Hartford, Conn. - Walking into the Ferris Athletic Center, one tends to see the same familiar faces. There are the friendly faces at the front desk, the trainers, fellow students, and the coaches of Trinity's 29 varsity sports teams. Along with all these faces, one frequent passerby, with a full head of white hair, who can be seen gingerly moving through the Ferris hallways, is track and field coach of twenty-two years, Bill Kelleher.
Coach Kelleher has dedicated his life to coaching and educating. The sport was first introduced to him at Putnam High School in Connecticut where he ran track and was the halfback on the football team. His athletic ability enabled him to compete at Brown University, which he attended for two years until he realized his calling was education. During the 1950's, Brown did not offer Coach Kelleher any insight into his future profession so he transferred to the University of Connecticut. He graduated in 1955, and went on from there.
Kelleher decided he wanted to go into track and field coaching due to the influences of his high school and college's coaches.
"I decided to stay with track because I enjoy the individual coaching aspect of the sport," said Kelleher.
He has a strong belief that working one-on-one with an athlete boosts his or her ability to perform on the field.
"It takes a person who understands what an athlete is trying to do and appreciates there will times that the athlete might not agree with what is being taught. If the athletes put their trust in the coach, then the end result in most cases is improvement," he stated.
Kelleher has taken this hands-on approach to coaching with every job he has held since graduating college in 1955. He first accepted a position at East Hartford High School, where he taught science and coached the track and field team for 12 years. His success as a mentor led to his hiring at his alma mater, the University of Connecticut, where he coached for 22 years.
At UConn, Kelleher coached the first decathlon champion in Division I track and field in 1972.
He said, "I take pride in decathletes. They are called multi-event people, because that is the epitome of track and field."
After his extensive tenure at UConn, Kelleher retired from coaching.
"I felt I could not reach much further than I did in track so I decided to go out on top rather than the bottom."
However, the lure to come out of retirement was to great for Kelleher to pass up.
Kelleher received a phone call from George Suitor, the track and field coach at Trinity College and a former athletes at East Hartford High, to help out on the Bantam staff.
Coach Suitor swayed Kelleher to come back to the sport since he specialized in coaching the technical events of jumps, vaults, hurdles, and multi-events.
Since that phone call from Coach Suitor, Kelleher has been guiding Trinity athletes for more than two decades. This weekend, two of his triple jumpers, who have both set Bantam records in the event several times, will compete in the NCAA Division III National Championships this weekend in Nebraska. Both women's junior Jenna Wilborne and men's first-year Aman Stuppard earned All-New England and All-ECAC honors over the last three weeks
"I enjoy it," he said, "there are some highs and some lows like any job, but when I am working with an individual, it is important to get across to him or her exactly what I am trying to produce and hope that eventually results come out."
One of the most interesting things about Coach Kelleher may be his philosophy on coaching. The first thing he asks an athlete, regardless of gender, is if they took physics in high school. He believes this correlation between track and physics works out well because it helps him get across what he is trying to tell people.
"When necessary I will use equations such as finding force and acceleration and it works out well. I have several gimmicks that I have made up that have worked in the past and they are nothing fancy, but they shows the athlete what I am talking about when I mention centrifugal force and so forth," said Kelleher. "It is beneficial because it gives the athlete something to visualize, such as watching a ball bouncing to simulate jumping the high jump."
Alongside coaching at Trinity, Kelleher also runs a Bed and Breakfast, or B&B as he puts it, with his wife outside of their home in Coventry. They added an addition to their home and, "it helps pay the bills," he said with a chuckle and smile. The couple found inspiration to open their B&B during their many trips to Europe, and their close proximity to the University of Connecticut rakes in consistent and loyal business from parents dropping off and picking up their youngsters.
As our interview came to a close, Kelleher had a few departing words of wisdom for me that he gained through his 56 years as a track and field coach.
"Everyone wants to try to do better but what people have to realize is that each individual has a certain limit to his or her ability. I always wanted to be a world-class sprinter but knew that was not going to happen. People gets to a point in life where they recognize their ability and what needs to be done to enhance it. A strong relationship between player and coach can elevate an individuals mind set and performance."
written by Ben Preston '15
