The two-day NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships in Nampa, Idaho.
In 1889, track and field became the second varsity sport in school history. Now, 122 seasons later, student-athletes continue to represent the Fighting Irish across the nation on the track, in the field and on the cross country course.
For the past 36 campaigns, Joe Piane has been leading the program - and shows no signs of stopping any time soon. The longest active tenured coach at Notre Dame, Piane begins his 37th season under the Golden Dome in the fall of 2011, having recently inked a multi-year contract extension. Piane's tenure is now the second-longest of any coach in Fighting Irish history, trailing only baseball coach Jake Kline's 42 seasons (1934-75).
His teams continue to complete at the highest level, as the men's cross country team advanced to the NCAA Championships for the 20th time in 27 seasons in 2010. The squad placed 25th in the nation and saw Dan Jackson and Jeremy Rae earn all-Region honors. The 2010-11 season also saw successes on the track. The men's squad saw Jonathan Shawel, Patrick Feeney, Jack Howard and Jeremy Rae place fourth at the NCAA Outdoor Championships, earning All-America honors and marking the 21st-consecutive season at least one men's runner earned All-America status. The Irish also placed second at the indoor and outdoor BIG EAST championships, with a total of seven individual league titles.
The women's season saw Maddie Buttinger advance to the NCAA Championships in the heptathlon, where she finished 12th, while Rebecca Tracy took home the title in the mile at the BIG EAST Indoor Championships.
Piane will look to continue that success into the 2011-12 campaign and beyond. "I'm thrilled to know that I'll be here at Notre Dame for the next several years and hopefully well beyond that until my retirement," Piane said. "My family and I truly enjoy living in South Bend and being a part of the community here. I also value and appreciate the opportunity I have had to work at a place like Notre Dame because of the quality of the people I've been fortunate enough to work with. I have coached many very special student- athletes during my time here and seeing their development has been one of the most rewarding aspects of my job -- one that I'm eager to continue well into the foreseeable future." Piane's record at Notre Dame speaks for itself. Just consider the accomplishments Notre Dame athletes have made under Piane's watchful eye:
• Men's cross country runners have earned All- American status 26 times, with Patrick Smyth taking home the honor in 2008.
• A Notre Dame men's cross country runner has appeared at the NCAA Championship meet in each of the past 21 years, while the men's team has made the trip 20 out of the past 27 years.
• The Notre Dame men's cross country team has finished in the top 10 at the NCAA meet in 11 of the past 23 seasons, highlighted by third-place finishes in 1990 and 2005 (matching the program's best showing since winning the 1957 NCAA title).
• The Irish men's cross country team has won five BIG EAST Conference titles since joining the league in 1995, including crowns in 2004 and 2005. What's more Notre Dame men's runners have earned all-BIG EAST honors 41 times, with a school- record five runners receiving that distinction in `05.
• The Irish men's track and field team has earned 77 All-America citations since 1974 (with Jonathan Shawel, Patrick Feeney, Jack Howard and Jeremy Rae earning the honors in the distance medley relay in 2011), while the women's team has received 43 such accolades since 1994 (most recently Jessica Rydberg in 2010). Combined, Piane has helped mentor 118 track and field All- Americans (and 130 overall when including cross country honorees) during his tenure.
• Both the Notre Dame men's and women's track and field teams were champions in 2007 with the Irish men taking the indoor title and the Irish women claiming their first outdoor team championship. The men also claimed the 2008 and 2009 BIG EAST outdoor titles and the 2010 BIG EAST indoor and outdoor titles. Overall the men's team has won 11 BIG EAST titles (four indoor/seven outdoor), while the women's squad has hoisted the hardware three times (two indoor/one outdoor).
• In the school's 14-year BIG EAST membership (1995-96 to present), Notre Dame athletes have won 131 conference individual or relay titles in track and field and cross country, with eight student-athletes named the conference's outstanding track or field performer at its indoor or outdoor championship meets.
A distance-coaching specialist, Piane is recognized across the nation as one of the best in the business. He has been named NCAA Division I National Cross Country Coach of the Year on two different occasions (1987 and 2001) while garnering five district/regional coach-of-the-year honors and nine league cross country coach-of-the-year plaques.
In total, Piane has earned or shared 28 league coach of the year awards (indoor track, out- door track or cross country), including 16 BIG EAST Coaching Staff of the Year accolades in the past 12 years (1999-2010). In 2007 alone the Notre Dame staff earned two of those BIG EAST Coaching Staff of the Year honors, one for men's indoor track and field and one for women's outdoor track and field. They also racked up two more for men's outdoor track and field in 2008 and 2009.
Individually, Piane and his assistants at Notre Dame produced six All-Americans in track and field in 2009 with three during the indoor season and three during the outdoor season. Mary Saxer became Notre Dame's first-ever women's pole vault All-American, earning her first All-America honor at the NCAA Indoor Championships. She earned her second All-America citation at the outdoor meet later that season. Joanna Schultz earned her first All-America honor with an eighth-place finish in the 400 meters at the NCAA Indoor Championships. Jaclyn Espinoza finished third in the discus at the outdoor championships to earn her first All- America recognition, as well. Smyth earned his sixth and seventh All-America honors in 2009. His combined seven All-America honors are the third most in Irish men's track and field/cross country history behind only Ryan Shay (nine) and Luke Watson (eight).
Piane's success has not just been in the present, as three of his more successful pupils in recent years have been 10-time All-American Molly Huddle (2007), Shay (2001) and Watson (2002).
