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The University of Mississippi Athletics
Grove-Side Q&A: Track Coach Joe Walker
5/27/2008 | Track and Field
This installment of Grove-Side Q&As features Ole Miss track & field coach Joe Walker. Questions were sent in by fans through OleMissSports.com over the past week and touch on a variety of topics. Grove-Side Q&As are a regular feature on OleMissSports.com and provide Rebel fans interactive opportunities with some of the key figures in Ole Miss athletics.
Q: With the construction of the Ole Miss’ new track complex in 2003, where does our facility rank among the rest of the nation?
I think that is one thing that people fail to realize is there are a lot of great track stadiums in the
Q: Of all the great athletes you have coached in your career, where does Brittney Reese rank?
Even though coaches do it all the time, I have always refused to rank my athletes because it is just so hard. It’s different eras, different personalities. Certainly there isn’t anyone better than her. She is up there with if it’s a tie for first between X, Y, Z or whatever. If she was at the top, I wouldn’t argue with her being at the top. She is a great, great athlete.
Q: Why did you return to Ole Miss after coaching at a larger school with a larger track budget like
I just think that for me and my family, it was a better decision. I like the smallness of
Q: What has been your biggest influence in teaching the Ole Miss track team?
You don’t use kids to win games you use games to win kids. I think I have always approached things that way. I am certainly about the total individual person. When you come here and become a part of our program, you’re more than just a hurdler, more than just a jumper, more than just a distance runner, more than just a thrower. You are a human being that we want to have an impact on, have an influence on. I want to learn from you and I want you to learn from me, and I want both of us to be better when that experience is over. So it would be my hope when I finish this whole thing that people would say that I had strong influence on their lives. That would be something that means a lot to me if that were the case.
Q: How is your men’s recruiting class for next year looking, and how do you hope to see the men’s team improve?
Basically the men’s team was just hit with bad luck this year. We had a lot of injuries a lot of problems, but we have some good people coming back. Right now we are scrambling on the men’s side. We’ve got the last minute situation trying to sign some people, trying to see who’s there and available. It’s certainly an area that has to improve for us. One of the most difficult things of this job is we have to do our recruiting right in the middle of our season and that makes for a tough situation. We are still going to be active on the recruiting trail for the next three weeks to a month trying to close these things out and be stronger next year. We are going to be stronger next year regardless of people being healthy.
Q: Brittney Reese and Barnabas Kirui are Ole Miss’ first repeat winners in the conference championships since the great Tony Dees of 1983 and 1984. What does it mean to have an athlete like Tony as part of your tradition?
We take great pride in all our former athletes that have been outstanding and keep in touch with them. It builds on that sort of thing. The more you win, the easier it is to win. The more you win, the more attractive you are to more people. I am particularly an underdog type guy. I pull for the underdogs all the time, maybe that is why I came back here from
Q: What are the top three traits, outside of athleticism, that you look for in a recruit and why?
You first look at them as an athlete. The second thing is you look at them in terms of academics and how they take care of business. Do they have a good work habit? I think that is important. I think it’s always good to know that the person has goals and dreams and aspirations and is willing to pay the price to take advantage of those. A lot of times in the situation we are in is how raw they are in the sport. How much coaching they’ve had, what’s their upside potential? Where will they be two years inside our program? We have to try to read the future that way.
Q: How many athletes are you bringing to the Olympic trials?
At this point we don’t know because you can still qualify. We do know that Brittney Reese, Kenyata Coleman, and John Yarbrough have qualified. The way it works is that you have an A and a B standard. They fill the field from the A standard group, and if there is not enough they go to the B standard. Sometimes you don’t even know on those close situations until right before the meet. We have three collegiate athletes who have qualified and one professional in Antwon Hicks. Antwon, of course, runs for Adidas, but has remained in
Q: When you arrived back at Ole Miss in 1988 to rebuild the program, you made an important decision in who you chose as your assistant coach. How has Doug Blackwell impacted the program?
I feel like I have been blessed with great assistant coaches all the way along. Coach Blackwell I hired first, but now I also have Coach Brian O'Neal and Coach Erin Wibbels. I really like my staff, and I really like what kind of people they are. I feel like I have a strong staff, and I believe that all my assistant coaches have contributed to the development of our kids.
