Thursday, January 16, 2014

BY MARK MOSCHETTI

SEATTLE – As Chris Reed recalls, it took him two days, maybe three, to become enamored with coaching.
 
Now, he gets to bring that passion for his craft to the Seattle Pacific track and field program.
 
Reed, a former distance star at Western Oregon, joined the Falcons two weeks ago as a full-time assistant for head coach Karl Lerum.
 
"(Coaching) is something I always kind of knew I was interested in somewhat," Reed said. "I thought I would coach on the side, part-time high school, or something like that.
 
"But once I graduated from Western Oregon, I had an opportunity to join the coaching staff, and I fell in love with on about Day 2 or 3. I knew at that point I wanted to dedicate my professional career to coaching college track and field and cross country."
 
The 25-year-old native of Klamath Falls in southern Oregon certainly knows his distance running. On the cross country course, he was a two-time All-Great Northwest Athletic Conference selection, finishing seventh as a junior in 2009 and third as a senior in 2010.
 
On the track, Reed raced to a pair of All-GNAC honors, taking third in the 5,000 meters as a freshman in 2008, then placing third in the 1,500 as a senior in 2011. He also was fourth in the 5K as a junior and senior.
 
During the short time he has been a coach, Reed says he already has a sense of moving well forward of where he started.
 
"I'm definitely different now than I was then, and I'm just continuing to go that way," Reed said. "I would characterize myself mostly as an athlete's coach, helping people get through the day. It's a hard sport and we challenge people a lot every single day. So it's helping them get through those challenges, be positive, and finding themselves and their goals, both from an athletic standpoint and a personal standpoint."
 
Reed was invited by Lerum to join the SPU staff shortly before Christmas break.
 
"I'm leaving behind a really great group at Western Oregon. … But at the same time, it was an opportunity I couldn't pass up as far as progressing my career and being part of a program with a lot of tradition and history," Reed said.