{"id":4213,"date":"2023-11-13T08:21:50","date_gmt":"2023-11-13T13:21:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/magazine.alumni.ncsu.edu\/?p=4213"},"modified":"2024-02-01T15:38:41","modified_gmt":"2024-02-01T20:38:41","slug":"a-family-affair","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/2023\/a-family-affair\/","title":{"rendered":"A Family Affair"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n\n

By Jack Daly \u201901<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Tom Wood traces his career as a track and field coach by talking about athletes he has worked with, and a former athlete at the University of North Carolina is perhaps the best place to start Wood\u2019s story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sharon Couch was the reason Wood moved to North Carolina. The two started working together when Wood was still a high school coach in rural Virginia. Couch eventually made her way to UNC; when she graduated, her focus shifted to the Olympics. Wood was her coach and relocated to Raleigh in 1992, finding work as an assistant coach at NC State.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Three decades later, Wood is still an assistant for the Wolfpack track and field team, and rates Couch\u2019s appearances in the Olympics as a career apex. \u201cAfter I did that, I said: \u2018I don\u2019t know if I want to do that again\u2009\u2014\u2009that was too much for me,\u2019\u201d Wood says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Tom Wood with Jakerra Covington, a junior from Rockingham, N.C., who competes in throwing events.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Instead, Wood focused on the dreams of Wolfpack throwers and athletes who compete in events such as the heptathlon. Athletes like Alyssa Dunn \u201917, who wasn\u2019t much of a shot-putter when she started in 2013. By 2016, she had progressed to the point she scored in the ACC Championship, prompting the team to celebrate as if they had won a national championship. \u201cFor each person, it\u2019s watching them become the best they can be,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor each person, it\u2019s watching them become the best they can be.\u201d
\u2013 Coach Tom Wood<\/p><\/div><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Wood stays in touch with many of them. Tremanisha Taylor \u201914 was a two-time All-American and the 2013 ACC Champion in shot put and now works in public health in Granville County. She called Wood one night late last year and they spent 45 minutes catching up. Ursula McLean \u201903 was a three-time letter-winner from 1999\u20132001 and now lives in Virginia. When she came to NC State for a football game last fall, she made a point of visiting Wood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThese people,\u201d Wood says, \u201cwill be in my family until I die.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false,"raw":"\n\n\n\n\n

By Jack Daly \u201901<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Tom Wood traces his career as a track and field coach by talking about athletes he has worked with, and a former athlete at the University of North Carolina is perhaps the best place to start Wood\u2019s story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sharon Couch was the reason Wood moved to North Carolina. The two started working together when Wood was still a high school coach in rural Virginia. Couch eventually made her way to UNC; when she graduated, her focus shifted to the Olympics. Wood was her coach and relocated to Raleigh in 1992, finding work as an assistant coach at NC State.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Three decades later, Wood is still an assistant for the Wolfpack track and field team, and rates Couch\u2019s appearances in the Olympics as a career apex. \u201cAfter I did that, I said: \u2018I don\u2019t know if I want to do that again\u2009\u2014\u2009that was too much for me,\u2019\u201d Wood says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Tom Wood with Jakerra Covington, a junior from Rockingham, N.C., who competes in throwing events.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Instead, Wood focused on the dreams of Wolfpack throwers and athletes who compete in events such as the heptathlon. Athletes like Alyssa Dunn \u201917, who wasn\u2019t much of a shot-putter when she started in 2013. By 2016, she had progressed to the point she scored in the ACC Championship, prompting the team to celebrate as if they had won a national championship. \u201cFor each person, it\u2019s watching them become the best they can be,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor each person, it\u2019s watching them become the best they can be.\u201d
\u2013 Coach Tom Wood<\/p><\/div><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Wood stays in touch with many of them. Tremanisha Taylor \u201914 was a two-time All-American and the 2013 ACC Champion in shot put and now works in public health in Granville County. She called Wood one night late last year and they spent 45 minutes catching up. Ursula McLean \u201903 was a three-time letter-winner from 1999\u20132001 and now lives in Virginia. When she came to NC State for a football game last fall, she made a point of visiting Wood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThese people,\u201d Wood says, \u201cwill be in my family until I die.\u201d<\/p>\n"},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tom Wood treasures the student-athletes he has coached in three decades with NC State\u2019s track and field team.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4214,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"source":"","ncst_custom_author":"","ncst_show_custom_author":false,"ncst_dynamicHeaderBlockName":"ncst\/default-post-header","ncst_dynamicHeaderData":"{\"caption\":\"Photograph courtesy of NC State Athletics\",\"displayCategoryID\":5,\"showAuthor\":true,\"showDate\":true,\"showFeaturedVideo\":false,\"subtitle\":\"Tom Wood treasures the student-athletes he has coached in three decades with NC State\u2019s track and field team.\"}","ncst_content_audit_freq":"","ncst_content_audit_date":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[66,109,518,566,1065,1170,1177,1180,1213],"_ncst_magazine_issue":[],"displayCategory":{"term_id":5,"name":"Best Bets","slug":"best-bets","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":5,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":39,"filter":"raw"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4213"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4213"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4213\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4984,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4213\/revisions\/4984"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4214"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4213"},{"taxonomy":"_ncst_magazine_issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/_ncst_magazine_issue?post=4213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}