Katie Reichert, an assistant coach of the shot put, discus, javelin and hammer throwers on the track and field team, began working at Occidental in Oct. 2023. According to athletes she coaches, has already made a positive impression among the team. Reichert said she previously competed as a javelin thrower at Western Washington University and hopes to use her past experience as a competitive athlete to help her coach athletes in the coming track and field season.
“I am beyond excited to now re-enter the track and field realm as a coach at Occidental,” Reichert said via email. “Working with the athletes each week really brightens my day and takes me back to why I love the sport so much — the community that track and field creates and the ability to allow each athlete to push themselves to be the best they can be.”
Reichert explains that the community of track and field as well as Occidental as a whole has already been welcoming to her even as a new coach.
“I don’t think I could have known how welcoming the athletes, coaching staff and university was going to be,” Reichert said via email. “All of the athletes have jumped into the training plans with both feet and so much trust. That isn’t always easy to come by as a new coach joining a program, so I am very grateful, and I think it will help us show great results this coming season.”
Kate Cobain (senior), an athlete Reichert coaches, started throwing javelin for the track and field team last year after originally coming to Occidental to play volleyball. Cobain said Reichert’s enthusiasm and support for athletes creates a supportive environment where they can focus on improvement.
“She’s super smiley, super funny [and] we always have a good laugh at practice,” Cobain said. “Just good vibes all around, [she’s] always giving us feedback, always open for discussion and questions.”
Nico Morales (junior), who also competes in javelin, agrees, and said that Reichert’s ability to combine positive feedback with constructive coaching is one of her key skills as a coach.
“She’s very relaxed in practice when she has to be and very strict when she has to be, which I really do appreciate about her,” Morales said. “Her ability to be your friend and your coach at the same time is very rare in a lot of coaches, and she’s really good at that.”
Reichert said that having her coaching role going beyond just sports training is one of her goals at Occidental.
“I really enjoy the tight-knit culture of Oxy, I hope to help contribute to the success of the athletics program and be a resource for the students,” Reichert said via email.
Cobain and Morales said they both joined track and field to throw javelin after having experience in another sport. Morales initially played basketball at Occidental but notes the difference in competitive styles between basketball and javelin, with the nature of javelin encouraging self-competition and a goal of consistent improvement.
“You’re kind of competing against yourself, there’s nobody else except your own PRs that you’re really fighting against,” Morales said.
Morales said he also appreciates that Reichert’s style of training emphasizes technical improvements, which not only improve specific skills but are beneficial to the overall performance of throwing.
“Breaking down [the training] with the drills really helps,” Morales said. “I think a lot of my fellow teammates like understanding when those components are supposed to happen, and also mastering those components one at a time instead of all together.”
According to Cobain, Reichert uses a similar approach to help individual athletes as well as individual skill sets. This method of focusing on each athlete’s individual areas of development contributes to greater improvement among team members.
“[She] really did a fantastic job about meeting us where we were at,” Cobain said. “She was super, super, super excited to work with us and make sure that we could each be the best athlete we could be and showed us that she was very willing to put in the work and the hours to make training the best for us.”
Thinking about the semester ahead, Cobain said she hopes that Reichert’s training can facilitate overall improvement and motivate team members to perform their best going forward.
“[Reichert] being a javelin thrower in college has really just kind of pushed the mark for our experience this year with throws,” Cobain said. “I think we’re all very, very excited looking forward to what we’re all able to accomplish this season.”
Contact Clay at carsonc@oxy.edu
wow such a talented journalist i think they deserve a promotion