Josh Kerr - Before Fame
That was the only offer I got, and I said this is brilliant and I went and took a visit and then signed on.
Before a breakout seaspm in 2015, Josh Kerr was a no different than any other high school track and field athlete. Battling for the few scholarships available in the NCAA and training with his club team while he was not in school. After the 2015 season he would start cementing himself in the NCAA record books with fast times and championship wins which would lead him to more opportunities. But this story goes back way before 2015.
Growing up Josh Kerr participated in multiple sports in high school and at the club level including, rugby, football(soccer) and running. As a young teen, Kerr would say, “My brother is currently a professional rugby player; I was trying to be one and my dad was one in his day as well. I think that defiantly took priority earlier on in my career and then once I surely realized that my talent wasn’t there cause I wasn’t very good at the sport.” With Kerr finding little success in rugby, “I started running cause I found success early on and I enjoyed the individual aspect of the sport where you don’t have to rely on anyone else and just go out and do your work.” By choosing athletics, Kerr would leave behind the family tradition of becoming a professional rugby player to pursue running. In the years to follow his decision to run, he says, “In the UK we are very different we don’t really have high school teams for track. So its more of a club based sport, so I was doing a lot of school sports like rugby and football and stuff like that. But my track stuff was always like outside of school, I was able to train with a pretty solid group but it was always out of school hours and kinda like 6-8pm on Tuesday and Friday.” Kerr would find a training group to help him excel in running early on, with good training partners and coaching to develop his raw talent. His training group included, “Chis O’Hare, one of the old collegiate mile record holders and also a fantastic British runner, he was in my group before he left to go to Tulsa and his dad was coaching within the group and his younger siblings were in the group as well. So that was kinda the caliber I was dealing with in the UK, so it was pretty solid throughout but yea it was nothing like the setup that the US kinda has.” This set up proved to be good for Kerr’s development but only a few years after joining the group Josh Kerr would deal with some struggles.
After Chris O’Hare would leave to compete in the NCAA, his father would stop coaching soon after, forcing Josh Kerr to find a new club. “I kinda had just a rough patch before college, before I kinda signed on to go to the University of New Mexcio and I kinda changed groups, my coach retired from coaching and so I kinda struggled for a little bit with running, like 14 and 15 year old days, and coming into 16.” This group change took a toll on Kerr as he was trying to find a college in the United States at the same time to compete at. “In Scotland we graduate a year before the US and England so I graduated at 17. I was getting recruited at 16 and at this point I had only ran 3:52 for the 1500 and like 1:53 I believe, so my recruiting process was pretty tough because I was trying to tell these coaches I feel like I got more in me and I know I love to win races and I got a lot of experiences.” With a lot of self-belief Josh Kerr says, “I just needed someone to take a chance on me and no one did expect for the University of New Mexico and Joe. And I said look come on we can do this and he said look I like the way you win races and you know you cant really teach someone how to be a winner but you can teach someone how to be a better runner.” With very little interest from other schools, “That was the only offer I got, and I said this is brilliant and I went and took a visit and then signed on.” Josh Kerr would commit that winter to attend New Mexico before he would reach the next tier that he knew he had within himself. Starting his last track season before heading to college, Kerr would make and compete on the British junior teams. “I would say that was a massive point in my career winning that British under 20 championship, even just qualifying for the European Juniors, that was my first British vest.” Going into the race for Kerr, “It was kinda all about learning, learning like as the goal.” This attitude would soon be erased after some early success in the opening rounds. “I got there and I kinda ran the prelim and was like damn. Im feeling pretty good. And that was kinda the realization that like you’re here, you have a shot to win and just kinda put it all on the line and see what we got.” After a strong prelims Kerr showed his winning mentality, “in every race I go into I never not aspect to win and its defiantly put me in places where I may have shocked the crowd or shocked the people in the race or the people watching the race but im never gonna shock myself if win any race in the world.” With this attitude going into the final Josh Kerr would come out glorious, winning the European Junior Championships. After winning this championship as an under 18 athlete, coaches and schools were regretting their decisions to not offer him a scholarship.
From the moment he crossed the line at the European Junior Championship coaches would look at him differently. “It was quite funny, I was doing a lap of honor after my European junior win and I saw all the coaches who were denying me. I had I think Oklahoma State, Dave Smith, who I think is a really nice guy and it was quite funny cause we had a little giggle with each other, he kinda felt like he missed out on that one.” After showing coaches what they missed out on, Josh Kerr says, “I do have a good time scrolling through some old emails I was going through with coaches but I was very happy with New Mexico, with the weather and the altitude and stuff it was just a perfect place for me to go.” Being able to prove coaches wrong that he was the real deal, Kerr would go on to become one of, if not the best, collegiate miler of all time.
