Jim Schlentz - Interview

Aug 25, 2010

NJRunners.com Senior Writer Joe Lanzalotto recently sat down and spoke with Colts Neck coach Jim Schlentz. Read Jims thoughts on a variety of subjects;

NJR: We’re talking with Jim Schlentz, head XC and track coach at Colts Neck High School, since its opening in the late 1990s. Jim is a local boy having attended and competed in track and XC at Freehold High School and Springfield (MA) College and then coaching in succession at St John Vianney, La Salle University and Wagner College. True to Jim’s image as a health nut, we’re sitting in a pizzeria in Freehold eating veggie pizza (right!).

NJR: Jim, thanks for meeting with me. You’ve had an awful lot of successful athletes compete for you but let’s talk about one who has been successful in college but jumped out in a “new” event this year, Ashley Higginson. She ran the steeple in high school and set the New Jersey state record but this was new for her in college | are you surprised at her emergence in the event and how far do you think she can go with it?

JS: Not surprised at Ash at all. She had an interest and showed ability in high school and if anything I would have expected her to try the steeple earlier than this. I think she has a shot to do really well in the event. Watch for her to have a big year at Princeton. She has the same look of focus and determination for her senior year in college (coming up) as she did for her senior year in high school and she did really well that year.

The question is, can Ashley drop another 17 - 18 seconds to get down to 9:35 and give herself a chance to make the Olympic Team? After graduation this coming May, she’ll wait on grad school for a year and focus on training. I look for her to hook up with an elite training group where she can focus and train on a daily basis. I think she has a chance to make the Trials and once there, a good chance to make the team.

NJR: After success on national level is it hard to have years where you don’t reach quite that high?

JS: Not really. For one thing, I have coached elite runners in the past (NJR: Kate Fonshell for one). I enjoy coaching at any level and get a real charge from watching my athletes improve. We had a distance runner at CN who improved his 3200 meter time from 11:58 in his frosh year to 10:22 as a soph. I got a huge charge out of that and that good feeling lasted for days. I think a good coach enjoys helping his athletes to improve, no matter what their level. Sure, having a national champion is satisfying but it is a rare thing and if that is all you are in it for, you’re going to spend a lot of your time being disappointed.

The other thing about coaching athletes at the national level is that there is an element of pressure there that does not necessarily exist at the local or even the state level.

I enjoy working with the athletes one-on-one and trying to get them to think of us as a team that is there to help her or him take the next step. That goes for the middle of the road as well as the average athlete. I’ve never seen a coach win a medal for anything without the athlete and the athlete who can win without a coach is rare.

NJR: What do you regard as your greatest coaching achievement?

JS: Hmm, that’s a tough one. If you are really a coach as I mentioned before, you take a lot of satisfaction from all your athletes progressing. As a coach, I would be lying if I didn’t say that I didn’t start off with a dream of coaching an Olympian, an elite athlete. It’s something that you never really think will happen but you hope just the same, just like you hope that you’ll set a world record or break the home run record some day. So I think I have to regard Kate Fonshell winning the Olympic Trial 10,000 in 1996. She went in as a very long shot to say the least and won on a brutally hot and humid night.

NJR: What do you see for this year for CN in XC?

JS: I think we have a chance to be very good, one of the better teams we’ve had a CN. Our very early season is going well but we are very young (only one senior) and it will take time for us to develop as the season progresses. Some of the workouts turned in by the younger guys have been surprising. As it is with most young athletes the big job is holding them back, not pushing them and this group is the same way.

NJR: Where do you see high school sports going in NJ with all the budget cutting which is not likely to recede any time soon?

JS: I think the first schools that will be hurt by all this are those that are highly dependent on middle school athletics. Sports in middle schools are the most likely to be cut first. If you have an active, healthy middle school sports program and it disappears, the high school coaches will end to start developing athletes when they get to the next level, rather than starting in 7^th grade.That’s a big downside. We’re perversely lucky at Colts Neck; there is no middle school sport program so we’re not losing anything.

NJR: Do you see a stronger club system emerging, potentially different than the one that exists now?

JS: You mean like they have in England? Possibly, but I think it would take a long time. I don’t really see that happening in the short run. I think districts will go more and more to pay to play.That will hurt track far less than some of the other sports, especially for schools with large teams since they have more kids to spread the cost over and track is not equipment and coach intensive as say football. A sport like basketball would really be hurt by pay to play because of having only 12 players, high travel costs (buses) high officiating cost, etc. They can mitigate some of that by combining trips with the school’s girls’ team, JV and frosh teams but it should still be better for track.

The thing with the club system, especially as it exists now, is that the better kids can get races (open and college races) but if the average athlete joins a club, it will be hard for them to find races at their level. Marielle Hall and Keith Griffith could get into races because they were competing at a very high level. That’s not true for most kids. The system would have to change dramatically.

NJR: Let’s talk about the Six Flags Wild Safari Invitational for a minute. Where did the idea for that come from?

JS: You know, I’ve always thought Great Adventure would be a great place for a XC meet. Of course the idea never went anywhere like most ideas and we were doing fine with the Cougar XC Invitational (held annually at Bucks Mill Park in Colts Neck).

