The RECORD Online

Summer 2000

One on One
an interview with Coach Brian Patton

Record: How do you go from 18 athletes in track and field six years ago to 75 this past season? How do you account for that kind of recruiting success?
Patton: We work hard, and I think our heart’s in the right spot. In track, we can include everybody in the competition. We can travel with everybody. Everyone can participate at each meet. You’re not going to be sitting on the bench. Even in cross-country, we can put 25-30 people on the starting line.

Record: And you also work hard at recruiting.
Patton: When I first came, I spent too much time on it. I really got obsessive with it, and then I had to slow things back down to save a relationship. Renae and I weren’t married yet at the time. So I had to back off a little on the recruiting. When I took the job full time [two years ago], we made an agreement that I would only call prospects two nights a week. However, since she’s an admissions counselor, she has to call in the evenings, and she’s gone [traveling for the college] for four weeks during cross-country season, so then I call every night.

Brian Patton earned NCCAA National Coach of the Year honors in the spring of 2000.

Record: Is that normal? Do other coaches call that much?
Patton: Football coaches probably would. Track is a thing schools are starting to catch onto. It can be a great enrollment enhancer. We do work hard, but unless God builds a house, you labor in vain. Sometimes I think I may be laboring in vain, that I may jump ahead of Him. Counseling takes the most time. If 10 kids come in every day, each one wanting a half hour—and they do—that’s the part I enjoy, building relationships.

Record: How do you account for the academic success of your squads? Is that one of the things you look for when you’re recruiting students, or are you just a great motivator?
Patton: I definitely spend more time on the ones that show good ACT scores and good grades, and we really push the scholarship competitions. Also, distance runners are more self-disciplined, so they tend to be better students. I also believe there is a huge correlation between Christians and distance runners. We ask our athletes to go to study hall for an hour and a half three times a week, and if they have over a 3.0 GPA, they only have to go twice a week.

Record: What’s your greatest strength? Motivating others?
Patton: I don’t think I’m a great motivator in the sense of a Lombardi or somebody like that. The biggest compliment anyone could say is if they called me the Pied Piper. That’s the Pied Piper in the positive sense, not leading them away, as I recall the story, but leading them in the right direction. I think if you ask the kids, they’d just say that I care.

Last updated: September 22, 2000