Rachel Schneider's Georgetown Experience

First, I think it’s important to start out by saying that unfortunately cases of racism and discrimination are still prominent all over America today. Second, I think actual cases of racism and discrimination need to be taken very seriously and have consequences that exemplify such acts should never be tolerated under any condition. Third, I find lying about racism and discrimination to achieve a personal motive equally as wrong as racism and discrimination itself.

While I am not a person of color, or considered to be in a minority group, and cannot attest to heinous acts of racism or discrimination on Georgetown campus, I have been a member of the Georgetown Cross Country and Track & Field teams for the last six years and can speak with complete confidence about the coaches and program.

It is well known in the running world that Georgetown is a middle-distance/distance oriented program. There are a few reasons for this: we are not a fully-funded program and have chosen to focus on middle-distance/distance events, and we don’t have the resources (a 400m track, an adequate indoor practice track, or field equipment) that typically attract sprinters and field event athletes. (This is not to say that Georgetown hasn’t had and doesn’t have its share of awesomely talented and accomplished sprinters and jumpers! We absolutely do – and they have been and continue to be a vital part of the program. I am only addressing why we don’t have a larger sprint and field program, which inadvertently results in less diversity.) Georgetown’s resources might be limited compared to many schools, but as a whole we have always prided ourselves on overcoming adversities and still being one of the best middle-distance/distance programs in the country while having athletes excel in sprints and jumps. Ask me why I chose Georgetown, when before I started looking at schools I would half-joke with my parents that I just wanted a school with a 400m track (neither my Junior High School or High School had a track). It was simple. The coaches’ passion and enthusiasm for running was so contagious while the team was so dedicated, driven, supportive, and fun. While it was one of the only schools that was not able to offer me a full-scholarship, going to Georgetown was the best decision I’ve ever made. This is not a saga about my personal running journey, but rather a brief testament about the coaches and culture that helped define my incredible college experience and now professional career. 

I have never directly been coached by Pat Henner, but I have known him for six years and have admired how he impressively balances coaching the men’s team and being director of the program. The men who have been his athletes can better speak to his coaching style, but I can competently say that Coach Henner is a man of integrity and expects integrity on the team; he is extremely dedicated and passionate about coaching at Georgetown; he truly wants to see every athlete excel – in running and life; and if he is knowledgeable about or unhappy about something going on with the team, he doesn’t hesitate to address it. Coach Henner has been a driving force in creating and maintaining Georgetown’s running culture (but he is not solely responsible for it, nor can he know everything that goes on outside of practice). I am eternally grateful to Coach Henner for his deliberate decisions in choosing the women’s head coach. When Coach Henner came to Georgetown, he brought with him Coach Miltenberg – who recruited me and was the coach my first three years there. Coach Milt was/is an absolutely phenomenal coach and person and when he accepted an incredible opportunity to be the Director and Head Coach at Stanford University, the team was devastated. For those two weeks the women’s program didn’t have a coach, Coach Henner took us in his care, assured us it was going to be okay, and spent every day coaching us. He played an essential part in keeping it all together and somehow he brought in another exceptional coach and person, Mike Smith.

Mike Smith – where to begin. If you know Mike, then you know he is a man of great energy, passion, determination, and excitement. He has friends in every part of the country and is one of those people you’d think has already lived three full lives just by the sheer number of things he’s accomplished, places he’s been to, and peoples’ lives he’s had a positive impact on. Mike came to Georgetown after spending six years in Flagstaff – a place he is so in love with, and a place that really loves him (people often refer to him as the “Mayor” of Flagstaff just because he is so well-known and constantly doing things to improve the community). While he will be the first to confess how difficult it was for him to leave Flag, he brought the most positive attitude to Georgetown and poured himself into being the best coach he could be to every girl on the team. Like Coach Henner, Mike genuinely wants each of his athletes to excel in both running and, more importantly, life. His door is always open for any athlete to go in and talk about running or literally anything on their mind. He somehow always makes time and never rushes a conversation. He is someone who really listens and really cares. And he loves it when an athlete really cares about something (whether it’s running, something in the news, a song, etc). He always encourages communication and questions and gets excited when an athlete wants to understand why we do a certain workout at a certain time, or what the purpose of certain drills are, etc – because it shows accountability and ownership – and Mike always has a reason behind everything we do, so I think a part of him just gets a little fired up when we let him nerd out and explain it. But that’s what Mike wants from his athletes – accountability, ownership, collaboration, and positivity. By the mere fact that one is on the team, it is expected that each athlete will be dedicated to running and supportive of the team’s goals.

