By being organized through schedules and planning, new distance coach John Donahue aims to bring success to the girls track team and push them to compete at a higher level.
Donahue worked alongside former coach David Klein in girls cross country and previously coached boys track for 18 years before taking a break from that.
“Four or five years ago, I stepped away, and now my kids are a little bit older, so I was looking to get back into coaching anyway,” Donahue said.
The new position brought Donahue some added anticipation.
He is looking forward to watching the team continue to work hard.
Donahue also believes that his athletes could benefit from having the same coach throughout all sports seasons.
“I thought it would be good to have the girls use the same person for all three seasons,” Donahue said.
Donahue has been working with the girls during the fall months for cross country, and in the winter months, he’s been doing workouts to prepare for the upcoming season.
“I felt it was a good situation for the team and myself,” Donahue said.
With the spring season starting at the beginning of March, Donahue wants to help these girls feel confident in themselves and not overthink races by “[trying] to make sure that they’re calm and prepared for races.”
“You just run, turn left and try to stay relaxed and not get nervous,” Donahue said.
According to Klein, he is ready for the spring season, but this time will be cheering from the sidelines.
“I’m grateful that [with] me stepping away, we have someone so knowledgeable to be able to fill in my space,” Klein said.
Sophomore Caroline Fallon runs distance in both track and field and cross country and has found Donahue to be beneficial to the team.
“[Coach] Donahue has been very helpful. He makes schedules and is very organized with our team,” Fallon said.
By doing so, Fallon said Donahue makes sure “there is a running schedule for us to follow.”
Fallon said that this helps the team in advance when going into races.
“It’s going to help us reach our goals,” Fallon said.
Donahue has been assisting Fallon in training to help her become more efficient.
In doing so, they run “around the bus loop” at the school and work out in the building.
“[It] has been great that we’ve been working really hard, and [I’m] looking forward to the spring season,” Donahue said.
Altering training for the benefit of the girls track athletes, Donahue created a training plan for the team.
“This pushes the team as a group to keep up with [their] training,” Fallon said. “He always makes sure to answer any question about what you could do different or change for an upcoming race.”
For Klein, one of the best parts of his coaching experience was getting to watch his athletes grow.“It’s great seeing them accomplish their goals and become better humans and athletes.”
Combining Donahue’s experience coaching at the high school and Palisades High School, he has been “coaching for more than 30 years.”