Chris Fox is a practical thinker. Even as a seventh grader in the Washington, D.C. area he already knew why running was the best choice of sport for him.

‘Because I stunk at basketball,’ Fox said. ‘It was better to excel at running than get cut from the basketball team.’

So two years later as a 4-foot, 11-inch, 63-pound high school freshman, Fox made the logical choice. And after a successful collegiate career at Auburn, Fox wasn’t giving much thought to his psychology degree; he was too good at running.

‘This is what I know,’ Fox said. ‘It’d be stupid if I didn’t coach. I love the sport and I love coaching, and I’m way over-educated in this sport.’

Over-educated enough to impress new Syracuse athletic director Daryl Gross and secure the new head coaching position for the SU men’s and women’s cross country and track-and-field teams. Fox replaces former head coach Andrew Roberts, who left the program in May. Fox spent the past four years as the distance coach at Auburn, helping the Tigers to a second place finish in the NCAA indoor and outdoor championships. He also led the cross country team to a national ranking for the first time in 20 years.

‘When you’re in the (Southeastern Conference), there’s not many places that are step-ups, even as an assistant to a head coach,’ Fox said. ‘(Syracuse) is one of those big step-ups. It was an opportunity that was presented to me and I was going to grab it.’

Recently, Syracuse has been a mediocre team in the Big East Conference, struggling to recruit the same distance talent as conference powers Georgetown, Villanova and Providence. The men’s cross country team finished fifth in the Big East Championships last year, its best finish since 1985. The women finished 10th.

‘This is the hotbed of (high school) cross country running in the United States,’ Fox said. ‘Western New York has great distance running tradition, but we’re gonna recruit the best kids in the state of New York and the best in the nation. We’re not going to just be a regional program.’

Fox plans to have a conference-contending cross country team that can qualify for the NCAA Championships within three years. He said he is impressed with the motivation of his team and said there’s already more talent on the team than he thought.

Fox’s coaching philosophy centers on strength work, running more mileage and doing less interval and speed running than the Orange previously did. Fox has been conducting practices for more than a week. But his main concern is not the daily workouts. He said he’s trying to learn everyone’s name. When he does, he is confident that his first head coaching job will be a success.

‘You gotta believe you can coach,’ Fox said. ‘What works is getting the kids to believe in what you’re doing. My guys at Auburn, if I asked them to run through a wall, they’d certainly give it a shot. I try to tell them how good I think they are and get them to believe they can be that good.’

Fox brought in Brien Bell to assist with the distance program. Bell was an assistant coach at La Salle. Former SU distance coach Jay Hartshorn was hired as the head coach of women’s cross country and track and field at Bates College, a Division III school in Maine. Enoch Borizinski, who was interim head coach during the summer, will stay on staff, and graduate assistant Dave Hegland will continue to coach the sprinters and hurdlers. Cheree Hicks, who was the throws coach at SU, accepted the field events job at Pittsburgh.

Fox said he plans on hiring another coach, possibly for sprints, but wants to evaluate for a month before deciding.

Fox was a six-time All-American at Auburn, twice in each of the three respective seasons. He still holds the school record in the 5,000-meter run (13:34.73) since graduating in 1983. He ran in five Olympic Trials from 1980-1996 and competed professionally in road races during that time as well. He coached the North Carolina cross country team from 1985-1987 and helped former head basketball coach Dean Smith’s forwards and centers train at 6 a.m. to complete a preseason mile time trial in less than six minutes. Fox said current Tar Heel basketball coach Roy Williams was an assistant then in charge of conditioning.

‘Probably when Roy was making 15 grand a year,’ Fox quipped.

During his time at UNC, Fox had a coaching rivalry with his friend Charles Torpey, who then coached at Maryland. The two have been friends for 25 years after meeting at a road race in Virginia. Torpey now coaches at LaSalle. The two will be rivals again, now in the Northeast.

Still, Torpey respects Fox, the man he named his son after.

‘He’s a great guy, very knowledgable,’ Torpey said. ‘He gets a lot out of his kids. Syracuse is lucky to have him.’

Torpey said Fox’s running career, coupled with his prior coaching success, will help attract the top talent in the area. But not because of one Olympic trial that Torpey chides over.

‘1996 in Atlanta,’ Torpey recalled, ‘Great 10-kilometer chance. (Fox) ran at World Championships in 1995. Typical Fox: His shoe is untied the first 200 meters of the race. It’s over, man! You had a good shot. The gun goes off, and he’s back there. I’m saying, ‘What is he doing?’

‘That’s Fox.’

After his running days were over, Fox returned to Auburn to work for Ralph Spry, a former Army Ranger. Fox was highly recommended, but Spry wanted to be sure of one thing before interviewing him.

‘He saw my haircut when I ran at Auburn,’ Fox said in reference to his shoulder length locks. ‘He asked me if I had a haircut. I said, ‘Yes sir, that was 20 years ago.”

‘I think kids are going to see somebody genuine,’ Spry said of his former assistant. ‘They’re going to see some confident leadership in coach Fox. He’s not going to yell and scream. I think the kids will feed off that and jump on the bandwagon. Syracuse can look forward to putting a program in the right direction.’

So far, Spry’s predictions are correct. The cross country team members had strong relationships with Hartshorn in her four years at SU, but have adjusted to Fox smoothly.

Captain Chris Muldoon worked at a running shoe store in Syracuse over the summer, training with professional marathoner Kevin Collins. He spoke with Hartshorn about twice a week but said his old coach was always talking about the team, and kept it that way even when Muldoon tried to see if she was leaving the Orange.

‘It’s been tough not having her here,’ Muldoon said. ‘I feel like she’s gonna come out here one of these times and tell us to do a workout. But coach Fox is awesome. Everyone bought into what he said really quick. It’s different than the past program but it’s gonna work. We really miss (Hartshorn) and it’s a shame to lose her, but when we started, we looked to him as our coach.’

Someone who fancied himself to be former NBA standout Norm Van Lier realized instead he was manager material. Almost 30 years later, that realization and change to running has created a strong resume that he’ll try to add to at Syracuse.

‘They talk about Southern charm and friendliness,’ Fox said of his time at Auburn. ‘I find the same thing going on up here in New York, just a different accent. They didn’t have to beg me to come.’

Published on September 6, 2005 at 12:00 pm