Mt St Mary's coach retires after 50 years

[rainbowgirl28]

http://mountathletics.collegesports.com ... 05aab.html

After 50 Years, Mount St. Mary's University Head Track and Field Coach Jim Deegan Announces Retirement
Deegan has coached 11 Olympians during his career


Sept. 28, 2005


Emmitsburg, Md. (September 28, 2005)--Longtime Mount St. Mary's University head track and field coach Jim Deegan has announced his retirement, effective June 30, 2006. Deegan, who coached 100 All-Americas and 26 national champions at the NCAA Division I and II levels, is in his 50th year at the University. It is expected that associate head coach Jim Stevenson will take over for Deegan at the end of the school year.

Deegan's resume includes coaching 11 Olympic athletes including 1988 1500-meter gold medalist Peter Rono. In one of the finest hours in the history of Mount St. Mary's athletics, Rono outraced a strong field to capture the gold at the Seoul Olympics. Rono was the most successful of five Mount athletes that competed at those games with Deegan traveling with them as their personal coach.

"It's been a great run and a lot of fun," said Deegan. "The program will continue to be successful under the leadership of Jim Stevenson, an All-American NCAA Division I decathlete and a Mount graduate who has been with the program for 11 years."

No stranger to the Olympics, the Mount track program sent six athletes to the 1984 Los Angeles games. For his years of dedication while building the Mount track and field program and developing world-class athletes, Deegan was awarded "The Governor's Citation" by Maryland Governor William D. Schaffer in the fall of 1988.

"Coach Deegan built a tremendous track and field legacy at Mount St. Mary's. He is a great teacher and leader and his extraordinary accomplishments will not only be measured in terms of victories and championships, but in the number of lives he has positively affected," said Dr. Thomas H. Powell, University

Jim Deegan has coached 100 All-Americans throughout his career.


One of Deegan's best seasons at the Mount came in 1987 when the school produced 16 NCAA All-Americas and five national champions. That same spring, the distance medley relay team of Dave Lishebo, Rono and Kip and Charles Cheruiyot bettered the world record while placing third at the Penn Relays in what has been labeled "The Greatest Race of All-Time."

"The world has been made more eventful and colorful with the athletes Jim has trained, their eloquent stories of accomplishment, the long winded tales of fun and the brilliant jokes only a few could grasp. There is a lifetime of memories carved on the walls of fame. Jim Deegan is the unflappable, consummate teacher. We hope that he will continue to be close to our program," said Dr. Harold "Chappy" Menninger, Executive Director of Intercollegiate Athletics at the Mount.






One of the world's leading authorities on multi-events competition, Deegan returned as head coach in 2000 after serving as an assistant coach at the Mount after turning the program over to protegé Mike Merritt in 1993 after 37 seasons. He resumed head coaching duties in January 2000 and one month later, he won Northeast Conference Women's Indoor Coach of the Year honors.
Under his tutelage, at least one Mountaineer earned all-America status for 23 consecutive years from 1972 to 1994. Eight different Mount decathletes have won Penn Relays championships in the 24 seasons of the event, including David Hinton in 2004. Deegan was selected to head the United States National Team in a dual decathlon meet against Germany in the Düsseldorf suburbs in July 1995.

Deegan, a tenured professor at the Mount, has coached eight different athletes who have held the national record in the decathlon, including William Motti (France), Georg Werthner (Austria), Trond Skramstad (Norway), Ahmed Mahour Bacha (Algeria), Carlos O'Connell (Ireland), Gudmund Olsen (Norway) and Antonio Morales (Panama).

No stranger to personal honors, Deegan earned NCAA Division II Coach of the Year honors in District II in 1987 after leading the Mount to a second-place finish in the NCAA Division II indoor championships and a fourth-place finish at the NCAA Division II Outdoor Championships. He was selected as an assistant coach for the East at the Eighth U.S. Olympic Festival in Durham, N.C. in 1988.

In 1978, the NCAA College Division Track Coaches Association honored Deegan with its Distinguished Service Award. Deegan was an officer in the Association for 11 years including service as President from 1974-76. He was a member of the NCAA Track and Field Rules Committee from 1968-73.

A member of the Mount St. Mary's Sports Hall of Fame, Deegan also guided the Mount soccer team to 216 victories in 38 seasons while having seven of his players earn All-America honors. He was the NEC Men's Soccer Coach of the Year in 1990 and earned NCAA Division II South Atlantic Region Men's Soccer Coach of the Year honors in 1987, the same year he was named NCAA Division II Track Coach of the Year honors in District II.

Originally from Philadelphia, Deegan played soccer and ran track at West Chester University, where he graduated with a bachelor's degree in Mathematics and History in 1956.

He went straight to the Mount head coaching positions in soccer, track and cross country while teaching accounting and mathematics at now-defunct St. Joseph's College in Emmitsburg. He received his master's in Education from Western Maryland College in 1960.

[CHC04Vault]

Deegs is a track legend, our school may be small, but he turns good athletes to exceptional ones. Deegs may be offically retiring this year, but he will be a volunteer coach. The man is a genius, and im glad to be part of his lasat year of coaching. In one practice, he fixed my run, and helped my rock back, and i improved a foot that day. This year we hope to bring a NEC champion and maybe get more NCAA national quilifiers than last year...we had 8 last year. Pretty good for a school of 1400. By the way, today is Coach Deegs birthday.