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garycohenrunning.com
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"All in a Day’s Run" is for competitive runners,
fitness enthusiasts and anyone who needs a "spark" to get healthier by increasing exercise and eating more nutritionally.
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This is what the running elite has to say about "All in a Day's Run":
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Brian Sell — 2008 U.S. Olympic Marathoner
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Dave McGillivray — Boston Marathon Race Director
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Pat Henry is the current track and field coach of both the men’s and women’s team at Texas A and M University and has held that position since 2004. The Aggies are the 2009 men’s and women’s NCAA Track and Field Outdoor Champions. His Texas A and M teams have won six Big 12 titles, earning Henry the title of Big 12 Coach of the Year six times. Pat was just named the men’s 2009 Track and Field Coach of the Year. He is also the former track and field coach at Louisiana State University (LSU) where he won 27 national championships during his 17-year tenure. At LSU his teams also won 19 SEC titles, while he earned 15 SEC Coach of the Year and five National Coach of the Year honors. The Lady Tigers won an astounding 10 straight NCAA outdoor championships under Pat’s leadership. He is the only coach in NCAA history to win both men's and women's track and field national titles in the same year which his teams also accomplished twice at LSU. He has coached over 35 Olympians and three Gold Medalists. Pat began his college coaching career at Blinn College in Brenham, Texas in 1983 and won two consecutive Junior College National Titles. Prior to Blinn College, Henry was head coach at Hobbs (NM) High School, where he led his teams to five state championships. Despite the personal successes he often credits his staff, and the consistency of those in place around him, for the overall success of his programs. Pat's coaching abilities can be traced through his lineage. His grandfather, Gwinn, was the head football and track coach at Kansas, Missouri and New Mexico, while his son Gwinn Bub was as an assistant track coach at New Mexico. Pat graduated from the University of New Mexico in 1973 and earned a masters degree from Western New Mexico University in 1979. He graduated from Del Norte High School in Albuquerque, N.M. in 1969. Pat was inducted into the U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2004. He has been married to the former Gail Duggin for 35 years. They have a daughter, Shelly, and a son Brandon. |
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GCR: | At the 2009 NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships, your Texas A and M men’s and women’s team both emerged victorious. How fulfilling was it to accomplish this in your fifth year at the helm of the Aggies with teams that you built? |
PH | Part of my perspective from a coach’s standpoint is that at LSU I felt I had done much and the challenge was could we do it again at another institution. Of course we feel good about the accomplishment of our new group as they met the challenge. |
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GCR: | The two NCAA Championships were the 28th and 29th of your coaching career, with the previous 27 as coach of LSU. Compare and contrast what you have constructed at Texas A and M in your five years as coach with what you did in your 17 years at LSU. |
PH | On the women’s side at LSU we inherited a pretty good squad while on the men’s side it took a while to build to the championship level. Here at Texas A and M we built both teams and it took five years which was the time to have teams comprised of the athletes we recruited. |
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GCR: | Your LSU Lady Tigers won an unprecedented 10 straight Outdoor NCAA Track and Field Championships from 1988 to 1997. Would you call this a dynasty or was it just a culmination of doing all of the little things over and over again ten years in a row? |
PH | It is a repetition of doing it over and over each year. Lots of times you get an athlete at your institution because you have the scholarships available that year. We’re not in a sport like football where you can give out 25 scholarships every year. From one year to the next you may have four scholarships or only two certain years or as many as eight. Also the guys you are working hard against may have a different plan. So, it’s about working hard, a level of consistency, having balance and many aspects to make things works on a steady basis. It’s about some athletes getting athletic scholarships, some combining with academic scholarships and recruiting some good walk-on athletes. |
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GCR: | How difficult is it to put together a team that contends for both conference crowns and national championships since the conference meet usually takes more athletes who can score while the NCAA Championships typically require fewer athletes who are exceptional? |
PH | We always want to say that there are two different kinds of teams and with some of my teams at LSU we may have finished third or fourth in the SEC and won the National Championship with that same team. Your conference is a big dictator as the Big 12, SEC and Pac 10 are great track and field conferences. If you are successful at the conference level, more than likely you will have a pretty good team to contend for a national championship. It’s hard to say that the development of a team at the conference level enables you to be a national championship team, but you have to start at the conference level. That’s what we’ve done at Texas A and M. We try to be successful and win the Big 12 and we’ve been fortunate to do that three times on the ladies’ side. On the men’s side we haven’t won the Big 12 yet, but we’ve been second and consistently in that top group after being in the bottom half of the conference when I started here. |