There are no time standards to stay on the team at Georgetown. Obviously the coaches hope that they can help each athlete improve upon their high school PRs and help them to continue to improve throughout college, but unfortunately that’s not how it always plays out. Some people never reach their high school PRs, and some don’t achieve PRs the final few years of college. There can be a variety of reasons for this, but what has always mattered most at Georgetown is what you’re adding to the team. Whether you’re running great, or you’re injured, or not you’re not running well – it has always been the attitude that the person brings to practice and their effort that matters the most. Some of my friends that were the most prominent leaders on the team were ones that really struggled with running. Despite how much they might have been struggling with running, no one ever questioned whether or not their hearts were in it, or how dedicated they were, or how supportive they were. They were vital parts of the team and embodied what Georgetown running is all about – giving your best in every circumstance and supporting one another. The only accounts I know of people being dismissed from the team, had to do with their lack of effort and their attitude being negative to the point of affecting others on the team in an unbeneficial way and their presence being counterproductive to the team goals and support system. I know the coaches, who recruited and had high hopes for these athletes, worked hard to try to help these athletes – but they can only do so much when an athlete won’t take ownership of their running or be accountable for their attitude and effect on the team. I understand and support the decisions that the coaches have made in these cases, and in no way find any hint of race or discrimination come into play. I find it very generous that the dismissed athlete was able to keep their scholarship – especially when we are not a fully-funded program and there are many deserving girls who would love to have the opportunity to run for Georgetown. Also, to tell an athlete they can come back on the team after a period of time and meeting certain time standards – shows both the coach and team that the dismissed athlete has thought over what role they want running to play in their life, that they do in fact want to be a part of the team and are driven and dedicated enough to train on their own to get back to a certain level of competitiveness. To me this is fair.

Both coaches go above and beyond to help their athletes and are incredibly selfless people. I can give countless examples to prove those two statements are true, but since I am currently sitting in a Belgian café in the midst of a three week European circuit in which I’ve had the unbelievable opportunities to get to compete with athletes from around the world, meet and make friends with some of America’s fastest runners, learn countless lessons about the sport and life in general, and see parts of Europe – I figured my own personal testimony is a pretty credible example. When I finished my five years of eligibility in June 2014, I knew I wanted to keep running and see how far I could take it. Both Mike and Coach Henner believed in me and gave me the confidence to pursue it. Mike convinced me he would be happy to keep coaching me and have me work with the team. Every day Mike gives me my training, and when my schedule doesn’t work out with the team’s, Mike often meets me on my own for practices. Multiple times a week he looks over my training log, he strategically plans out my workouts and races, and is always there to talk and collaborate. Despite his already busy life, Mike has been with me every step of the way this year as I transitioned from a collegiate runner, to a post-collegiate runner working three part-time jobs to support myself, to a now sponsored runner who was 0.01 seconds from making this year’s World Championship team. He has been the driving force in making my dream become a reality and I will eternally be grateful to him for so many reasons. To say I feel lucky to have him as my coach is a massive understatement. I feel like I should pay him millions of dollars, and yet I pay him nothing and he wants nothing but for me to be the best I can be and to enjoy the journey as much as possible. I am one of countless examples of the ways in which Mike goes above and beyond and is humbly selfless.

I felt unbelievably privileged to wear the Georgetown uniform for five years with amazing girls who will be life-long friends and coaches who truly embody Georgetown’s ideals. I am so happy to continue to be a direct part of the program and have witnessed both the men’s and women’s teams accomplish amazing feats this past year. I know countless alumni who feel the same love and loyalty to the program that I do, and who greatly respect and commend the current coaching staff. I will forever be proud to have been a small part of the Georgetown running program and will always Bleed Blue.