After head coach Louie Quintana left the ASU cross-country team, Jeremy Rasmussen took his place, becoming the first cross-country head coach to have graduated from ASU.
Rasmussen's journey with cross-country started his freshman year of high school. He was a three sport athlete with goals of becoming a Division-I athlete and a successful student.
In late May of his senior year in high school, he made the decision to join the ASU cross-country team.
“I took the chance and became a student-athlete here in the next five years,” Rasmussen said.
Rasmussen enjoyed his time at ASU as a student-athlete so much that he wanted to stay after he graduated, so he became a volunteer coach in 2003. The next year he became a graduate assistant coach.
After coaching with the ASU cross-country team in various different positions over the course of seven seasons, Rasmussen was named head coach on July 19, 2017.
“The opportunity to be a head coach at my alma mater is a tremendous honor,” Rasmussen said.
Rasmussen saw the Phoenix area as home because it was where his family and friends lived. He also did not want to give up the opportunity to be a coach.
The team did not experience a drastic change because they had already known Rasmussen and became familiar with his coaching style in previous seasons.
“It’s been really great. It hasn’t felt like much of a transition at all," redshirt senior Chelsey Albertson said. "We had him around last year and I think everyone has really enjoyed having him as our coach."
Rasmussen felt he had developed a great relationship with the team since he had been around as an assistant coach for many seasons.
“The fact that he was already here as an assistant coach when Louie (Quintana) was here made the transition pretty seamless," redshirt senior John Reniewicki said. "While they do have small differences, as a whole, I think our training and philosophies remain the same. We might do different workouts at different locations, but the idea of what we’re trying to accomplish is still the same.”
Rasmussen hasn't planned on changing much as head coach, but he would like to cut down on injuries. Previous seasons saw many injuries that caused the team to lose some of its strongest runners.
He plans on taking the team far by putting in hard work and “having the mindset of champions.”
“Our goals were high already, now we are trying to grow and progress from that,” Rasmussen said.
In their season opener, the Sun Devils finished in the top three for both the men and women's team. Rasmussen believes there is room for improvement and plans on taking what he has learned from the first meet and building on that experience.
The Sun Devils will compete next in the Dave Murray Invitation on Sept. 15 in Tucson.
Reach the reporter at cncarte1@asu.edu or follow @CCydeni on Twitter.
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