The dream is still coming true.
When St. Francis Brooklyn alum Chris Mills took over the Terriers’ cross country and track and field program last year — the same program he had set records for two decades earlier — he could barely believe his good fortune. Now, as he heads into his second season at the helm, not much has changed.
“My first year on the job, I kind of had to pinch myself,” Mills said. “You can’t believe that you’re back coaching at your alma mater. For me it was a very rewarding experience.”
Mills didn’t just compete at St. Francis, he excelled, winning back-to-back 800-meter titles at the Northeast Conference championships in 1996-97, and setting a conference 800-meter record along the way. But these days, he’s just as proud of the work he’s currently doing.
“I wouldn’t trade this for anything, this was my dream job to come back to St. Francis,” he said. “Division I jobs don’t come around often, and how many people can say that you’re back home at your school?”
Mills had previous coaching stints at Holy Family University and ASA College, but when he returned to his alma mater he took over a cross country program expected by many to finish near the bottom of the Northeast Conference standings. But the Terriers surged to a sixth place finish in the conference by season’s end, and were mere points away from the top five. Senior Luis Porto was the main standout under Mills’ tutelage, finishing fifth overall in the Northeast Conference championships and being named First-Team All-Northeast Conference.
Mills said the pressure that came with returning to a place where he’d had so much personal success didn’t faze him, and admitted that he put an equal amount of pressure on his student-athletes throughout his first year back.
“My coaches have always held me to a higher standard, and that’s the one thing I implemented in my first year,” Mills said. “So I put the pressure on them to perform, because there is something to be said when a school is paying for you academically and athletically. So the pressure is shared by all of us equally.”
As a new season begins, Mills faces another challenge: trying to replace some of his top seniors from last season — including Porto.
Mills believes he and his coaching staff have done that by recruiting some of the top track and field talent in the New York City-area. On this year’s men’s cross country team, all but one runner hails from one of the five boroughs, while eight of 13 runners on the women’s side are city kids.
This roster makeup has its advantages, according to Mills, as it provides runners the opportunity to now compete alongside some of their top competition throughout high school.
“They ran against each other, whether it’s [public school] kid versus a [public school] kid, or Catholic high school versus Catholic high school kid,” he said. “I spoke to them when I was recruiting them and I said, ‘you guys have been competing against each other and beating each other up for four years. Now you have an opportunity to compete together as one.’”
Mills said he hoped the pairing of former rivals will translate into victories, big and small, throughout the season, as well as achieving the squad’s main goal: finishing in the top five in the Northeast Conference.
“Track and field is all about small victories and big victories,” Mills said. “And if you have a small team like we do, when you have a lot of kids that make the finals or are Northeast Conference champion or school record holder, that holds weight just as much as a team title.”
