POWELLS' VISION TO SERVE Student-Athletes

By Rich Myhre // 8.20.18

By Washington Huskies

August 21^st, 2018

Back in May, University of Washington athletic director Jennifer Cohen set out to hire a new head coach for the school’s cross country and track and field teams.

Cohen and her staff put together a preliminary group of candidates, and the list included Andy and Maurica Powell, a husband and wife who were longtime University of Oregon assistants. But as the search moved into June, it was slowed by Cohen’s involvement with the UW baseball team, which was participating in the NCAA super regional tournament, and the UW softball team, which was bound for the College World Series.

And then one day Cohen’s phone rang.

It was Maurica Powell, calling to inquire about the Washington position. Cohen already had an inkling the Powells might be interested, but with that call “we knew they were serious about it.”

The two women chatted, and in a matter of minutes the Powells rose from candidates to top contenders. “In that initial call, I was just super impressed with her,” Cohen recalled. “I thought she was awesome.”

Within a week, Cohen went on, “we brought both of them up to campus and spent a few hours with them. And we knew very early on in our conversation that they were the right people.”

Days later, Washington announced the hiring of Maurica and Andy Powell. Officially, Maurica Powell is director of both the men’s and women’s cross country and track and field teams, with Andy Powell the head coach for both teams. But the division of responsibilities will actually be less precise, with Maurica Powell being very involved with coaching and Andy Powell sharing in the program’s administrative duties.

POWELLS' VISION TO SERVE Student-Athletes

According to Maurica Powell, Cohen and UW senior associate athletic director Erin O’Connell “were really open to however we were most comfortable delineating our responsibilities. Jen wanted us to divide things up based on skill set and however we felt we could best manage the program.

“It really didn’t matter to us in terms of the titles and who’s in charge … (because) we’re both in charge of the program. We have the same vision for it, the same values and the same idea of how we want things done.”

“I’ll certainly be more directed towards the men’s team because those are the people I coach,” Andy Powell said, “and Maurica will do the same thing with the women’s side of things. But it’s really important to us to have a combined program, too, because you need to have overlap.”

Whenever a decision needs to be made, he said, “we’ll both be in the loop.”

Over the past thirteen years in Eugene, working primarily with the school’s middle and long runners, the Powells enjoyed a remarkable run of successes. They helped Oregon teams win 19 NCAA team championships (four in cross country, 11 in indoor track and field, and four in outdoor track and field) while coaching 40 NCAA individual champions, 37 Pac-12 Conference champions and 250 All-Americans.

Nine times the women’s program won the Program of the Year award for best combined finish in cross country, indoor, and outdoor track, and the UO men won that honor five times. The Powells also have had five distance runners go on to compete in the Olympic Games.

Given their accomplishments at Oregon, “we knew who they were,” Cohen said. And as the UW coaching search progressed, “their names were mentioned to us several times. … We knew we were eventually going to talk to them. They were extremely intriguing and they were definitely high on our list.”

Once in Seattle, their first task was to put together a staff. New associate head coach Toby Stevenson was the 2004 Olympic silver medalist in the pole vault and has since coached multiple NCAA champions and Olympians; he will coach the jumps and multi-events. Assistant Andrew Ninow, who will coach the throws, has mentored several All-Americans and an Olympian. The sprints, hurdles and relays will be handled by Jeshua Anderson and Mark Macdonald (the latter a volunteer assistant); Anderson was a three-time NCAA hurdles champion at Washington State, where Macdonald was his coach. Helping with the distance runners will be Chris Kwiatkowski, who ran for the Powells at Oregon, where he was an All-American.

That might seem like sufficient coaching prowess for one staff, but there is more. Volunteer assistant Matthew Centrowitz, who was coached by Andy Powell at Oregon, will lend his considerable expertise to the distance runners. He won the 2016 Olympic gold medal in the 1,500 meters at Rio de Janeiro.

No question, this is a new day for Washington’s cross country and track and field programs. But as the Powells know, lofty reputations are only a starting point. Beyond that, what really counts is an ongoing commitment to hard work. Identifying and attracting top talent is crucial, of course, but equally foundational is the need to develop and maintain strong coach-athlete relationships.

“We might be the best coaches and have the best workouts,” Andy Powell said, “but (we’ll be less successful) if we don’t get to know a lot about our student-athletes. We want to know what their goals are outside of running. What their academic goals are. And what they want to do after college.