In Josh Kerr’s first two seasons he would find early success in the metric mile as he would improve his time significantly. “After my first year I ran 3:42, I think at the Bryan clay meet and then the year later I ran 3:35.95 and that number was like number six all time.” Just before this breakout time outdoors in his second year, Kerr would win his first NCAA title. “So what you’ll find is the first NCAA title always kinda goes perfectly, … leading up to the race I was very under the radar and went in and I smashed the race and did exactly what I wanted to do.” This performance would lead into his fantastic outdoor season where he ran 3:35.95 and then go on to win his second title. Reflecting on his second title, Kerr says, “Its very difficult to kinda win two in a row. Little injuries come and little problems arise, … and just making sure that feeling of winning never just leaves you because sometimes it goes from that drive of winning to that relief of winning.” Following his first two titles Josh Kerr would have the opportunity to win two more the next year. “For my last NCAA title, I defiantly had some injury stuff going on and my last NCAA performance where I ended up third. I think the University of New Mexico took very good care of me, they flew me out to Phoenix to try and get me sorted out. I wasn’t to bumed out about it but it kinda stole away my unbeaten record for two years in the NCAA” Dealing with some injuries for both of these titles, Josh Kerr was lucky enough to have an opportunity to lower his personal best and go after the NCAA 1500 metre record in between the indoor and outdoor championships. After two successful years racing at the Bryan Clay meet, “the next year it wasn’t even like a sit down discussion, where you’re like lets go for this, it was more like an expectation of I’m progressing every year and I should be able to progress a second faster, so lets just put are heads down and get to work and go for it at the same meet cause its been good to me.” He would be able to break the NCAA 1500 metre record before he would face a life changing decision that summer.
Following two successful campaigns in college where he would win 3 out of 4 possible NCAA titles and run two of the 10 fastest all time 1500 metres in college, Kerr was presented with the opportunity to turn professional. Unlike the four major North American sports, track and field athletes are not presented with the opportunity to turn professional before they graduate or are out of eligibility for the most part. With Kerr's success this process started early into his junior season, “I was speaking to them in January of when I signed, I always had to have my compliance person there and my coach so there was no money like we never were discussing money. Brooks made me go professional rather then me wanting to go professional.” After a strong pitch from Brooks for Josh Kerr to turn professional, he says, “Once I decided to go professional I got offers from other companies but no one could match the offer that Brooks could and its not even the money aspect of it, the way how the company worked, the attention I get being a brooks beast.” With his decision of who he would represent, Kerr would find some struggles early into his professional career. “When I first signed, I think it was within the first couple of weeks I pulled like my calf, and British Champs didn’t go very well, like a month after I signed I was injured and I didn’t really know what to do with myself. You have to realize you don’t have this massive support bubble of being a collegiate athlete, … you have to hold yourself to a better standard really.” Realizing what he needed to change, Kerr says, “I was able to go out and run a few mile races and ended up winning one of the road miles and won a bit of money and kinda called it a season.” Being able to turn around his season, Josh Kerr would be setting himself up well for the World Championships the next year.
Being able to fully adjust by the end of the 2018 season Kerr was focused on making the World Championships the following year. After a disappointing first experience at the World Championship, Kerr said, “I did make worlds in ’17 and got knocked out in the rounds and what I will say is that I learned a lot of lessons from that and what the lessons were; stop trying to change when it comes to championships, continue to do what you do on a daily basis when it comes to race.” Taking the learning experience from the last World Championship, Kerr came ready to race and not be scared away from the pressure. “I went in and raced the way I normally raced In college which is I’m the best and I’m gonna make sure I finish as high up as possible. And obviously if an opportunity arises to win, ill take it and what I kept with me all the way through the world championships. We were pretty prepared; I was really fit going in and I defiantly felt that I was in 3:30 shape and I’m not a guy who needs to over race to show I’m in 3:30 shape.” With the right amount of confidence and preparation Josh Kerr was able to secure his place in the finals of the 1500 metres where he would finish sixth overall.
The recruiting struggles that Kerr faced early into his career are issues that people face every year that affect athletes. Josh Kerr could have easily been affected negatively, instead he used the situation as motivation for his running leading him to multiple great performances. His amazing collegiate career led Kerr to have the opportunity to run professionally and qualify for the World Championship finals. The early part of his career was influential to his success later on in track.
Direct quotes from Josh Kerr via phone interview with Evan Smith. (May 2020)
Photos via Getty Images.
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