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Nick McDonough started at New York University in 1998 as men’s head coach at New York University in 1998 and was named head women’s cross country and track coach in spring 2008. Last week he guided NYU’s men’s team to its' third consecutive University Athletic Association championship. He followed a runner-up finish at the NCAA D-III national championships in 2006 with the team’s first national title last year.
ArmoryTrack.com caught up with McDonough before the team left for the NCAA Division III Atlantic Regional Championship (Saturday at St. Lawrence University) in this edition of the Coaches’ Corner.
AT: Briefly describe your coaching philosophy.
ND: My coaching philosophy is two-fold. I want the kids to work hard and improve and at the same time have fun and enjoy being part of this program. Training wise, we are a strength based program. We increase mileage gradually and look for long term improvement. We do alot of longer intervals and what we call step down tempo runs, which I feel build great strength. We want kids to develop here. We dont get the 410/9:00 type guys. Most of our guys are the 427/9:40 types who work hard and with proper training will improve over time.
AT: What's one of your staple workouts and why do you do it?
ND: We have really two staple workouts we do during the fall cross-country season: a 6.5-8mile tempo run and 4 x 1.6 miles. The tempo run is run on a cinder loop we use in Central Park, and each group's pace will vary. They will start around 30 seconds slower than race pace and then each mile-and-a-half will gradually drop the pace. The last 1-3 miles was at race pace (5:00-05) for our top guys the last few years. While building strength, this workout also builds confidence that they can run fast while tired.
AT: How do you decide your race schedule?
ND: We pick our races based on how the team is going to be for that season. We will go to better, more competitive meets whenever we can, instead of going to smaller D3 meets that we might be able to win easier. We usually try to go to a meet with teams from a number of regions in the middle of October (the last few years we went to Oshkosh, this year Oberlin, Ohio) where we can race other ranked teams. This way, we make sure we secure some at-large points in case we don’t get one of the two auto berths to NCAA finals and have to come out of the at large pool. We also race at VCP one or two times each season, which for the men makes a lot of other courses seem easy the rest of the season.
AT: What would you say is your biggest challenge as a head coach?
ND: One of the biggest challenges as a head coach is being able to figure out what works best for each athlete. We dont post the workouts for the week, or cycle and have everyone doing the same thing. We try to get each kid doing the type of training that is going to bring out their full potential. Another big challenge here at NYU is recruiting. This entails finding kids who want to come to a city school, who have the grades/SAT's to be able to gain admission here, and who can help us stay competitive.
AT: For at least the past three years NYU has been among the top programs in Division III. Talk about the progression to making a success D-III program. How did you do it?
ND: It has been a long road building a program here at NYU. We had a rich history going back to the 1930-60's. We have tried to instill the right attitude of hard work, dedication, and no shortcuts. The kids have really bought into it, and have been committed to getting to the NCAA level of competition. Once we made the NCAA's, that became the goal each season. As for our winning the national championship, a bunch of those kids ran at the NCAA's as freshman and finished pretty far back. One the way back to the airport, they sat in the van and resolved that they would win that meet before they graduated, and that became their focus for three years. For any program to get to that level, you need kids who have the desire, and that is something we really look for in our recruits- kids who want to come to NYU and kids who really want to run.
AT: What can we expect from your squad in the coming weeks with the NCAA Atlantic Regional on Saturday and the NCAA D-III Championships Nov. 22 in Hanover, Ind.?
ND: As the season come toward an end, we are looking to run well and represent our winning the national title last year as best we can. To repeat will be hard with five new guys in our top six, but we will look to run smart and a bit safe at the NCAA regional and just try to finish in the top two. Assuming we make it to NCAA Finals in Indiana, we will probably look to be a bit more aggressive and give it a run to get back on the podium (which is top 4 teams). All season long we went into each meet with the idea to just run well, feel like we ran smart, and know we did the best we could on that day. So far, its been working out pretty well.
Past Coaches' Corners
Mark Thompson - Shenendehowa
Bart Sessa - Syosset
Bob Szymanski -Shoreham-Wading River
Andy Ronan - Stony Brook University