Amelia Keng, Special to The Denisonian —

Recently, the Denison women’s cross country team welcomed coach Veronica Rocco to their coaching staff. Rocco previously coached cross country at her alma mater, Amherst College. At Amherst, she helped six men’s and women’s cross country teams qualify for the national championship meet. Rocco’s position here at Denison is also new. 

“So what’s interesting is that this is a newly created position,” Rocco said. “My position here is to coach the women’s distance runners.”

Rocco grew up in Tenflay, New Jersey, a suburb outside of New York City. She attended Amherst college, where she graduated with a bachelor’s degree in American Studies. Rocco attended graduate school at the University of Massachusetts Amherst where she earned her master’s degree in sports management. 

Growing up, Rocco always had a love for cross country. She decided that she wanted to become a coach during her junior year of high school.

“I just really loved being at cross country and track meets, and I thought it’d be really fun to be able to work with others and help them achieve their goals,” Rocco said. 

Rocco believes in the importance of knowing the student athletes that she coaches because of the holistic experience at Denison.

“I think the biggest thing for me when it comes to coaching philosophy is supporting the student athletes and all their goals,” Rocco said. “Whether that is publicly, personally, academically, or extracurricular wise.”

One of Rocco’s biggest goals for this season is to continue to improve. This year, the team is projected to have great success because of the combination of the hard work the returners are putting in and the level of excellence the freshman class is already performing at. 

“For this season, our big goal is to improve upon our standing from last year at the conference championship meet,” Rocco said. 

Rocco strongly believes in the value of individualizing training for student athletes in order to make sure that the volume of training is appropriate. Whether that is based on their ability level or injury history, Rocco always makes sure her athletes are injury free and able to compete at the competitive level. 

“I really like how individualized her training is,” said Aly Marshall ‘27. “She really takes into account how each individual athlete is feeling each week, and uses that to plan out weekly mileage.”

This season, Rocco hopes to strive the team to push towards their long-term goals and be supportive of their teammates in the process.

“She is passionate about the sport and about coaching us to reach our greatest potential as a team,” said Fiona Martinelli ‘27. “She is driven and highly attuned to the needs and nuances of female runners.”

On Sept. 21 the team travels to Terre Haute, Indiana to participate in the John McNichols Invitational. With the enthusiasm from Rocco and the positive feedback from her athletes, this team has the potential to pull off incredible numbers this year.