Interview with Brad Peterson (July 16, 2008)
Head Coach, Mens & Womens Track & Cross Country, Indiana Tech
Last fall, the Indiana Tech running program was born. Indiana Tech is an NAIA university in Fort Wayne. The program became a major success from the very start and many believe, within a couple of years, it will be among the very best NAIA programs in the nation. We had a chance to do an in-depth interview with Brad Peterson, head coach for mens and womens cross country and track & field.
Derek Leininger, IndianaRunner.com:
Discuss a little about how Indiana Tech’s program came to exist, how you assembled your coaching staff, and how you were able to pull such a strong recruiting class right away (both boys and girls).
Brad Peterson, Head Coach at Indiana Tech:
In October of 2006, my dad and I met with Dan Kline, the athletic director at Indiana Tech. We got along very well right away and could tell we wanted to work for him. Mr. Kline asked me if I could get 10 men and 10 women for the following fall for cross country and I said I thought I could. He believed in me and gave me the opportunity. I first had to finish up coaching the Concordia girls cross country team to the state meet at the end of October. Once that was over, I went into full recruiting mode for the next 7 months. In January, we already had our numbers met for cross country and I was beginning to get a lot of interest on the track side of things so I asked Mr. Kline if we could go ahead with track as well in that first year, and he asked if I could get 10 more men and 10 more women on the track side and I again stated that I thought we could. Therefore, we went ahead with track in that first year with the focus on the track, not so much on the field events, although we did have some good pole vaulters and long jumpers. We ended up with 55 total athletes in the program in the first year. I will forever be grateful to Mr. Kline for the opportunity he gave me and he was a great mentor and friend to me. He just retired recently and we are looking for a new athletic director as we speak. But he will definitely be missed.
Our coaching staff consists of: Barrie Peterson, my father, who helps with both cross country and track. He was the longtime successful coach at Northrop High School. Matt Blume also helps with both cross country and track. Matt ran college cross country at Valparaiso University and is still in great shape so is able to push our guys. Lance Hoffman works with our throwers and jumpers. He and I coached together at Concordia High School. He led their boys to a state track title in 1998. Rod Waters will work with our hurdlers as a graduate assistant this year. He was the national champ in the 110 hurdles. Doug Edgar works with our sprinters. Doug ran the 400 and 800 for me at Concordia and also ran for Anderson University. I assembled this staff by going with people I know and trust. They are all hard working individuals that have a passion for the sport.
We were able to get some very strong recruits right away because for one, we worked hard at it. But I would be crazy not to give credit to all of the people that helped me out. Josh Fletcher, one of my best friends, is the head coach at Northridge HS and is one of the best coaches in the state. He helped me land his top runner from 2006, Loren Spirito, which then led other guys to follow once they saw a big name like Loren’s. Josh believed in me and my program and encouraged other athletes in his sectional, like Dan Neidlinger from Plymouth and John Wainwright from Lakeland to look into our school and our program. Josh continues to help me out as we have Karissa Cominator and Tony Yoder, both from Northridge, coming in this fall to run for us. Erik Kellison is also one of the best coaches in the state and he helped me get two of his runners, Jordan Mitchell and Tommy Mullen. Erik has had me to his house numerous times just to talk training. That is the special thing about cross and track for me. Almost all of my close friends I have met through these sports and I am so grateful for that. I was best man in Josh’s wedding and the first time we met was 2002 coaching against each other. I have also gotten a lot of help from college coaches since I took the Tech job and am very grateful to them for all of their advice in starting a program and helping me out with what meets to go to and other various things. Jerry Baltes at Grand Valley State has become a great friend. He is one of the top college coaches out there, and one of the most underrated, I might add. I can shoot him an email any time of the day with a question and he gets back to me right away with great advice. Tim Bauer of Siena Heights has been one of our program’s biggest fans. He coaches in the same conference as us but he has always been there for me with advice and words of encouragement. When some of our kids won national championships, he was the first one over to our camp to congratulate us. He is a class act and has helped me so much with NAIA questions that I have. Last and not least, Jon Amt has been an unbelievable resource for me. Jon ran for me at Concordia, then went down to Duke University and ran and coached there. (Currently, he is finishing up Law School at North Carolina). He dated Shannon Rowbury, the Olympic trial 1500 champ, for years, and is still close with her. I actually watched Shannon work out in our weight room last summer as she rehabbed from her injury and she showed me a lot of the extra things she does that help her running. Jon probably is the smartest friend that I have when it comes to anything in life, let alone coaching. I go to Jon a lot for advice and he has helped me with so much over the years, but especially in the last couple years he has helped me with advice in running a college program and all the extra things the kids need to be doing on top of running. If we have a really bad meet and I am down, Jon is the guy I call and I know he will have me fired up by the end of the conversation. My point with all of this is this program would not be excelling without the help of all of those mentors/friends. And I am sure any coach would tell you the same things, that they have gotten a lot of help from others, and that has helped them become successful.
