July 2, 2009
SEASIDE, Calif. – After coaching for almost 40 years,
Bob “Sev” Sevene is about to begin his second year as the head men's and women's cross country coach at Cal State Monterey Bay.
Sevene has coached every college level and seven post-collegiate distance runners in cross country, track and road races including Joan Benoit Samuelson who won the gold medal in the marathon at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles.
The Boston native recently sat down to share his experiences in coaching.
How did you get involved in cross country and track?
During the fall of my junior year in high school, I ran a very fast fifty yard dash and cleared six feet in the high jump while taking the President's Physical Fitness Test. The gym teachers told me that I should go out for track, but it was not the cool thing to do in the neighborhood where I grew up. I have to give my mother credit for my joining the track team, as my group of friends at the time were flirting with getting in trouble with the law, quitting school, etc. She sat me down and told me in very convincing fashion that I had to go out for a high school sport. My mother worked in the high school cafeteria and was a close friend of Lee Gould, the high school cross country and track coach. I was boxing for the Boy's Club at the time and Coach Gould was following my progress, as he had boxed in the Military. My mother got the two of us together and he became, along with my Dad, the biggest influence in my life. I guess you could say the rest is history as joining the track team surrounded me with very highly motivated individuals in both the classroom and on the track. I started running cross country my senior year and had a very successful season. With the success, I found myself with a new set of personal goals which included going on to college and continuing my running. This does not have anything to do with the question concerning how I got involved in running, but I think it is very important to note that I lost Coach Gould at age eighty-nine during this week last year and my mother turns ninety this week. Both of these individuals played a huge roll in starting me on a journey that has taken forty years and reminds me everyday how lucky I have been.
Please describe your experiences with the Olympic Trials/Olympics.
This is a loaded question and you could write a book on the journey, as I have been involved with athletes running in the trials since 1976 and athletes that have competed in the Olympics in 1984, 1992, and 2008.
I will share with you a couple of interesting stories from the 1984 Olympics in which Joan Benoit won the first Women's Olympic Marathon and ran a time which stood, as the record until 2000.
The night before the race, I went to dinner with Joan, her fiancé Scott and Mary, my secretary at Athletics West. After dinner Joan asked to speak with me in private. We went over in the corner of the restaurant and Joan, with a twinkle in her eye, asked me what I was going to do the next day when she won the race. I thought she was kidding of course, and told her that her life would change, but mine would go on as usual. She looked me straight in the eye and told me that I was stuck with her the rest of my life. Even when I died, my obituary would read I coached Joan Benoit, the first Women's Marathon Olympic Champion.
It still amazes me to this day that she knew inside her soul what was going to happen the next day. After Joan won the race, there was a press conference the next day in the Olympic Village. Only Olympic Coaches were allowed into the village, no personal coaches thus I could not attend. Joan told the Olympic Committee that she wanted me to sit with her and answer questions at the press conference. They told Joan this would not be possible, as I did not have credentials to get into the Village. Joan informed them that she would not do the Press Conference unless I was present. Needless to say, after a limousine, provided by the Olympic Committee, picked me up and drove me to the Village, I had credentials within twenty minutes.
I have had many rewarding experiences at the Olympic Trials and the two that jump into my mind right away are Joan Benoit qualifying for the team in 1984 after having surgery seventeen days before. She had missed a lot of training before they decided to do the surgery and we had to rely on her strong background of running during her build up for the trials during the fall. Another rewarding experience from the Olympic Trials took place last April when Blake Russell qualified for the 2008 Olympic Team. Blake had run a very courageous race in the 2004 Trials and was passed in the last 200 yards of the race and missed the team. I had lived through this same experience a couple of times before and Blake was the first athlete who had the determination to move forward and make it all happen four years later. It was very rewarding to see her succeed in 2008 after the hurt in 2004 that goes along with just missing the team.
What do you look for in a student-athlete, both on the course and in the classroom?
Cross Country running at CSUMB is a unique as we do not have track and field at the University. This does not change my philosophy as I look at running as a life long journey, which means running year round. I also believe that life is based on attempting to achieve excellence through hard work and goals. We do not all have the same set of gifts to excel in cross country running, but we can all excel through hard work and intelligent training. I look for someone who loves to run and is not afraid to make this journey and work to excel with the physical gifts they possess. I also look for someone who wants to contribute to the overall success of the team and their teammates.
Needless to say, athletics teaches excellence and personal success. Cross Country runners are usually very good students, as they have to be intelligent, very disciplined, and highly motivated. I am very proud of the fact that we have the highest GPA within the CSUMB Athletic Department.
What is one of your most memorable moments in your coaching career?
This is impossible to answer as I have had a special moment every year that I have coached since 1970. These memorable moments come when an athlete or a team have a performance that breaks down mental barriers and changes the perception on what the athlete or team feel they are capable of achieving. These memorable moments are what every athlete dreams about and can occur in high school, college, or as a post collegiate athlete. These special moments are what make coaching very addictive.
