Florida Gators

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – University of Florida track and field assistant coach Paul Spangler felt a great deal of animosity toward the Gators throughout much of the 1990s.

Despite winning the 3,200 meters state title in 1992, his junior year at Hernando (Fla.) High School, Spangler never got a recruiting call from Florida. Florida State University passed, too.

One of their southern rivals, the University of Alabama, decided to take a chance on a soft-spoken young man with a ravenous passion for distance running.

It didn't matter that David Troy, then the Crimson Tide's cross country head coach, couldn't offer Spangler a scholarship. A chance to run for a big-time program, especially in the Southeastern Conference, was all the Floridian wanted.

If Florida and Florida State wouldn't have him, Spangler thought to himself, it'd be his mission to prove they'd made a mistake.

"When I raced against Florida and Florida State, I had some of my best races," said Spangler, dressed entirely in Gators apparel. "When I looked at results, I looked at where I would have been on their team. I had a little chip on my shoulder … because they didn't recruit me."

With his inextinguishable work ethic, it's no surprise a motivated Spangler quickly won Troy's respect at Alabama.

In addition to collecting a 1997 All-SEC cross country plaudit, qualifying for the 1996 and 1997 NCAA Cross Country Championships individually, and finishing his track career on the Crimson Tide's all-time top 10 for the indoor 5,000 meters and outdoor 10,000 meters, Spangler won something he appreciated more than anything: a scholarship.

"He earned it," Troy said. "It wasn't a gift."
"I'll always remember that," said Spangler, his memory flashing back to that heartfelt moment in his former coach's office. "It was extremely rewarding. I felt like, in high school, I was doing all this work to earn a scholarship, which I didn't. But all the work I did in college, built upon what I did in high school, helped me earn a scholarship."

By the end of his collegiate career Spangler realized he couldn't give up distance running.

The sport had become an addiction. Skipping a daily run was, to him, the worst thing imaginable.

Spangler took that no-days-off mentality to Florida State, which, shortly after he graduated from Alabama in 1998, hired him as an assistant coach for its cross country and distance runners.

For four-plus years in Tallahassee, Spangler logged 15-hour workdays, typically arriving at the office around six o'clock every morning. Between recruiting, coaching, and earning his master's degree in sports administration, weeks and months became blurs. Spangler even taught classes to make extra money his final two years. Free time was nonexistent.

Still, whether well before sunrise or long after sunset, he always fit a run into his implausibly restless schedule.

"Some people don't understand that running can be relaxing," Spangler said. "You're just out there by yourself. It helps relieve the stress from everyday life. Your mind wanders. You think of everything and anything when you run."

As the success stories from Spangler's tenure piled up, word spread quickly. Job offers soon followed. None of them provided the challenge he sought. Mike Bozeman, director of track and field and cross country at the Virginia Military Institute, changed all that.

Everything about VMI—structured environment, disciplined and self-motivated athletes, a chance to take a little-known program to previously unseen heights—intrigued Spangler.

And Bozeman, a retired brigadier general for the United States Army Rangers, was enamored with Spangler's ambition.

"I've always been into the development of athletes," Bozeman said. "To develop one to their full potential, you have to have someone with a great work ethic. He had that at Alabama. That doesn't mean you can coach, but at least he'd have empathy for people like that."

But Spangler's Keydets couldn't train the way he did at Alabama, or follow the same regimen as his Florida State runners. There's nowhere near enough time at a military college.

True to his nature, Spangler worked harder than ever to overcome the challenging parameters at VMI.

With such a limited amount of practice time to utilize, Spangler developed a meticulous approach to creating workouts. His methods became quite scientific as well. Exercise physiology had long been one of his favorite subjects. Studying and applying those concepts and effectively communicating his findings to athletes turned into his greatest coaching asset.

Intense is how Spangler's former mentees and head coaches referred to his thoroughly-detailed style.

