By: by Scott Lipsky
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GREENSBORO, N.C. – It is NCAA Championship week for the Kennesaw State Owls’ men’s and women’s track field teams, and for head coach Don McGarey, preparing to win championships has become commonplace. This time around, it will have special meaning for himself, his colleagues and his athletes, as he will step down from his position as the program’s head coach following the season’s conclusion.
McGarey, who will now concentrate on his teaching and research at Kennesaw State, came to KSU in 1998 as a faculty member in the Department of Biology and joined Stan Sims’ cross country staff a year later. Fresh off a stint as an assistant professor and assistant cross country coach at Jacksonville State, McGarey focused on the distance side of things before being tabbed to start the Owls’ first full-fledged track and field program, which began during the 2005-2006 athletic year.
His success as the only head track and field coach that Kennesaw State has ever known can be identified very easily in the record books, as he has led his program to three men’s Atlantic Sun Conference Championships, his athletes have earned 232 All A-Sun honors in five years, and he has been named the A-Sun Coach of the Year on four occasions, including this February, when he won the award during indoor season, and earlier this month, at the A-Sun Outdoor Championships.
All of those things are relatively easy to identify, but it his success in working with his student-athletes and developing positive relationships with them that take some digging.
“Coach McGarey has been like a brother to me after working with him all of these years, he really has been,” Sims said this week. “It will be tough not to have him around all the time, but when I think back, we’ve accomplished a lot together, and that’s something that makes me feel really good.”
Distance runner Lorena Jaime also appreciates the time she has had to run for McGarey, and knows the impact he has had on the program.
“Coach McGarey has always been a great coach to run for. He can be really serious when it’s time to compete, but we know he’s just trying to get the best out of all us,” Jaime said. “One of the great parts about him is that when he gives you a compliment, he really means it, and it makes us want to work even harder.”
As a coach, McGarey has been able to tap into his experiences as an athlete himself, as he was a decorated runner at Louisiana State during his collegiate years. One of the things he will miss most about coaching all of the time is getting to share in his student-athlete’s accomplishments, since he knows how great it is when they are able to do what they set out to achieve.
“As someone who has competed at this level in the past, I know the feeling when an athlete achieves a personal best, wins a race, or hits a time, height or distance that they’ve been working so hard for,” said McGarey. “It’s one of the greatest feelings in the world, and though there’s nothing better than doing that as an athlete, being the coach who helped an athlete get there is the next best thing. I’ll definitely miss that.”
While McGarey was working towards his doctorate at South Florida, he did not coach in any capacity, so an extended absence away from the track is not something he is completely unfamiliar with. Though he is content with his decision to step away for now, McGarey will always covet the friendships he has made and the championships he has helped win.
“Though I won’t be coaching anymore, I won’t be completely away from the program. I’ll still be pulling for us to keep winning, and I think the pieces are in place to do that. The program is in very capable hands,” McGarey said. “Obviously, it will be tough to no longer be working with all of the great people I have had on my staff. Coach Sims, for instance, we worked together for ages, two Florida guys who clicked and it led to the two of us being very successful with one another.”
McGarey’s Owls will give it one more go for their coach this weekend, when seven of his student-athletes compete in the East Preliminary Round of the NCAA Championships at North Carolina A&T in Greensboro, N.C., beginning on Thursday. This is the first time the Black and Gold with have representation in a Division I outdoor NCAA National Championship, as the athletic department just completed the NCAA's mandatory, four-year Division I re-classification process this season. Live video streaming and scoring of the event will be available throughout the weekend.
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| Coach McGarey reflects on his time as the coach of the Kennesaw State track and field program |
Coach Sims talks about his time working with Coach McGarey |
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| Lorena Jaime and Mackenzie Howe talk about running for coach McGarey |
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