Gold Rush Feature: A New Leader
9/16/2010 12:00:00 AM | Men's Cross Country
Sept. 16, 2010
This article was originally published in the Sept. 11 edition of Gold Rush.
By Sam Walker
The Wake Forest cross country and track and field programs will be under new leadership as John Millar was named the new director Aug. 10. Millar replaces Annie Bennett, whose contract was not renewed. Bennett had been director of track and field and cross country since 2001.
Millar comes to Wake Forest from Notre Dame where he had spent the last 19 seasons as Notre Dame's associate head track and field coach. While at Notre Dame, Millar helped the Irish win 12 Big East track and field team championships. He has 30 years of coaching experience and became interested in the possibilities the Wake Forest job presented once he saw the position open.
"I saw it come up, and it peaked my interest a little bit, " Millar said. "I had spoken to one of our athletic directors at Notre Dame who was familiar with somebody here, and she talked to them about it for me. I decided from her feedback that it was worth looking into, and I applied. Next thing you know, I'm in an interview. Obviously, I had some done some research before applying because I really wasn't looking for a job. I was pretty comfortable at Notre Dame, but certainly I thought this was a great opportunity for a number of reasons and pursued it.
"I think part of it was there is a lot of similarity between Notre Dame and Wake Forest. Notre Dame only has 8,000 students, so it was similar in size and academic requirements and being a private institution I think the philosophies are similar. I was comfortable with that environment because that's what I've been in for so long, and I thought there was a lot of potential from a track and cross country perspective that for one reason or another had not been achieved. So it was an opportunity to build a competitive program, especially from a distance and middle distance side of things."
Millar has been in Winston-Salem less than a month and his first order of business is to acquaint himself with a new group of faces and get the cross country teams preparing for the first meets of the season. He has very little knowledge of the students-athletes he will be coaching but believes the Deacons can remain competitive and even grow through this coaching transition.
"I was kind of thrown in to the fire I guess," said Millar about starting his new job just as the cross country season was set to begin. "Ever since the first day I got here, I really haven't left this office, but we've been in the process of hiring an assistant coach to work with the distance and cross country side to help me out there. We have that in place I think and so now with school starting and getting into a routine its better. But it has been a pretty hectic coupe of weeks. I think I've finally started getting settled in. My hardest thing right now is learning the names of all the athletes on the team.
Millar has a plan he intends to implement immediately to keep the program growing and making strides, and he is pleased with the buy-in he has seen from the student-athletes at Wake Forest.
"The first thing we're going to do is place our focus on the distance and cross country side more directly," Millar said. "We're going to try to get the cross country program where we can be nationally competitive pretty quickly. I think we're going to put a lot of our resources into our recruiting efforts in developing that program to that level.
"The next area I want to look at is the throws area. This is an environment that can attract some good throwers, and we have nice facilities here that very few people know about, so I think we can develop that area as well. The third area is to reach out and cover other events, recruit individuals who are going to be very successful, whether it be sprints or jumps, and go after quality individuals as opposed to trying to get numbers. I think we put direct focus into certain areas, and actually our numbers may even get smaller because what we ask of our student-athletes is to make track and cross country a priority and demand a lot out of them. We may end up having a little smaller team because of that. We're really just trying to improve the quality."
Millar has coached 14 national team members who have combined to win two Olympic gold medals and three Olympic silver medals. Millar's athletes have broken four world records, including the indoor 500-meter run, the indoor 4x400-meter relay and the sprint medley relay. At the collegiate level, Millar's athletes have been crowned as NCAA national champions 19 times and have earned NCAA All-America honors 129 times.
"I do believe everything is in place here to be successful," Millar said. "We've got good administrative support, facilities, and it's a good school people will be drawn to if they are looking for an academic institution. It's a lot easier selling a top 25 school nationally. The school will sell itself because it's a campus that kids will be impressed with and like. I just felt it was a place that given some time we could really develop a solid program here. I know they have a history here, and I know there's a lot of alumni support. I'm looking forward to seeing what we can build here and how far we can take it." With cross country now ready to start, Millar wants his distance runners to train and run cross country as well to help prepare the student-athletes for the indoor and outdoor seasons. Training is a year-round endeavor. He also sees a benefit to beginning his tenure during the cross country season because he can promote a team concept he hopes will carry through the 2010-11 seasons.
"I think the distance kids and middle distance will do some training with the cross country team and run a meet or two, but I think that's one advantage putting emphasis on your distance and middle distance because you get all three of your seasons covered - cross country, indoor and outdoor track," Millar said. "Focusing on cross country and the team concept is a way to engage athletes because they rally around that concept of being a team, so hopefully that's the first place we'll focus. Success in cross country should give success on the track in things like 5,000 and 10,000 meters and 15,000 meter races."
Millar is still getting acclimated to Wake Forest, its athletic and academic administration and support staff, but he is excited about the possibilities Wake Forest offers and the program he will build here. He says the ingredients are there, and now its just a matter of recruiting the right student-athletes for Wake Forest and time. Creating immediate improvement for all cross country and track and field athletes is his starting place this year.
"I think everybody here is really behind us and getting the program going in the right direction," Millar said. "The athletes were a little apprehensive at first having to wait for so long not knowing what was going on. Once they announced my hiring, I know a lot of them called their friends at Notre Dame and were asking about me. What from what I hear, they got good reviews about me, so that put them at ease. They really seem to buying into what we're doing and hopefully that will produce better performances down the road. I always want to feel like we've done right by our kids and given them the best."
Millar on success:
"Coaching Olympic gold medalists is probably the highlight of my career, but having coached longer the one thing that has made me the proudest is at the end of four years when a kid graduates, if you asked them about their experience and would they do it all over, and they say they would - that's the thing I enjoy. Sometimes success on the track is a matter of just getting lucky in the recruiting process, but you have an impact on a young person's life and that's what coaching is all about."
