The COaches
John Trautmann
John Trautmann grew up in Central Valley, New York. At age fourteen he stole the national age group record in the 1500m in 4:03 and the national high school record in the 3000m only three years later to Steve Prefontaine’s record. Trautmann hasn’t stopped since those younger days.
At Georgetown, he was a two-time NCAA 5000m champion and by 1992 he was crowned the Olympic Trials 5000m champion. Unfortunately, due to a toe injury, he was unable to advance to the Olympic finals in Barcelona.
Trautmann took a break from running to become a Wall Street credit trader until 2015. When Trautmann returned to running, he swiftly took down his age group’s (45-49) mile world record in 4:12.
In 2016, Trautmann started his coaching career with NYNJTC’s team with coach Frank Gagliano and Tom Nohilly. He is also New York University’s men’s middle distance/distance coach.
Today, John Trautmann is the Co-Founder and Coach of Empire Elite Track Club.
TOM NOHILLY
Tom Nohilly grew up in College Point, Queens and started running when he was 10 years old.
After high school in East Elmhurst, Nohilly attended Taft College and the University of Florida.
He was a 4-time SEC Conference Champion and a 1989 NCAA Champion in the 3k steeple.
Nohilly graduated with a Bachelors in exercise science. He went on to compete in the 3k steeplechase in the 1992,1996, and 2000 Olympic Trials with two fourth place finishes and one sixth place finish.
Nohilly has made multiple World Championship teams 1995, 1997 World Championships team in the steeple, the 1998 World Cross Country team and the Goodwill Games Team.
Nohilly was an assistant coach and neuromuscular therapist at the New Jersey New York Track Club from 2009-2020. From 1996 to 2004, Nohilly served as a master technician at Wharton Performance in NYC.
Currently, Nohilly is a Director on the board at City Track, the founder of Tommy Boy Training (a neuromuscular therapy, sports & wellness training service he started in 2004), and is Empire Elite’s co-Founder and co-Coach.
Nohilly is a safe-sport certified coach.
THE COACHING MANIFESTO
We are committed to our athlete’s evolution of excellence and mastery of sport.
Our approach is based on each athlete’s current unique situation, their history, and where they want to go.
Athletics, like life, is about balance. We seek to find the balance in each athlete, physiologically and psychologically.
We are committed to understanding the latest research in science, psychology, technology, and methods to support our athletes.
We believe an athlete’s progression is about small, incremental gains.
We will not leave any stone unturned, we are looking at the latest emerging journals, research, tech, but we also rely on our extensive experience and history in the sport.
We don’t chase fitness or times. We let the process happen organically.
PHILOSOPHY
“Let running happen. Don’t chase it. Sit back and put in the work. Be in the moment. Don’t look at the future or the past. The past, that’s been done before. One interval at a time.”
- John Trautmann
“Focus on do, not feel. Don’t think to far right now. Just do what’s in front of, EXECUTE, you and build on it. Focus on the moment, not what it means or feels like. Just, execute. Now build on it.”
- Tom Nohilly
“We are committed to the continuing our evolution of excellence; an evolution of our craft. We aren’t striving for perfection. Perfection has finality. As masters have said before us: ‘The painting is never done.’”
-John Trautmann
“We practice, we rehearse, we train for years... and then we go out and perform... as athletes, we don’t get many opportunities to do so. We are trying to orchestrate a perfect performance. This a crescendo of a performance.”
- Tom Nohilly
“When you’re out racing, you learn about yourself. You can either back off or push through. You are going to find something about yourself through this sport.”
- John Trautmann
“John and I, we have the knowledge and experience to share. We want to mold our athletes, not only as runners, but as people. We are overseeing big goals. We want to be mentors and a positive influence, always. Whether or not you make the [Olympic] team, we are here to shape our individuals.”
- Tommy Nohilly