Umberger

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Somewhere between Concord and the heart of the South in North Carolina, the simple joy of running was lost.

It got lost amid the high intensity of Division I college athletics. It got lost like the tender coach-athlete relationships which sometimes disappear after high school. It got lost like the season of non-competition because of a stress fracture.

To rekindle that joy, Rachel Umberger came home. Home to Concord, and home to the University of New Hampshire.

One of the top runners this state has produced has formally transferred from Duke University back home to UNH, where she'll start attending classes later this month.

"(Duke) was just a really intense environment," Umberger said this week, shortly before heading to Concord High to help her former indoor track team. "There were pressures from the coach, from the team, and being an intense and driven person already, that's not how I want running to be. I didn't want to feel nervous every time at practice."

So much of Umberger's past success derived from her pure joy of the sport. She didn't run for the laurels, she ran because she enjoyed it. But the former high school 800-meter national champion lost some of that at Duke.

In accepting the Blue Devils'scholarship offer nearly two years ago, Umberger cited the coach, Jan Samuelson-Ogilvie, as one of the main factors. Samuelson-Ogilvie had coached Barb Higgins, Umberger's high school coach, at Boston University in the 1980s, and Umberger felt a distinct connection. Before Umberger ever arrived on campus, however, Samuelson-Ogilvie resigned.

The new coach, Kevin Jermyn, had a much more scientific approach to running. His techniques in response to runner's issues and injuries didn't sit well with Umberger. When she developed a stress fracture in her foot this fall, she started thinking about transferring because of "irreconcilable differences" with the coach.

"A lot of the distance girls had a lot of success with the current coach. But with any major Division I program, there are a lot of eating disorders," Umberger said. "The coach was great if you had a 12- or 13-year-old body. A lot of the middle distance runners were great. They didn't have eating issues, but they didn't have that body, either."

She could see the academic and athletic stresses of performing at an institution like Duke manifesting themselves into eating disorders in girls on campus, and she could see the rigors of training resulting in assorted injuries. Umberger wanted no part of those situations.

So in September, despite finding fast success on the track at Duke, she decided to walk away from the ACC. She left a little behind, however. In just one season, she placed herself third all-time at Duke in the indoor 500, and fifth all-time in the indoor 800.

Durham, North Carolina's loss is Durham, New Hampshire's gain.

Umberger looked at Boston University and Bowdoin, along with UNH. Then, after talking with the UNH coach, Higgins and her parents, Umberger decided UNH was the best fit.

"I know some people are saying, 'you're going from Duke to UNH?'But I couldn't be happier," Umberger said. "UNH is a great school. And running-wise, I just want to be happy and have fun. I want to help the program and have it help me."

Robert Hoppler, UNH's head cross country coach and assistant track coach who works with the distance runners, seems a perfect fit for Umberger.

"The most important thing is for Rachel to find a program she can be happy at, and I hope UNH is that program. ... Rachel needs to feel good about what she's doing," Hoppler said. "She's a tremendous young woman. She needs to be happy with who she is and what she's doing here, and then we're going to start running fast."

Umberger's transfer is a coup for UNH, but having a successful homegrown runner is not unusual. Alison Poulin, a high school state record holder in the high jump and hurdles, transferred to UNH in the early '90s and went on to an All-American career for the Wildcats. Londonderry's Amy DeCamp, a strong distance runner in high school, became an All-American at UNH. And Hoppler has coached Joanne Dow, an Olympic-caliber race-walker. (next page »)