Then a while ago I was out front cutting the lawn and a friend who used to live across the street came by to see his parents who still lived there. We were classmates and we started talking and he mentioned that he had taken his family to Great Adventure and run into Mark Kane, another former classmate, who was now president of Six Flags in Jackson. After we finished talking, I continued to mow the strip I was on but my mind started going 1,000 miles an hour and I stopped and ran inside to the computer and zipped off an e mail to Mark with the idea about the meet. I heard back from him very shortly and he loved the idea.

Six Flags has been great and Mark has been super. I wish I could take the credit for the safari part of the run, but that goes to Mark. We were struggling a bit to come up with a 5K course. I talked to Mark about the problem and he said “so, we’ll run the race through the safari”. Who would have even thought that was possible? Mark is the kind of guy who always figures out a way and doesn’t let anything stop him.

NJR: How many teams do you have now and how many can you accommodate?

JS: We’re at 69 boys and 77 girls’ teams and we have some middle school entries already which really surprises me; I thought we wouldn’t get any of those until after September 1. There are teams from as far away as Virginia. We’ll accept 110 teams of each gender. Sneaker Factory has signed on as a sponsor and brings Saucony with them. We’ll have some nice prizes from Saucony, like tee-shirts for all members of the fastest teams for each gender. It’s a good lead-in for Sneaker Factory since they just signed a lease to open their third store at Pier Village in Long Branch (the former Shore Runner location).

NJR: Do you ever think about going back to college coaching some day or possibly coaching elite/professional athletes?

JS: College, no. I really like it at Colts Neck and I enjoy being able to COACH. The recruiting in college is a grind and leaves you with little time for your family and other interest. As far as coaching elite athletes, sure I would do that now. I still have a couple post-collegiate athletes that I coach and while they are not elite level, an elite athlete could fit into that schedule nicely. I wouldn’t want to coach only individuals. I enjoy the team atmosphere and would miss that too much. I like the interplay between the kids and the coaching staff and the feeling of achieving something together, even if it is only a dual meet win.

NJR: Who are your favorite athletes, regardless of level | high school, college, pro?

JS: That’s another tough one. I like working with and watching athletes who are into what they are doing. They study, they work, they’re focused on the little things and the discipline they need to consistently do the best they can. I watch Albert Pujols and see him that way. Even when he’s in the dugout, he’s watching every thing to see if there is something he can learn to use later.He’s the best hitter in the game but he’s always looking to be even better. And he looks to improve his whole game, not just his hitting. If you watch him run, he knows what he’s doing, he’s not running station to station. He led the Cards in stolen bases last year and is leading again this year. I like working with athletes who are totally into their sport the way Pujols is.

NJR: Okay, so all this coaching stuff | who is the coach that impresses you the most, the best one you’ve ever seen, here or anywhere else.

JS: Dean Smith. He was a consistent winner while remaining a human being. He thought outside the box a lot and as we were just saying, he was totally into his sport. He focused on the details and in constantly trying to get better at what he did.

NJR: What is your favorite event to watch? To coach?

JS: I love to watch a good mile. It’s just the right distance and it requires toughness, endurance and speed. A great combination. Coaching? I know that my best distance to coach is the 5000.I’m a distance coach, no question but the things I emphasize, like the ability to sustain a hard pace for a long time are what is needed to be a successful 5000 meter runner on the course or the track. The event just seems to be what I have the best feel for.

NJR: What is the best XC team you have ever seen in New Jersey?

JS: Oooh, that’s hard. I could say the Bernard teams of the early 80s but I think I would have to pick the 1999 CBA team. They finished 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 10, 14 in the state meet and hoped to break the team average record the next week at the Meet of Champions and then it turned out to be too hot. They won but they didn’t break the record because of the heat but they still had 4 of the top 9 which is unbelievable in an MOC. Their average on a very tough, tough day was 16:25.That was a great team | very consistent and very deep.

NJR: Last question: who would you pick as the best female and male high school track/XC athlete you have ever seen in New Jersey?

JS: Well, let me say that I never saw Janet Smith or Michelle Rowen, so I can’t pick one of them but they were obviously great. I think I would have to pick an athlete I coached, Jodi Bilotta. I coached her after she graduated from college and still had the great range she had in high school and she is a really nice person, very easy to work with. I think she is still the only girl or boy to have won the MOC distance triple.

The guy? Has to be Marty Liquori. He was one of those guys I talked about. Totally focused on what he was doing, trying to get better in every way and tough as hell. Plus it’s awfully hard to pick against a sub-4:00 high school miler!

NJR: Jim, thanks for your time and best of luck this coming season. We’ll expect to see you and your team at the NXN Regional on November 27 at Bowdoin Park in New York!

The Six Flags Wild Safari Cross Country Invitational will take place on Saturday, September 25 at Great Adventure in Jackson, NJ. The event is sponsored by the Sneaker Factory and Saucony.On-line entry can be found here:

Six Flags Wild Safari Invitational - Girls

Six Flags Wild Safari Invitational - Boys

Six Flags Wild Safari Invitational - Middle School

<p> This series was created to hopefully help preserve past interviews with important people to New Jersey's XCTF history. This way they are in one place, enjoy. </p>