Year-end polls, rankings, and lists are the gooey, butter-based holiday confections sports fans love to comfort themselves with in the off-season. Such stuff is what drives sports talk radio and TV, too, and what keeps newspaper columnists on life-support as their industry continues to dissolve.
In the sport of athletics Track & Field News is the king of the list-builders as its annual event and Athlete of the Year magazine issues actual determine shoe contracts and appearance fees. Today, Flotrack, the subscription-based on-line media company out of Austin, Texas, named the Bowerman Track Club’s Jerry Schumacher as its first FloTrack American Distance Coach of the Year, while awarding the former University of Wisconsin coach the $10,000 prize that attends the T-Mobile sponsored award.
“For the last decade, we’ve seen up close what a struggle it can be to compete at the highest level of track,” FloSports co-founder and COO Mark Floreani said in a company issued press release. “Many professional track coaches don’t have the sponsorships or deals in place where they can devote 100 percent of their time to their athletes. Our goal with this award is to help deserving coaches continue to pursue their passion and work with the top distance runners in the U.S.”
“I’m very appreciative, but it’s not just me,” Schumacher said in response. “The face of the coach of the year award is really the Bowerman Track Club organization and all of the coaches, staff, athletes, and personnel that make the whole thing go round. That’s really who wins this whole thing.”
