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Wilbourn Prepares for First Season Leading Track & Field Program
10/1/2020 11:57:00 AM | Track & Field
DURHAM, N.C. – Duke track & field interim head coach Shawn Wilbourn is entering his first season of overseeing the program after spending the previous 10 years as associate head coach.
Before being promoted in July, Wilbourn worked primarily with Blue Devils competing in the pole vault, hurdles, horizontal jumps and combined events. He has assisted in the development of numerous student-athletes that earned All-ACC and All-America honors, with the most recent being current senior Erin Marsh, who ended the shortened 2019-20 season by claiming gold in the pentathlon at the ACC Indoor Championships. That weekend in February, he also coached junior heptathlete Jacob Sobota and senior pole vaulter Esteban Suarez to all-conference performances.
Wilbourn sat down with the Duke communications staff this week to discuss a unique offseason in 2020 and to look ahead to the upcoming track & field season.
How excited are you to lead this next chapter in Duke track & field?
"I'm super excited to have the opportunity. I believe that Duke track & field and cross country have a ton of untapped potential. I think the future is bright. I see us challenging for an ACC championship in the next few years and I truly believe both the men's and the women's program can be top 20 in the country."
Do you see your coaching style changing now that you're in a head coaching role?
"I don't see it changing a lot. As the associate head coach, I was overseeing the sprinters, the jumpers and the multis. I'm now taking on the whole group and being closer with the distance side of things, getting to know those kids on a more personal level, actually being able to be involved in some cross country and be at cross country meets – just letting the entire team know that I'm there and I am supporting them."
What do you look for out of the group of assistant coaches?
"As far as some off the track things, each coach has some responsibilities that they're taking care of, that they've added to their plate. We do have a system. We have a solid system as to how we practice and how we train, and we really all are on the same page. There's a lot of shared responsibility once we're out of the track as well. The thing that I am trying to do is make sure our coaches are able to coach more than one event. Jacky [Mendes] is a jumps coach, but she was a heptathlete in college. She can coach the hurdles. She understands the sprints. That's what I'm trying to do with the track & field program is be balanced and be well-rounded, not just a distance program or not just a multi-event program. We're trying to be balanced. We're trying to have every event covered and I believe in the sport of track & field, that's how it should be. The sport of track & field reflects society. You have your throwers – your bigger guys. You have your sprinters, you have your distance runners and they all come from different parts of the country and different parts of the world. The diversity we're trying to create on the team is something I truly believe in. Not just racial diversity, but personality diversity, economic diversity and geographic diversity. We have kids from all over. We're trying to cover every event and I believe that's going to make us good on the track, but it's also going to change the culture of our program in a positive way."
What makes Duke track & field unique to you?
"Obviously, Duke is an incredible university. We're a top-10 ranked university. But what we provide to go along with the academics is we provide a Power 5, Division I, major conference athletic experience as well. You get the best of both worlds. Our geographic location being in the south – for a track & field athlete, having that climate to train in. For a distance runner, having all the trails that we have that they can train on. We have the facilities. We have a beautiful outdoor track. We have access to indoor facilities when we need to train indoors. Everything is in place. Now, it is just acquiring the student-athletes to fit what we're looking for and to help that balance and to bring on some event groups that we haven't focused on in the past."
What were the biggest difficulties you faced this offseason?
"Recruiting the high school student-athletes has been extremely difficult because we're not able to have that one-on-one contact with them and we're not able to get them onto campus. We have brought in quite a few transfers from the Ivy League schools. The way it worked out with COVID and them losing a season and the NCAA and the Ivy League allowing them to have that extra season enabled us to get some of those kids to transfer in and go to grad school. That's going to really help us for a year. Losing the connection with the kids on our team as well was difficult. From March until August, we didn't see them and that was tough. [We were] learning how to use Zoom in creative ways and to just stay connected, but we got through it. I think we did a really good job of staying connected and getting to know our incoming class, and for me now as the head coach, getting to know the other event kids via Zoom. Now that we're back on campus and we're training and we're practicing, I think we're in a really good situation."
Among the returning student-athletes, incoming freshmen and transfers, who are you most excited to watch this season?
"Well, obviously Erin [Marsh]. I was extremely disappointed for her not getting an opportunity to compete at the NCAA Indoor Championships. We felt she was ready to really make her mark and place very high at the NCAA Championships. Then, also outdoors – missing the outdoor season was tough for her. But just watching her in the first month of training, she's come back stronger physically, but mentally stronger. I'm really excited to see her compete. We also have some transfers. Zoe Hughes, who transferred in from Harvard, a couple years ago placed 10th at the NCAA Indoor Championships in the pentathlon, so that's going to strengthen our multi group and really push that group, and push Erin. That's exciting. We have some young freshmen on the team that are looking really good. We have some sophomores that are back after their freshman year that have matured and are performing in practice at a level that I can't even describe how much higher the level is compared to a year ago. We have 105 men and women in our program, so it's a big squad. There are a lot of moving parts. It's still very early, but I really like what I see. We do a little test every four weeks to see how they're progressing and developing, and the numbers we're getting back are the best that we've ever had."
