Blogs : NCAA Division III Blog

Interviews: Joe Eby of Allegheny College

(Photo courtesy of the Allegheny athletics website)

Coach Eby finished his first season as the assistant coach of the Allegheny College cross country program after a two-year stint as the graduate assistant coach at DePauw University.  Recently, the men's team finished third at the NCAA Division III Cross Country Championships, which was the best finish in the programs history.  The women's team placed 25th at nationals.  Allegheny was one of thirteen programs to have both men's and women's teams represented at nationals.

By: Derick Lawrence (11/08/2006)

What made you want to become a collegiate cross country coach and what steps did you take in achieving this goal?  

I have always known that I wanted to stay involved in sports.  When I first started looking at schools, I wanted to be an athletic trainer.  Once I found out that I would have to miss meets or seasons to do this I decided to go the Physical Education route.  Once Coach Brown joined the staff at Mount Union I talked with him about how he went about becoming a coach and tried to follow his path as close as I could.  So, my senior year I sent out resumes and cover letters to a lot of the top Division III and Division II schools in the nation.  I received several letters stating that I could come as a volunteer for free, but the DePauw Coach [Stoffregen] showed some interest. After talking with Eric Fruth, the Graduate Assistant at DePauw prior to me, I knew that was the job I wanted.  So, I made a trip out to interview and run in a meet out there.  The rest is history.

You graduated from Mount Union College in 2004 as an All-American runner placing fifth in the 1,500m at the 2002 NCAA Division III Indoor Track and Field Championships.  Tell us about your collegiate running career (progression of your training, most memorable moments, what you learned that has carried over to your coaching).  

Coming out of high school, I was a very low mileage kid: maybe 25 to 30 miles a week.  The summer going into my frosh year, I started to run more miles and run them a lot faster with two kids that were going to OU.  By the end of the summer, I was fit. Then, all of a sudden, my IT band started to bother me; it plagued me for most of the season and I pulled the plug after running a stellar 35 min 8k at Malone.  I had a less than spectacular indoor season (1:58-800), then ended up getting a stress fracture. To say the least my frosh year was not so hot. 

My sophomore year was more of a freshman year for me.  I was able to run more miles up into 60’s and stay healthy.  I broke 4:00 in the 1500 indoors and won the All-Ohio DIII meet outdoors, which was kind of a big deal, I guess.  That next summer I got a real awakening.  I lived with Tim Budic out in Berea (Baldwin-Wallace) and trained with him about everyday.  My plan was to max out at 70 at the end of the summer.  My third or fourth week there I was running 71.  I saw that Tim was running 80+ and I knew he was a national qualifier. If he was running more than me and was already faster there was no way I could beat him unless I upped my miles.  So, I just started running with him every day.  To top it all off, that was the year that Brown joined the Mount Union coaching staff and he was a HUGE influence on me: I am where I am today as a runner and coach because of Brown.  I had a huge breakthrough year and that got my career going.  That year we qualified for cross to nationals. I got killed running a PR and realized how good the rest of the nation was.  And everything just clicked indoors, I ran a PR just about every weekend, it was a blast.  Outdoor was terrible; I had some major issues with confidence and just had a snowball effect on the whole season. 

            The next summer I spent in Boulder, Colorado.  I did not take a day off from when I came back from my stress fracture my frosh year until this summer when a hip injury forced me to.  While in Boulder, I ran around 70 miles before getting hurt.  I met a few people while out there that have influenced my running also.  David Cisewski from Oshkosh, and I talked a lot after meeting in Boulder and I adapted some of my training based off of what he was doing.  The next year I qualified for Cross Nationals, had a terrible indoor season, and then managed to pull things together and qualify at a last chance meet for Outdoor championships.  The biggest lesson I learned during this year was that times do not matter: if you can learn to win races and how to position yourself, your times will come.

            The next summer was a big jump for me.  I was running 75-80 miles a week during the summer.  I lived in Alliance, took some classes, worked for the physical plant and ran, a lot.  I would run with Brown, then add on a few miles.  The last three weeks of the summer Becky (who is now my wife) and I went out to Boulder to visit my best friend, Jason Sigmund.  While out there, all we did was run and hang out.  It was great.  I hit my second-ever 90+ mile week while I was out there and felt great doing it.  I did a 15 miler up on Mags in about 1:35:00.  That same day, I found out that I may not be able to run cross because I ran in too many races my frosh year.  Yes, that’s right, a 35 min 8k cost me my last year of college xc.  I learned a lot from this experience.  First off, never take any race you run in for granted, because you never know it is going to be your last.  From the coaching side, I learned to always make sure you know the ins and outs of eligibility rules.  So, I had from summer until outdoor before I could run for the team again.  This could have been one of the biggest blessings in disguise of my life.  I talked with Brown and he asked me what my goal for outdoor was. He said, “Do you want to be an All-American again, or do you want to be a National Champ?  Because if you want to be a National Champ we will go for broke. If not we will play it a little more conservative.”  My immediate answer was, “National Champ.”  So, I set up a very limited race schedule and a lot of miles.  We were right on track until two weeks out, when a stress fracture in my leg broke and my season was done.  This situation was also another huge learning experience for me on how to treat an athlete and when to push and when to back off.  I have no regrets about what we decided that day in Brown’s office because I would have had a shot at winning.  I rather would have had it end the way it did than to not train hard and wonder “What if?”

