byLarry Eder
Frank Gagliano, November 14, 2009, Photo by Terry
Taylor/www.rvgoddess.com
Frank Gagliano is a coaches’ coach. He is loved by his athletes, present and past. As the late Sam Adams (UCSB long time coach/decathlete mentor) would say, Frank is an educator. Well, Gags is back! Doing what he does best, taking athletes who need some guidance and focus, and encouraging them, cajoling them and inspiring them to the next level. I sure hope a savvy footwear company or well off former track star find it in their hearts to help the as of yet unnamed team with some resources.
Frank Gagliano–One More Training Group, by Walt Murphy
It
didn’t take long for Frank Gagliano, affectionately known as “Gags”, to
gather together another group of runners who will train under his
guidance.
Frank Gagliano with some of his Olympians (Nick Symmonds, Gags, Nicole Teter, Christian “Lazarus” Smith), photo by PhotoRun.net.
After spending a number of years on the West Coast, where he was the
coach of the Nike Farm Team at Stanford and The Oregon Elite T.C. in
Eugene(after leading the Reebok Enclave in D.C.), the native New Yorker
returned home to the East Coast in late 2008 to tend to family matters.
He got back into coaching slowly late last year, taking 2008 Olympian
Erin Donohue and former Seton Hall star Rob Novak under his wing. They
will now have plenty of company during their training sessions at
Rutgers, where the group meets 2-3 times a week.
“Rutgers has been great for letting us use their facilities”, said
Gags. (Of course, it helps that he was a former head coach at the New
Jersey school and the current men’s coach, Mike Mulqueen, ran for him
at Manhattan College!). “We look forward to supporting some indoor
track meets in the Armory and outdoor meets in the New York-New Jersey
area, as well as meets in Boston”.
Here is the current roster for the as-yet unnamed group of middle
distance runners (with their former college affiliation and PRs)
Erin Donohue (North Carolina) 1:59.99, 4:03.49, 4:26.48
Rob Novak (Seton Hall) 1:46.85, 3:40.90
Frances Koons (Villanova) 4:13.23, 4:33.24i, 9:01.02i, 15:43.78
Delilah DiCrescenzo (Columbia) 4:12.78, 9:02.50, 9:41.68-sc, 15:40.00,
Julie Culley (Rutgers) 2:10.43, 4:13.18, 4:34.80, 8:55.62i, 15:21.87
Nicole Schappert (Villanova) 2:08.06, 4:17.99, 4:35.97i, 9:12.51i
Christine Whalen (Georgetown) 2:04.49, 4:21.21
Deon Bascom (Pittsburgh) 1:48.52
Sean Tully (Villanova) 1:46.84, 3:46.63, 4:01.95
Liam Boylan-Pett (Columbia) 1:48.28, 3:40.15, 3:59.40i
Alex Wechsler (Lafayette) 3:45.96, 4:05.82
Aidan Walsh (FDU) 3:43.99, 4:04.97
Max Smith (Providence) 3:39.93, 3:56.46, 7:55.19i
Also training with Gags one day a week (in Rye, NY) are veterans John
Trautmann, the 1992 Olympian at 5000-meters, St.John’s assistant coach
John Honerkamp, who had bests of 1:47.26 and 3:41.58 in the late 1990s,
Tom Nohilly, who was 4th in the steeplechase at the 1992 and 1996 U.S.
Olympic Trials, Lesley Higgins, who was an All-American in the mile and
3000 at Colorado in the early 2000s, and Katie Hitchcock-McManus, who
ran 2:07.74 for Boston U. back in 1997.
More on Gags:
http://ny.milesplit.com/articles/32472
http://www.flotrack.org/videos/speaker/47-gagliano-frank.
(Postscript. photo at top of story from Terry
Taylor, wife of Dave Taylor, who was this distance stud at Oregon. I remember Dave running a ten mile leg against Benton Hart in 76 at Christmas Relays, and literally putting twelve minutes on my team in one leg! Terry does this cool blog on RVers, and
Duck track, xc.
She has this amazing photo of Bill Dellinger, and a real feel for cross country photos. I am trying to be nice, because I got off on the wrong foot with her (my fault), and now desperately want her lamb meatball
recipe, so check out www.rvgoddess.com and tell her I am not a complete
jerk.)
