By ANDREW CRUM, Staff Writer
Sometimes one’s passion comes from something unexpected.
Alice Ross, a former Los Fresnos and Graceland University cross country and track & field standout, didn’t enjoy running at first.
“I actually used to hate running,” Ross said. “I didn’t think it was fun at first.”
But times have changed.
Ross is now excited for her recent promotion. She was appointed as the lead for both the women’s cross country and track & field teams at St. Gregory’s University in Shawnee, Okla., after serving as an assistant for the past few years.
“It feels fantastic,” she said. “That was always my end goal to be a head coach somewhere. So to achieve that at 25 (years old) is pretty awesome and amazing.”
Ross began running cross-country and track in middle school, along with playing volleyball and basketball when her father Frank Falcon was a teacher and coach at the same school.
“She dreaded (running),” he said. “But she learned to love it.”
Ross recalls her father frequently asking her if she had finished her runs for the day and then reminding her that her competitors were out running.
But she also fondly remembered her father riding a bike alongside her as she ran mile after mile, having conversations about this and that.
“He tried not to coach me at home,” Ross said. “He would say little things to make me feel bad, but he taught me to love it. He taught me to be competitive and to enjoy it.”
Eventually, Falcon didn’t need subtle pushes anymore.
“She got to the point where she went on her own (to train),” Falcon said.
Ross played volleyball and basketball while continuing to run cross-country and track through her freshman year. She then quit the other sports to concentrate on running.
“That’s when I started to get pretty good at it,” she said. “So I stuck with it.”
During the next three years, with her father as an assistant coach at Los Fresnos, Ross qualified for the regionals in cross-country each season and was a regional qualifier during one season in track.
Ross was ready to call it a career, but fate intervened.
“I wasn’t planning to run at the next level,” she said.
She attended a sports church camp at Graceland University, and one of the mission counselors had seen her run in a track meet where she won both the one-mile and two-mile races. He asked if she had thought about running in college and suggested she at least speak with the cross-country coach.
After the coach reviewed her times, he told Ross she would be a top-three runner and could make quite an impact on the team.
“That’s surprising, I didn’t think I was that good,” Ross said to the Graceland coach.
Ross had planned to study athletic training at Angelo Statein San Angelo. But Graceland had the same program and she could continue running. Her choice was an easy one.
“(The coach’s comments) gave me motivation to pursue it and I signed with Graceland,” she said. “I loved my time there.”
Ross was a four-year letterman in cross country and track, a national scholar athlete, an NAIA national qualifier in 2011 and set a school record in the steeplechase.
And at some point during her time as an undergraduate, Ross began thinking about coaching.
“I found myself staying after practices, learning more from the coaches,” she said. “(I was) showing up early and learning how training works, their philosophies on things. That’s how it started.”
After graduation, Ross went to William Penn University in Oskaloosa, Iowa to pursue a Masters degree in business leadership. She also became a graduate assistant for the cross country and track teams.
“She got a piece of that level of coaching and that sealed it for her right there,” Falcon said.
After finishing her degree, Ross got a job at St. Gregory’s.
Cody Ingold , a fellow assistant at William Penn, left for a job at St. Gregory’s. Ross learned soon after he left that there was an opening for an assistant coach, so she took it.
Ross and Ingold now have worked together for three years and each recently received promotions. Ingold was the men’s cross country coach at St. Gregory’s and now leads the men’s track & field team, too. Ross recently took over both of the women’s programs.
“I credit a lot of people,” Ross said. “My coaches along the way, my mentors, Cody Ingold, who I work with now. (Everyone) just helping me get to this position.”
Ross is also able to use her athletic training background as part of her coaching duties.
“It has definitely helped,” she said. “I understand our athletes as far as mechanics and injuries. I can develop some of our training for an injury whether it’s prevention-based or strength training-based. So definitely my education and background has helped me become a better coach because of it.
“To have that knowledge and background, I definitely think it’s an advantage.”
Ross has aspirations of becoming a coach at a larger university one day, possibly for a Division I or II school. But for now she’ll keep her eyes open for other runners like herself for St. Gregory’s.
Her father was recently promoted to lead the cross country team at Los Fresnos , so Ross knows she has a familiar face to help her recruit in the Rio Grande Valley. She even mentioned a few girls on the current Cavaliers’ roster are from the Valley.
For Ross, what was once a burden has now become a passion.
“I can’t get enough of it now,” she said of running. “It’s become my passion,it’s a big part of my life. I’m always trying to learn, there’s always something changing, changing techniques, changing philosophies. I always try to keep up to date and see what’s out there as far as running goes.”
Andrew Crum covers sports for The Brownsville Herald. You can reach him at (956) 982-6629 or via email [email protected]. On Twitter he’s @andrewmcrum.