Running is Life for Colts Neck High’s Coach Jim Schlentz

By:  | January 24, 2025 |  Features |  Colts Neck

By LiliAnn Paras

“A good coach can change a game. A great coach can change a life.” — John Wooden, UCLA.

Jim Schlentz, running coach at Colts Neck High School, has been changing lives in a most positive way for decades. He is the coach you wish you had, and the kind you hope your children will have one day. Mention his name to students he has coached and you will be barraged with accolades for the man they affectionately call “Coach” or “Schlentz”. He has been the Colts Neck High School running coach specializing in distance events for all seasons since the school’s inception in 1998 and continues to influence the runners on and off the track, long after their high school competitions are behind them.

To say “running is his life” is a major understatement. Schlentz is known for his almost encyclopedic recall of events, his runners, and their times. Now 70 years old, Schlentz has been coaching for 48 years. Although he is retired from his position as a physical education teacher, he continues to coach at CNHS. 

One of the most remarkable things about Schlentz is his dedication to the high school runners, no matter their abilities. He is known for his preparation, strategies, emphasis on health, and playing the long game. How fortunate for CNHS that a coach of Schlentz’s stature agreed to the challenge of building a program that had no existing teams. And build it he did.

“The first season (remember we only had freshmen and sophomores the first year) ended with one boy and four girls competing in cross country. None came back the next year,” Schlentz recalled. “In our third year of school, we won the Group I Girls State Championship and the boys finished second, missing by just two points.”

And the programs continue to progress. This year, the Girls Team and the Boys Team are each State Champions in Cross Country, Group 3 — the second time the feat of both teams winning “States” on the same day occurred under Schlentz’s tenure. At the State Meet of Champions, which does not account for school size, the girls team took third and the boys team was sixth.  The CNHS program that started with just five runners would eventually compete in 16 states, win many National and State titles, set numerous records, and produce runners who competed in elite races, including the Olympic Trials.

Reflecting on his personal philosophy, Schlentz noted, “Running is like life.  You will have setbacks but they make you stronger, only if you don't let them stop you. Each day you get a chance to become better; you don't get to do it over. You need dedication, patience, and the will to succeed, just like you do in life.”

This philosophy was instilled in him early on. He was an All-Shore runner as a student at Freehold High School, running cross country (barefoot!) He competed in college and began his enduring coaching career afterwards at St. John Vianney High School. Before landing at CNHS, he also coached at colleges and trained elite athletes, including 1996 Olympian Kate Fonshell.  His wife, Madelyn, also benefitted from his coaching. She set three National Masters records and at age 41 qualified for the US Olympic Trials in the marathon. Schlentz was inducted into the  prestigious NYC Armory Coaches Hall of Fame; honored by the Penn Relays; and has won the NJ Coach of the Year award numerous times from several publications. Last month, he was inducted into the New Jersey State Coaches Association Hall of Fame.

Community Magazine wanted to learn about Schlentz from the perspective of some of the runners he guided during their high school years. We caught up with Ashley Higginson (2003-07, Olympic trials); Craig Forys (2003-07, Olympic trials); Sam (Samantha) Hoagland (2011-15); Jordan Brannan (2013-17); Liam Hoagland (2014-18); and Lilly Shapiro (2018-22).  We discovered that many of these and other athletes joined the track team to train for another sport. Higginson, who eventually qualified for two Olympic trials, did not intend to be a runner.

“I met Coach while I still played soccer and had no idea what the steeplechase was,” she remembers.

The same went for Shapiro. “Schlentz began my love for running. He took a girl who thought she was going to be a professional soccer player and somehow convinced her to start running.”

Sam Hoagland favored swimming and soccer. “Coach Schlentz changed the way I thought about running. It has been a catalyst for nearly every good thing that has happened in my life.”

