In 2004, Kevin Kilduff took over as head coach at Don Bosco Prep from former coach John Nepolitan. Under Kilduff’s guidance DBP has earned invitations to Nike Cross Nationals the past two years, finishing 10th in 2007 and improving to sixth last year. With Kilduff and assistant coaches Rob DeCarlo and Maurice Gibbs, the team has won 5 league titles, 3 Bergen County championships and 3 State Group Championships. They won a State Meet of Champions in 2007 and claimed the Eastern States championship at the Manhattan Invitational last year.
Kilduff has been a science teacher and the Science Department Chairman at Don Bosco for 25 years. ArmoryTrack.com is pleased to welcome Kevin Kilduff to this edition of the Coaches’ Corner.
AT: Briefly describe your coaching philosophy.
KK: We have about 75 boys in the program and among those 75 boys there is a wide range of interests, dedication and talent. We have boys who have earned scholarships or are running at a high level in college; we have boys who participate to stay in shape for other sports, and we have boys who join primarily for recreational reasons. If one were to approach coaching by applying a “hardcore” training regimen, with high expectations of each and every boy, either the program would greatly shrink in number, injuries would be numerous, or the coach would pull out his hair trying to get runners to subscribe to a program that is not suited to the runner’s interests, personality or talent level.
It has taken me a few years to realize that not every runner wants to be a Ryan Hall or Bernard Lagat. In fact, many may not be interested in being really good high school runners. But that does not mean that they are not interested in being as good as they think they can be or being contributors to the success of the program as a whole. They will do what is asked but only if they feel that what is asked is consonant with their interests and abilities in the sport. It is terribly frustrating for the coach and runner to be at odds over their respective goals, and though the coach can do everything possible to influence his runner to be as good as he, the coach, thinks the runner can be, no amount of prodding will be successful unless the runner him or herself is motivated to that same end.
Much of my learning curve has come from trying to reconcile these expectation levels between runner and coach. Frankly, it is not easy. Indeed, I still see so many talented, young runners who could be quite good but for a little more commitment and sacrifice. They can be a great challenge to coach until the coach realizes that the runner’s commitment is not where the coach wishes it to be. It is not necessarily a fault in the runner. It is what the runner, at that moment in his life, wants out of the sport. All the coach can do is accept that from the runner but at the same time provide an environment which will nurture the runner, perhaps in the hope that someday that the runner will “see the light” and devout more interest to it.
It is, frankly, easier from an emotional point of view to coach the talented, motivated ones. However, as a teacher and coach of young people it is far more challenging, and in some ways just as rewarding, to coach the non-elite athlete, whose goal might be to break 18:00 or even 20:00 in a 5K race. The athlete who wants nothing more than to be a positive part of things and have fun doing it.
AT: Whatʼs one of your staple workouts and why do you do it?
KK: After a summer of slow building toward this workout, every two weeks, starting in late August we will do 4-5 x 1600m at date 5000m pace on a hilly course with three minutes rest for the varsity; the younger runners will do 1000m or 1200m repeats. Every three weeks we will replace a mile at date pace for a mile at goal pace for the runner until he can successfully run the workout in late October with 4 x 1600m at goal pace. If there is a race on the week of the workout, we will skip it that week in lieu of the race. After the workout, the runners will do some speed work, like 6 x 200m at 1600m pace or 8 x 150 at 800m pace, all with full rests. The number of reps done is based on the runner’s ability and age, though the rest interval is always three minutes for the 1600m, 2:30 for the 1200m and 2:00 for the 1000m reps. All workouts are preceded by running drills, a good warmup of 2-3 miles, some 60m sprints and core strength work.
The other workout that we do is the weekly Sunday long run, which commences in late June at 70 minutes and continues through late October over time spans of 90-110 minutes. Generally the runs start easily and gradually increase to a strong aerobic effort during the course of the run. Every two weeks we do them at Harriman State Park which presents the challenge of climbing some 1100 feet during the run, which is done in a bucolic setting of lakes and forests, a far cry from the din of Bergen County, NJ.
AT: How do you decide your race schedule?