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GCR: | How does your recruiting class look for next year when you account for those athletes who will graduate? |
PH | We took 32 athletes to the National Championship and we lose seven of them which is in line with what we should lose. If you have a balance between the four classes that’s about right as 32 divided by four is eight athletes. So, if we aren’t losing that number of athletes each year we can’t develop the necessary balance to replace and replenish our squad. We just hope we can bring in another seven this year and next year and so on. I’m pleased with the returning people and we have a good recruiting class coming in. We have some good sprint talent, good throw talent and distance runners arriving this fall. People look at us as a sprint team, but for the first time this academic year we won the Region Championship in cross country and beat Arkansas and Texas. |
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GCR: | Is it important for you to be able to compete at a national level in cross country? |
PH | Dollars and cents and the limited number of scholarships are such a dictator and it is difficult to do so in our environment. Schools determine where to allocate their emphasis and it is hard to have enough resources though we are pleased about our progress and outlook in cross country. |
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GCR: | What are your thoughts on recruiting of foreign athletes? |
PH | It’s about recruiting talent. It used to be in Texas that if you went out of your county to recruit you were a ‘bad guy.’ Then the attitude changed to only recruiting someone from the state – if you recruited from a far-off state like New Jersey or New York, some outsider thought that was bad. Then it changed to the addition of foreign recruiting, which happens in many sports – football teams recruit some foreign kickers and both basketball and baseball teams recruit international athletes. I don’t think our sport is any different, but if you do allocate scholarship money to an international athlete they had better be very good. So the foreign athletes make the newspaper every week because they are awfully good. Then you may only have two or three international athletes, but that is all people think you have. We only have four right now out of about 100 athletes – but they better be good. |
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GCR: | Speaking of recruiting, you have signed Bonnie Richardson, the ‘one-girl team’ from Rochelle, Texas who won her second straight Class A girls state team title with a first in the long jump and high jump, second in the discus, third in the 200 meters and fourth in the 100 meters. Is she someone that you look at as a great person and very good athlete with tremendous upside and potential to be a standout heptathlete? |
PH | Our decathlete, Trinity Otto, who was seventh at the NCAA Championships as a junior is from a 1A school in Texas, so he is a good example of what you’re talking about. Someone like Bonnie who is from a small school is called upon to do a lot of things. She is one who we will look at determining where she can be most successful and the heptathlon is one area we will definitely consider. |
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GCR: | Your women’s 4x100 meter relay team of Khrystal Carter, Porscha Lucas, Dominique Duncan, and Gabby Mayo won the NCAA Championship and broke a 20 year old NCAA mark held by one of your LSU squads that was anchored by1992 Olympic relay gold medalist Esther Jones. The race looked almost flawless with excellent exchanges. What are your thoughts regarding this foursome? |
PH | Our ladies hit it on that day and it does come down to being perfect. On the men’s side we were the fastest team coming in and were one exchange away from being perfect. That’s what makes the 4x100 meter relay so great as you have to be perfect to win. There is no room for error when you are running that fast as any mistake is a big, glaring mistake. That group of ladies worked hard, and all are underclassmen so they are all back next year. |
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GCR: | The Aggies men’s team got a big boost for the team championship this year with four placers in the triple jump, though none of these men scored in last year’s NCAA meet. What was responsible for the amazing improvement of your team members in this event? |
PH | It’s about maturing and all of those kids are back next year. And like anything, if you get one good sprinter, all of a sudden you’ve got two good sprinters. If you have a good golfer on that team, the next thing you know a couple more step it up. It’s about young people being around each other and motivating each other. Also, Jim VanHootegem, my jumps coach, has done a great job and he has a great group of jumpers now. Their success is kind of infectious. |
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GCR: | The men’s team battle turned into a four team scramble that was decided during the final event, the 4x400 meter relay. Your foursome of Tran Howell, Bryan Miller, Kyle Dykhuizen and Justin Oliver all ran personal bests as they edged Baylor for second place by two-tenths of a second. This was a Baylor team that won the last five 4x400 national titles and its last 42 races. Your Aggies squeaked out a two point team victory over Florida State, Oregon and Florida. Is this the most improbable and exciting team finish in an NCAA Championships that you have coached? |
PH | It wasn’t as exciting for us that it came down to such a close outcome as it was for spectators. Justin Oliver, our anchor leg, said it best when someone asked him about trying to finish second and to hold off Baylor. Our guys were trying to win the race and to beat Florida State who ended up winning the race. It wasn’t about beating Baylor, it was about doing their best and it just happened that it was good enough to beat Baylor. But you can’t go out trying to beat a certain team because it could have been Florida who was second and then there would have been a different scenario. |
