Q&A with Interim Head Coach Barron Maizland

Q: What're you looking forward to in your new role as a head coach?

Maizland: "I'm really looking forward to the opportunity of moving this team forward. Coach Woods did a fantastic job starting this program up from when he joined. I want to continue that and continue building that culture."

Q: How long have you been on the staff with Chapman?

Maizland: "I started part-time. I was helping out at my alma mater (Chico St.) as a volunteer and when I moved back here, (Coach Woods) found out I was back in town and he wanted me to join him here at Chapman. This was back in 2018 and then in 2019 I moved to a full-time assistant role and now I'm taking over the Interim Head Coach role."

Q: In what kind of ways are you planning on moving the Cross Country and Track & Field programs forward?

Maizland: Finding someone who fits our program in an assistant role that has our values as a team. Ultimately, our goal for the athletes is to have a great college experience. When I was in college, we had a very strong connection, everyone on the team had a great connection...we want to build that here.

Coach Woods started a leadership committee. If someone on the team wants to be a team captain, they don't actually get chosen, they have to apply for it. Distance runners, sprinters, (etc.), they all have team captains through the leadership committee. It's their team, (the coaching staff) is just there as a resource to help them. It's their program and we want them to have the best experience."

Q: Is being a head coach something you see yourself doing for a while?

Maizland: Yeah, I do want to be a head coach. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to have this and it's something that I always thought was kinda impossible because there are not that many jobs out there as a head cross country coach. 

It's a dream come true to become a head coach. I competed my whole life in cross country and track and I always thought being a coach would be such a fun job to do. Building a team and creating something, being a part of someone elses journey like what I had. I want it to be transferred to the athletes at Chapman.

Q: Being the interim head coach, what do you think you have to do to get the full-time position moving forward?

It's going to be a great trial run for me to show the AD and staff in the athletic department that I can handle being a head coach. It's awesome for me I'm in the perfect situation, I can continue what I've been doing. Coach Woods and I split a lot of the work, but now I have to find someone to take over the role that he had in his specialized event group.

I'm going to do my best, I'm not worried about anything. I'm just going to keep it going and see how everything turns out.