Austin Smith
Sports Editor
Nothing lasts forever, especially in sports.
Head coach of both the cross-country and track and field teams, Tom Pickering is resigning after this semester. With his resignation coming at the end of the Fall semester, he will not be here to coach the track and field team in the Spring. Pickering declined to comment on his resignation. Keene State Athletic director Phil Racicot said a little over a week ago he met with me, “First and foremost I wanted to make sure that he was okay. When someone comes in and says ‘Hey I’ve decided to resign my position’ my first thought is, is everything okay.”
Pickering has been the head coach at Keene State since 2016, in that time he has been named LEC coach of the year three times. Pickering was also formerly the head coach of Monadnock Regional High School, where he coached both cross country and track as well. At Monadnock, Pickering won Multiple state championships in track and field as well as coaching athletes to 36 state champion event wins. With All of his success both as a high school and collegiate coach Racicot said, he’s been as invested as all of our coaches since I’ve been here. “I hate to see that happen from that standpoint, but you have to respect the decision and the thought that he put forth, coming to that conclusion.”
Former Monadnock and current KSC athlete Chloe Page said, “It was sad, but I’m excited to see what’s to come, I like where the program is now with him running it.” After making his decision Pickering told the athletes on the cross country team about his impending resignation. The news of Pickering’s resignation did come as a surprise for many athletes he coaches. Page said, “After he said it, we all really didn’t say much, but then we chatted as a team, and it was ‘I couldn’t believe he finally decided to resign’.”
Although his resignation did come as a surprise to some Racicot said, “I mean being in college athletics, nothing really surprises me, having been doing this for a long time.” While he wasn’t surprised by the resignation, Racicot said, “He had some personal stuff that he wanted to be able to work on, so it’s not really not a disgruntled or an ‘I’m not happy with how things are’.”
While it seems Pickering’s time at KSC is coming to an end, Page is excited for his future. “He’s been my coach for, I would say six-seven years of my track and field career, I’m excited for him and whatever he ventures to, wherever he goes he’ll do really well.” Page said.
Austin Smith can be contacted
at asmith@kscequinox.com