KK: Well, he wiggle room comes after the mandatory races for our league on Tuesdays and the races we always go to for our county championships, the New Jersey Catholic Track Conference, and the State Group meet. Our first invitational will be at Van Cortlandt Park for the Regis Invite, to familiarize the runners with the unique terrain there. We’ll follow that with another low key invitational two weeks before the Manhattan Invitational, a barometer of our fitness as the championship season begins. After that the aforementioned league, county and state meets are run. For the past three years we have run at the Nike Cross Regionals at Bowdoin Park in NY and hope to do so again this year.
AT: What would you say is your biggest challenge as a head coach?
KK: First off, teaching and coaching full-time require a great time commitment and can demand that one be quite able to plan well and juggle any number of responsibilities involving the overlap of the two. Second, as most coaches know, planning workouts requires time and though I have a general scheme of what we will do during the season , I invariably make adjustments each night and some can take a good deal of time, especially in writing and adjusting workouts for 50 non-freshmen runners. Third, as mentioned above, dealing with the daily emotional and personal issues involved in coaching adolescents is often rewarding but can be quite trying and frustrating. Fourth, trying to mold a program that accommodates a variety of interests, abilities and motivations is an ongoing task and a challenging one which changes from year to year, depending upon the nature of the runners and the chemistry they have with the coaches, each other and me. Indeed, how easy it would be to coach only, say 7 or 8 highly motivated, talented runners who can contend for a title each year. Most coaches I know don’t have this situation nor, in fact, do they want it. There is a great challenge to coaching less able runners and in doing so trying to instill in them a sense of enjoyment for this life-long sport, a sense of esprit de corps (pride in belonging to something) and better appreciation for their own latent gifts and talents.
AT: Talk about your team this season. How does a team that qualified for NXN last year bounce back from losing their 1-2 man in terms of depth?
KK: Losing two fine runners like Rob Molke (Syracuse) and Leighton Spencer (Columbia), as well as our #5/6 man Brendan Offer (Fordham) leaves a big hole to be filled. However, two of seniors, Rafy Vargas and Howie Rosas have ably committed themselves to filling in those holes, and so far they have done so admirably, both running in the 12:50’s at Easterns last week. Another senior, Mike Belgiovine is coming off a hamstring pull incurred early in the fall and his 13:07 at Easterns indicates that he is on his way back. It is after these three that we are young and inexperienced. I am hoping that by season’s end the two juniors and four sophomores battling for those final four spots will be able to run at a highly competitive level. At Easterns, which is not a race in which you want young runners to “learn on the job,” our younger guys were a bit overwhelmed by the frenetic pace at the onset and the sheer quality of the runners and teams involved. It is not a race that allows one to settle in and they learned that the hard way. These runners are talented and will get better; however, I cannot say unequivocally that they will be ready for that level of competition by championship time. If they can mature and get ready we will be very competitive with the better teams in the state, like fine squads from West-Windsor North, CBA, Mendham and Haddonfield.
AT: Rafael Vargas and Howard Rosas have both had tremendous starts to the season. How have they responded to their new leadership roles?
KK: They have responded more than I could wish. Both put in 900-mile summers and worked diligently all summer to take the leadership roles they knew had to be filled. Rafael improved from 13:28 to 12:53 and Howie from 13:19 to 12:51 at VCP from last year to this. They spend an inordinate amount of time with the younger boys, especially the sophomores who, to ome extent, have been thrown to the wolves this season after the loss of last year’s strong senior group. In my six years as head coach, I have not had two better captains.
No one cheers at a meet like Don Bosco Prep. At Warwick Wave Mania, one of your athletes led a screaming group around the course wearing a toga and a crown. How did that culture develop and how much does it affect the teammates?
I am not quite sure! At our County Championships three years ago some of the seniors spontaneously decided that they would dress like Spartans after the movie “300” came out. Well, from a few seniors it spread through the entire team and now some 40-50 runners are involved in this army. They appear during big races and shocked me and the team by showing up in Portland, OR at the Portland Meadows Race Course for NXN the past two years. In fact, two years ago some 12 of them ran around in that garb, despite the horrid weather (35 degrees, sleet and wind). They were positively blue by the end of the race but that didn’t dull their enthusiasm, an enthusiasm that I hope remains in the program year after year. They’ll be at counties and states again this year, I am sure.