"It's not in-your-face intensity, because he is a very quiet individual." said Donnie Cowart, an average two-miler Spangler recruited to VMI who went on to break the school's indoor mile record and sign a professional contract with Saucony. "When he gives you a workout, it's going to be uber-specific. He is going to have everything calculated down to how long you need to jog, rest, and how long you need to cover (the run) in. He will have every detail ironed out.
"I was a guy with tons of questions and Coach Spangler was always the guy with very specific, physiological answers. You have to have a little bit of (intensity) to really appreciate him."
 
On Jan. 25, 2012, roughly a decade after leaving the Sunshine State, Spangler came home.

He'd guided seven VMI teams to Big South Conference runner-up finishes as its cross country head coach and track and field assistant coach. His Keydet runners broke 21 school records, won 17 individual Big South titles, and posted the world's No. 1 indoor 4x800-meter relay time for 2011. Cowart reached All-America status in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, laying the foundation for his fourth-place finish in the event at the 2012 United States Olympic Trials. Another unheralded recruit, Felix Kitur, garnered All-America honors in the 800 meters.

Challenge conquered. Another had to replace it.

Mike Holloway, Florida's track and field and cross country head coach, issued him a new one.

"To be back in the state of Florida, coaching a team with a lot of Florida guys and girls that grew up in the same area I did … and compete for a national championship every single year," Spangler said. "It was a phenomenal opportunity."

It's an opportunity Spangler's taken full advantage of.

Since his arrival, 34 Gators have been All-Americans on the track, contributing to three NCAA Championships. His runners have amassed 13 individual SEC Championships, leading the team to four conference crowns in track and field. Nine of those titles were won by women—tied for the second-most by an SEC program since his first season. Florida's women also claimed the SEC Cross Country Championship in Spangler's debut campaign.

Two of his top pupils, Genevieve LaCaze and Cory McGee, are running professionally for New Balance.

"When it comes to him, you're going to get what you deserve in an athlete-coach relationship," McGee said. "If you want to work hard, he's going to push your limits. Whatever commitment we needed from him, he was willing to give. Some coaches coach the event. Coach Spangler coaches the athlete."

One of the most impressive performances by a Spangler-coached athlete came as a surprise to, well, most everyone except Spangler.

Following an injury at the 2012 United States Olympic Trials, McGee fell to "the lowest point" of her running career. She was unsure whether she'd ever realize her dream of running for Team USA.

Five times a week, Spangler and McGee trained at the Stephen C. O'Connell Center pool on campus, the workouts constantly testing her resolve. One year later, McGee ran the 1,500 meters for the Red, White and Blue at the IAAF World Championships in Moscow.

"That's probably why I am where I am right now as a professional runner," McGee said. "When I made the team that year he was one of the only people who wasn't surprised. (At the 2013 U.S. Track and Field Outdoor Championships) I didn't have anyone from my family there. When I made the team … Coach Spangler was waiting for me.

"Just knowing he was there, ready to show me how excited he was … it's still the highlight of my running career."
Even with a new address and job title, not much about Paul Spangler has changed since he broke into coaching.

He still works long hours. Rather than 15-hour workdays, he limits himself to 12-hour stints, still arriving at 6 a.m. but leaving by 6 p.m.

Any time off is spent at home with his wife of 13 years, Cynthia, and their six-year-old son, Preston. Along with enjoying family time and some much-needed relaxation, Spangler keeps himself occupied with home projects.

Woodwork, a craft he honed at a young age alongside his grandfather, has been a longtime hobby. He recently made and put in black walnut countertops and replaced all the cabinets in his kitchen, ordering wood from Arizona to finish the job over Christmas and New Year's Day. There's a new patio on the back porch and a speaker system installed throughout the house—just a few more examples of Spangler's handiwork.

Maybe the only thing that's truly different is his perception of Florida. Or is it possible Paul never harbored any ill will for the Gators in the first place?

Because there's another name Spangler has often gone by: Jody.

Given to him by his grandmother as a way to avoid confusion on the phone when asking for his father (Paul II), Spangler was referred to as Jody all through high school and college.

"In class, I was known as Paul. My friends that knew me outside of class, they didn't know me as Paul," Spangler said. "Jody is the runner. Paul is the coach."

See? No bad blood after all.

Paul Spangler's a Gator, through and through.