Anthony Enright accepted the role of Head Coach of the Women’s and Men’s Cross Country teams in Spring 2023.

Coach Enright brings more than two decades of coaching experience to the program, formerly holding cross country and track coaching roles at Riverside Brookfield and Marian Central Catholic high schools, where he helped establish successful running programs. Now, he looks to continue the positive trend at the college level.

“I was interested in coaching at Kish because I was looking for a challenge and want to work with runners at the next stage of their career,” Enright said. “College athletics can be more focused, and I hope to get the most out of our runners.”

During his coaching career, Enright mentored under Joe Newton, a legendary running coach at York High School in Elmhurst, who won 28 Illinois High School Association (IHSA) cross country titles over 57 seasons and managed the marathon runners for the 1988 U.S. Olympic team. Enright said he learned many lessons from Newton and wants to bring his passion for the sport to Kish.

“The initial goals are to bring excitement, enthusiasm and increase numbers for the Kish men’s and women’s teams,” Enright said. “We really want to have a big roster to score in meets and compete from within. There is strength in numbers. The Kishwaukee district high schools are producing excellent cross country runners and we are looking forward to having more of them be part of the Kougars Family moving forward and building upon our young NJCAA Nationals Tradition.”

As a high school educator, Enright said he will emphasize strong academics for his student-athletes.

“The overall goal is for everyone to give it their best as a runner and as a student,” Enright said. “You can control your academic achievement by the hard work you put in. We want to stress academics because of their importance in college or career success.”

The Kish women’s cross country program was started in Fall 2018, and the men’s program was re-established in the same season after several years of hiatus. The programs have had multiple runners qualify for the NJCAA National Meet in four of the past five seasons.  Most recently in 2022, Kishwaukee qualified both a women’s and men’s runner from each of the programs.