By Jim Hague
Kerry Collado never gave even a thought to becoming a college athlete.
When she was attending Ferris High School in Jersey City, she was a member of the track and field team with her best friend Annaliza Lagman.
“When I heard that she was joining the track team at New Jersey City University, then I started to think if she could do it, then so could I,” Collado said. “We started track together in high school. I started to think I could do it in college.”
So after Collado was accepted into Rutgers-Newark last spring, she sent an e-mail to veteran head cross country and track and field coach Juan Edney.
“He wrote back and said that he liked that I was reaching out,” Collado said.
“I never recruited a kid from Ferris before,” Edney said. “Kerry said she was already coming, so we had her come in for a visit in July. I met her and she was a nice, quiet girl. She told me that she had only been running for a year.”
So Edney did what he does with a lot of his potential runners. He welcomed Collado with open arms.
“I came for a physical and that’s when I met Coach Edney,” Collado said. “We just sat and talked. I was impressed by him.”
But as for being a competitive college athlete?
“Yeah, I didn’t know if I was going to be able to do it,” Collado said, especially after finding out what the distances were involved with college cross country. It was no longer the 3.1 mile high school course. It was more like five miles.
“It sounded like a lot when I first started,” Collado said. “But I trained and got ready. When practice started, Coach Edney said, ‘It’s not as bad as you think it is.’”
“She really didn’t know how to work hard,” Edney said. “I went over a few things with her and you could see the improvement. You can see the difference in the way she runs.”
When Collado was first timed, she was clocked at 36 minutes. That wasn’t exactly going to set the world on fire.
“But now, she’s dropped into the 30s,” Edney said. “I thought she could be the real thing.
Potentially, she could end up being our top cross country runner. By the time she’s a junior, who knows what she could be? Her body was a little weak, so we needed to get her in the weight room. She couldn’t even do a single push-up. I don’t think she’s ever been seriously pushed before. My goal for her this year was to get to 28 minutes.”
Collado was amazed with the improvement she had.
“I didn’t think it was possible,” Collado said.
Collado said that she went through a whole range of emotions the first time she toed the line for a college cross country meet.
“It was scary, but Coach Edney prepares us all for the meets,” Collado said. “The first race, I was so nervous. I thought about what Coach Edney tells us to do, to trust in the system. I knew I was ready for it. I practiced so hard. I was nervous, but I calmed down and did it.”
And Collado has been solidly improving ever since.
“I don’t really judge them on their times to start,” Edney said. “Since Kerry just really started last year, I knew that there was room for improvement. But she still doesn’t know what she’s doing yet.”
Edney loves Collado’s work ethic.
“These are the kinds of kids that I want,” Edney said. “She just listens and then goes out and does it. I tell her she has to open up her stride more and now she’s doing it. She’s getting it down. She’s looking so much better. When I first met her, I didn’t expect her to improve this fast.”
Added Edney, “I really think she’d walk on fire for me if I asked her. She never says ‘No’ to anything. If I just had kids like her and (Michael) Peralta (of the R-N men’s cross country team), I’d be the happiest man on earth.”
Collado is still undecided about a course of study and a major. As a freshman, she has plenty of time to declare one.
But she does have one in mind.
“I might look into civil engineering,” Collado said.
She’s already looking to make a change in the streets in her hometown - literally.
“Maybe I’ll do that,” Collado said of Jersey City, which has street construction currently ongoing throughout the entire city these days.
In any case, Collado is having the time of her life running - and improving.
“I didn’t think I could drop so much time so quickly,” Collado said. “It’s just crazy. I’ve been dropping my PR (personal record) every time out. It’s crazy the way the times keep going down. I just listen to what the coaches say and keep working hard. I think back to when I first started running and thought that I wasn’t any good at it. But maybe, if I stuck with it, I could get better. I worked hard and became dedicated to it. And here I am.”
And for the next three years, Rutgers-Newark will be where Kerry Collado belongs.
“I love it here,” Collado said. “All the coaches are so supportive. I’m happy I came here. It’s really like a family.”
