May 27, 2009

By Jim Sumner
theACC.com

Frank Costello grew up in Union, N.J., a standout athlete and student. But he left the Garden State for College Park, Md. in the spring of 1963 and he's still hanging around, taking on new challenges at a time when many of his contemporaries are debating their retirement options.

Costello was a track and field athlete who came to Maryland to compete for Jim Kehoe's powerhouse program. "Coach Kehoe was the main reason I came to Maryland," Costello recalls. "Maryland was very strong in the field events. It wasn't an afterthought."

Former Maryland Athletic Director Dick Dull was Costello's teammate at Maryland. Now the AD at Belmont Abbey College, Dull says Costello was an exceptional all-around athlete. "He could have been a great decathlete. He could run, jump, throw. He could throw the javelin almost as far as I could and that was my specialty."

Costello elected to specialize in the high jump. He was a member of that last generation of straddlers, right before Dick Fosbury came along and revolutionized the event with his "Fosbury Flop." Costello patterned his style after Russian record-holder Valeri Brumel. He even managed a trip to the Soviet Union to study with Brumel and his coaches, establishing a precedent of learning and growing that continues to this day.

Costello dominated the ACC, capturing the high jump in both the indoor and outdoor championships in 1965, 1966 and 1968, approaching seven feet on his best days. He might have won in 1964 but freshmen weren't eligible for varsity competition in those days. Costello was more than just a local hero. He captured titles at the Penn Relays and the Millrose Games, along with summer meets in Europe. Costello won a pair of NCAA titles in 1965, winning indoors at 6'10" and outdoors at 6'11". He finished second in both meets the following year, losing on misses. He became the ACC's first seven-foot jumper.

Costello says he jumped too often, trained too hard. He underwent a series of knee operations that cost him the entire 1967 season. Dull explains, "Frank had knee surgery before it became a precise science. It definitely hurt his career."

Costello recovered enough to win the ACC indoor and outdoor in 1968 but knee problems caused him to miss the 1968 and 1972 Olympic Trials, which he describes as "terribly frustrating. I accept it easier today than I did then." He did represent the United States in other international meets.

Costello graduated from Maryland in 1968 with a degree in exercise physiology and began a busy career mixing training, competition, teaching, coaching and studying. He turned down a chance to join the then-emerging pro track tour but continued to jump, reaching a personal best of just over 7'2." Costello taught and coached at assorted schools in the D.C. area, including a stint at Gallaudet University, a school for hearing-impaired students, and he coached the United States team at the Deaf Olympics.

Somehow, he found time to learn even more about his craft. Costello took classes when and wherever he could, eventually cobbling together a Master's Degree in Sports Sciences from the University of California at Santa Barbara. Dull adds, "He read, watched, studied, surrounded himself with good people. He has great intellectual curiosity. He's always learning."

Costello became head coach at Maryland for the 1975 season after serving several years as an assistant. It sounds like the culmination of a master plan but Costello says it just happened. "It wasn't my dream. I didn't always know I was going to be a coach. But Coach Kehoe [who was AD by that time] brought me back in."

Costello continued the Maryland tradition of recruiting versatile athletes who could score in lots of events. The most significant signee was New Jersey hurdler/sprinter Renaldo Nehemiah, who became the nation's top collegiate track athlete in the late 1970s. Costello says he was "persistent" in recruiting Nehemiah and benefited from his New Jersey contacts, including his brother David, who coached high school track in the state.

Dull recalls a conversation with Costello on the day the Terps signed Nehemiah. "Dick, I don't know if you understand what we've just done." Nehemiah went on the win three individual NCAA titles.

But Nehemiah wasn't Maryland's only star. Distance runner John Green, hurdler Greg Robertson, high jumper Brian Melly and shot-putter Ian Pyka were among the national class athletes that helped Costello maintain Maryland's ACC dominance. The Terps captured the ACC team title in indoors 1975 through 1980 and in outdoors 1975 through 1979. They also had unprecedented success at the national level, finishing 6th at indoors in both 1978 and 1979 and 9th and 8th at outdoors the same two seasons.

There were also successes on the women's side, including 1976 Olympic high-jumper Paula Girven.

In 1975 Costello was named NCAA District Coach of the Year and served as the head coach of the United States National Indoor Team. The following year he was meet director for the United States-U.S.S.R. meet held at Maryland's Byrd Stadium.

Dull says Costello's teaching abilities were the foundation of the team's successes. "Frank is one of the greatest technical coaches I've ever seen, in any sport. He has that ability to spot and correct even the tiniest flaw. He is one of those rare people who can look at a series of events and evaluate exactly what happened and why."

Costello says he loved coaching and teaching, tolerated recruiting but grew weary of the administrative part of coaching. He also felt that Maryland wasn't going to make the financial commitment necessary for the program to move up to national championship status. He left Maryland in 1980 for the private sector. That didn't last long. Dull became AD in 1981 and made it a priority to bring back Costello. Costello became Assistant Athletic Director for strength training for all sports. Costello continued to learn and develop, gaining expertise in sports like volleyball and field hockey. "I enjoyed the variety. I embraced the challenge. Best of all, I didn't spend much time behind a desk."

Costello served as high jump coach for the United States National team during the early 1980s.

Around 1986, Costello began working in strength and conditioning for the NHL's Washington Capitals. Again, that theme returns. "I just enjoy learning new things, doing new things. It's a different sport but a lot of the fundamentals are very similar even if the application is different."

Costello left Maryland again and became the full-time strength and conditioning coach for the Capitals in late 1993. He was named the nation's top strength and conditioning coach in 1998. Costello retired from the Capitals in 2001. He tried retirement, did some consulting but couldn't make the coaching itch go away. So, he came back to Maryland, this time as a volunteer assistant for Andrew Valmon, coaching not only the jumpers but also hurdlers.

Valmon noted at the time, "Frank adds another level of expertise in the technical events. He is a great teacher and our athletes will really benefit from his knowledge."

He hasn't been disappointed. Costello helped hurdler Dominic Berger become one of the nation's top performers in his event and did the same for women's high jumper Toni Aluko. Freshman high jumper Dwight Barbiasz has gone 6'10.75" under Costello's tutelage this season.

The ACC landscape has changed since the Terps won 25 of the first 26 ACC men's outdoor team titles. Costello cites Florida State's dominant programs as the standard now and thinks that a number of other ACC schools will be nationally competitive for the foreseeable future. Maryland has work to do to return to its previous success but if nothing else, Frank Costello is a hard worker.

Costello is optimistic about the sport's future, "The best thing about track and field today is that it's a professional sport after college. That means we can recruit and train young athletes who know that they can go on to a professional future and make a living. You don't have to starve to death anymore."

Frank Costello is in his middle 60s, has a resume matched by few in his field, and could make a lot more money in the private sector. So why would he jump at Valmon's invitation to be a volunteer assistant? Dick Dull has some ideas, "I believe that Frank represents excellence and wants to make sure other people have a chance to achieve excellence. It's giving back. He's about loyalty, to Maryland, to his family, to his friends, to his sport. That's what makes him so special."

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