Schumacher Addresses Media Monday
October 23, 2006 | Men's Cross Country
University of Wisconsin men's cross country coach Jerry Schumacher addressed the media Monday afternoon to answer questions about his top-ranked Badgers competing in the Big Ten Conference championships this Sunday. The men's 8,000-meter race begins at 11:30 a.m. ET on the Indiana University Golf Course in Bloomington, Ind.
Wisconsin is going for a record-tying eighth-consecutive Big Ten championship. The Badgers return five of the top seven finishers from last year, including runner-up Chris Solinsky.
A complete transcription of the news conference follows below. A video archive of the news conference can be found by clicking on the Audio/Video/Photos link to the right.
Opening Statement: This year's team is a little bit different than last year's team. We started (last) season out with a lot of upperclassmen, a lot of experience and right from the start, you could see what the season was all about. And this year it's been a little bit different, a lot of young guys in the mix. I wouldn't be surprised if six or seven of our top nine guys or 10 guys this year will be freshmen and sophomores, so it's going to be a young team.
One thing I'll say about it though is, whereas last year, from the first day of practice I recognized things right away about how good the team was, this year there were a lot of question marks. But it's been so far to this date a really fun season for us because every single week, the guys have improved in practice.
We're led by senior Chris Solinsky, who is kind of a big name in the sport right now to have leading your team, so that's been a tremendous advantage, to have such a young squad be following under that kind of leadership. But every single week we've improved and it's been a noticeable improvement, so I'm kind of excited to see where we're going through the championship part of the season this year. So that's where we're at to date.
You mentioned the difference between this year and last year 's team. The last couple years you've been talking at this time about trying to get to that goal of winning a national championship and trying to get over that hump. Now that you have and you have that in your back pocket, how is it different this year with maybe having that target on your back as opposed to years past'
I don't know if it's really, if I want to call it a target on our back. Over the last few years, we've kind of, that's kind of been the expectation. The guys come in and the recruits who are coming here know that they 're expected to perform at that highest national level now and that's really the objective of the team. We want to be considered one of the best programs in the country year in and year out, and they identify that on the recruiting visit now and that 's a big step.
Right away when they decide that they want to come to Wisconsin, it's not that, oh, we're going to have a target on our back. It's this is what we 're supposed to do. And they rise to that challenge. They're excited about that challenge. So that's been a big plus. But it is different this year because you're right, last year we kind of finally got to where we wanted to be, although I think even in years past we were considered one of the top teams.
This year I think a lot of people, although we're ranked No. 1, I don 't know if that's necessarily a just ranking other than the fact that we really haven't faced a lot of big-time competition yet, so we haven't been tested yet. There's certainly the feeling that we're a contender again this year and a lot of people think that we're the team to beat.
But I think the guys on the team know that as we've been working and training and the steps we've made throughout the season. I think they knew from the first day of practice that we probably weren't the team to beat as much as we are one of the top teams and that's what we've been working from. And our momentum has grown a lot, so like I said, where I was in the first week of practice, kind of going, `Oh, no.' I'm really excited to be at the championship part of the season, so it's going to be fun.
Jerry, I notice that Chris hadn't competed in three of the four meets you took part in. The reason behind that and is that a problem, he 's only raced in one meet leading into the Big Tens'
No, it's not a problem. When you're a senior and a veteran like Chris is, he knows what the big-time competition is like and he knows what he has to do and what we're trying to do to prepare him to hopefully be a contender for the individual (national) title this year in cross country.
Last year he was third, obviously behind two very good athletes and one of them being Simon Bairu, who really never let Chris get a sniff at anything during the cross country season. I think Chris knows what he has to do and he's been preparing very effectively and I think he's going to have a great run here in the last three weeks.
Jerry, obviously winning the NCAA title is probably the ultimate accomplishment, but I think (you've won) 18 of 21 (championships) in the Big Ten now. Can you compare that dominance and what that says'
Well, we've always looked at the Big Ten meet as kind of that first championship race of the year and we've always considered that you've got to be good in your own backyard before you can go and play in other people's backyards and win too. That's kind of the first initial step that I always say for the team, `Hey, we have to be able to win the Big Ten meet and control the race and do it the way we want to do it if we really, really want to be good on the national scene.
And they look at that as a big stepping stone now. There was probably a time, when I go back eight years ago (to) that first Big Ten title we won by two points and Michigan had won the previous two championships. We knew it was going to be a real tough race. Where that was kind of the focus of the season right there, was we've got to try to win that first championship. That race is for us and then take it one step at a time beyond that.
And not to say that we look past it now, because we're definitely not doing that, but it's a different look at the Big Ten championship race. It's not the same, whereas we need to win this one and put ourselves on the map here. And they did that eight years ago and we won that one by two points and it was a tight race. I remember it vividly and how all the pieces came together to pull out a two-point win.
And since then, we've just said, okay, this is our race, this is our first step and we've got to get past this one and we've got to do it the way we want to do it and not be controlled in the race and not to kind of skate by. We just want to have a convincing victory and then move on to the next phase of the season.
It's a stepping stone, definitely, but not to look past. The competition 's always good in the Big Ten. It's probably the best distance running conference in the country. We definitely wouldn't look past it, but it's a little bit different focus right now.
Jerry, in that regard in your sport, the opponent really is the clock in many ways as opposed to another team. If you go in and your guys run the way they're capable of running, you've got to know that you should come out on top. In that regard then, what can keep you from, what would keep a runner from not running his best, the course or just having a bad day, injury, something like that '
There's a lot of things and you're right. Obviously, the team that puts their five guys the quickest through the starting line to the finish line is going to win. But there's some other dynamics that are involved obviously. It's having a young team this year, the question marks are always how are they going to respond in a championship race.
The pressure's on and I tried to, as much as I can, try to put some pressure situations on them, but there's nothing quite like when you line up and you really put the heat on them to let them know that this is important, to see how they respond in that type of environment. So you have the young guys question marked'the inexperience, I guess you could call it.
Injuries are always a question mark when you're racing. You hope you have an injury-free season, everyone's staying healthy and there's always illnesses and little things that come up that deter you. Whenever you're walking that fine line, I think, of trying to, I don't want to say be perfect but being on the edge of the best you can be. There's going to be little things that pop up, that kind of take you off that and hopefully it's nothing major. Those are things that can kind of derail a team that's moving in the right direction and this time of year, those are the things we really try to monitor and take care of so that we don 't have the little things creep up and stop us from doing what we want to do.
