Coach of year Fischer recovered from UD's painful 2011 move to guide state champs

Ten years ago this month, Jim Fischer fretted that his coaching career might be over.

Having guided the University of Delaware men’s cross-country and track and field teams for 30 years, Fischer was delivered the stunning news that the programs were being eliminated at the end of the 2010-11 school year.

“It really hurt me,” he said. “It was not only that that’s what I loved. It was also that it wasn’t a valued program to them, and that hurt even worse.”

UD blamed Title IX gender-equity concerns, though it had received no complaints. Men’s indoor track had been axed two years earlier.

“I kinda put out some feelers and I was 60-some years old,” Fischer said. “Nobody wants to start over at that point.”

But Fischer was able to rekindle his career in championship fashion.

He has coached the indoor and outdoor track and cross-country teams at Wilmington’s all-girls Ursuline Academy since 2015 and in December guided the Raiders to their third straight Division II state championship in cross-country. Before its ongoing title run, Ursuline had not ruled Division II cross-country since 1998.

The Delaware Sportswriters & Broadcasters Association voted Fischer winner of its Tubby Raymond Award as Delaware’s 2020 Coach of the Year. Since being presented for the first time in 2000 to Raymond himself, the award has recognized both yearly success and lifetime achievement.

Fischer certainly falls under both categories.

“This is really special,” said Fischer, an inductee to the Delaware Sports, UD Athletics and Delaware Track and Field halls of fame, when told of the DSBA recognition.

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The awards luncheon, typically on President’s Day, will not be held this year because of the coronavirus pandemic. The 72nd annual winner of the John J. Brady Award as Delaware’s 2020 Athlete of the Year will be announced Feb. 15.

The 2020 state Team of the Year is Appoquninimink’s state boys soccer champions. The Buddy Hurlock Unsung Hero and Herm Reitzes community service awards will be announced in coming weeks.

A Minnesota native, Fischer steered Blue Hen teams to five conference titles and 12 second-place finishes and his athletes captured 119 conference titles from 1982-2011. He was a five-time conference coach of the year.

Fischer remained at UD through the 2011-12 school year, coaching women’s cross-country and track distance runners, tasks he’d taken on in 2008.

After leaving Delaware, Fischer coached at Delaware Technical & Community College, where he was also athletic director, and Sanford School, which had cross-country and a small indoor track team.

In the winter of 2015, Ursuline needed an indoor track coach and hired Fischer, who was also still coaching Sanford. He then remained at Ursuline, and only Ursuline, to coach all three sports – indoor and outdoor track and cross-country – beginning that spring. Sanford doesn’t have outdoor track.

“I wanted to coach all three seasons with the same kids,” Fischer said. “I felt like cross-country was too much of a logistical challenge to coach both schools, otherwise I probably would have done it at least that next year.

“It turned out to be a good move.”

Ursuline placed 16th in the state Division II outdoor track meet the spring before Fischer arrived. The Raiders have five top-five finishes in the team standings since, including two second-place finishes, plus numerous individual successes (there was no spring state meet in 2020 due to COVID-19).

“We know he has a lot of experience so we trust his ideas and training programs,” Ursuline junior Anna Pryor said of Fischer.

Indoors, where there is no divisional split based on school size, Ursuline has been in the top 10 at the state meet each of the last five years with a pair of sixth-place finishes.

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Cross-country is where Ursuline has excelled the most under Fischer. Before winning the last three years and ending Tatnall’s 14-year title reign, the Raiders climbed from seventh in Fischer’s first year, to fourth and then third in the team standings.

Winning as a team in cross-country requires talented depth, and Ursuline has had five top 17 finishers each of the last three years.

“I think the main thing coach Fischer has always focused on was making sure that we were always prepared and trained but also not having us get hurt,” said senior Alaina McGonigle, who has been running on his teams since eighth grade and placed as high as third in the state meet.

“We’ve always had that balance. I’ve had very few injuries because of that. And also just his support. Even when you’re at your lowest he always finds some way to bring you back up and get you looking toward the next goal.’’

This is the second time Fischer has been honored by the DSBA. In 2012, he received the organization’s Reitzes Award.

His community service included providing training advice and support to Special Olympics athletes and those involved in the Leukemia Society’s Team in Training program. Fischer also started and oversaw the Tuesday Night Running Group that allowed members of the community to run on the UD track and receive training tips from Fischer.

In 1994, he founded the Delaware Track and Field Hall of Fame, serving as its president until 2015. A competitive runner himself, Fischer took part in many annual Delaware Sports Club trips to run in the Boston Marathon and completed more than 20 marathons before injuries intervened.

Fischer has also served on DIAA track and cross-country committees, including as track chairman.

“It’s been really fun,” Fischer said of coaching at Ursuline, crediting assistant coaches Brittany Keller and Melanie Aube. “I enjoy it. They say kids keep you young and it’s really true, but keeping up with them is the hard part.”

DSBA TUBBY RAYMOND COACH OF THE YEAR

PREVIOUS AWARD WINNERS

2020 – Jim Fischer, Ursuline cross-country/track

2019 – Chip Hannig, Salesianum swimming

2018 – Marnie Giunta, Padua cross-country/track

2017 – Jodi Holloman, Delmar field hockey

2016 – Stan Waterman, Sanford basketball 

2015 – Kate Austin, Cape Henlopen field hockey

2014 – Monte Ross, University of Delaware men's basketball

2013 – Lynn Richardson, Polytech field hockey/lacrosse

2012 – P. J. Kesmodel, Cape Henlopen girls lacrosse

2011 – Ray Steele, Indian River football

2010 – K.C. Keeler, University of Delaware football

2009 – George Kosanovich, Concord football

2008 – Patrick Castagno, Tatnall cross-country/track

2008 – Scott Mosier, Salesianum soccer

2007 – Robin Adair, Tower Hill field hockey

2006 – Mike Drass, Wesley College football

2005 – Greg Jackson, Delaware State University basketball

2004 – George Teague, Dover Downs trainer

2003 – Bob Tattersall, Wilmington Friends football

2002 – Dave Hearn, Delmar football

2001 – Butch Simpson, Newark football

2000 – Tubby Raymond, University of Delaware football           

Have an idea for a compelling local sports story or is there an issue that needs public scrutiny? Contact Kevin Tresolini at ktresolini@delawareonline.com and follow on Twitter @kevintresolini. Support local journalism by subscribing to delawareonline.com.