By Hasim Phillips

Julie Culley was not very serious about cross country when she first started running competitively as a junior in high school, but shortly after, while at Rutgers it was clear that she would soon be a serious force in the sport. Her coach at the time, Roberta Athens, who was at the helm of the Scarlet Knights for 23 seasons before retiring in the summer of 2006, helped develop Culley’s love for cross country and within a short time, she was also competing on the indoor and outdoor track & field teams, making quite a name for herself in the process.

“She was incredible,” said Culley of her former coach. “She was the greatest coach I could have asked for at that period of my life and she really turned me on to the sport and guided me.”

Anthes was a pioneer in the sport and a great inspiration for all the student-athletes she mentored while at Rutgers. The path she paved began as a collegiate athlete when she became the first woman ever to compete in cross country and track & field at Villanova, becoming an All-East distance competitor.

As a coach, she helped produced 171 Metropolitan Champions, 15 BIG EAST Champions, 20 ECAC Champions and six All-Americans. In 1987, she was named the District II Women’s Indoor Coach of the Year and in 2001 received the Jake Nevin Special Recognition Award from her alma mater for her contribution to the sports of cross country and track & field. Anthes also served as president of the ECAC and Metropolitan Coaches Association, was secretary of the NCAA Division Track Coaches Association and spent two terms as the president of the BIG EAST board of track coaches.

With such an influential tutor to help guide her throughout her college years, Culley’s enjoyment of the sport naturally grew and the combination of her obvious talent led to a great deal of success at Rutgers. A five-time team MVP, Culley served as team captain for three years during a collegiate career that saw her earn All-America status in cross country and in 2004 received the NCAA Woman of the Year Award. She also established three school records which still stand to this date.

“It was really cool,” said Culley about her time in college. “I absolutely loved Rutgers. That’s my home and where I still consider my greatest growth experience both athletically and academically and obviously emotionally and career-wise. I really had a wonderful experience there.”

Although Culley’s accomplishments were extensive and well-documented, her time at RU did not come without its lows. A rash of injuries caused her to miss a significant amount of time away from the track.

An example of her unfortunate plight came in 2004. Culley decided to return for a fifth year and a day before the first practice of her final cross country season, she hurt her back and lost that year. She had a final year of eligibility remaining for outdoor track and her misfortunes struck again, this time in the form of a foot injury after the first race of the campaign, thus ending her collegiate career.

 “Unfortunately I had quite a few injuries but it was no fault of the coaching or anything like that,” said Culley. “It was really a matter of finding the weaknesses in your body and working on strengthening them. I mostly dealt with back issues and once we finally got a hold on what they were, it was almost by the time I was done with school.

“I had a very up and down career at Rutgers,” Culley added. “I would be on a season, off a season but again that had nothing to do with the school or the coaching or anything. Running is three-times your body weight every time you strike the ground so any little glitch in your body can lead to an injury and I dealt with a lot of that.”

Despite suffering a number of setbacks while at Rutgers, Culley looks back on those times as being beneficial to her present success. She learned to cope with those small hurdles and finds ways to overcome. The experience only made her time as a Scarlet Knight that much more special.

“I attribute much of my success now to having had the support at Rutgers,” said Culley. “The doctors helped me find what those weaknesses were and as much as it was up and down, it was incredible experience. I could not ask for more as far as the support from doctors, coach Roberta and the administration there.”

Following her collegiate career, Culley decided to take a break from competition and pursue the option of coaching. It was always something she was interested in and she knew that she had the passion for it. Culley also got a boost from her former Rutgers coach who presented her with opportunities that would develop her leadership abilities.

“One of the greatest things Roberta did for me at Rutgers was mentoring me,” said Culley. “She knew that I eventually wanted to coach so I was a captain for three years and she involved me in much of the decision making with the team. It prepared me for a coaching role which was incredible.”

It was not long before Culley was given her first coaching opportunity. She was hired at Loyola College (Md.) by former Rutgers men’s basketball assistant coach Joe Boylan, who was the school’s Athletic Director. Boylan reached out to his friend Anthes for possible head coaches and she suggested Culley who took over the reins of a Division I program at the young age of 22.

“It was kind of bizarre because I was 22 years old, but it ended up being a pretty awesome experience,” said Culley of her first coaching position. “I really wanted to get into coaching but I wasn’t sure that I was ready for it at that time but the opportunity presented itself and I took it. It was really cool moving to Baltimore, coaching and having my own team.”

After such an up and down collegiate career battling injuries and the emotional toll it takes on an athlete Culley was tired of running and content with moving on as a coach. However, during her two years with the Greyhounds she juggled with the idea of coming back because that competitive edge always remained.

