Both of SUNY New Paltz’s Cross Country teams have a new assistant coach in Georgetown alumnus Alex Bean.
Hired by Head Coach Mike Trunkes, Bean will play a large role in the success the men and women’s cross country teams hopes to have this season.
“Everybody that works in our program has something to offer of value,” Trunkes said.
Bean and Trunkes are on the same wave length on how they would like their program to be run, Trunkes said.
“He and I are very similar philosophically in terms of how we envision a successful program is run [and] we both have a clear vision of what we want to do with practices,” Trunkes said.
While still in high school, Bean earned All-state and All-American honors. His success continued at Georgetown, where he was a 2009 NCAA East Region qualifier with a time of 3:46.42 in the 1,500 m.
Trunkes expressed the potential Bean has as an assistant coach based on his amount of success as a runner.
“When you have somebody on your team who is All-Big East a number of times and has competed on a very high level as a distance runner, it just adds more credibility to the message we’re trying to send,” Trunkes said.
Bean said he believes he has been fitting in well with the team and favors the coaching dynamic.
“I feel like I already have a good rapport with everybody,” Bean said. “I am sort of complimentary to Mike.”
Bean believes that his ability to relate to what his team is going through as student-athletes is the best attribute he has as a coach, he said.
“Whatever struggles they’re going through I went through, so I have that perspective,” Bean said.
Mariah Brown