With the passing of Joe Vigil, comments from former runners, rivals and colleagues have memorialized some of the things that made him an iconic successful coach…
Curious, since you asked (and at the risk of getting drilled by non-ASC fans), here's a little insight into Coach Vigil's methods. As I said on another thread in this forum, I consider myself honored to have run for Coach Vigil at Adams State. The knowledge, stories, and challenges that he delivered with passion, intensity and humor each day before practice, not only shaped the 20 year old kid that I was back then, but still have a daily effect on me.
Before practice, everyone would be sprawled on the lobby floor at Plachy Hall stretching, and Vigil would call us into the classroom for our daily 30min. dosage of Vigilosophy (as Pablo Vigil termed it).
Here Coach would combine techical, and I mean TECHICAL talk of physiolgy of exercise, and why we were doing the workout that day. Not only did you believe in the physical benefits of the workouts because of the WAY he talked to you, but also because of all the science behind his methods.
He was able to get a lot of young men (mostly from Colo. and N.M.) that were pretty good in high school to dream of being the best, and nothing less.
Many of the things he said ring in my head today, 20+ years later....."Never be afraid of competiton. It will bring out the best in you, if you have it in you......When you are wearing the green and gold, you are running for all the guys back home and all the men who have gone before you.....He who would iginte a fire in others, must himself burn." And so on, and so on.
After those 30 min. meetings I was ready to run through the proverbial wall for Coach! All my former teammates would these same thoughts.....hope this helps a little in understanding a complex man.
I am paraphrasing, and probably not missing his exact words by much, but one of Coach Vigil's great sayings for me was to "Have an unshatterable belief in yourself" or similarly, "Have an unshatterable belief in your teammates."
I believed in Coach Vigil, but equally he made us believe in each other and we drew strength from each other. Our "teammates" extended to the several post-collegiate runners who remained in Alamosa and trained (as well as all of the runners that came before us). Several of these guys continued to run well, but maybe didn't make the breakthrough to an Olympic team or reach the level of success that Pat Porter did. Peter DeLaCerda, Marco Ocho, Pablo Vigil, John Esquibel are a few guys that experienced a fair amount of national success.
This isn't intended to defend who's had the best runners post-collegiately. I'll speak for myself, as someone who lost the drive to compete at that level after college that Coach Vigil also developed people who were able to translate a passion for running into a passion for life. Part of that process was feeling at peace with making the break and going on to other life goals.