GENESEO — Geneseo’s Mike Woods has been named the State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) Men’s and Women’s Cross Country Coach of the Year as voted on by the conference coaches.
“It’s always an honor when your peers recognize the job that you are doing and that is why I feel so very greatful for this award and I thank them profusely for their vote,” said Coach Woods. “I also believe that if you don’t have great student-athletes who believe in your system and work hard to implement it, you won’t be winning too many awards like this.”
Over his 21 years as the head coach, Woods has captured 23 SUNYAC Cross Country titles (11 men’s and 12 women’s) including this year.
The Geneseo men’s and women’s teams won the SUNYAC Championship Saturday with a first place finisher, senior Alex Brimstein, on the men’s side. The men had eight top 15 finishers and the women had seven.
This is the tenth time overall and fourth straight year Woods has been selected the SUNYAC Coach of the Year in men’s cross country (1993, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2009, 2010, 2011).
On the women’s side, this is the 11th time overall and second consecutive year Woods has been honored as the of the year (2000, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011).
Coach Woods has also been recognized as national and regional coach of the year in the past, the last time was in 2005.
“I thank my athletes for believing in me and adopting my passion for this sport we all love. I thank my assistant coaches, all who ran for me for their college career. Dan Moore, Eddie Novara and Alyssa Smith have been instrumental in helping me get the program going in the right direction. They, too, share in this award,” said Woods.