possiblity that he and his athletes could benefit from this qualified coach.

By subscribing to the "pay your dues" mentality of driving vans, and holding clip boards for 3-5 years, you have just sacrificed the amount of knowledge that the new coach could have brought to the program. And instead have retarded his ability and potential and growth and therefore have retarded the teams potential.

I think college coaches need to put their team first and be open that others may be better at coaching, while they may be great at managing or recruiting or results.

A good coach can identify their own ego and abilities and be honest with themselves. Most bad coaches, and therefore bad programs, will blame the athletes or athletic department funding on bad results.

Excellent thread, with multiple thoughtful replies (and points of view). Thanks for starting it!

OP, your posts indicate that you have a good grasp of the situation, and multiple responses have suggested the "grind it out" route that you may have to take in order to be a college coach--which I think is ultimately possible for you. You have several assets:

*Successful competitive experience

(If you were a "name" athlete--Olympic team level, or something close--that by itself might open doors, but it doesn't seem like you were.)

*Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS)

(This is an excellent and well-respected "cert"--one that not a lot of LRCers may know about--and you definitely should highlight it on your resume and in your conversations with potential employers.)

*Continuing participation in the sport

(But be very careful here. You must make it clear that your own running is not a priority, just a way for you to stay fit and relate to your athletes.)

*Experience in office work and record keeping

(Again, valuable qualities in an assistant coach, and if you have a reference who'd vouch for this experience it'll help you.)

*A burning, long-lasting desire to coach

(This is key, and will sustain you through the years while you're building a career and living with the "vows"--of poverty, chastity, and obedience--that are the assistant's lot.)

You have a lot going for you and I believe you can succeed. It probably won't be easy--but you already seem to know that.

Others have already given helpful tips: about expanding your event coverage and going the grad-assistant route, for instance. I also always advise undergrads who think they'd like to coach to take a computer major or minor, if they can handle it; you're out of college, but if there's any kind of credible computer credential you can get, I'd say do so. Athletic depts *love* having a "geek" on staff.

Beyond that: assuming USATF still has a certification program for coaches, get involved with that immediately and work to at least Level Two--in event areas *other* than distance running--just as soon as possible. (Similarly, work on other events yourself. You'll learn *tons*. I personally recommend discus--an event that just feels good--but you really need to give a lot of things a decent try, if you can do it without crippling yourself!)

At those clinics--Do they still do them as clinics, or strictly online?--meet working coaches (high school and club, as well as college) who are attending, and get to know them. Take your resume and ask them to critique it; make clear that you're *not* asking them for a job, but that you want to know what they're looking for in a resume. A (potential) coach's resume is NOT going to be structured like the resume your college placement office recommended.

The main thing, really--as others have said--is that you're going to have to get to know coaches. If you're not a natural hail-fellow-well-met kind of guy, that's not necessarily a problem--don't try to be a personality that you're not, because people can spot phonies--but if you're pretty shy and not comfortable starting a conversation, you need to change some--or, if you *did* find a job, you wouldn't be successful as a recruiter, which is KEY to a college coaching career.

Let me repeat that. You will need to develop an enjoyment of the entire recruiting process. Your office experience/habits will help with the identify/contact phases, but you'll need to cultivate the (real) pleasures of getting to meet prospective students and their families, traveling to meets and prospects' homes, keeping in touch with phone calls and correspondence, etc.

Good luck to you!

Wow. I don't think I've ever been able to leave it at work. Your friends are lucky. I'll be heading down to my classroom at about 5:30 tomorrow morning because I only took home a couple of hours of (teaching) work this weekend (was at a meet all day yesterday)

You are right about the travel and recruiting, however. On the flip side, most high school federations allow some sort of orgainzed summer programs (which I believe the NCAA does not) so if you want to be good, you pretty much need to coach during the summer also.

Don't want to make the thread about HS vs. College coaching. Just want to point out that it can be very rewarding and challenging in a different way than college coaching.

I'm not going to necessarily disagree with your "there are many viewpoints and perspectives that can be valuable and add to a program" argument...I'm just telling the OP how it works. Find me a college program, at least DI, that has a kid of his experience doing any actual "coaching." Whether for or good or bad, it doesn't happen. College staffs have their program and they're just not going to have someone without proven hands-on coaching experience making training calls - you'd immediately have conflicting messages by the very nature of it. Sure, there may be some head coaches open-minded enough to ask for thoughts/feedback and for the young coach to serve as a sounding board, but I don't know many of them - again, for better or worse. You're still not "coaching." Sure, hopefully you'll be doing much more than van driving and clip board holding after that first season...but it could still be tough for those that really expect to be "calling any shots" within the first couple of years. I'm not necessarily saying this is good or bad...just the way it works. Unless you find a sh!tty program who's just looking for a baby sitter and you have an in...they're out there. And when you have an athletic department that is clearly indifferent to results, watch out...there is such a thing as being utterly crippled by athletic department expectations for failure...