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GCR: | How important was this year for the future of Texas A and M Track and Field when you combine the hosting of the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships with the two team victories outdoors? |
PH | These three things are very, very important. We have had some great individuals on the track at Texas A and M from Randy Matson to Randy Barnes to Mike Stulce, who were all Olympic Gold Medalists, to Arturo Barrios, who was the World Record Holder at 10,000 meters, and many great sprinters, but never a great team that could win. Athletics is about teams. Our sport is about individual performance and I will look at it that way and those closely involved in our sport look at it that way. But our society looks at teams because the general public doesn’t care about the individual any more – it’s about ‘red beating green.’ It’s about Texas A and M because fans and supporters rally around teams so it is essential for us to succeed as a team to build that support. We could take a walk on 400 meter runner and bring him along to become NCAA Champion through great coaching, but the average fan doesn’t understand the significance. Look at the Olympics last year – if not for the show Usain Bolt put on, almost no one would know who holds the World Record in the sprints. Nobody would know. Nobody knows who the current heavyweight boxing champ is because it’s not a team. And that’s the way our society has changed so as a sport we have to adapt to that change. If we don’t we’re selling ourselves short. |
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GCR: | Building a championship team involves coaching, recruiting, technical abilities and hiring great assistant coaches. What are your strengths are there any areas where you can possibly improve and how has this changed over your career? |
PH | I don’t think a lot of things have changed. While I was at LSU, I had two or three different coaches in each area over the years and we had many successful assistant coaches. It is about continuity. Philosophies have got to be nurtured as sometimes when you win you have a tendency to slip away from philosophies that you hold very dear, so I have to guard against that and make sure it doesn’t occur. My duty and my job is to ensure that we have a good head on our shoulders as a staff. When it comes to recruiting, we need to continue to do a good job of working hard and selling Texas A and M. My staff has done a good job and I anticipate us continuing to do that. |
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GCR: | How difficult was it to leave LSU after so many years of tremendous success and what were the deciding factors that led to your decision? |
PH | My children are both LSU grads and bleed purple and gold. Any time you are somewhere for 17 years the place is very dear to your heart. I love LSU as there are many great people there who helped me throughout my career. But now it’s about trying to beat them, just like any other team such as Texas or UCLA or Florida State. Leaving LSU was difficult, but looking back to the early part of my coaching career, I left a high school team after 10 years to accept a junior college position. You don’t become calloused, but understand its part of the process. |
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GCR: | You led Blinn College to NJCAA Indoor and Outdoor Championships in the mid 1980s and before that coached Hobbs (NM) High School to five state wins. What are some of the similarities and differences between leading teams at those levels compared to your tenures at Texas A and M and LSU? |
PH | When I was coaching at the high school level we were able to win some championships and I thought, ‘There must be something a little more to this.’ So I took a junior college job, we won championships and I again thought, ‘There must be something different at the next stage.’ And then at Division I I’ve had some success and there isn’t any difference – it’s about competing at your team’s level at that time. It’s like the Class 5A high schools aiming for their championship and the 4A schools doing the same. Neither has any idea what is going on in each other’s level. It’s about developing the people you coach at whatever level you coach; it’s about relationships and it’s about a trust. It’s about the same principles at every level. If you are consistent with those aspects of life, how you do things and how you talk to your young people that is the key to being successful at any level. |
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GCR: | You have coached dozens of Olympians, including Gold Medalists. How about some quick comments on Esther Jones, Cheryl Taplin, D’Andre Hill, Muna Lee, Walter Davis, John Moffit, Kelly Willie and Derrick Brew? |
PH | Esther Jones is great lady with a lot of class. Cheryl Taplin is very similar to Esther. She had a tremendous amount of confidence in herself and was a great communicator. D’Andre Hill fought through adversity more than anyone I’ve ever known at this level. Muna Lee is an over achiever. She has great talent and there is no question about that. Muna has a soft personality from the outside, but is very tough on the inside. Walter Davis is a tough human being who is soft-spoken and very confident in his abilities. John Moffitt is a typical Louisiana kid – very soft-spoken like Walter and respectful of authority and adults. He is a great competitor who won the Silver Medal in the long jump. Kelly Willie is a Gold Medalist who is with me now. He is a good learner and a good teacher. Kelly is a very talented athlete. He came up through a tough upbringing. He has done a good job of supporting himself through life. Derrick Brew is a Gold medalist who is one of the finest human beings I have ever met. He is a special person. |
