University of Connecticut Athletics
UConn Women's Cross Country On The Rise
10/28/2011 12:00:00 AM | Women's Cross Country
Oct. 28, 2011
By Myles Udland
Women's cross country coach Andrea Grove-McDonough really likes her job. "I think I'm having more fun than any coach in the NCAA," says Grove-McDonough. And why wouldn't she be? Grove-McDonough has overseen a near-complete rewrite of the UConn record book on the track, and has now lead the Huskies to their first national ranking in cross country. But Grove-McDonough and the Huskies don't think that a national ranking is good enough for the 2011 campaign, and in this year's Big East, it isn't.
Heading into the Big East Championships this weekend in Louisville, seven teams have earned a national ranking, including four of the top nine. In 2009, the Huskies finished tenth at the Big East championships. A year ago, they were seventh. And this year, they enter the meet ranked seventh, though they are 28th nationally. But the mere ranking does not tell the whole, or even half, of the story of this year's squad.
"Going from tenth to seventh you'd think we haven't made much progress," says Grove-McDonough. "In some ways it's easy to look at it and be discouraged, and say 'why bother?'" But it is precisely because Grove-McDonough and her team have bothered, have refused to accept what some may say is their assigned role in the Big East landscape, that their success has been so immediate and so great.
"We have no choice," says Grove-McDonough, "but to be nationally ranked if we want to keep up in the Big East." The Big East is lead by two-time defending national champions Villanova. With perennial powers Providence, West Virginia, Georgetown, and recent upstart Syracuse, crowding the top of the conference, Grove-McDonough turned her focus to the national scene. "When I told people three years ago I was going to take this team to nationals, pretty much everybody laughed." And while the Huskies still face the gauntlet of the Big East and Northeast Regional meets on the road to Terre Haute, they are positioned to do just that.
And the Huskies finding themselves on the precipice of success is owed, in no small part, to Grove-McDonough herself. A former professional runner, Grove-McDonough has challenged her athletes in their training and their expectations. "When I got here, I wanted to change the culture," says Grove-McDonough. "And [this year's team] is full of kids who suit me and suit this program." And this program is a demanding one.
College athletics talks much of programs. Whether it is an entire athletic department, or just an individual sport, it is always about the program, about something beyond oneself. But in distance running, the idea of a program entails more than most sports. For Grove-McDonough, a program involves a finely tuned schedule that balances physiological and psychological pressures over a twelve-month schedule. Grove-McDonough recalls a recent workout where the team completed nearly double their race distance in volume. "Could I have thrown the group into that workout two years ago? No. It would have ended in disaster. But I know what kids I have. They're getting it." And as her athletes have begun to "get it," Grove-McDonough has been able to fulfill her ultimate vision for her squad. "I tell them that we may not be the most talented team on the starting line. But we will be the fittest."
Though Grove-McDonough is, of course, being modest. This year's squad boasts NCAA Championship qualifiers in events ranging from 800m to 10000m. This year's team is responsible for no less than 13 school records either individually or as part of a relay team. And this knack for making history on the track has carried into the fall. "I tell them to enjoy it," says Grove-McDonough. "Because making history like this will never happen again."
And it is within the context of history that Grove-McDonough defers all attention to her athletes. "People might want to give me all the credit for this success," says Grove-McDonough. "But I've never run a step for UConn. I tell the team: 'You guys did this. You girls have run every step. This is on you.'" And it is. For coaches always receive too much credit in good times, and too much blame in bad ones. But never allowing the pendulum to swing too far in either direction has allowed Grove-McDonough to bring the team, steadily, to unprecedented heights.
Spending time with Grove-McDonough, one may expect her to deliver inspiring monologues on race day. Her passion for her team, for the sport, and for the potential to keep turning heads, to keep "ruffling feathers," as coach says, makes even a writer want to lace up their sneakers and run a race for coach. But in a sport where physical and mental pressures must so carefully be balanced, where one must reconcile that months of training culminate in one 22-minute exertion, Grove-McDonough preaches calmness in the moment.
"Your body will know, your senses will be very aware when you're on the starting line, that it's an important race. You don't need to pump yourself up anymore," says Grove-McDonough. And just as Coach refuses to allow the hyper-competitive Big East alter her team's ambitions, she refuses to allow individual races alter the focus of her team. "I tell the team, don't try to build up in your mind, 'this is the day, this is the day.'"
For in a sport where success and failure exist so close to one another, the team's commitment to their training and to each other allows them, on the day, to focus on neither. Grove-McDonough tells her team: "We do not need to be spectacular. We just need to do our job." So far, they have.