Schlentz wanted to create a family atmosphere and it shows.  “Coach calls our program the ‘Colts Neck Family,’ and that is completely true. Alumni, as old as 40 and as young as 18, meet often, are a fixture at meets, and we have a designated alumni run every year.” said Sam. Shapiro added, “He cares so deeply about every single one of his athletes, no matter how fast they run and creates a family-like environment within our team. He makes all of his athletes feel important, included, and special and I've never seen anyone be able to do that with so many people.”

A perfect example is his handling of a time conflict between an important race and a prom that runner Kayleigh Hoagland hoped to attend. Kayleigh ran her race with hair beautifully styled, donned a gown in the locker room, and celebrated pre-prom at the track with her teammates and date. Coach’s kindness continues after students graduate too. It is not unusual for Schlentz to travel long distances to support his athletes and to drive them to faraway competitions.

Another goal met by Schlentz is to instill a sense of fun for the teams, which comes naturally for him. Shapiro noted Schlentz “has such a funny and goofy side to him that always kept practice and races light.” This includes his many sayings. “A lot of us joke that Coach has his own vernacular. My favorite Schlentz-ism is ‘We are NOT practicing dying,’” shared Sam. The Fun Friday tradition stood out to Liam. “He invited everyone to get dressed in bright colored or goofy running outfits while we worked out. Even though we took our training very seriously, he felt that people performed better when they were having fun.”

On a more serious side is the positive influence he has on those he has coached or taught. Each former student shared an example as to how his impact endures.

Jordan Brannan (now a college running coach): “Coach has been one of the most concrete and lasting mentor figures in my life. Through the community he built with his teams, my life was changed forever. In my freshman year I was failing many of my classes, getting in fights, and generally being a punk. I felt like I was in freefall and the only area of my life where I was finding success or positivity was with the team. After failing a chunk of my classes, Schlentz outright threatened to remove me from the team if I didn't shape up — even though I was one of his best freshmen on the team. That was the push I needed. I never failed another class. I ended up getting a full scholarship to a nationally ranked cross-country program and finished with a master's degree, debt-free. Later, knowing that I didn't have a car and that I took a big pay cut to coach at a college, Schlentz gifted me his car. The same car he would drive next to us on our training runs in high school — now mine to do the same for the college athletes I coach!”

Ashley Higginson: “His influence on my life has been more than profound, it has molded every aspect of what makes me who I am.  To believe in me and my teammates as a group of young women and provide us the space to grow together, work hard, dream big, and believe in and expect a lot of ourselves has meant so much in my education, my professional running and law career, and in my family life now as I think about my own two girls.”

Lilly Shapiro: “Running has taught me how to keep fighting for something that doesn't seem to be fighting for you back. It has taught me discipline and I have learned that life is so much bigger than running. Schlentz has helped me navigate this difficult time of injuries and I can't thank him enough for his continued support.” 

Liam Hoagland: “He really demonstrates what it means to be a leader. He gave everything to us and never asked for anything in return.”

Craig Forys: “Beyond sports, Coach wants nothing more than for us to live healthy, happy, prosperous lives. He helped me as I transitioned out of running professionally which is a huge life changing event; then again with another career move.”

Sam Hoagland (now a volunteer assistant coach with the team): “Running has been a catalyst for nearly every good thing that has happened in my life. All those positive outcomes started when I was 14 and fell in love with the sport; all those positive outcomes started with Coach. The culture he built in our program celebrates hard work and consistency and emphasizes prioritizing one’s health. Coach believed in me despite my off-kilter stride and lack of natural speed. He showed me examples of other athletes he has coached that “made themselves good”. The notion that I can make myself good at anything gave me confidence in every avenue of my life.”

And what does Coach Schlentz get from the students?

Coach Schlentz: “Being around this age group keeps me young. They are at an age where they are so close to going to college and being on their own. They aren't leaning on their parents as much as they did before. Yet, they will listen to me and they want advice, even if it ends up being the same thing their parents are saying. It's an honor to be trusted by them and to be a small part of their life and their success. The bottom line is they are all ‘my kids’ and I would do anything for them.”

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