Jerry Schumacher is a fine coach

Jerry 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.

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INDIANAPOLIS (USA): Jerry Schumacher whose Bowerman Track Club athletes in 2017 won three medals at the IAAF World Championships, as well as an historic marathon victory, has been named USATF’s 2017 Nike Coach of the Year, USATF announced. Schumacher will be honored at the 2017 Jesse Owens Banquet on Saturday, December 2 in Columbus, Ohio, as part of the USATF Annual Meeting. Photo from @letsrun, #usatf, #bowermantc
A post shared by RunBlogRun (@runblogrun) on Nov 27, 2017 at 1:13pm PST

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.

Author

Larry Eder
Larry Eder has had a 52-year involvement in the sport of athletics. Larry has experienced the sport as an athlete, coach, magazine publisher, and now, journalist and blogger. His first article, on Don Bowden, America's first sub-4 minute miler, was published in RW in 1983. Larry has published several magazines on athletics, from American Athletics to the U.S. version of Spikes magazine. He currently manages the content and marketing development of the RunningNetwork, The Shoe Addicts, and RunBlogRun. Of RunBlogRun, his daily pilgrimage with the sport, Larry says: "I have to admit, I love traveling to far away meets, writing about the sport I love, and the athletes I respect, for my readers at runblogrun.com, the most of anything I have ever done, except, maybe running itself." Also does some updates for BBC Sports at key events, which he truly enjoys. Theme song: Greg Allman, " I'm no Angel."
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