Papa true staple at SRU
Slippery Rock University has always found success at finding coaches who want to stick around for the long haul and bring accolades to the school over long periods of time.
Rock cross county and track and field head coach John Papa is a prime example.
“Coaches are very proud of being here at Slippery Rock,” Papa said. “I think some programs you’ll find coaches come and go quite a bit because they use the school as a stepping stone to something better, but I think the coaches here are here because this is where we want to be.”
Papa just concluded his 32nd year at the helm of SRU XC and track and field with a Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference title for his women’s outdoor track and field team in early May.
“I mean, just like anything else, it was a lot of hard work from a lot of people,” Papa said. “We have a tradition here that winning isn’t the number one goal of our program. Winning is kind of a byproduct of the formula we’ve followed the past 32 years.”
The win came as Papa’s 24th PSAC title overall, including 17 PSAC championships in the past 20 years.
“I think he has tremendous rapport with his student athletes,” SRU athletic director Paul Lueken said. “Probably works as hard as any coach we have at SRU in terms of amount of time that he spends on his program and all the effort he puts into it.”
The Rock women’s 121 points at PSAC’s was enough to snap Shippensburg’s domination of nine straight outdoor titles. The win was SRU’s 16th women’s outdoor title — the most in PSAC history — with 12 of the 16 titles under the direction of Papa.
“We’ve been second place quite a few times the past four or five years and we’re pleased to be back on the winning side,” Papa said. “It feels good. We were the team everyone was excited about and it was a great experience.”
Papa is a Gateway High School graduate and a college graduate of The Rock. During his sophomore year at SRU, he earned All-America honors by finishing sixth in the decathlon at the Division III national meet in 1976 and took second in that event his senior year under the direction of SRU coaching great Bill Lennox to help lead The Rock to a D-III national championship.
Papa had the honor to serve under Lennox as both an athlete and assistant coach, which has shaped the way he continues to coach his student athletes.
“I had a great high school coach who taught me how to work hard and do the right thing and when I got here to Slippery Rock, Bill Lennox was the same thing,” Papa said. “Work hard and take ownership of your successes or failures.
“When you’re in high school, you don’t necessarily have that because you’re under your parent’s nest, but when you go to college it’s you and just you.”
The win at PSAC’s was just one of the factors that helped Papa earn his 20th PSAC Coach of the Year Award, making him the third SRU coach this school year to earn that achievement. Football coach Shawn Lutz and women’s tennis coach Matt Meredith earned the honor as well.
“I think it just shows the type of athletic program we have overall,” Lueken said. “The student athletes and the support we get from everyone makes for a strong, well rounded athletic program.”
