Women's Cross Country | 8/6/2024 3:17:00 PM
COLLEGE PLACE, Wash. — Walla Walla University Athletics welcomes newest addition to the Wolves Family, Brady Svilich, as head coach for women's cross-country.
Brady's impressive history of coaching started with his time at San Jose State University as assistant cross country coach. He stayed there for two years before moving on to being the assistant cross country coach at Yreka High School, where he won two California State Championships in 2011 and 2013. In 2014 he became the head coach for cross country at College of the Siskiyous as well as assisting for the track team in 2015. In 2018 he made his way north to be the assistant coach for both track and cross country at College Place High School from 2018 to 2023.
When asked about his decision to join the Walla Walla Athletics Family, Brady stated, "I wanted the opportunity to be a head coach at the collegiate level again, and WWU is a great fit." Svilich also mentioned what a great opportunity it is to be able to develop a newer program, as this will be the second year that the women's and men's cross country teams will have separate head coaches since the program began in 2018.
"My goals for the program are to first and foremost grow the roster." Svilich believes in the power of having "good quality and quantity of teammates" as cross country runners thrive when they are surrounded by teammates with the same goal. Not only does Brady plan to grow the roster, but to be competitive in the Cascade Collegiate Conference. "I trust in our program's training plan and believe that our runners will see significant improvement over their time at WWU. I also believe that we will be a sought-after destination for female athletes to continue their cross country careers."
For the upcoming 2024 season, Brady is looking forward to developing the team's identity. "We have a good group of incoming freshmen that are going to have an opportunity that most collegiate freshmen don't have, and that's to build something from scratch. They're going to be the drivers in developing our team culture and creating our expectations of work ethic and dedication to the team."
Women's cross country will have their first meet on August 30 in Cheney, Washington at the Clash of the Inland Northwest meet hosted by Eastern Washington University. Make sure to stay up to date with all things cross country on Instagram @theuwolves.xc and uwolves.com.
