Matt Roe has coached at Butler for 18 years. Photo courtesy of Butler Stories.
DOROTHY LAKSHMANAMURTHY | STAFF REPORTER | dlakshmanamurthy@butler.edu
Since Matt Roe, cross country and track and field director, arrived on campus 18 years ago, Butler’s running teams have produced 47 All-Americans, 119 individual conference crowns, 15 conference team titles and broken 73 school records.
The Bulldogs have also grown academically under Roe, as the track and field program has been recognized in the NCAA’s top 10% in Academic Progress Rate since 2010.
These accomplishments drove Roe to become a 14-time conference coach of the year and a finalist for NCAA Division I National Coach of the Year for women’s cross country.
Despite all of these accolades, Roe does not celebrate too much.
“I learned when I was younger that ‘It’s okay to look back, just don’t stare,’” Roe said. “We have coached over 120 conference champions. But the next conference champion is the one I care about. The past, I don’t hang on to it.”
Roe’s ability to help transform a track and field program is not exclusive to Butler. Prior to Butler, Roe coached track programs at Western Illinois from 2001-2004 and Long Beach State from 2004-2007.
He helped the Dirtbags have its best two-year run in school history as both cross country teams jumped from 6th to 3rd place in the 2005 Big West Conference meet. At Western Illinois, he was able to build their program to achieve a school record of 98 distance points in the 2003 Mid-Con Outdoor Championships — a jump from the 27 distance points they acquired at that championship the year before he arrived.
Working alongside Roe, Associate Track and Field Head Coach Robby Burns noted that Roe’s coaching experience exemplifies his ability to develop and improve track programs.
“His coaching career has shown a lot of progression from taking programs that were not historically distance-heavy, and finding a lot of success with those,” Burns said. “Development is really that key word I would hone in on when talking about [Roe], whether it is individually with each athlete or culturally within the team.”
When it comes to Roe’s coaching style, he tries to incorporate his expertise from his masters degree in sports psychology.
“In sports psychology, it is really about understanding people and finding what makes people tick and what motivates them,” Roe said. “That is a big part of my coaching philosophy in having an interport relationship with the athletes. It really starts with the individual to maximize everybody’s ability.”
Establishing those relationships with each athlete can be hard when Butler’s track and field roster accounts for 66 total athletes.
However, senior distance runner Elsa Rusthoven consistently watches Roe fulfill his word on paying attention to every athlete as an individual in and out of practice.
“He will always try to talk to different people individually every time we meet for our team meetings,” Rusthoven said. “Then outside of practice, I see the whiteboard at the annex that he and the rest of the coaching staff use to write all our names on to take the time to evaluate where each of us are at and how we can develop to the best of our ability.”
Roe’s initial passion for coaching was instilled in him by his high school basketball coach. He eventually gained an interest in running after he would always win the presidential fitness tests in his physical education classes and went on to run at the Division I level for the University of Portland.
Roe heartily looked up to many of his teachers and coaches growing up, as they were the male role models he never had in a single-parent home.
“My high school basketball coach was really influential in my development,” Roe said. “He was a really passionate coach and taught me that it was okay to wear your passion on your sleeve.”
Rusthoven finds Roe’s passion apparent when it comes to his coaching. Especially since Roe was a runner himself, she sees his dedication shine through for both the team and the sport.
“Passion is the best word to describe the way he coaches,” Rusthoven said. “He is very passionate in the way he coaches because he truly wants us to do well. He is both passionate about the sport itself, seeing us achieve our goals and getting us on the right track to do so.”
