Run The Roads

The U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) is an organization every fan of the sport should be familiar with.  For years, USTFCCCA has provided some amazing services for the sport.  Run the Roads caught up with USTFCCCA’s communications manager Keith Nunez, as Nunez talked about the organization, its mission and goals, as well as their new award to honor the top collegiate track and field athlete, known as The Bowerman.

Run the Roads (RtR): Over the past couple years the USTFCCCA has grown in numerous ways, and seems to be turning into a very creative and influential organization for track and field and cross country. Could you give us a little background information on the organization?

Keith Nunez (KN): The USTFCCCA has its roots in a number of predecessor organizations that were formed by collegiate cross country and track & field coaches to represent coaches’ interests, to conduct annual coaching clinics, and to establish cross country and track & field awards. The oldest of these, the National Collegiate Track Coaches Association (NCTCA), dated back to the early 1930s.

In the early 1990s, a number of these organizations banded together underneath the umbrella of the newly-formed United States Track Coaches Association (USTCA), but this organization was one in which Associations like the NCTCA continued their operations on a largely independent basis, with a part-time Executive Director to serve the USTCA as a whole.

In 2004 the USTCA Board of Directors decided to hire a full-time executive officer to direct the day-to-day operations and set up an exploratory committee to identify potential candidates. In January 2005, the USTCA Board of Directors hired Sam Seemes as its first full-time executive officer. After Seemes’ hiring, the organization underwent a name change to better represent its coaching members, and it is now known as the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA). The USTFCCCA presently has five full-time employees representing the membership.

RtR: This year USTFCCCA is starting something new called The Bowerman Award.  This is supposed to be very similar to The Heisman Award correct?

KN: Yes. The USTFCCCA is starting a new award called The Bowerman which is similar in scope to football’s Heisman and basketball’s Wooden. The Bowerman will be presented to the top male and female NCAA collegiate track & field athlete.

RtR: How will The Bowerman winner be decided?

KN: For the inaugural award, a 10-person Bowerman Advisory Board will select three male and three female finalists who will be invited to Orlando for the announcement and presentation of The Bowerman winner. The finalists will be announced on Tuesday, October 6, 2009.

The winner of The Bowerman will be determined by votes cast from The Bowerman Voters. Each voter will receive a men’s and women’s ballot and the voter will rank his/her top choices for the men’s Bowerman and women’s Bowerman winners. The ballots will be mailed out in early November. The votes will be tabulated by an independent firm with the men’s and women’s winner of The Bowerman to be announced Wednesday, December 16^th at the 2009 USTFCCCA Convention which is being held in Orlando, Florida from December 14-17, 2009.

Editor’s Note: The Bowerman finalists have been announced (Men’s Finalists / Women’s Finalists)

RtR: The USTFCCCA seems to be posting more collegiate news this year.  Is there any chance the website will continue to transition into a major college news site?

KN: Since before my arrival, the USTFCCCA has posted collegiate news on a daily basis. Over the past two years we have amped up the collegiate news coverage as well as offering additional amenities like a weekly results page and the USTFCCCA rankings. First and foremost, the USTFCCCA is a coaches association. We have a duty to our membership to provide them with the most up-to-date information on cross country and track & field championships, rules, sport changes, etc. but also to give them a central location where this information can be found.

As our resources grow I’d like to offer more services to our membership and fans of cross country and track & field, as this is an area we feel we can certainly make a difference in terms of the media coverage of cross country and track & field.

RtR: We know this is a small organization, but what does the staff look like?

KN: The USTFCCCA is a small staffed organization but our membership totals nearly 91% of all NCAA track & field programs. We have a full-time staff of five with various day-to-day responsibilities. Because we are such a small staff, though, our responsibilities often cross over into a number of different areas.

Our current staff is as follows:

Sam Seemes (Chief Executive Officer)

Mike Corn (Assistant Director)

Mandi Magill (Membership Services Manager)

Keith Nunez (Communications Manager)

Shannon Wright (Research and Legislation Manager)

RtR: What’s the long-term vision for the organization?

KN: The long-term vision of the USTFCCCA is to continue serving the needs of our membership while improving the coaching profession. Our current focus is collegiately driven because our Association membership largely is made up of collegiate cross country and track & field coaches. As our membership and resources continue to grow we will begin to implement more services for the coaches and fans of the track & field community as a whole.