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GCR: | History tells us that your grandfather, Gwinn Henry, was the fastest man in the world in 1911. Legend has it that local town folk would have Gwinn race the fastest men from other towns and wager on the races. He passed away when you were four years old. Do you have many memories of your Grandfather and was his legend an inspiration to you in the sport of track and field? |
PH | I don’t remember many things but I do remember sitting in his lap. I remember more from what my dad and my grandmother said about my grandfather. He was a very successful college football coach at Kansas, Missouri and New Mexico and that’s why I was born and raised in Albuquerque. My grandfather may have been he first All-American in any sport from Texas which is something I’m currently researching. He was the U.S. Champion in 1911 but didn’t go to the Olympics in 1912 because my grandmother was ill during pregnancy. He was afraid to leave her and missed the boat. This was before overseas flying. He had a decision to make and that was what he did. Then she ended up losing the baby. |
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GCR: | Your grandfather also coached professionally and beat some of the NFL’s best teams. Was his legend an inspiration to you to coach and in the sport of track and field? |
PH | I have a letter from Amos Alonso Stagg which notes that my grandfather’s team was the first team to throw a forward pass against them. When your family has been involved in coaching as my family has, you learn a lot around the dinner table. |
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GCR: | You are known for your coaching, but how were you as a track and field competitor in your younger days? |
PH | Well, I competed at the high school level in cross country and started in college at New Mexico. But we had about five Kenyans and I saw those guys quite a ways in front of me and I started thinking, ‘I don’t know if I’m ever going to be able to get those guys.’ And so it sort of changed my life and I decided I would focus on studying and becoming a coach. In high school we were fairly successful – we didn’t tear up the world but had a good time. I also wrestled and played football. I didn’t do anything real significant, but used athletics to help me. |
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GCR: | What future goals do you have in coaching? Is John McDonnell’s mark of 40 NCAA Championships one that you are excited about pursuing? When people think of Pat Henry, what thoughts do you hope come to their minds? |
PH | I don’t really think about John’s mark. He had a tremendous career and we are good friends. He also had a great environment at the University of Arkansas where he could develop cross country in addition to track and field. They had quite a few championships in cross country and it would be difficult to overcome in just track and field. I hope people look back at me with kind thoughts. |
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| Inside Stuff |
Hobbies/Interests | I enjoy working in my yard. I like working with plants and in the garden. I live on the sixth hole of a golf course but have only found time to play twice this year. If you live on a golf course, you may want to think about playing a little more than that |
Nicknames | My full name is Patrick, so Pat is actually my nickname. My middle name is Shelly so I was called that sometimes by my mom or some family members |
Favorite movies | Lawrence of Arabia |
Favorite TV shows | I haven’t really spent enough time in front of the television to watch a series. I like documentaries more than anything |
Favorite songs | I really like Jimi Hendrix music. I like the Bee Gees a lot. I also like George Strait. So, as you can tell all the genres of music. (At this point I noted to Coach Henry that his musical tastes were the most eclectic of anyone I’ve interviewed which drew hearty laughter from him) |
Favorite books | 'Sinking of the Bismarck' by William L. Shirer about the effort to sink the German ship during the second World War when sinking it was huge to the United States and trying to win the war effort |
First car | I had a 1951 Chevrolet when my dad let me drive it. That was the first one that was kind of my own. The first car I bought was a 1961 Volkswagen Convertible |
Current car | A BMW X3 |
First Job | Mowing yards and selling concessions at the State Fair |
Family | My wife, Gail, and I have been married for 35 years. We have a daughter, Shelly, and a son, Brandon, who are both graduates of LSU and four grandchildren |
Pets | A dachshund named Katie |
Favorite meal | Mexican food |
Favorite breakfast | Oatmeal |
Favorite beverages | Diet Dr. Pepper |
First running memory | Watching and talking to Adolph Plummer. He was the World Record Holder for 440 yards at 44.9 – my dad coached him. He was sort of like the Muhammad Ali of Track and Field |
Running heroes | John Baker, a miler who lived one street over from me and I got to watch him his entire career as a younger guy. He is a hero in New Mexico. There is an Elementary School named after him. He ran a sub-4:00 mile in 1965 at altitude. He devoted himself to children before dying of cancer. There is a great movie about him |
Coaching heroes | My grandfather |
Greatest coaching moment | This past weekend is one of them where I was extremely pleased with the whole weekend. Another is Alleyne Francique overtaking Baylor in the 4x400 meter relay on the last straightaway indoors at Arkansas when we won the National Championship up there in 2002. I don’t think anyone predicted us to be in the top five in the team race and we still won it |
Worst coaching moment | After a dropped stick anywhere in a relay. It’s about an eight-way tie between those moments |
Childhood dreams | To be a coach – what else! |
Favorite places to travel | It would have to be with my wife and the place would be Athens, Greece and the Greek islands. I took a World Championship team there, went to the Olympics and also visited there on vacation |
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