Huddle finished her career under Piane with ten All-America certificates, a record for the most All-America selections by a Notre Dame athlete in any sport. The Elmira, N.Y., native had seven career BIG EAST championships, including back-to-back double victories in the 5,000-meters and the 10,000-meters in her last two seasons. Her seven championships are the most by any Irish woman and she joins former student-athlete Liz Grow as Notre Dame's only athletes to be named the BIG EAST Outstanding Outdoor Track Performer in two consecutive years (2006, 2007). She currently holds four Irish school records (indoor 3,000-meters & 5,000-meters/outdoor 5,000-meters & 10,000-meters). Huddle made news in the summer of 2011, when she set an American women's record in the 5,000 meters.
In 2001, Piane helped distance specialist Shay compile one of the greatest track seasons in Notre Dame history. The Central Lake, Mich., resident won the BIG EAST indoor 5,000-meters, the conference outdoor 5,000-meters and 10,000-meters and fin- ished off the season in legendary style by becoming Notre Dame's first individual NCAA champion since 1972 by taking first place in the 10,000 meters (29:05.44) at the NCAA Outdoor Championship in Eugene, Ore. Shay moved on to become one of the best marathon runners in the country, winning five U.S. titles as well as USA Running Circuit (USARC) titles in 2003 and 2004. Tragically, Shay's life was cut short as he died suddenly during the running of the 2008 U.S. Olympic marathon trials in New York City.
Shortly after helping steer Shay to the top of the college running mountain, Piane had similar success with Watson. Both men had set their sights on breaking the four-minute mile barrier at the Meyo Invitational in 2002, hoping that Watson would become just the second Irish runner to crack the mark. Piane helped assemble an outstanding field for the race, which was arguably the highlight of the entire collegiate indoor season. Watson did his part, scorching past the field in the final straight away to win in 3:58.83, easily a school-record time and briefly the fastest mile run in the world during the indoor season. Watson eventually moved on to garner All-America honors in the indoor mile, indoor 3,000-meters and outdoor 5,000-meters as well as taking home BIG EAST Championships in the mile, 3,000-meter steeplechase and outdoor 5,000-meters. In the summer of 2006, Watson returned to his alma mater as a member of the Irish men's distance/cross country coaching staff. With Piane at the helm, the Notre Dame men's cross country team has enjoyed six of its most suc- cessful seasons in the program's history during the past ten years. In 2000, Piane helped the Irish recover from the loss of Shay due to injury and earn a ninth-place finish at the NCAA Championship meet.
With Shay back on the team in `01, Notre Dame achieved its highest-ever national ranking (fourth), won the BIG EAST Championship (Piane and his staff earned the league's Coaching Staff of the Year award) and ended up sixth at the national meet to give the Irish (at the time) their highest team finish since 1993.
In 2004, Notre Dame threatened to eclipse its best-ever ranking, as Piane deftly guided his charges from an unranked start all the way to a BIG EAST title and a No. 5 national ranking before placing 11th at the NCAA Championship. For his efforts, Piane and his aides garnered a second BIG EAST Men's Cross Country Coaching Staff of the Year plaque. That set the stage for 2005's successful run that culminated in Notre Dame's return to the NCAA awards podium for the first time since 1990.
In 1985, Piane was named a member of the United States National Track staff. As such, he was one of 40 collegiate coaches given the opportunity to coach a United States squad in international competition. During the summer of 1987 he did just that, guiding a team of American all-stars in meets held in England and Ireland. Upon the con- clusion of the 1991 Notre Dame track season, Piane once again faced international competition as he was appointed coach of the U.S. Pan American juniors team for the games in Kingston, Jamaica.
Piane became Midwest regional chairman for United States Olympic Development in the area of track and field in 1984. Piane's other Olympic preparation experience came in `85 when he coached the North team in the National Sports Festival. He also coached the U.S. team against England in Birmingham, England.
Piane has produced a winning record in all but one season with the Irish men's cross country team and is also the creator of Notre Dame's National Catholic Championship, an annual meet held on campus since 1980. The Irish running program continues to be a rapidly-growing entity thanks to Piane's achievements. Continually searching for greater challenges, he also founded the Meyo Invitational and the Alex Wilson Invitational, both traditional indoor Notre Dame track and field meets. A 1969 graduate of Loras College, Piane ran both track and cross country for four years at the Dubuque, Iowa, institution. He captained Loras' undefeated cross country squad as a senior, while excelling in middle distance events during the track season. He was inducted into the Loras College Athletics Hall of Fame in the fall of 2002.
Piane began his impressive coaching career in 1970. Working for the Peace Corps, he coached track and field and cross country at both the regional and national levels in the North African country of Morocco. Piane guided a top-ranked junior cross country team, sending three runners to Cambridge, England, for the International Cross Country Championship (now known as the IAAF World Championship) in 1972, where Morocco finished third. Several of those Moroccan runners went on to compete at the 1972 Summer Games in Munich, Germany, and one advanced to the 1976 Summer Games in Montreal, Canada.
After returning to the United States in July 1972, Piane assisted the track and cross country programs at Western Illinois. During that time he earned a master's degree in physical education.
Born Aug. 6, 1947, in Westchester, Ill., Piane joined the Notre Dame staff in 1974 as an assistant track coach and physical education instructor with plans to stay on for just one year. He was named head track and cross country coach the following season.
Piane and his wife, Mimi, reside in South Bend, with their son, Nick.