“Talent is always important, but we also need to work hard at spending time with the student-athletes. That’s just something we’re both really good at and it’s what I’m looking forward to the most. … We want to make it very clear that the door is always open for anyone to come talk to us, whether it’s Maurica or I.”

“Andy and I didn’t take this job to become administrators and not coach the kids,” Maurica Powell said. “Neither of us wants to be a figurehead head coach and then hire assistants to work (with the team). We’re both very involved with the athletes and with our own recruiting. I’ll be going to the airport myself to pick up every kid, I’ll be there for every recruiting meal and I won’t miss a practice. I’m not handing away any of that stuff.”

In their Oregon years, she added, “we had really strong bonds with our student-athletes, and we expect that to continue here. There are no shortcuts. It’s like any other relationship. You’ve got to put in a lot of time.”

For the Powells, their time together began in neighboring communities on the outskirts of Boston, where given the geographic proximity and their shared love of running they became acquainted as teenagers. Their relationship and their running careers continued at Stanford University. Maurica, who had been a six-time high school state champion, became a two-time All-American for the Cardinal. Andy, who won U.S. junior titles in the 1,500 and 5,000 meters as a high school senior, went on to help Stanford to the 2000 NCAA team championship in track and field.

Married shortly after their Cardinal careers concluded, the couple spent one year coaching at Columbia University in New York, where Maurica was a graduate assistant and Andy a volunteer assistant. A year later, new Oregon coach Vin Lananna, who had coached the Powells at Stanford, brought them to Eugene, with Andy becoming a full-time assistant and Maurica a volunteer assistant. Three years later they were both full-time assistants.

“In terms of us being married and working together, one thing that’s very helpful is that we both understand what the job is. If I’m at home having dinner and I get a phone call because one of our athletes has an emergency, Andy understands that it’s incredibly important that I leave in that moment. Similarly, if we’re at a function at our kids’ school and Andy has to go handle a situation that’s incredibly important, there’s no animosity. We both get (that it’s necessary).”

Given what they accomplished at Oregon, it is understood there will be similar expectations for Washington. Whether in cross country, indoor track and field or outdoor track and field, the goal will always be to have teams and individuals that contend for national championships, or at least places on the podium.

But trophies and other hardware are only part of the equation. In addition, Maurica Powell said, “we want this to be a meaningful experience for the student-athletes who are here. Yes, it’s about doing all the outcome things that are exciting. But the process to getting those outcomes needs to be rewarding and it needs to be meaningful to all the student-athletes on our team.

“There’s going to be a lot of process before we get to those outcomes. And it isn’t all going to be enjoyable. There’s going to be some really hard, ugly days, too. But if the relationships we have with the athletes are strong enough and valuable enough to them, then even the really, really ugly days are not so bad.”

Success sometimes comes quickly, though often not immediately. In that respect, Maurica Powell said, “we’re fortunate that Jen has given us the time to do it. She’s not saying this has to happen tomorrow. She’s saying, ‘I think you can do it, and I want you to take the time it’s going to take so you can do it your way and the right way and with the right people.’ She’s really been supportive of that. Obviously we’d like to do it as quickly as we can, but we’re not cutting any corners. Because there really are no shortcuts to building a good program.”

Along the way, Andy Powell said, every decision will be based on “whatever’s best for the student-athlete. That’s always been our main theme. That’s how we were coached, that’s what we did at Oregon, and it’s what we’ll do at Washington. If you always go back to that, I feel you’ll always make the right decision.”

Recruiting is already underway, and from the outset they have detected a growing enthusiasm for their programs. There is, Andy Powell said, “a buzz and an excitement out there. There are a lot of recruits and a lot of parents and a lot of coaches that are just really excited about the University of Washington, and that’s been cool.”

When it comes to recruiting, Maurica Powell added, it helps that Washington is a fairly easy sell.

“This is a special place,” she said. “It’s really highly renowned as an academic institution, and the city of Seattle and this setting are really compelling for student-athletes. I look around and I can’t imagine why someone wouldn’t want to come here."

And although the future is never certain, “we wouldn’t be here if we didn’t think we could be successful,” she said. “We were able to do some exciting things with our teams at Oregon, and now we feel like we can do some pretty special things here.”