DURHAM – Duke head cross country and assistant track and field coach Kevin Jermyn was recently spotlighted in a feature story for MileSplitUSA.
In the article, written by Tim Casey, Jermyn reflects on his first stint at Duke and why he chose to return to the Blue Devils. “During his initial tenure at Duke from 2000 to 2014, Jermyn led the women’s team to the NCAA Cross Country Championships nearly every year, including earning second and third-place finishes in 2004 and 2005. The Blue Devils had only made the NCAAs once before then. Jermyn is looking to make a similar impact this time around.”
Although the Blue Devils haven’t qualified as a team for the NCAA Cross Country Championships since 2021, Jermyn is confident he can help lead the Blue Devils and emulate the level of success achieved during his first stint with Duke, along with the past seven seasons at Elon. “We have enough support to go out there and be competing as an annual top 10 program in cross country on both the men’s and women’s side,” Jermyn said. ‘”I know the caliber of the school, the weather, the facilities. We’re going to be ready to attract people at that level. Whether it takes one year, two years, three years, I’m not sure of the timeline. But it will happen.”
Jermyn also shared some insight into his philosophy on coaching and recruiting. “When I think of the best place to go if you want to find how good of an athlete you can be and get one of the best educations in the world. Duke is on a very, very, very short list,” Jermyn said. “In my opinion, (it’s) one or two on virtually everybody’s list. I think we will certainly be able to attract the talent. (Jermyn’s job) is to show them how to do it while they’re trying to balance academics and athletics … A massive part of my philosophy is to play a role in helping develop future American world class runners. That does not mean I would limit recruiting to Americans, because if you look at the best programs, they’re having a mixture of nationalities on their team. But I 100% want to be clear that my mission and goal is to really, really help our country produce really high level runners at the next level. And I think we’re uniquely positioned to do that.”
To check out the full story, click the link here. ($$Requires MileSplit Pro plan)
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CLICK HERE to Read the Full Original Article at Duke University…