Leininger: You just completed your first year with the brand new program at Indiana Tech. Describe some of the highlights from this year and talk a little about what it was like coaching an entire team of freshmen and competing on the national level against programs with experienced upperclassmen.
Peterson: Highlights for the women’s cross country team were winning our conference (The WHAC), winning the Regional, and placing 9th at nationals. Kara Van Horn was our number one runner at every meet and just missed being All American by a few seconds, running 18:30 for 5k. She was a great leader for our team. For the men’s cross country team, the highlight was just getting to nationals as we were in a very tough regional. We were fortunate enough to gain an at large bid and placed 20th at nationals. Camron Walter was our #1 runner all year and he ended the season All American by placing 20th at nationals, running 25:18 for 8k on a very tough Kenosha, Wisconsin, course.
Highlights for the women’s track team were qualifying numerous young ladies to both indoor and outdoor nationals. We placed 14th as a team at outdoor nationals. Alissa McKaig won the indoor 5000 meters and also the outdoor 5000 and 10,000. Her times of 16:39 and 34:20 both set NAIA meet records. Kara Van Horn placed 12 in the 10k with a time of 37:16. Alyssa Webb made the final of the 1500 and placed 10th in 4:43. Dina Petridis from Northrop HS placed 10th in the pole vault. Domi Elizondo ran 57.6 in the 400 to qualify for nationals.
Highlights for the men’s team were also qualifying a high number to nationals. At outdoor nationals, Rod Waters won the 110 hurdles in 13.98. Kesonn Lee placed 7th in both the 100 and 200. Camron Walter placed 9th in the steeplechase. (he had a personal best of 9:14). Matt Ditzler qualified in both the 5000 and 10,000 with best times of 14:49 and 31:27. Dan Neidlinger ran 32:01 for 10k and 15:22 for 5k. Jordan Mitchell ran 3:57 for 1500 and 1:53 for 800. John Wainwright ran 9:23 for the steeple and 1:54 for the 800. At indoor nationals, Brett Tipton made the final of nationals in the 800 and ran a season best of 1:52.6 outdoors. Derrick Brinkley ran 1:20 for 600 to finish as an All American. Kesonn Lee placed 6th in the 60 meter dash in 6.80 to be All American.
In cross country, the entire team was made up of true freshmen. This was not as tough as I thought that it would be. This was because we have such great young people who worked extremely hard and were very coachable. Our lack of experience definitely hurt us at times, but overall I could not have imagined a much better year for our men or for our women. The goal was to get to nationals in our first year and we did that. In track, we had more variables to deal with. We had the freshmen but we also had guys who had anywhere between 2 years off and 7 years off of competing. This was a great challenge as we had to monitor many of these athletes closely to make sure we weren’t trying to have them too much too soon after a long layoff or for the freshmen that came from programs that did not train year round.
Leininger: You have recruited and landed a lot of in-state talent. Among your best “true freshmen” this year were Camron Walter (Whitko HS), Matt Ditzler and Kara Van Horn (both from Huntington North HS). I’m sure you will look to pull some talented kids out of surrounding states – but is recruiting well in the state of Indiana your primary goal and part of your vision in building the Indiana Tech program?
Peterson: When I took the position at Indiana Tech and went out recruiting, my goal was to recruit Indiana very strongly and comprise our program mostly of Indiana student athletes. This is for a few reasons: one, we are able to help more in terms of aid with Indiana kids; two, I have coached in Indiana and have a lot coaching friends in the state that have helped send kids our way; three, we have great talent in Indiana in cross country and track. With that said, we have gotten some outstanding talent from the state of Michigan. It is easy to recruit them because our conference is all Michigan schools that they are well aware of and many of our meets are up there. We have also lucked out with some guys from the east coast that ended up in Fort Wayne with various reasons and we kind of stumbled upon them. Indiana will continue to be our focus, though. I believe out of our 80 athletes now in our program, about 60 to 65 of them are from Indiana.
Leininger: Brett Tipton was a state champion for you when you were coaching at Northrop High School back in the late 1990s. Talk a little about Brett’s return to running this year and the kind of influence he had on the program (since he’s much older and most of the athletes you had were only 18-20 years old).
Peterson: I coached Brett Tipton his junior and senior years at Northrop in track. He won the 1600 both of those years and also was national champion in the 800 with a best time of 1:51.09. Brett went to IU on a full scholarship and was running well (1:49 and 3:51 as a freshman) but then had what looked like a career ending injury to his knee. After some years off, the knee healed and when I got this job, I talked to him about the possibility of coming to school here and running. He was hesitant at first, but eventually decided to do it. He had a solid year, considering his 6 year layoff from competition. He ran 1:52 a couple of times and I expect him to run much faster next year with a solid base in the fall that he was not able to do last year. Brett and I have a great relationship. He is one of my closest friends and I am just proud that he is back at it in school and in running. Brett has had a great influence on the program as everyone knows who he is and everyone likes him. He is so into the sport and so passionate about it. He genuinely gets very excited for the other guys when they run fast. He has been a great role model for them and has taught the younger guys about the great runners of track and field, from Bernard Lagat to Matt Tegenkamp to Nick Symonds to Andrew Wheating. Brett will make a great college coach someday.
