Four years, five All-Americans and a cross country Ivy League Heptagonal Championship later, Big Green women’s cross country head coach and track distance coach Mark Coogan is leaving the College for New Balance. Starting Jan. 15, he will begin his work as a member of New Balance’s running sports marketing division, a position that will include coaching New Balance elite athletes.
Coogan ran for New Balance in the 1995 World Championships, racing in the 5,000-meter, and competed in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics in the marathon. In 2012, New Balance signed on to sponsor the Big Green cross country and track and field teams.
Coogan will continue to coach the Big Green track team through the end of the academic year. Since New Balance’s headquarters are in Boston, he will commute to the Upper Valley at least once a week to help with the distance team’s hardest workout. Coogan also plans to attend track meets with the team and help Abbey D’Agostino ’14 train. He can no longer coach professional runners Sam Chelanga and Ben True ’08, since they do not have contracts with New Balance.
“It’s going to be hard for me,” Coogan said. “We have a really good assistant coach in Scott Phelps, and I plan to be at all the races, but it’s not a perfect situation. When you talk or text the athletes you can’t see their facial expressions, which is hard. Some of them I know well enough to guess, but the freshmen might be hard.”
Coogan led the women’s cross country team to an Ivy League Heptagonal Championship in 2013, the team’s first since 1997, and a team bid to the NCAA Division I National Championships in Terre Haute, Ind. In four years he was able to coach D’Agostino to five national championships, one in cross country and four in track. He also coached four other All-Americans, including Alexi Pappas ’12, who finished her Dartmouth career with a third-place finish in the steeplechase, and Dana Giordano ’16, who achieved All-American status in cross country as a sophomore. Finally, he coached D’Agostino, Pappas, Megan Krumpoch ’14 and Chrissy Supino ’12 to a third-place and All-American finish in the distance medley relay at the 2012 NCAA Indoor Track and Field National Championship meet.
“The women’s team was the most amazing group that I’ve ever been around,” Coogan said. “They are all such wonderful people, super smart, super committed, they really try hard. You can’t ask for anything more. Abbey and I are going to have a relationship forever, I’m her coach and she listens to me, but we’re also friends. There are many others I’ll maintain a relationship with as well.”
Coogan is well respected among coaches for his positive coaching style and ability to encourage his athletes to reach new levels.
“He had very high expectations for the women and made them buy into them,” men’s cross country and track head coach Barry Harwick said. “When we were talking to the women we told them how they shouldn’t look at making NCAA championships as a one-time thing, we want to go back next year.”
Coogan often presented workouts to his athletes that were physically demanding, but he did so in an encouraging manner, making the work easier to complete, Harwick said.
The athletic department is beginning its search for a new women’s head coach. Since Coogan is not leaving until after the season, he gives the department five months to advertise the position, recruit potential candidates and bring them to campus. The team’s recent success may make the position one of the most sought-after in the nation.
The department is looking for a coach that can connect with Dartmouth students and who understands the academic rigor of the College, senior associate athletic director for Peak Performance Drew Galbraith said. “Something we see that really works well in sports like distance running is coaches who help build up athletes’ confidence. We want positive motivators because our kids already know how to work hard and are already stressed enough, so we don’t want to add to that stress level.”
The search will also focus on finding someone who canrecruit students despite the College’s lack of athletic scholarships, as per Ivy regulations.
“A coach who has been around athletic excellence is important,” Galbraith said, emphasizing the fact that a coach must understand student-athletes’ dual commitment to academics and their sports.
This past weekend, the women’s track and field team won its fourth consecutive Dartmouth Relays. The women’s mile runners finished one-two-three-four-six against the collegiate competition, and the team is currently ranked 14th in the nation.
“We’re all really excited for him and happy for him to be moving on to this step,” distance runner Meggie Donovan ’15 said. “We’re all going to miss him a lot because he’s a great coach and a wonderful person. A lot of us will never forget what he’s done with this program.”
