Valmon Is on the Right Track

THOUGH HE WON two Olympic gold medals as a member of the U.S. 4x400-meter relay team, Andrew Valmon is far from the finish line. These days he is in a new race, leading Maryland’s track and field teams back to prominence in a sport that reigned supreme at the university for nearly 30 years.

Olympic gold medalist Andrew Valmon (above and below, right) is now leading Maryland’s Track and Field teams.

Now entering his third season as Maryland’s head coach of track and field, Valmon is pleased with the track and field teams’ progress. The Terp men doubled their point production last season at the ACC meet. And Dominic Berger won the 110-meter hurdles at the USA Track and Field Junior Nationals. On the women’s side, Kierra Foster was named an All-American when she placed in the long jump. Athletes from both teams made the Pan Am Junior team that competed in Canada in last year. Together, the Terps set nine school records last season.

“It’s refreshing to see the program come back to the forefront and join the crowd,” says Valmon. With about 70 athletes and four events (field, hurdles, jumps and distance), track and field teams comprise the second largest body of student athletes at Maryland.

Valmon turned to two of Maryland’s most successful track and field coaches for advice on recharging the teams. Frank Costello ’68, two-time national champion and NCAA Coach of the Year, is now a volunteer assistant coach for Maryland. Costello linked Valmon to Jim Kehoe ’40, national Hall of Famer, who led the Terps to 48 conference team championships and has attended several of the current teams’ events.

Valmon’s own coaching style is straightforward. “They need to compete, and let me manage,” he says. “And there is no trade-off for hard work.” Instilling confidence in his teams is equally important. “Once it’s there athletically, you can reinforce to them that the sky is the limit with anything that they do.”

He also requires his students to do community service, creating “humble warriors.” Distance runner Danielle Siebert received the ACC Community Service award for her volunteer work at several organizations, including The Avenue Program, a nonprofit that Valmon and his wife and fellow Olympian, Meredith Rainey Valmon, founded in 1993.

The Avenue Program connects young people with role models. The volunteers, many of whom are former athletes, visit area schools and community organizations about the challenges they overcame to achieve their goals. Olympic gymnast Peter Vidmar tells the people with whom he meets that his 5-foot-5 stature could have discouraged him from being an athlete, but found that in gymnastics, it gave him an advantage.

In between coaching and volunteering for The Avenue Program, Valmon, a father of three, serves on an Olympic panel confronting the issue of under funded sports. Since the majority of Olympic athletes come through the NCAA, Valmon says it’s critical that young athletes receive the support they need so that they can compete with the best in the world. If his celebrity can raise that awareness, then he is all for it.

Says Valmon, “I want to maintain a legacy in my own sport.” —BAM

For more on The Avenue Program, visit www.avenueprogram.org.

SCORE card

University of Maryland students are the best in the nation at supporting their sports teams, according to a survey by The Princeton Review. Maryland topped the 2005 list for schools where students pack the stadiums, edging out Notre Dame, Florida, Penn State and North Carolina.

Two Maryland teams brought home national titles last fall, with men’s soccer securing its first championship since 1968 and field hockey winning its first in six years. After losing in the national semifinals three years in a row, the No. 1–ranked men’s team rebounded to defeat New Mexico 1–0. Meanwhile, the field hockey team posted 23 wins and captured the ACC championship to become the second-most winning team in program history.

The USA Basketball Executive Committee named Terps forward/center Crystal Langhorne USA Basketball 2005 Female Athlete of the Year. Langhorne, a sophomore, led the 2005 USA Under-19 team to an 8–0 record and a gold medal in the world championship.

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