The Cross Country Coach Switch
This year the Cross Country Crusaders saw a sudden shift in their coaching staff. Nick Schneigert, the team’s head coach since 2019, stepped down from his position and assistant coach Blaire Casey came on as the team’s new head coach.
As Coach Casey takes on this new position, he hopes to “reach and extend the standard set” by the second longest tenured Cross Country Coach in UD history. Coach Casey says that Coach Schneigert “built the program up to where it is currently.” Coach Casey hopes to “take what [he’s] learned from [Coach Schneigert] and from [his] own experience” to try and fill the very big shoes that Coach Schneigert left behind.
In Coach Schneigert’s six years and a half as head coach, he certainly set a high standard. During his tenure he coached the university’s first two-time NCAA Division III All-American athlete, Anna Wilgenbusch, and its first ever NCAA All-Regional Athlete, Alexander Bozhilov. In his time at the helm Coach Schneigert left his mark on the school and set a high standard for Coach Casey to meet.
Coach Casey brings with him nearly 30 years of competitive running experience. He has a wealth of “racing experience across many different distances with a great deal of recent experience”, including finishing “7th place overall at the 50th Dallas Marathon back in 2021”, which Coach Casey sees as the “culmination of a long career.” Cross Country runner Allison Lesonesio thinks that Coach Casey brings a sort of friendly openness to the position. The sophomore runner says that Coach Casey has “put in an effort to try to get to know us” as he moves to his new position from his previous assistant coach position. She says that Coach Casey has really tried to “implement what the team asks for” in hopes to create a smooth transition from Coach Schneigert.
Allison also notes that Coach Casey has “changed [the teams] workout schedule”, adding more “easy” and “recovery” workouts to the team’s regiment. While she thinks that it’s still “hard to tell if [she’s] improved or not”, Allison is a fan of this new schedule.
Even with all the experience Coach Casey brings to the table, a mid-season coach switch is always difficult for a team. Coach hopes for a seamless transition so as not to cause “too much disruption in the student-athletes’ schoolwork, training and personal lives.” He hopes to take “a closer look at what the team has already done this season” and continue to develop the team based off the progress they have already made.
Allison believes that while the switch was “very sudden” it was also “fairly smooth.” She thinks that the team adapted well to the switch even though “switching training plans” can be “weird on the body.” She thinks that the new workouts are definitely “different” but not necessarily “bad different.”
Even with the challenges of the mid-season switch, Coach Casey sets his hopes high for the rest of the season. Coach Casey looks to “continue to grow as a team and individually” and have a “really strong showing at the conference meet.” To accomplish this, Coach Casey believes that “consistency and hard work are key”, and he hopes that the team can “be proud of all the effort they have put in and have something to build on going forward.”
Allison also has high hopes for this Cross Country season. She says that the growth from last year’s “really small” team has been good for the team’s community. She says that the team has “a good community” and she hopes to “keep it that way.” Allison wants to see the team continue to thrive and “run strong till conference.”