Jim Lear has spent 24 years with the Duquesne track and field program and 22 as as head coach.
After steadily climbing in the Atlantic 10 cross country standings throughout his tenure, Lear’s Dukes have had second place finishes in 2004, 2006 and 2008 and led the team to its first-ever Atlantic 10 Championship in 2005, being named the Atlantic 10 Coach of the Year as a result.
On March 5th of this year, Jim led the Duquesne women to the Atlantic 10 Cross Country Championship.
In 2007, Duquesne boasted the University’s first Atlantic 10 cross country champion and NCAA Championship qualifier in Tom Slosky. Mike Stolar, who finished third at the 2009 Atlantic 10 Championship, was the program’s second NCAA qualifier and in 2012, Jim Spisak became the third different runner to qualify for NCAA’s under Lear’s watch.
Rico Galassi captured the A-10 title in 2016 after becoming the program’s second A-10 Most Outstanding Rookie in 2014.
Lear first came to Duquesne in 1994 and was promoted to head coach in 1996 after two campaigns as an assistant.
During his tenure at Duquesne, Lear has seen numerous runners be named either Atlantic 10 Performer or Rookie of the Week and has had a number of Atlantic 10 All-Conference performers.
Lear’s runners also excel in the classroom as evidenced by the numerous Academic All-Americans the program has had and the Academic All-Conference accolades his student-athletes have collected.
A former track and cross country runner himself in high school and college, Lear began his coaching career in 1975 as the head cross country and track coach at Central Catholic. He coached the Vikings for nine years and also had a one-year simultaneous stint as assistant track coach at Carnegie Mellon University in 1981-82, where he produced his first All-American performer.
Following his tenure at Central Catholic, Lear worked for one year as coach at Mercersburg Academy in Central Pennsylvania before accepting the position of assistant track coach in charge of distance runners at the University of Pittsburgh in 1985.
During nine seasons at Pitt, Lear guided two additional athletes to All-American status and was involved with the only Pitt cross-country team to ever qualify for the NCAA Championships in 1990.
Jim is a long time resident of Wilkins Township.
From my perspective, athletes have not changed greatly since I started coaching collegiately in 1985. They probably even work harder due especially to 2-3 days a week of strength training in the weight room and more intense indoor track seasons to go with cross-country and outdoor track seasons. Add to that, the fact that many athletes are taking 17-18 credits a semester.
Most are still receptive to what I want to do after 46 years of coaching, especially the women. Men seem to “know more” because they do a lot more internet searching about training. Some of that is good and sometimes it is not so good.
Coaching has changed quite a bit. There is so much more educational material available through videos, internet blogs and postings, coaching clinics and USATF (and USTFCCCA) classes. All coaches and most athletes know a great deal more about their events than they did in the 1980s. Virtually every college coach today is tremendously knowledgeable about the area(s) that they coach.
In my present situation we have a lot of health sciences majors who carry 18 credits every semester and then sometimes have summer classes as rising juniors and seniors. Daily practice during the school year from 3:30 PM – 5:30 PM is a thing of the past. We can get most of our kids through practice together by starting at 7:00 AM Monday through Friday, but there are always workouts at odd hours of the day for those who have 7:30 or 8 AM classes.
For many years, I was a part-time coach who came to practice after teaching high school science. It would be hard to do that today because many athletes, especially in the health sciences, have afternoon or early evening labs and recitations.
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