In selecting Geoff Harrison to be Brookdale Community College’s first cross country coach, Athletic Director Frank Lawrence chose one of the shore area’s best coaches.
In a dozen years at Red Bank Regional High School, Harrison made the school synonymous with distance running excellence. Among the many highlights during Harrison’s time with the Bucs were the girls distance medley relay teams — built around sisters Amanda and Katy Trotter — which won Penn Relays Championship of America and national championships.
When Lawrence mentioned the idea of coaching Brookdale’s first cross country team to Harrison during the spring, Harrison found the prospect to be “pretty exciting” and decided to take the leap from high school to college coaching.
“It’s a nice new challenge,” said Harrison. “I was at Red Bank Regional for 12 years, I was ready for a change. I wanted to give it a try. I like the idea of running a program by myself. I’m excited for the opportunity.”
The biggest challenge Harrison faced in this first year, he said, was “getting numbers.” That is something Harrison believes he can address will a full year of recruiting in 2009-10.
However, Brookdale will field a complete men’s team and a complete women’s team this fall even though Harrison only had a short time to recruit for the 2009 season.
Harrison’s assistant coach is Erin Mc- Carthy, who starred at Red Bank Catholic High School before running at Richard Stockton College.
The Jersey Blues’ newest teams have been working out on the Brookdale campus and at neighboring Thompson Park in the Lincroft section of Middletown.
One of Harrison’s first recruits was Mike Kologe, whom he coached at Red Bank. Kologe brings some solid credentials to the Brookdale program with a 4:22 mile to his credit and a personal best of 16:44 for the 3.1-mile cross country course at Holmdel Park.
While recruiting will be a challenge, Harrison believes he has something going for him because his primary recruiting area is the Shore Conference.
“The Shore Conference has become such a hotbed with distance runners,” he said.
The running talent extends beyond standouts such as Colts Neck’s Craig Forys and Ashley Higginson, Southern Regional’s Danielle Tauro and Jillian Smith, and Manalapan’s Robby Andrews, he said.
Harrison has a large recruiting base and that is one reason why he sees a bright future for Brookdale’s cross country program.
Brookdale’s inaugural cross country season will begin on Sept. 5 when the Jersey Blues compete in the Monmouth University XC Kick-Off opener at Thompson Park, which is right next door to the Brookdale campus.
Harrison will take his harriers to meets in Dickinson and Gettysburg, Pa., at Richard Stockton College in southern New Jersey, and to Westfield State College in Massachusetts during the season with a singular goal.
“The goal is to expose the athletes to as many different colleges as possible,” he said. “Kids don’t understand how easy it is to transfer in (to a four-year school) from junior college.”
Harrison said he will judge his success by the number of Brookdale athletes who get to the next level. That is why he said he wants to take his runners to as many meets out of state as possible (in 2010 he is planning to take the team to the Paul Short Invitational at Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pa.). Ultimately, Brookdale will be looking to host its own cross country meet, probably at Thompson Park.
As expected, Harrison has set his goals high. Within three years he expects Brookdale to be competing for the Region 19 championship and within five years he expects the squad to be competing for a national championship.
There are many championship banners hanging in the Collins Arena on campus. The race for Brookdale’s harriers is to be the first team to put a cross country championship banner up there alongside the rest.