Coursing Obstacles
4/22/2002 12:00:00 AM | Women's Track and Field
April 22, 2002
Sophomore Erin Connolly could be used as a case study in academic underachievement. Like a lot of kids in high school, she had the smarts to excel, but there was just something missing. Direction. Motivation. Or maybe it was that no one had ever told her she would have to work just as hard in school as she did in sports if she wanted to continue to participate in the latter.
Women's track and field head coach Rich Ceronie did just that on Connolly's visit to Miami in the fall of her senior year. Connolly wasn't a poor student, receiving a steady diet of B-'s, but she clearly was not reaching her full potential.
So Ceronie decided to apply a little pressure.
"I asked her several questions. 'Are you going to go to every class? Yes. Will I ever have to worry about you doing your assignments? No. Do I have your word that you will work hard academically? Yes.'
"She convinced me it would not be a problem."
Ceronie meets young women like Connolly all the time and understands what they are lacking. He understands because he used to be just like them.
An uninspired student in high school, Ceronie's prospects were so grim his guidance counselor told him that at the rate he was going, he would never graduate college.
Five college degrees later, Ceronie is living proof that having great inner drive can get you just as far as being naturally gifted.
That is why Ceronie is a firm believer that if a person is of the right make-up, he or she, when challenged, can achieve great things. He knew that if the expectations for Connolly were raised, she not only could make it at Miami but thrive here.
"I don't think anybody sat her down like I did and said, 'If you want to run here, you have to take your academics seriously. Academics will be your first priority and athletics will your second,'" Ceronie said. "She's smart enough to understand that's the way it's going to be."
Connolly is from Springfield, Ohio, a town just northwest of Dayton, and she went into the college search with the idea that she wanted to go somewhere a good distance from home.
All that changed when she visited Miami. She instantly hit it off with Ceronie and the other track athletes. And then, if she wasn't completely convinced yet, there was this little tradition of great Miami hurdlers.
At the time of Connolly's recruitment, seven of the previous 15 Mid-American Conference 100-meter hurdle champions had donned red and white.
As a two-time state champ, she actually had a leg up on all of them.
"When she took a look at the hurdlers that have been here, none of them were state champions in high school," Ceronie said. "Some of them didn't even place at the state meet, but after two or three years here, they were running lightning-fast times.
"I think she saw that and said, Miami's degree is going to mean something to me, and it has a long history of good hurdlers, and I'd like to become one of them."
Connolly still wasn't sure if she could cut it at Miami, but her future coach was.
"Once I met her, (Erin's mediocre academic performance up to that point) wasn't a concern at all," Ceronie said. "Like many students, she didn't realize this college thing was out there until her junior or senior year. Her study habits were not good. That's what was the problem, not a lack of intelligence."
Success in the classroom wasn't immediate. Connolly's grades were average her first semester, and her marks the following semester showed only a slight improvement.
"My freshman year was very difficult. I wasn't prepared for the workload," Connolly said.
Then last fall she blossomed, earning a 3.0. The change can be directly attributed to the greatest philanthropic act of which Miami athletics has ever been on the receiving end.
"The Gross Center has helped me tremendously in terms of getting me away from my room. It's been the main reason for my turnaround," Connolly said. "It's so close to where I live, in Hahne Hall."
Connolly's transition on the track was somewhat smoother. Despite never having competed indoors and having to practice on the hard surface in Millett Hall, which exacerbated her lingering knee discomfort (a result of surgery she had in high school), Connolly finished seventh in the 60-meter hurdles at last year's indoor MAC meet, crossing the finish line in 8.88.
"That let me know I could hang with the other hurdlers in the conference," she said.
That spring she proved she not only could hang with but beat most of the other hurdlers in the MAC. In the prelims of the 100-meter hurdles at the conference meet, she ran a clean race and qualified for the finals. Connolly then culminated her season by placing third in a time of 13.99, the fourth-fastest clocking in school history.
One of the biggest keys to Connolly's success was her singular focus on the hurdles. Whereas a number of competitors had three or four events to worry about, Connolly had only one weighing on her mind - and body.
"In the finals on Saturday, those people were tired. She wasn't," Ceronie said. "She put herself in a position to find success, then ran a very good race."
The high finish took Connolly a bit by surprise.
"I had a feeling I could perform at a high level, but I didn't expect to get third."
Last winter, with her academics in order, she improved her finish (sixth) and time (8.86) at the conference championships from the year before.
Connolly's resum? is even more impressive considering she is not, as her coach says, "a naturally fast athlete." More technician than speed demon, Connolly is able to maintain the same pace - and sometimes even ratchet it up - over the course of a race while some of her fellow hurdlers lose steam as they approach the finish line.
"If you take a look at most of the outdoor races she ran, at the halfway point she was behind, but because she's more efficient and technically better and stronger, she'd pick up over the last 50 meters," Ceronie said.
While this may not be Connolly's breakthrough year (Ohio's Melody Royster Ohio and Kent State's Aja Farris are the favorites in the 100 hurdles, according to Ceronie), look for her to be near the top of the standings.
"I think she has the opportunity to be in the top three or four the rest of her career," Ceronie said. "Her goal is to win the MAC championship, to be somebody who was a state champion in high school and conference champion in college. I think that's possible, but it's not going to be easy."
Changing her lackadaisical attitude toward her schoolwork wasn't easy either, but Connolly now seems to have her priorities straight.
"I know that I am only going to go so far with track, but my whole life depends on how I do in my academics."
Story by Media Relations Intern Mickey Brown