            My most memorable moments in college were running in National meets, winning conference championships, and getting to go to bigger meets like Hillsdale and run against some very good runners.

You continue to train post-collegiately as a Brooks athlete and as a member of Team Good River.  In the summer of 2005 you had a breakthrough race in the 1,500m at the American Milers Club High Performance Meet in which you set a personal record by over 4 seconds with a time of 3:45.60.  What are your goals as a post-collegiate runner and what has your training been like lately? 

(Photo courtesy of Team Good River)

My goals as a post-collegiate are USATF Champs right now.  Brown and I have set out some lofty goals for this year, and the next few years.  This winter break, we are going to sit down and set up a schedule that we think will help me reach those goals.  Lately, my training has been a lot of miles.  I am in the highest mileage phase I have been through in my life, and we have been doing some work to get my anaerobic threshold up also.  So, miles and strength work.

How did you overcome disappointments or barriers in your training or racing (i.e., injuries, disappointing races, etc.)? 

You have to keep plugging away.  I feel one of my biggest strengths is that when I faced hard times in college, I just kept plugging away.  Even when the light at the end of the tunnel was non-existent, you have to keep putting the work in, because in our sport all the hard work you are putting in now is cumulative, meaning it takes time for the miles, lifting, and drills to soak into your legs.

Who has influenced you the most in your running and/or coaching? 

O man, where do I start?  My Dad was one of my first coaches and is an influence on everything I do in life.  Brown is probably my biggest influence because he has been my coach and friend for so long I talk to him on a daily basis.  I am always bouncing ideas off him.  Coach Homon taught me how to be tough: in workouts and in races, the Mount program is a very renegade, blue-collar program where you either learn to deal with the pain and become successful, or not.  My high school coach, Mr. Ritchie, was the one who really got me to have a passion for the sport, Kori Stoffregen was the first person I worked for in the coaching field, so he has had a huge influence, as has Coach Ross already.  Any time you work under a coach you are going to learn a lot from them, I have been very lucky to have these two coaches to work for.  Then there are many other people who, if I named them all, might make this interview way too long.  Some of them are Jeff Stiles of Wash U and Greg Huffaker from Ill Wesleyan.  Jeff and Greg are young coaches whom I look up to quite a bit.  They both have a passion for the sport and are tremendous people.  Plus, every coach I have ever talked with has some how shaped my thinking or given me good or bad ideas.  Every athlete I have ever worked with has played a huge part in my development and they still do.  It is such a constant learning process- you have to learn how to handle all sorts of personalities.

How has the transition been like from a recent graduate assistant coach at DePauw University (IN) to assistant cross country/track and field coach at Allegheny College? 

It has been a good one.  My roll at Allegheny is different from DePauw.  I would say I have stepped closer to the coach role, rather than the athlete role.  I do not spend as much time with the team as I did at DePauw.  I think this helps when I have to get on them, whether during a workout or a disciplinary item.  Having the two-year transition at DePauw definitely helped a lot.  I feel I have learned from some mistakes I made at DePauw.

Would you briefly describe Allegheny’s training philosophy (volume, intensity, frequency, etc.)?

We are definitely a higher volume program.  We have some Daniels tendencies in that we test a few times thoughout the season to set up training intensities, but we have higher mileage than most Daniels proponents.

Could you give us an example of a typical microcycle in Allegheny’s training program from September to mid-October of a cross country season?

WEEK OF 10-9-06

Mon                 PM       Easy Run 10 - 12 miles + 5 x 100m striders + Core

Tues.                AM      30 min run

                        PM       MP run (marathon Pace)  40 min Tempo @ Earnst Trail + lift

Wed.                AM      30 min run

                        PM       Easy Run 10 - 12 miles             + Core

Thur.                AM      30 min run

                        PM       Easy Run (VDOT)10 - 12 miles + 5 x 100m striders + Lift

Fri                    PM       Pre Meet on own

                                    Bus leaves @ 6:00pm from Brooks

Sat                   Univ. of Rochester Invite

                                    Men’s 8k =       11:00am

                                    Women’s 6k = 12:00pm

Sun                   Long Run         1 ½ - 2 hour run

What are 2 key workouts that are incorporated into the peaking period of a cross country season for Allegheny? 

We incorporated a key Mount Union workout this year (4x1600 at 3k pace with 4.5 min rest), that I think has made an impact.  But I would say just consistency in workouts and keeping mileage up is our key to the end of the year.

