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Coach of the Year, coaching, cross country, fischer, hall of fame, track and field, University of Delaware, Ursuline Academy
For CRR Jim Fischer, it can seem like a bit of a redemption story, though not of his own choosing.
You see, Fischer had coached the University of Delaware’s DI men’s cross-country and track-and-field teams for three decades in his previous coaching life. That came to a gut-wrenching end in 2011, as UD erased its men’s running program over the course of three years while he was at the helm. Something about Title IX, despite all the good he was doing for the young athletes, most of whom happened to be great students as well.
“It really hurt me,” Fischer admitted. “It was not only that that’s what I loved. It was also that it wasn’t a valued program to [the UD administration], and that hurt even worse.”
Well, after having had his job eliminated at UD, Fischer took positions with Delaware Technical & Community College and then Sanford School, respectively, before getting an opportunity with the Ursuline Academy—an all-girls’ school most famous for having produced WNBA superstar Elena DelleDonne. In the five years Coach Fischer has been at Ursuline, the school has won the past three girls Division II state cross-country titles, displacing the perennial juggernaut Tatnall School. Prior to his arrival, Ursuline hadn’t won that coveted state title since 1998.
Now, Coach Fischer has been honored as the 2020 Delaware Coach of the Year for these latest accomplishments, just another in a series of awards for one who is already a member of the Delaware Sports Hall of Fame.
A native of Minnesota, Coach Fischer has been a Creek Road Runner, as well as a member of the Pike Creek Valley Running Club, since coming on the scene in Delaware back in the ’80s. He has always been an advocate for running and racing and has for decades now been holding community workouts on Tuesday nights, helping runners of all abilities to improve and/or meet their goals.
Hearty congratulations, Coach, from Creek Road Runners!
CRR Avron Abraham, University of Delaware faculty director of the Center for Academic Success and University Studies and a faculty member in the Department of Behavioral Health and Nutrition, will assume the role as the University’s Faculty Athletic Representative, beginning in May 2020.
CRR Stuart Binder-Macleod, a professor in the University of Delaware’s No. 1–nationally ranked physical therapy program, has received the institution’s highest faculty honor—the prestigious Francis Alison Faculty Award—for 2019.
CRR Flora Poindexter has received one of the University of Delaware’s highest honors, the Excellence in Teaching Award. Poindexter, a senior instructor in languages, literatures and cultures, is one of only four to receive this award at UD in 2019.
CRR Roberta Golinkoff, one of the earliest members of Creek Road Runners, was also honored by the University of Delaware with the inaugural Faculty Excellence in Scholarly Community Engagement Award. Golinkoff, the Unidel H. Rodney Sharp Chair in the School of Education, was one of two individuals to be so honored.
CRR Diane Kukich, a certified running coach through the Road Runners Club of America, will again be getting UD employees “up and running” this spring through a Couch to 5K running program, a nine-week training program for beginner runners, offered by the University of Delaware Employee Health and Wellbeing.
CreekRoadRunners.org 