In the spring of 2005, Culley received the OK from the athletic director to compete at a meet at Duke University with her team. The experience was very awkward for Culley who realized that she was not able to give her team the attention they needed as their head coach, if she was also concentrating on her own race. It was the one and only time she decided to do that but the spark was already lit.

Traveling to various meets with her team became a constant reminder of much she enjoyed competing. Culley often found herself wanting a piece of the action and decided it was time to make a return.

“I was at an indoor track meet with my team, watching them race and I realized that I wanted to get on the starting line again,” said Culley. “It was kind of a breakthrough moment because now that I look back on it, I realize that I wanted it for all the right reasons. I had been away from [racing competitively] but involved in it still and had grown passionate about helping coach and being a part of that and it eventually led me to my own path.”

So after her two years as head coach Culley resigned but stayed on with the program as an assistant to help ease the transition of the team’s new head coach. The decision to begin running again was not an easy one considering the number of injuries she had overcome while at Rutgers.

“It was difficult,” described Culley of her decision to resume competing. “I was a little tired after college. I came back for a fifth year and out of two seasons I ran two races. It was unfortunate and I think at that point I was tired of my own rollercoaster that I had been on personally and emotionally.”

For the next four months, Culley began intensely training again with American University head coach Matt Centrowitz. In the spring of 2007, Culley ran what she called “her first real race” at Bucknell University and the results were very promising.

“The first real race that I ran was in the spring of 2007 at Bucknell,” said Culley. “I ran the 5,000-meter there and ran a personal best by 20 seconds which I was really surprised about. It was verification and validation for having made that decision so we started moving forward from there.”

Culley eventually left Loyola, moved to D.C. to join Centrowitz as a part-time assistant and increased her training even more. The pair both saw the potential and were fully committed to reaching their ultimate goals.

Things took on a feverish pace for Culley and soon she was training with her sights on participating in the trials for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.

“It was such a surprise in a year and a half,” said Culley. “Things were just winding up pretty well; I was running faster than I had ever run in my life and I was healthy which was a surprise too.”

The dream soon became a reality as Culley earned an invite to compete at the Olympic Trials in Eugene, Ore. She was among the thousands, vying for the privileged opportunity to represent her country.

“To be at that meet, I would have to run a huge personal best,” said Culley. “Just to be there and a part of that atmosphere was my main goal. I got there, ran well and made the finals. It was the coolest thing I’ve done so far with track. That meet was fabulous; the environment of Hayward Field will be permanently embedded in my brain.

“In track and field, there are not too many meets that you will go to in your life where there is a sold-out stadium with people standing on their feet the entire time through a 5,000-meter race. The environment, being under the lights and everything about Hayward was just unreal.”

The experience provided further assurance to Culley and her coach that she made the right decision to return to the sport. Having made it to such a monumental stage in her career after a two-year hiatus and just a year and a half of training, Culley is very optimistic about the road that lay ahead. Within a half an hour of finishing the race, she and Centrowitz were in the celebration area pondering all that is possible in the next four years.

“Just being on the [starting] line with the girls that were going to be representing our country and being there was just so inspiring,” said Culley. “I thought, ‘I made it this far, let’s see what I can do next.’ I finished seventh [at Olympic Trials] after just a year and a half back with Matt and we thought let’s see what can happen in the next four years.”

Following Olympic Trials, Culley continued to blaze a trail of success, finishing second at the U.S. Cross Country Championships en route to qualifying for the World Cross Country Championships in Amman, Jordan. Culley went on to place 21st overall as the first American finisher, leading the United States to a fifth-place showing behind power nations like Kenya and Ethiopia.

Despite her solid performance, the race held added significance for Culley because it was her former college coach who had once proclaimed she would one day compete among this elite caliber of distance runners. Anthes was introduced as coach of the women’s national team for the 2002 World Cross Country Championships and on one of her trips to meet the team, Anthes allowed Culley to travel with her and gain the experience.

“I remember getting my butt kicked by these girls when I was in college, no way even near them [speed-wise],” said Culley. “Roberta told me that she knew that someday I would make that team so it was really cool. It was special to me because that always stuck in my mind and I thought she was kidding. Making that team had a little extra significance because she told me and I didn’t believe her but she believed it.”

Now Culley will once again represent Team USA, this time in Berlin, Germany for the World Track and Field Championships in August. She will be one of two athletes for the United States in the 5,000-meter run after running a personal best 15:21.00 at the qualifying round in Belgium. Proof of how far Culley has come is in her qualifying time which is nearly 70 seconds faster than her best time while at Rutgers.

 “Berlin is the most significant accomplishment of my track and field career,” said Culley. “It’s the equivalent of making an Olympic team in a non-Olympic year. I still can’t grasp the idea of making this team. It’s really exciting.”

The first round of the 5,000-meter race will take place on Wednesday, Aug. 19, with the finals being held on Saturday, Aug. 22.