Dan Donohue
Head Coach (Ninth Season)

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Coach Dan Donohue is entering his ninth season as the Head Cross Country Coach at Cedar Crest College. Along with wife Val, he has been a part of the athletic program here at Cedar Crest in various capacities since 1993 and is currently an Assistant Director of Athletics. He has also been an Assistant Basketball Coach for the Falcons since 1998.

The cross country program at Cedar Crest has enjoyed much success under the Donohues, with respectable finishes in conference championships and Cedar Crest runners regularly earning All-Conference Honors. The program prides itself on being highly goal-oriented. "Our runners thrive on setting goals and achieving them," says Dan. "We help  them toward their goals and as they succeed, the team succeeds. Whether that success is improving their time from a 27:00 to a 26:00 or from a 21:00 to a 20:00, we strive to make sure our runners are getting what THEY want out of our program. We stress moderation, and the last thing we want to do is push runners to the point of burnout. Most sports end with graduation but running should be a sport for life, so if  you leave us and don't continue in your running career, we've failed you as coaches."An avid competitive runner as an adult, Donohue also competed in outdoor track for DeSales University (then Allentown College of St. Francis de Sales) in the high jump, the 400 and the 1600 meter relay. Although DeSales now boasts a highly successful track program, Donohue competed in the days when it was still in its pre-varsity stages. "We were lucky enough to have a very dedicated coach who was trying to single-handedly get the program off the ground," he recalls. "We had no facilities, but Moravian College was kind enough to let us practice over there when they were done. I still recall my coach and I having to climb a chain link fence to 'break in' to Steel Field for practice one Easter Sunday morning. Another fond memory is winning the 400 at a meet on Muhlenberg's cinder track and seeing my name in the paper for the first time. It was kind of neat - since the College had never offered track before, we took to claiming that anything we did was a 'school record.' "

A native of Allentown, Donohue attended Allentown Central Catholic High School before graduating from DeSales with a degree in Computer Science and resides in Emmaus, PA, with Val and son Patrick.