Tell us about the Allegheny men’s and women’s cross country teams this season?  What are both teams’ goals heading into regionals and nationals? 

(Photo courtesy of John Swartzel for the Allegheny athletics website)

I think both teams have a shot at making it to Nationals [Editor’s Note: They both did.]  The guys’ team improved at the end of the regular season with the addition of Ben Mourer.  Our gap time went from 1:40 to 40 seconds the meet he came back.  This weekend should be a fun one.  If we get all 5 girls to run well we have a good shot of going and the same on guys’ side. 

What’s the running environment like at Allegheny College?  Where does the team train? 

(Photo courtesy of the Allegheny cross country team) 

It is a great environment.  Although I miss the Nature Park (at DePauw), Meadville has a lot of very hilly dirt roads and country roads.  Every run we do finishes coming up a hill.  Most days it is a 3+ mile long climb.  It makes you tough.  My view on hills is changing.  We just got a brand new track, which is amazing.  It is a European-style track with large bends.  We also have a cross country course on campus that we are able to utilize during the nicer times of the year.  Right now it is a little swampy to do workouts on.

What are your thoughts about the new qualifying procedures for the 2006 NCAA Division III Men's and Women's Cross Country Championships? 

I like it.  The teams that should be at the meet will be there.  I just hope the polls don’t influence any decisions because the polls are very political and distorted in my opinion.  That’s why I hope it doesn’t come into play.  I feel this year should be interesting.

What concepts do you believe are necessary for success of a collegiate distance runner?

Passion.  Passion to train day in day out, good days and bad, a passion to race, whether feeling good or not, a passion to be the best runner you can be.

Take us through a day in your life during the cross-country season as a collegiate cross country coach? 

Monday, Wednesday, and Friday the alarm goes off at 7 am and I get up, check my heart rate, use the restroom, weigh myself, take some Hammer Gel, check the “Local on the 8’s”, drink a glass of water, get dressed and run 7 miles.  Then I come back, stretch, eat some oatmeal, drink some tea, and watch the Today Show or whatever Becky has on.  Shower and get ready for work.  After I get to work around 9 am, I check my email and do whatever recruiting I need to get done for the day.  At noon, I meet Becky for lunch, get back to the office at around 1:00, and take care of whatever else I need to get done.  If we have a recruit on for the day, I will sit in on the meeting with coach Ross and maybe eat lunch with the recruit and family.  At 4 I leave to head up to practice.  I get to the locker room, change, make my Recoverite, jog two laps, dynamic warm-up, and get an hour plus run in.  Then I do 4 strides, and core.  Next, I go home, shower, eat dinner, make a few recruiting calls, watch TV or a movie with Becky (blockbuster online is great) and I’m in bed by 10 pm. 

            On Tuesday and Thursday I get up, eat breakfast, and come into the office around 8:30 am, get my emails all straightened out, and go down and lift at around 9:00 am.  Then it is back into a normal day.

            Weekends are a whole different ball game.  If we have a meet and travel, I will get up and get my run in before we leave for the meet so I can run/eat/shower all before the meet.  Early season meets, I would get there and run at the course.  Then coach them up best I can.  After the meet, we usually have a “Tail Gator” party with the parents: way too much food, but good food.  Then head back to campus.  If we have an off weekend, most of the time I will go home and hit up an Ohio meet and do some recruiting there.  Sundays I will get my long run in and lay around as much as I can; nap if I get the chance.  If we have recruits coming, then I will meet them for a little bit and send them off with their host.  All nights it’s hopefully in bed by 10 (if not earlier) and most days up by 7.

How do you balance coaching duties, married life, and post-collegiate competitive running? 

I am lucky to have a family guy and competitive person as my boss: he is the reason I can do all of these things.  He lets me eat lunch with my wife every day and he lets me fit my runs in whenever.  If he were not as flexible, it would be impossible for me to run at this level.  I am also lucky that I can make all of my recruiting calls from home, so I can go home, chill, eat dinner, and then make a few calls.  Becky is very understanding and it is a lot better to be able to do them from home than to have to come back into the office.

For those that are aspiring to become a collegiate cross-country coach, what would be the best piece of advice you would give them? 

Get to know a lot of people, and be patient. 

Thanks to Coach Eby for a great interview.

Eby

12:01 AM, December 8, 2006 .. Posted by Anonymous

Success seems to have followed Joe wherever he has gone the past couple of years, and I don't see this as any sort of coincidence.

As an OAC runner, it's great to see a guy like Eby do what he's doing--not only from a coaching standpoint, but his progression as a post-collegiate athlete is also something I admire and respect. Articles like this just confirm to me that there is no substitute for hard work and desire in ultimately controlling our own destiny's. If you think there's anything that can stop Joe from eventually obtaining a head coaching position at the NCAA level, you're quite mistaken. Great read.

-Dan Simpson