After your successful career as a thrower at High Point, what made you want to pursue coaching?
Personally, there is no greater feeling than helping others. I always appreciated the coach and athlete relationship. My previous coaches were, and still are, such a positive impact in my life. During in-season and off-season, they were always there to help me achieve my goals and that's something that I want to pass forward.

Secondly, coaching is very science-based, especially in Track and Field. This is often a challenge during different timelines throughout the season, which makes every day an exciting challenge.

Monmouth has a history of its field athletes achieving success on the conference and national levels, what do you believe is the key to sustaining that success in the future?
A lot of credit for these levels of high performance simply comes from the hard work set in place by alumni in the field events. Current and incoming student-athletes are aware that alumni have set the bar very high. Tradition is a fundamental theme of our program, and this will keep our student-athletes motivated to continue achieving high levels of success.
 
What is your recruiting philosophy and what do you look for when looking for student-athletes to join the program?
We always look for someone who is a well-versed multi-sport student-athlete throughout high school. These multi-sport student-athletes tend to have a better understanding of movement, which leads to understanding the technical demands of Track and Field. Another quality is a student-athlete who loves the constant challenge of weight training. Particularly in throwing events, athletes have to be able to produce a lot of force, and as fast as possible. In order to do this, athletes not only have to be strong (shout out to Monmouth University Strength and Conditioning), but they must be dedicated to the weight room as much as the field. Lastly, we strive to recruit student-athletes who are highly motivated by a team environment. Our program has achieved success by working as a team both academically and athletically. 

What are some things you've been doing differently during this quarantine to continue to coach and interact with the student-athletes?
As a coaching staff we are having individual check-ins with our student-athletes to host open discussions about their at-home workouts and classes. Trying to maintain as much normalcy and open dialogue as possible remotely is important to me, so when the time comes, we can transition back to a regular schedule. Furthermore, as a coaching staff led by Coach Nelson, we have weekly Zoom meetings discussing the daily needs of running a successful Track and Field program. So far we've had a few guest speakers join our team-wide Zoom meetings to talk to our student-athletes and shed insight on Track and Field. This is a really special opportunity for the student-athlete and I'm happy to be a part of it. 

You grew up in Red Bank, what is your favorite part about being from Monmouth County and what makes this area a great place to be?
Whether it's playing Jersey club music during our intense training sessions, debating if central Jersey exists, or what flavor of Rook's coffee is the best, I take a lot of pride in being from New Jersey.

My favorite part of Monmouth County is there are not many places in the country where you are surrounded by beaches, farms and the city within a short radius. Jersey STRONG!