As Will Boylan-Pett makes the move to Washington Square, Nick McDonough says his goodbyes.

   

   Thus, the coaching carousel continues spinning as Boylan-Pett, the former Columbia University middle distance standout, No. 315 on the all-time list of American sub-four minute milers (with his 3:59.40 in 2009) and a five-year member of the Columbia coaching staff, takes the coaching reins at New York University, while McDonough, NYU's coach the past 16 years, moves uptown to Manhattan College.

 

   Boylan, who also holds a Villanova University law school degree, said "I am ecstatic to be joining the NYU athletic department as the head track and field and cross country coach. To be part of such a great program is truly an honor." Over past years, the NYU coaching reins have been held by such notables as Emil Von Elling (USA Olympic coaching staffer in 1932 and 1948), Joe Healey, Jerry Mann, Cliff Bertrand, Greg Page, and McDonough.

 

   Meanwhile, McDonough, who worked many wonders raising NYU (for long years a major power on the NCAA Division I level) from the bottom rungs of the NCAA's Division III ranks to NCAA III team champion status (in cross country), has made the move to Division I Manhattan College.

 

   McDonough, the former distance running star at Christian Brothers Academy in Lincroft, NJ, and Syracuse University, who then coached at Seton Hall, held the reins at NYU for 16 years. He will be the Jaspers' head coach in men's and women's cross country, and women's head coach in track and field. Veteran mentor Dan Mecca continues as the Jaspers' men's track coach.  His 2007 NYU men's team took the NCAA III XC title; his 2013 NYU women's team placed sixth at Nationals.

 

  McDonough's stated goal at Manhattan will be "continue to build a great tradition of cross country and track and field," and to "achieve great success on the East Coast, and national prominence."  He serves as president of the New York Metropolitan Coaches Association as well as director of the Gotham Cup and other meets at the Armory, plus the New Jersey International Track and Field Meet each June. For McDonough, a Jersey Shore resident, expect to see his Manhattan teams locking horns with Monmouth University for top honors in the Metro-Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC.)

 

   Back now to the coaching carousel, which keeps spinning, spinning.....

 

   J.J. Clark, one of the four illustrious members of the Clark track family, has moved from the University of Tennessee to join the University of Connecticut as women's head track coach. A 2008 USA Olympic coach, Clark's Tennessee athletes won 61 individual SEC titles, and set six American and two world records.

 

   He'd been a top middle distance runner at Columbia High in Maplewood and then at Villanova. His sisters Joetta and Hazel and his wife, Jearl Miles-Clark, rank with the greatest in the sport's history, and have a long array of Olympic medals and appearances, World Championships honors, and national records to their credit.

 

   Beth Alford-Sullivan takes over at Tennessee following 15 successful years at Penn State.

 

   After six years as head coach at the U.S. Military Academy, Troy Engle has stepped away from West Point to take on the new position of Director of Coach Development for the Singapore Sports Institute.

 

   Brian Bancroft, a Texas A&M graduate who served eight years on the Aggies' staff, has been named acting head coach of the Army programs.

 

   Willy Wood was considered a miracle worker in his 20-year stint as head coach at Columbia University, raising the Lions from the bottom of the Ivy League to the upper echelons of the Ancient Eight, and to status as national power, as well.

 

   Wood has moved from Morningside Heights to become head coach at Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois. Wood developed many illustrious athletes at Columbia, and perhaps highest on the list was Erison Hurtault, who was the eight-time Ivy champion at 400 meters (four indoors, four outdoors) and a two-time Olympian for Dominica.

 

    Taking the reins at Columbia will be Dan Ireland, LaSalle University coach for the past three years who previously coached at Yale. LaSalle assistant LaSalle coach Tom Peterson has been elevated to head coach of the Explorers' program.

 

   The Temple University track and field and cross country program - once home to National Track Hall of Famer Eulace Peacock, as well as to Bill Cosby - is now in the hands of Elvis Forde, the two-time Olympian with a long record of achievement at Illinois State.

 

   After 43 years at Rowan University, Bill Fritz - who guided the Profs to major state, regional and national prominence - has announced his retirement. Moving up as head coach of men's XC and track and field at Rowan is Dustin Dimit, who had been head XC and assistant coach at Buffalo State College for the past five years. Derrick "Ringo" Adamson continues as Rowan's women's coach.  "I'm excited to join a program with such a rich history," said Dimit. Among the Profs' greatest moments under Fritz: Mike Juskus' 272-3 javelin win at the 1981 NCAA (Division I) championships.  It was the last time a DIII athlete won a DI title - rules changes precluding it were enacted soon after.

 

   On the scholastic level, major moves see Chris Bennett, assistant XC and track coach at Christian Brothers Academy since 2007, and considered a key factor in the Lincroft, NJColts' series of national-level achievements, stepping away to work on a major project with the Nike Co. in New York, and Sean McCafferty moving over from Holmdel High Schoolto step into Bennett's post.  Bennett has said the Nike project will be for one year, and that he'd like to return to CBA - calling it "the greatest job I ever had"  - at some point.

 

   With veteran coach Tom Heath back at the helm, and working with McCafferty (who will continue to teach at Holmdel), Bennett has no worries about CBA's XC future - calling the returning team "the deepest in US history."

 

   Maurice Bell, who as a long jumper was the very first Monmouth University athlete tomedal at the IC4A Championships, has been nominated as McCafferty's successor as boys track and field coach at Holmdel HS and awaits Board of Education approval.