byLarry EderJerry Schumacher was named the 2017 Nike Coach of Year for USA Track & Field. Jerry is the coach at the Bowerman Track Club. Before that, Jerry was distance coach at the University of Wisconsin.
Schumacher lives and breathes the sport, his family, his athletes. The man is devoted. Jerry Schumacher is also not really fond of interviews, media inter action, etc. This is not a bad thing, Jerry Schumacher is just old school, he wants his athletes to get the praise and he values his privacy. I kind of like that.
Most years before Jerry Schumacher was coach for a Nike sponsored club, we would see each other at the Stanford Invitational. Watching Jerry Schumacher, Pascal Dobert, and now Alistar Cragg coach and manage this fine team, one observes, from afar, an amazing devotion between the athletes and coach.
Kara Goucher, Jerry Schumacher, Shalane Flanagan, Marathon Trials 2012, photo by PhotoRun.net
Jerry Schumacher prepares his athletes to compete against the best in the world. I recall a few conversations with Jerry after races with his athletes. Jerry was always there, he was there for the good days and the bad days. The bad days are the learning days for a coach like Schumacher.
The performances of Matt Tegenkamp, Evan Jager, Chris Solinsky, Shalane Flanagan, Emily Infeld, Amy Cragg, Kara Goucher, Chris Derrick and Courtney Frerichs, among the many in this fine Nike sponsored club, came all after long time coaching with Jerry Schumacher.
Jerry Schumacher won the Nike Coach of the Year award the old school way: he earned with by being a fine coach and role model.
