Cavalier Corner is the publication just for UVa sports fans!
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cavalier sports J ason Dunn returned to his roots beginning in July of this year. From 2000‑08, he first served as an assistant coach for the Cavaliers, and was later named head coach for the cross country squads following the 2004 season. From there, he showed his capabilities in a big way, win‑ ning the men's ACC championship in both 2005 and 2007. These titles also earned him ACC Cross Country Coach of the Year accolades. Dunn's men's and women's squads also advanced to the NCAA Championships four times, with 2005 marking the first time in school history that both teams qualified to the national meet in the same sea‑ son. On the track, Dunn's athletes recorded seven All‑America honors, 12 ACC individual champions and 55 All‑ACC performances. He had coached at Arizona State and William & Mary prior to his first Virginia years. And Dunn set up successful shops at Stan‑ ford, Oklahoma and Kentucky in the interim years before coming home again. Based on those experiences and his first stint with the Cavaliers, there is no doubt that he is a very welcome addition to Virginia's athletic efforts. Cavalier Corner: What attraction beckoned you back to the university at this stage of your very successful 20‑year career? Dunn: "My wife, Ann, and I were actually look‑ ing for a change of scenery and perhaps a new ca‑ reer path. We moved to Charlottesville to be closer to family — my mom lives in town — and to open a business in a place we were excited to live. "Shortly thereafter, Coach [Bryan] Fetzer ap‑ proached me about a position on his staff as director of operations and eventually that led me back to a coaching role when the men's cross country job came open this summer. "It's pretty amazing how well things have fallen into place and how things transpired for me to find my way back to coaching." Cavalier Corner: Recalling the years before your coaching career began, how were you led from your younger days to a career in college track and field? Dunn: "I ran track and cross country at William & Mary, and was intending to go to law school — but right after I graduated my college coach left to take another coaching job, which created a vacancy that I was asked to fill [on an interim basis] along with one of my teammates who had also just graduated. "We went from being on the team to coaching our re‑ cent teammates three months later, so it was a bit of trial by fire, but from that opportunity on I was hooked." five questions with Men's Cross Country Head Coach Jason Dunn Dunn led the UVA men to ACC champion- ship in cross country in 2005 and 2007 as head coach. PHOTO BY JIM DAVES/COURTESY UVA Cavalier Corner: Every successful coach is surrounded with men‑ tors, peers and trainees. Who are some of these indispensable people in your life and what do they mean to you? Dunn: "My college coach, Walt Drenth [now the director of track and cross country at Michigan State] is definitely my biggest men‑ tor. After my short coaching stint at my alma mater, I moved out to Arizona State and worked under Walt for three and a half years. "I completed my master's in education while ASU, but I like to think I got a PhD in coaching while working under Coach Drenth and the head track coach, Greg Kraft, whom I also learned a lot from. I would not have gotten into coaching were it not for Walt and Greg, who gave me my first real job. "It's safe to say that those two were huge for me in getting my coaching career started." Cavalier Corner: Have your uniquely broad experiences at differ‑ ent universities allowed you to build a solid teaching and coaching philosophy that staying at one couldn't provide? Dunn: "I loved my first eight years coaching at UVA and it was certainly a very formative period for me as a coach given that I was still fairly young when I arrived and still had so much to learn. I would not have left UVA back in 2008 were it not for a great opportunity at Stanford. I knew that few places would challenge me to become a better coach more than Stanford. "While I used to think I would potentially stay at UVA my whole career if possible, having coached at other places [Kentucky and Oklahoma in addition to Stanford] has definitely given me a much broader perspective and added significantly to my experiences." Cavalier Corner: Proving that you can come home again, what are your expectations and goals this time as you rejoin Virginia's rich community of superlative student‑ athletes? Dunn: "It is a great time for me to be able to take over as the men's distance coach, as the team is in a very good place. I knew most of the guys, having been on the staff the last two years, so that transi‑ tion has gone well and we have a large and very talented group of first‑years that I am starting off with upon my return as well. "The goals are very much the same as when I left here 10 years ago — we want to compete for ACC titles and finish in the top 10 at NCAAs." — Jerry Reid 4 CAVALIER CORNER