'It’s a special place' - Cross-country/track coach Jim Kavanagh retires after rewarding run at Holy Cross

Holy Cross men’s and women’s track and field coaches Jim Kavanagh and Egetta Alfonso used to share an office in the old HC field house. Their desks faced each other, so they talked constantly, created workouts together and fed off one another’s energy.

In the Luth Athletic Complex, Kavanagh and Alfonso have their own office spaces, but they can still yell to each other through the wall in between. They have known each other for more than 30 years, since Alfonso was a Holy Cross star athlete in the early 1990s and the legendary Kavanagh was coaching her in the shot put, so the conversation never runs dry.

“He has been a tremendous influence in my life,” Alfonso said.

The 75-year-old Kavanagh, a Shrewsbury resident, recently announced his retirement after 52 seasons with the Crusaders. He spent 46 years as head coach of the cross-country and men’s track and field programs, making him the longest tenured head coach in Holy Cross history. Kavanagh has been the Richard L. Ahern ’51 Director of Cross Country and Track and Field for the last 22 years.

“It absolutely has flown by,” Kavanagh said during an interview earlier this week. “Holy Cross has been a blessing. It’s a special place.”

Kavanagh, who is originally from Providence, was a New England champion thrower at Boston College, where he also played football for two seasons. His senior year, he was NCAA runner-up in the hammer throw, and he qualified for the 1968 Olympic Trials in the event.  

Kavanagh joined the Holy Cross staff in the early 1970s as an assistant to Harold “Skip” O’Connor, and went on to coach numerous Patriot League and New England champions. He had the thrill of coaching his younger brother, Don, at HC.

In Kavanagh’s five-plus decades at Holy Cross, the college has had five presidents (including one interim) and six athletic directors. HC did not begin admitting women until the year after his arrival. The Hart Center opened in 1975, and where the soon-to-be refurbished Hart Turf Field and Track is now, behind the Luth and visible from Kavanagh’s office, was just a wide-open space.

'All about the kids'

“A lot has changed in my life,” Kavanagh said, “and also at Holy Cross over 52 years, and there have been different leadership styles, but one constant at Holy Cross is the type of student-athlete we have. That has been remarkably consistent. If you asked me my top 25 things here, they would all be about the kids.”

A point of pride for Kavanagh is the hundreds of Patriot League academic honor roll student-athletes he has coached through the years.

“As a coach, you’re there to develop your athletes to be better at their respective sport,” senior middle distance runner Corey Kumamoto said, “but he was a huge factor in developing me personally as a better human being, and he does that with his kindness and compassion. It’s the best of both worlds having a coach who develops their student-athletes as better people and better athletes. Competing at the Division 1 level is incredibly hard, and Coach K was one of those people who was a steady force throughout my four years.”

Kumamoto said Kavanagh was there to support his athletes during their presentations at the recent Academic Conference on campus.

Kavanagh is known for his kindness and compassion, as Kumamoto said, and for his wit, loyalty and devotion to his athletes.

“The main thing he’s done,” junior distance runner Quentin Doggett said, “is build a community.”

Doggett walked on to the team his freshman year.

“Coach K embraced me like I was a recruited athlete and gave me the opportunity to compete,” Doggett said.

Kavanagh and his wife, Liz, who was the librarian at St. John’s High for 25 years before her retirement, recently welcomed their first grandchild, so that delightful and life-changing event certainly factored into Kavanagh’s decision to retire.

Members of his family also recently endured several serious health challenges, which made Kavanagh reassess.

“One part of me says I could (coach) forever because this is such a wonderful place to be,” Kavanagh said, “and the other part of me says, ‘Yeah, I could do this forever, but that would only be true if I ignore the things going on around me.’ I said, ‘It’s time to make a change.’ ”

Kavanagh plans to remain involved with the program, perhaps as a consultant.

“I don’t want to end my association with Holy Cross,” Kavanagh said. “The way I put it to the team (when I told them I was retiring), was when kids graduate, they change their role with the team. I look at my retirement in a similar way. I’m not leaving Holy Cross. I signed on for a lifetime, but my role will change to advising or consulting or at least being in the background.”

Taught math in Worcester schools

When Kavanagh’s position at Holy Cross was initially part time, he taught math in the Worcester Public Schools for almost 30 years, first at Forest Grove Middle School and then at South High.

At South, his path again crossed with Alfonso. After her graduation from HC in 1992, she taught in New York for a couple of years before returning to Worcester and becoming an English teacher at South. She coached the Colonels boys’ and girls’ track and field teams for three years.

When the women’s track and field coaching position at Holy Cross became available, Kavanagh encouraged Alfonso to apply. Alfonso, her husband, Rigoberto, and Kavanagh met for a long talk one night over dinner at the Wonder Bar on Shrewsbury Street.

“It was a nerve-wracking process for me to give up teaching and go into coaching,” said Alfonso, who joined the HC staff in 1998. “I loved the idea of being a college coach, but at the same time, I was nervous about that move. He immediately made me very comfortable about making that move. I knew if I went to Holy Cross, he would look out for me, and he would continue to mentor me, and so he did that. My first few years, he guided me through every step of the process. I didn’t have experience coaching college athletes. He taught me so much my initial years at Holy Cross.”

Alfonso’s son, Rigoberto, a Holy Cross sophomore who was on the track team at Leicester High, ran for Kavanagh this year.

“Jim immediately, with open arms, just accepted him onto the squad,” Alfonso said. “We are so lucky he had the chance to run with him this year. It was an amazing experience for him.”

Honors for Coach K

Kavanagh is a member of the Boston College and Holy Cross Varsity Club Halls of Fame.

The Crusaders’ 2022 season concluded last weekend at the New England Outdoor Championships at Bryant. Next year, the hammer throw event will be named in Kavanagh’s honor.

During the year-end Crusader Awards last week at Polar Park, HC director of athletics Kit Hughes announced the Coaching Staff of the Year award will be renamed the Jim Kavanagh Coaching Staff of the Year award.

“It has been a true honor to overlap with Jim Kavanagh during my first few months at Holy Cross,” said Hughes, whom Holy Cross hired last December. “I am thrilled for Jim, Liz and the entire Kavanagh family to take this next step in their journey. Jim’s commitment, sincerity and love of family are all a part of what has made him a tremendous mentor and friend to countless student-athletes and staff over the last 52 years.

"He has represented Holy Cross with class and grace, and it is difficult to put into words how fortunate and grateful we all are for Jim to have led this program.”

—Contact Jennifer Toland at jennifer.toland@telegram.com. Follow her on Twitter @JenTolandTG.