by Steve Lee
Bill Collins, long-time coach at Highland Regional, is Megan Venables' coach among others. He graciously consented to a "10 Questions interview" with us shortly after the conclusion of XC.
1) How long have you been coaching cross country?
I have been coaching for 36 years. First as an assistant and then in 1979 as the head coach.
2) How many Foot Locker qualifiers have you coached?
We have had four Footlocker qualifiers at Highland during my tenure. I say we because I have had some very good assistants that are as much a part of the program as anyone. The athletes who qualified are Jerry Andrews ('79), Kevin Pumphrey ('86), Nate Miller ('98) and Megan Venables.
3) How many NJ Meet of Champions winners have you had?
Meet of Champions distance runners but not just in cross country are: Rondell Braxton, Steve Mazur, Kevin Pumphrey, Nate Miller, Jerry Andrews and Megan Venables. We have also had several who have just missed by finishing second.
4) Can you tell us about some of your high school athletes who have gone on to success at the next level - college and beyond?
We have had so many compete in college at all levels. We are definitely in the hundreds in that category. We have 11 distance runners competing right now in college. I know everyone always wants to hear about the top runners and how they did in college but I am also really proud of the runners who competed in DII and DIII and did a great job for their colleges. To me that says more about a program because the athletes had a great experience in high school and wanted to continue in college. However here are some of the schools that Highland distance runners have competed for: Texas, Auburn, Stanford, Villanova, Iona, West Virginia, and Saint Joe's to name a few. We have had many more track athletes go to other schools too.
One other note is how many of our former runners became coaches and are still coaching. We have at least 7 head coaches and many assistants.
5) How magical was this year with Megan?
Megan had a great season! She accomplished everything she wanted to do this season which in itself is quite remarkable. Now where does this season rank compared to other female runners in New Jersey? Well I have been around a long time and have seen some great runners in New jersey. In my opinion it is always hard to compare from one decade to the next. However if I had to chose the best seasons ever, it would start with Janet Smith and Michelle Rowen. First and second respectively in the Nationals in their senior years.
6) Would you say she had the greatest season for a female harrier in NJ history?
There are also any number of other girls (the list is long) who have had great seasons. So I will just say that Megan had the best season of anyone in New Jersy this year.
7) When did you know she was special and was going to do great things?
I knew she was special after her freshman year. I know that seems easy to say now, but I did. Following her frosh year I told Nick Baker (long-time coach at Haddonfield) who is one of my closest friends, that she was special. It wasn't her talent level. It was her attitude. I had never coached someone, who so wanted to be good. She reminded me of Erin Donohue who I had known for years. She wasn't as talented as Erin, but she had Erin's desire to be great. If you know Erin at all, then you know to compare Megan to Erin in any form is the ultimate compliment.
8) She seems to be a bit of an anomaly as far as hs female runners go. Usually they start out their freshman year great, and then go downward. She seemed to do the exact opposite, being that her senior year was her best year. How did that happen? She has had 4 great years at Highland, but did she do anything different this year than years past?
Well the one thing that is always hard to predict in female distance runners is how they are going to progress. Megan didn't come into high school with a big running background. She was a soccer player and had ran middle school track, but hadn't run many miles. Her freshman year we had her build up gradually in mileage and gave her plenty of rest days. The mileage never exceeded 35 miles a week. Each year her mileage increased and her workouts got harder. We also incorporated core training and strength building. Jim Schlentz from Colts Neck for whom I have great respect, also gave me some ideas to improve her form. Consequently her times got better by about 20 to 30 seconds each year. This year we added circuit training to her schedule and had her run in the pool two days a week during the summer. This was in addition to her normal running schedule. I believe both helped, but the circuit really improved her overall fitness.
9) What was Megan's training like this year and how has it progressed over the 4 seasons you have been coaching her?
Her training has become much harder over the past two years. This year her training was based on a goal running 16:40 to 17:40 for 5k on a flat surface, at different points of the season. Her workouts in the beginning of the season were few and slower; she did mostly distance. Then as the season progressed we did more workouts with the pace based on the 5k time she was trying to run with very little rest. We never did really hard speed work. Most of the workouts were strength oriented. Two of her best were 3 x 1600m at 5:20 pace with a 3 minute rest in between and the first 400m at 80 seconds or slower. The other was 5 times 1k at 3:20 pace with a 2 minute rest. We also made sure we had plenty of easy runs and rest days.
10) You have had success before with female runners, but nothing as amazing as Megan. You've had similar success with boys as you had with Megan this year. Would you explain the difference in coaching a superstar girl compared to a superstar boy high school cross country athlete?
To be honest coaching Megan was no different than coaching some of the best boys we have ever had at Highland. However, I don't care whether it is a boy or a girl, it is all about their wanting to be good. In some respects Megan was much easier to coach. She was willing to sacrifice the little things and do all of the rigth things - getting plenty of sleep, eating right, doing all of the extras in training. I think the hard part about coaching someone who is really good is not being in awe of them and keeping your ego in check. By that I mean not running every meet, don't race training sessions, don't worry about course records, it's okay to lose when training hard, pick your meets carefully and spread them out, every race can't have the same emphasis and it's okay to tell them they did something wrong. The last one is probably the hardest.