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Every student athlete at Conn has their reasons for donning the blue to represent our school. They may have been recruited, walked on, were convinced by friends and family, or joined a team sport simply for the desire for community. In this very same spot was Eliza McCoole, a rising sophomore from the nearby town of Guilford, Connecticut.
When asked about why she chose the camel experience as opposed to other schools, Eliza explains how she liked “that it was a small school and that it was liberal arts focused and pretty much the opportunities that they have to study languages, as well as the general environment.” An avid linguist, on top of having taken Arabic and Spanish in the past, Eliza took Mandarin and 300 level German in her freshman year.
Eliza decided to join Conn’s Cross Country and Track and Field women’s distance team because she “very much enjoyed running on my team in high school.” Eliza competed at Guilford High School, and shared a strong bond with her teammates as well as her coach Jim Ford. “I enjoyed the community aspect of it, and looked up to my high school coach, and also my friend encouraged me to do it.” It is also worth mentioning that Coach Ford was beyond elated to hear that she had made the decision to compete in college.
Looking ahead towards the next couple of years, she draws on her prior experiences with track as well as her desire to improve and contribute to the team. “I’m looking forward to getting to know my teammates, hopefully PRing, just competing in general which I really liked.” Eliza is already friends with a handful of current track athletes, so by default she has the advantage of not having a problem finding her place amongst the crowd.
Like any student athlete as well as any athlete in general, Eliza recognizes the importance of training in preparation for the upcoming season. ”I got in touch with the coach (Head Women’s Cross Country Coach Ned Bishop) and one of my future teammates, they sent me workouts and I have been running at home with the corresponding workouts.” Eliza finds time to run as often as possible, whenever possible. It could be late at night or it could be at the crack of dawn. She’ll run in her neighborhood, drive down to her high school to run there, or even use her treadmill if need be in order to get her mileage in.
With regards to what Cross Country and Track and Field as a whole means to her, Eliza responded that “It’s a sport that requires ongoing work, a community of people that encourages each other to be better, and it clears my mind and allows me to think.” It is for these reasons in part that she had already considered rejoining the world of track through her freshman year, and at long last finally made the decision this summer to go through with this major commitment.
Though the bulk of her competitive athletic repertoire consists of her Cross Country tenure at Guilford High School, Eliza also had a brief stint playing league basketball outside of school. She follows professional sports as well, though not necessarily to the fanatical extent of some of her soon-to-be teammates. “I’m a fan of the Denver Nuggets, and I’m also a casual fan of the Baltimore Orioles.”
Eliza McCoole looks forward to her competitive journey with Conn’s Track and Field program, and hopefully given her unending passion for running, she will have great successes in this huge step in her camel experience.
