On July 7, Bradley announced that Andrew Carlson would become the next head coach for the men and women’s cross country and track and field.
Darren Gauson, Bradley’s head cross country and track and field coach for the last eight years, left the school over the summer to become the head coach at the University of New Mexico, taking several of Bradley’s runners with him through the transfer portal. Carlson was the first candidate to apply for the new opening.
“I don’t think people realize how serious I take the job, cause I’m a pretty fun person to be around. I like to make jokes, but that’s more cultural,” Carlson said. “When I go home at night, I know in my heart what this is. This is the most important thing I have in my life, besides my fiance.”
Carlson ran in college, then ran professionally for nine years. He had a lot of success in his professional career, including a sixth place finish at the 2012 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials.
Carlson started his coaching career at North Dakota State University located in his hometown of Fargo. He stayed there for eight years and developed athletes into competitors. Once he left the area he knew and loved, he found his first head coaching position available in Peoria.
At the age of 41, after years of running and working as an assistant coach, Carlson finally became the head coach of a program.
“[Bradley] is an environment that draws someone like me,” Carlson said. “It’s very focused on the middle and long distances with the event sprints and jumps as well, so it’s a small team, it’s a smaller campus size so you get to know everyoneand it’s a really focused academic environment.”
Assistant coach Emma Wren is also joining the Bradley cross country and track and field staff. She admires not only the kind of coach Carlson is, but also who he is as a person.
“Something that’s really impressive to me is his people skills,” Wren said. “Talking with people, connecting with people, writing emails to recruits or messages to the team, his communication skills are just so strong.”
Wren and Carlson have been sitting down and meeting with each player individually, trying to figure out who they are as both athletes and people. They share a desire to bond and build relationships.
“He’s someone who is very relationship oriented,” Wren said. “We’ve done a lot of one-on-one meetings with athletes to get to know who they are, what they’re about, and what they’re interested in.”
Carslon has only gotten the chance to work with the runners for two weeks, but he is already making his mark on the athletes. He takes over a team that finished first last year and is predicted to take second in preseason conference rankings.
As most head coaches do, Carlson always preaches about culture. He wants each athlete to be a leader and be a part of building a positive team environment.
“I’m a culture builder, when I got to Louisville it needed to change, when I got to NDSU the program was great, but we needed to change,” Carlson said. “I had the same thought when I got to Bradley, to build the culture the way I see fit.”
Yet, things didn’t go coach’s way after team camp. He believes this team has talent, but he also believes this group cares about each other more than he has ever seen as a coach.
“I had this big speech planned.” Carlson said. “All I said was I think we have it. I think you guys have the culture piece of this, I’m not gonna stand up here and talk to you for 20 minutes about being good to your teammates and working together and supporting each other, cause we’re already doing that.”
This might be the first head coaching job Carlson’s ever had, but he hopes it’s the last.
“My goal is to die at this desk,” Carlson said. “I wanna stay here, this is the place I want to be. I already know that [and] my fiance knows that.”
