Coming into her first year as head coach of the Northwestern cross country team, Amy Tush knew things wouldn’t be easy.

Tush says the biggest challenge she has faced this season is gaining credibility.

“When you come in as a new coach, that’s the biggest thing,” she says. “You just gotta believe in yourself. If I can do that, then we’re going to do well.”

Following in the footsteps of April Ecke — who had been the Wildcats’ coach since cross country was reinstated as an NU varsity sport in 1998 — was difficult in the beginning. In Ecke’s final year, the team narrowly missed reaching the NCAA Championships, falling short by a single point.

Having to adjust to a new coach and a new focus has proven to be quite a change for some of the older runners.

“It’s definitely been different,” says junior Rachel Evjen, the Cats’ top runner. “They have different coaching styles. The workouts are different. To tell you the truth, it’s been kind of hard.”

During the first team meeting in the preseason, Evjen says she was unable to distinguish between the head coach and her assistants. But Tush, who hails from Rushville, Ind. (pop. 6,000), Tush says she has always understood the importance of standing out.

“I first started running in junior high,” Tush says, where her husband, Jimmy, says there were only 28 people in the middle school. “We didn’t have a cross country program. I ran during the summer of my freshman year to get ready for high school. In high school, my assistant coach made me realize running was something I wanted to continue.

“Running is my livelihood,” she said.

As a student-athlete at Indiana State, Tush was a Missouri Valley Conference champion in cross country and track and was the MVC Athlete of the Year in 1993. She led the Sycamores’ cross country and track programs to eight MVC titles and a pair of third-place finishes at the NCAA district championships.

“We were a bunch of Midwestern girls,” Tush says. “We didn’t have any Kenyans. Maybe we weren’t supposed to do some of the things we did, but we worked hard.”

After coming to NU from Butler, Tush oversaw recruiting and focused on making runners feel comfortable — especially the new ones. She knows from experience that first impressions give runners reason to feel excited. She recalls the first time she was recruited in high school.

While stretching her legs before a cross country practice during her senior year, she was approached by a representative from Hanover College.

“I’ll never forget it,” she says. “The Hanover coach just pulled out of his Harley to talk to me. Here was a coach from a small school in Indiana. A coach looking for me.

“When I go to see a student-athlete, you get to realize that these kids are in awe.”

With nine fresh faces, this year’s cross country squad is a sign that NU’s recruiting has improved to attract more runners. With the advantage of being able to give more scholarships as the cross country program grows, Tush has come to NU at the right time to make the team better, simply by recruiting.

“It looks good, especially next year,” senior Sara Jurek says of the team’s prospects. “I can’t see Rachel getting slower, and I’m excited to see the team grow. I’m just jealous. I wish I could stick around and watch it.”

With the Big Ten Championships coming up in two weeks, the Cats have done well, considering many of the older runners have had to get used to a new coaching staff.

Junior Karen Rogers says she has worked hard to adjust to a different rotation of drills, such as mile and 800-meter intervals.

“She has done some new things,” Rogers says. “We’re her team now. I think things now have reached an equilibrium. I showed up at preseason and I didn’t know who the coach was. Running for two months, we’re starting to settle into a pretty good system.”

Before she came to NU, Tush was heavily involved in administrative efforts to coordinate the NCAA Indoor Championships. Having been a director of the Junior Indiana Invaders kids program and coordinator of the Hoosier State Games in 2000, Tush says she is finally where she wants to be — at the helm of a competitive collegiate team.

“Just to have my own team and to be the head of something great right now is a dream come true,” Tush says. “The girls here at NU are great and hard-working. They’re going to do well at the end of the season and also be great professional people some day. They are also probably going to make lots more money than I do.”

As a freshman, Diana Hossfeld is also in her first year at NU. Establishing herself as a top runner, Hossfeld says Tush has done a lot to gain credibility and earn some respect for the team.

“She is always showing us that we have the potential to do so much,” Hossfeld says. “She sets high goals and high standards. It reminds us that we are better than we think we are.”