My guest for today's episode is Alex Gibby, one of the most accomplished and respected coaches in collegiate distance running right now. He's in his 8th season as the Associate Head Coach of Harvard Track and Field and Cross country. He's built a program that competes at the highest level on both the track and in cross country. In the past year alone, his athletes won four NCAA titles, made history in cross country, and set a bunch of Ivy League records. He also put two athletes on their respective Olympic teams.

Gibby's influence extends far beyond Harvard over the course of his coaching career. He's guided teams to the NCAA Cross Country Championships consistently, developed multiple All-Americans, and led programs at Michigan, William and Mary, Charlotte, and Stephen F. Austin. From mentoring champions like Graham Blanks and Maia Ramsden to shaping the next generation of elite runners, he's at the center of some of the biggest success stories in the NCAA right now.

In this episode we talk about his coaching philosophy, how he's built this team culture in a high pressure academic environment like Harvard, what it takes to develop national champions, and his insights on the future of collegiate and professional distance running.

Host: Chris Chavez | ⁠@chris_j_chavez on Instagram

Guest: Alex Gibby | @alexgibby13 on Instagram

Episode Highlights:

The following excerpt has been edited lightly for clarity. You can listen to the full episode with Alex Gibby on the CITIUS MAG Podcast.

Reflecting on the 2024 season:

For everything that's going right when you coach 30 to 35 athletes, there's always something going wrong. It certainly keeps you humble and attentive to the process of getting good. I’m really happy with what Maia [Ramsden] and Graham [Blanks] particularly have done over the last five seasons. I was joking with Sophia Gorriaran the other day that it's five consecutive NCAAs where I've walked away with a champion.

I've had some good individuals and good teams, but I've been doing this long enough to appreciate how rare that is and how luck in some capacities factors in. Young men and young women have to take the steps from where they were to what they become. But at the same time, I look back at NCAAs two weeks ago in Madison, and as happy as I was for Graham, we were a little banged up at the end of the year with one of our key kids being sick. I just don't think the result was requisite with what our men's team [should’ve done]. I think they're much better than that. You're sitting there thinking about how you can manipulate things to create a better experience for them and get the reward that they heavily invested in.

Developing athletes out of high school:

I think this is my 28th year [of coaching]. We say this all the time in our program: You're either winning or you're learning. Some of them are fortunate. Graham steps into the NCAA and he gets 19th, so his pathway to where he is is probably a little shorter than a lot of other people's. But for most people, that's the exception, not the rule. You're taking kids and trying to teach them seven different things at once – like how to adapt for the first time away from home, being able to manage the academic piece, the recovery piece, the social piece, and not having your parents there.

Then you're talking about on the men's side doubling racing distances. The acceleration of competitive density in the NCAA is enormous. There's so many lessons to learn. As a coach you'd prefer perfection, but perfection doesn't exist – and if it does, it's a factor of luck. It's chance. You're probably going to see them do six or seven things well and three or four things wrong. You just keep moving those markers until you get them to a place where they can perform at a high level and do something they didn't think they were capable of doing.

Values in creating team culture:

Learning Harvard and seeing the personalities you have, it's type A. I want them to be able to come across the river as you cross into Harvard Athletics and be able to let their hair down and relax. I want it to be the best part of the day with their teammates that they really enjoy. What I usually say is, ‘We're going to take what we're doing seriously, but we're not going to take ourselves seriously.’ Graham always likes to juggle…The women jump in too. It gives different groups a chance to collect and talk.

I never start practice on time. Everything else in their life is down to the minute. I get evaluations at the end of the year and for the most part, they're pretty nice. They're pretty kind. Then they're like, ‘But we’ve got to do a better job of efficiency at practice.’ I'm not going to do it! Everything else is down to the minute, down to the second, the decimal, you name it. I'm going to resist that. We're going to run it in a little bit more relaxed fashion.

Listen to the full episode here.

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