CoachB wrote:

Wow. I don't think I've ever been able to leave it at work. Your friends are lucky. I'll be heading down to my classroom at about 5:30 tomorrow morning because I only took home a couple of hours of (teaching) work this weekend (was at a meet all day yesterday)

You are right about the travel and recruiting, however. On the flip side, most high school federations allow some sort of orgainzed summer programs (which I believe the NCAA does not) so if you want to be good, you pretty much need to coach during the summer also.

Don't want to make the thread about HS vs. College coaching. Just want to point out that it can be very rewarding and challenging in a different way than college coaching.

As soon as I posted that, I regretted suggesting that teachers/high school coaches are able to "leave it at work." I suppose I was just saying that college coaching will be your life 24/7 if you want to do it at a high level, at least while "paying your dues" - not any "easier" than high school coaching I would imagine. I can't comment on high school coaching, but I do know that operations, administration involving management and NCAA rules and the accompanying paper-work is a large majority of your day...unless you have the luxury of employing a full-time director of ops and multiple assistants.

I agree with full time coach, only because this had actually happened to me. I was assistant in a bad/unsuccessful d1 program a while ago where the coach asked me nothing about what i knew that would help the team. After 1 year, i was hired by a just as bad D3 school for xc. 2 years later we were up 5 spots. Within 3 years, i looked at the results of his d1 team and my team was beating their times by :30 on average in 8k. i began bringing in assistants after that first year and taking the time to understand their perspective of coaching, something the d1 coach never did. I give my new assistants certain athletes, that have a good bond with her or him, to themselves to really see something new and different. I have leanred a ton from new assistans and even volunteers. it comes down to an open mind and trust, without those values, i think a coach is going to fail.

bad coaches can find all the excuses they want, like the funding and such, but it really comes down to the coach not being good enough.

I think the message is to know what you want to be doing and at what level. Good or bad, it is more likely you will be "coaching" sooner in DIII or classification other than DI. However, if you want to be coaching in DI sooner rather than later, it's going to be harder to make that switch to DI down the line (if you started outside) mostly because of lost networking opportunities...not because "DIII coaches can't coach DI runners." Again, for better or for worse, this is just usually how it works. If you want to go DI - and be at a half-way decent program...pucker up sooner rather than later. If you see a traditionally sh!tty DI, it may be because the coach sucks...or it may be because they don't sponsor track, have zero support and the AD asks them not to recruit kids who aren't coming anyway because "good kids won't be happy here..." Those are out there...

Ok, what is this "good or bad" or " for better or for worse" thing?

Are you saying young coaches need to kiss butt? This is not the way it is anymore, stop acting like "this is just how it works?" Don't let it work that way. People make those decisions and you are a person. People make up a program, it's not unchangeable.

I think if you see a traditionally sh!tty D1 program it is defintely because the coach sucks. That coach is not a coach. Coaches are creative and can get the most of athletes. A coach does not blame being unsuccessful on not having track, not getting "good kids", and or even having the cliche "zero support"

It is clear that you are a D1 coach as there is too much defense and knowledge about the program.

Full Time Coach wrote:

Ok, what is this "good or bad" or " for better or for worse" thing?

Are you saying young coaches need to kiss butt? This is not the way it is anymore, stop acting like "this is just how it works?" Don't let it work that way. People make those decisions and you are a person. People make up a program, it's not unchangeable.

I think if you see a traditionally sh!tty D1 program it is defintely because the coach sucks. That coach is not a coach. Coaches are creative and can get the most of athletes. A coach does not blame being unsuccessful on not having track, not getting "good kids", and or even having the cliche "zero support"

It is clear that you are a D1 coach as there is too much defense and knowledge about the program.

Look son, I'm largely in agreement that young coaches can add a lot to a program's coaching and should be given more credit much of the time. I am not claiming "young coaches need to kiss ass" is the way it should be. The OP sounded like he/she wanted real world advice. So I gave it. Don't shoot the messenger. I'd glad there are more coaches like you who approach it with "the more minds, the more ideas, the better." I was writing the training for a program in my second year out of undergrad after playing a large role my first year...and it worked well! If not for that opportunity, I don't think either party would have progressed nearly as well.

Unfortunately at times, it rarely works like this at the higher levels. At least not for a 22/23 year-old kid fresh out of undergrad without any resume/experience. Sorry that yes, this is the way it works much more often than not. Does my "for better or for worse," or "for good or bad" really not make sense to you? If not, your naivete is still endearing. Hopefully things change where appropriate, for those head DI coaches who are sitting on retirement jobs or know they're not going to be fired/they know they can get enough blue-chippers that they'll appear "successful" no matter how many kids they ruin along the way.

Could we agree that if you're working almost entirely with mid to low 10min two-milers and helping to bring them down to mid/low 25 to mid/high 26 8kers, you're not doing too bad of a job actually "coaching"? In DIII, that's going to make you a decent team. Not great but relatively competitive. That won't and shouldn't beat anyone in DI. That team appears sh!tty.

It can be challenging working with younger coaches sometimes because of how impetuous and defensive they get...remember that OP.