Courtesy Hank Bradley Coach Bradley (center) poses with (left to right) Josh Rollins, Davin Williams, Morgan Lewis and Teddy Presley at last year’s team banquet.

In some instances, champions are born. But more often, through hard work and practice, champions are made. For Georgetown’s track and field program, the man largely responsible for building many of its recent champions has been Coach Hank Bradley.

Bradley came to Georgetown in 1991 after playing football for four years and running track for three years at Virginia Tech. A subsequent job as a teacher and track coach at Woodbridge High School in northern Virginia linked him with current Georgetown Director of Track and Field and Cross Country Ron Helmer. The two worked together to lead Woodbridge to a third-place finish at the Virginia State Championships. Opting the following year to leave coaching behind and instead pursue a more lucrative career in insurance sales, it was several years before Bradley once again joined Helmer, this time at Georgetown University, and with a serious challenge placed before him.

The Georgetown coaching staff wanted help with Jennifer cDermott (’93), a gangly jumper with amazing promise, whom the coaching staff felt could excel given the right instruction. Helmer convinced Bradley to reemerge from his retirement as a coach and assist McDermott. As Helmer expected, Bradley provided the stewardship that McDermott needed to excel.

“We were butting heads a little, Jen and I, and I noticed that she had a really good workout routine, but she didn’t have any weight on the bar,” Bradley said. “Some kids get to a point when they don’t want to get bulky – they don’t want to get big – and I assured her that she wasn’t going to get bulky – she was going to get stronger. She would work out with me, and then we would go to the weight room, and we were very serious about her training.”

Under Bradley’s tutelage, McDermott went on to become a Big East Champion, All-American, and set the school record in the long jump and triple jump.

“It was really amazing; she was like Cinderella,” Bradley said. “I guess my success with her is what just sucked me right in to [coaching at Georgetown].”

In subsequent years, while still continuing his full-time job in insurance sales, Bradley guided other standout jumpers such as Josh Rollins (COL ’01) and senior Davin Williams to Big East Championships and All-American performances. In 2001, he led Rollins to an unprecedented sweep of the long jump, triple jump and high jump events at the Big East Outdoor Championships. He coached Rollins to Big East championships in the long jump and triple jump at the 2002 Big East Indoor and Outdoor Championships, and most recently, guided Williams to double victories in the long jump and triple jump at the 2003 Big East Indoor Championships.

“He’s coaching two or three events, and he’s got more Big East Champions than any of us,” Helmer said. “He keeps cranking out jumpers and cranking out double winners at the Big East.”

The success of Georgetown’s jumpers over recent years is beginning to rival the university’s established tradition as a middle-distance powerhouse. If Georgetown considers middle-distance running its backbone, then Coach Bradley and the jumpers can aptly be named its heart.

Not only does Bradley provide his athletes with skilled technical guidance, he also acts as an inspirational leader for the entire team.

“He brings an incredible level of enthusiasm to practice,” Helmer said. “For him, it’s just fun. It doesn’t matter how bad a mood someone is in, or how bad a day they’ve had – that hour and a half they’re going to spend with him a couple times a week is going to be a high-energy, fun time. His ability to bring that positive energy in here on a regular basis is really, really important.”

The benefits of Bradley’s uplifting style aren’t limited to the field athletes that he directly oversees. His positive energy seems to encompass the whole team.

“I’ve noticed, in the past year especially, people on the team who aren’t jumpers asking, `is Coach Bradley coming to the meet?’ because he’s a really cool guy, and everybody likes him,” senior jumper Davin Williams said. “He brings the emotional side back to Georgetown track and field. He inspires a lot of the guys, and it’s not just the jumpers that he’s inspiring. You can tell that he genuinely cares about his athletes and the whole track team.”

“He’s one of the greatest assets we have at this program,” senior middle-distance runner Dylan Welsh said. “He’s a tremendous positive force, and I don’t think he even realizes how important he is to the team.”

Other runners share Welsh’s view on the significance of Bradley’s influence. “I think people in this world, especially at Georgetown, drastically underestimate the importance of positive energy and having a positive outlook,” senior captain Chris Miltenberg said. “Coach Bradley brings that to our program.”

And Bradley’s ability to build positive morale comes at a crucial time for Georgetown’s track and field program. Among the leading reasons for that is, while other top track programs can boast state-of-the-art indoor facilities or newly resurfaced outdoor tracks, Georgetown has been relegated to training at local high schools – sometimes even outdoors despite harsh winters.

“Coach Bradley, as a part-time employee, having the ability to come in, and continue to motivate these kids in that area, when we don’t have a pit on site, has been a remarkable job,” Associate Head Coach Andrew Valmon said. “He’s doing a lot with limited resources. It’s one thing for runners, since we can sometimes get away with going for a run here or going for a jog there. But he’s had to develop some skills to be creative in how he’s going to train these kids when there’s no place to train.”

Bradley seems to view Georgetown’s dearth of training facilities with the same upbeat attitude that he exhibits while instructing his athletes.

“We don’t have the luxury of a nice, warm, indoor facility, and I don’t know any other school in the country where you need to come in and chip the ice off the track to get your workout – and we’ve done that – but the way I look at it, it could always be worse,” Bradley said. “It could have happened last year or the year before, and then we really would have been in trouble.”

In large part, Bradley’s cheerful outlook stems from his past experience in football and track and field.

“When I competed, boy, I got plenty of negatives,” Bradley said. “There are a lot of people that are tying to knock you down, and it’s really easy to be negative. Sometimes it’s tough to stay positive, but I always try to say something that’s encouraging.”

Bradley’s positive, charismatic coaching style has driven the success of his athletes. In return, his athletes offer unwavering respect and admiration for his commitment.

“I couldn’t have asked for a better coach,” Rollins said. “If it wasn’t for him, I would have never gotten to the level that I did. He demands a lot from you, but will go head over heels to help you. He’s a great guy, and I love him.”