Leininger: Alissa McKaig was another former high school athlete of yours, from your time at Concordia Lutheran HS. After running at Baylor and Michigan State, she transferred this year to Indiana Tech and won a few individual national titles this spring. Talk a little about Alissa’s track season and what you have in mind for her long-term.
Peterson: Alissa McKaig ran for me at Concordia High School from her sophomore through senior year (her freshmen year she did not run but played soccer and swam). When the possibility of her transferring here presented itself, I was excited to work with her again. It was very tough for her leaving MSU because she loved her coaches, teammates, and friends there (and the school itself) but this was something she felt she needed to do. Alissa had a great track season. She got fit and was ready to run 33:30 or so at Stanford but went out very fast, 16:35 at the 5k, and it was a long second half of the race for her to say the least. She still ended up running a PR, 34:10, but we were hoping for better. That was her only chance to get in a race where she could be pulled to a fast time in good weather so that was disappointing that it did not go as well as we would have liked. But she ended the season well, doubling at NAIA Nationals in 34:20 and 16:39 and winning both national titles and setting meet records in both. This coming year, we are starting to focus more on marathon type training as I believe that is her best event. She will still run cross country and track for us but will also be running the 10 mile national championship road race in Minneapolis this fall. She also will run the Houston USA Championship Mini Marathon in January. She will again try to run a fast 10k in the spring and should qualify to run in the USA Championships in Eugene next June. Depending on how she is progressing, a full marathon is in the plan in the next year to year and a half. One thing is for sure, she is hungrier now than ever and I have never seen anyone work as hard as she works. Her best running days are definitely ahead of her.
Leininger: Who are the incoming freshmen that will be joining the Warriors’ program this fall? And what expectations and goals do you have for both teams this fall?
Peterson: Top Incoming freshmen for this year for the men are: Tim Fletcher, a 6-10 High jumper from Austin HS (IN); Cody White, 4:23/1:56 from Heritage HS (IN); Tony Yoder, 16:12 5k guy from Northridge HS (IN); Evan Carpenter, state hurdle champ (14.0) from Chelsea HS (MI); Matt Kimbrell, 12th place finisher in the 1600 at the state meet from Muncie South HS (IN); Ben Serna, 9:31 3200 runner from Center Grove HS (IN); Chad Keller, 54-11 SP/ 158-3 Discus from Bellmont HS (IN). We also picked up two huge transfers, one from Tri State: Russell Dill, the 400 hurdle national champ in D3 this past year. (originally from Fort Wayne North Side HS). And also Chris Brautzsch, the 2006 110 hurdle state champ from Fort Wayne Wayne HS, who is transferring in from Louisville.
Top incoming freshmen for the women are: Hilary Snyder, state mile champ (5:05) from Jackson Lumen Christi HS (MI); Karissa Cominator, 11:26 3200 from Northridge HS (IN); Jessica Harms, all state hurdler from Northrop HS (IN); Ashley Stebbins, 11:27 3200 runner from Rockford HS (MI); Jordan Arnold, 18:55 5k runner from Lafayette Jeff HS (IN); Melissa Kauffman, 2:15 800 runner from Northridge HS (IN); Elizabeth Willford, pole vault state champ (11-6) from Gladwin HS (MI); Delta Martin, 25.5 200 meter runner from Gary West HS.
For the fall, our goal for the women is to compete for a national title. We were 9th without McKaig and without these talented freshmen we have coming in. There are many great teams out there, like Simon Fraser, that will be tough to beat, but I would like to be in the hunt.
For the men, we want to get back to nationals and finish in the top 10.
Leininger: Describe what your vision is for the Indiana Tech program over the next several years.
Peterson: My vision for the Indiana Tech program has not changed since I accepted the position. I stated then that I wanted to compete for a national title within 4 years and I believe we are on our way in each sport to do so. Both track teams will have much better years next year if we can keep everyone healthy, such as Anthony Argentino and Zac Chapman, two of the best hurdlers in all of NAIA on the men side, but they did not run hardly at all outdoors because of injuries. I believe our hurdle crew themselves can score tons of points at nationals. If you factor in all of our distance and mid distance guys returning one year older and also Kesonn Lee, we should be looking at a lot of points as a team at nationals. On the women’s side, we expect so score many more points next year with who we have returning but also with the recruits we are bringing in. Also, we were without Tiffany Aikin and Arielle Anderson this past season, who were both national qualifiers indoors but were injured outdoors. But the overall vision is to recruit great student athletes on and off the track. Our cross country teams were both academic all American and our track teams were close to getting it. I am very proud of the people we have brought in. They are good people that strive to do the right thing.
On a side note, I would like to say I am glad to see IndianaRunner back. I know everyone has missed it since it was taken off. I was amazed back when Derek was in high school that he put together such a great website. I have been fortunate to coach alongside Derek at Concordia and now consider him a close friend. He is one of the good guys of the sport and is becoming a great coach.