Just three years ago, Rebecca Pennington ‘22 donned a Chatham jersey for the cross country team, now she wears a whistle as the head coach.
Pennington was crowned the Presidents Athletic Conference (PAC) Cross Country champion in 2018 and was the first Chatham athlete to qualify for an NCAA Championship.
“I enjoy being back. I love Chatham, I love the city,” Pennington said. “So I was excited to get the opportunity to coach the team that I’m very passionate about. I’m looking forward to our performances and being able to help athletes perform their best at Chatham.”
Pennington was hired in August following the sudden departure of the previous head coach Eden Bloom.
“It was a very crazy turnaround,” Pennington said. “I found out Coach Bloom quit, and I applied a day after that.”
After graduating from Chatham, Pennington spent three years as an assistant coach at Berea College in Kentucky.
“That was my goal was to be a college coach after graduating from Chatham,” she said. “I got a good foundation there into college coaching and working in higher ed. And then coming back here, it was kind of nice since I know the school a lot, I didn’t have to do that kind of onboarding stuff, but definitely seeing things from a staff perspective instead of a student perspective is definitely a new learning curve.”
The current senior class was teammates with Pennington during their first year at Chatham, yet the transition from teammate to coach hasn’t been an issue.
“I was a little nervous just because we were teammates, and I didn’t know how that transition would be, but it’s honestly been great and she’s been super awesome,” Kendall Sirignano ‘25 said.
That easy transition is in no small part due to Pennington’s leadership during her time as an athlete at Chatham.
“She was honestly such a role model when I was a freshman, she really took charge of us,” Sirignano said. “I think she has a lot to offer us and she has so much wisdom, too.”
Pennington is still running at a competitive level and has found that to be a big asset to her coaching.
“It’s huge. Especially with training,” she said. “I still train very competitively. So a lot of the training I use the things that work for me or the things that work for my fellow athletes. So I use that a lot in my training. And also it’s nice I can run with the athletes still. So, being able to participate and be there for them and kind of know what they’re going through is also kind of helpful.”
The cross country team has struggled in meets so far this season, with both the men’s and women’s teams finishing last in the PAC Preview meet. But coach Pennington believes in her team, and the growth they will make this year.
“The team is great. All the athletes are super great, but they are on the smaller end. Just between Coach Bloom switching and we didn’t get many recruits in between. So just being with a smaller team is always hard, but they’re great athletes. We’ll get it together.”
The cross country team is not hosting a home meet this year, but will be competing on Oct. 12 at Carnegie Mellon.