#GoDuke
Before being promoted in July, Wilbourn worked primarily with Blue Devils competing in the pole vault, hurdles, horizontal jumps and combined events. He has assisted in the development of numerous student-athletes that earned All-ACC and All-America honors, with the most recent being current senior Erin Marsh, who ended the shortened 2019-20 season by claiming gold in the pentathlon at the ACC Indoor Championships. That weekend in February, he also coached junior heptathlete Jacob Sobota and senior pole vaulter Esteban Suarez to all-conference performances.
Wilbourn sat down with the Duke communications staff this week to discuss a unique offseason in 2020 and to look ahead to the upcoming track & field season.
How excited are you to lead this next chapter in Duke track & field?
"I'm super excited to have the opportunity. I believe that Duke track & field and cross country have a ton of untapped potential. I think the future is bright. I see us challenging for an ACC championship in the next few years and I truly believe both the men's and the women's program can be top 20 in the country."
Do you see your coaching style changing now that you're in a head coaching role?
"I don't see it changing a lot. As the associate head coach, I was overseeing the sprinters, the jumpers and the multis. I'm now taking on the whole group and being closer with the distance side of things, getting to know those kids on a more personal level, actually being able to be involved in some cross country and be at cross country meets – just letting the entire team know that I'm there and I am supporting them."
What do you look for out of the group of assistant coaches?
"As far as some off the track things, each coach has some responsibilities that they're taking care of, that they've added to their plate. We do have a system. We have a solid system as to how we practice and how we train, and we really all are on the same page. There's a lot of shared responsibility once we're out of the track as well. The thing that I am trying to do is make sure our coaches are able to coach more than one event. Jacky [Mendes] is a jumps coach, but she was a heptathlete in college. She can coach the hurdles. She understands the sprints. That's what I'm trying to do with the track & field program is be balanced and be well-rounded, not just a distance program or not just a multi-event program. We're trying to be balanced. We're trying to have every event covered and I believe in the sport of track & field, that's how it should be. The sport of track & field reflects society. You have your throwers – your bigger guys. You have your sprinters, you have your distance runners and they all come from different parts of the country and different parts of the world. The diversity we're trying to create on the team is something I truly believe in. Not just racial diversity, but personality diversity, economic diversity and geographic diversity. We have kids from all over. We're trying to cover every event and I believe that's going to make us good on the track, but it's also going to change the culture of our program in a positive way."
What makes Duke track & field unique to you?
"Obviously, Duke is an incredible university. We're a top-10 ranked university. But what we provide to go along with the academics is we provide a Power 5, Division I, major conference athletic experience as well. You get the best of both worlds. Our geographic location being in the south – for a track & field athlete, having that climate to train in. For a distance runner, having all the trails that we have that they can train on. We have the facilities. We have a beautiful outdoor track. We have access to indoor facilities when we need to train indoors. Everything is in place. Now, it is just acquiring the student-athletes to fit what we're looking for and to help that balance and to bring on some event groups that we haven't focused on in the past."
What were the biggest difficulties you faced this offseason?
"Recruiting the high school student-athletes has been extremely difficult because we're not able to have that one-on-one contact with them and we're not able to get them onto campus. We have brought in quite a few transfers from the Ivy League schools. The way it worked out with COVID and them losing a season and the NCAA and the Ivy League allowing them to have that extra season enabled us to get some of those kids to transfer in and go to grad school. That's going to really help us for a year. Losing the connection with the kids on our team as well was difficult. From March until August, we didn't see them and that was tough. [We were] learning how to use Zoom in creative ways and to just stay connected, but we got through it. I think we did a really good job of staying connected and getting to know our incoming class, and for me now as the head coach, getting to know the other event kids via Zoom. Now that we're back on campus and we're training and we're practicing, I think we're in a really good situation."
Among the returning student-athletes, incoming freshmen and transfers, who are you most excited to watch this season?
"Well, obviously Erin [Marsh]. I was extremely disappointed for her not getting an opportunity to compete at the NCAA Indoor Championships. We felt she was ready to really make her mark and place very high at the NCAA Championships. Then, also outdoors – missing the outdoor season was tough for her. But just watching her in the first month of training, she's come back stronger physically, but mentally stronger. I'm really excited to see her compete. We also have some transfers. Zoe Hughes, who transferred in from Harvard, a couple years ago placed 10th at the NCAA Indoor Championships in the pentathlon, so that's going to strengthen our multi group and really push that group, and push Erin. That's exciting. We have some young freshmen on the team that are looking really good. We have some sophomores that are back after their freshman year that have matured and are performing in practice at a level that I can't even describe how much higher the level is compared to a year ago. We have 105 men and women in our program, so it's a big squad. There are a lot of moving parts. It's still very early, but I really like what I see. We do a little test every four weeks to see how they're progressing and developing, and the numbers we're getting back are the best that we've ever had."
#GoDuke
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