Connection With Fans Drives Kusche To Succeed

George Kusche boasts many qualities of an elite runner.
 
He trains hard, yet smart. He takes care of his body. He brims with confidence. He stays mentally sharp.
 
Of course, good genetics help, too.
 
“You have to have a certain amount of talent,” Kusche said. “It mostly comes down to training, and your fate of way.”
 
What helps separate him from many collegiate runners, though, is his purpose. More than anything, the charismatic Kusche enjoys performing for fans. He craves the opportunity. Fans push him to succeed, drive him to excel at his best.
 
And what better place to engage an appreciative fan base than Nebraska?
 
Kusche, a sophomore from South Africa, felt a budding connection during his official recruiting visit.
 
“When I was told about the sellout streak and stuff like that, you can see there’s a sense of pride,” Kusche said, referring to Nebraska’s continuing NCAA record of 374 consecutive home sellouts in football.
 
“If you go around Lincoln, there’s flags with the ‘N’ at houses. You can see people in the community support the Nebraska Huskers. I knew that if you could tap into that pride, people really wouldn’t judge the sport. They would just enjoy the performance.”
 
Like in February, when Kusche generated publicity as Nebraska promoted his attempt to become the first runner in school history to run a mile in less than 4 minutes on a standard track.
 
“He likes to put on a good show and perform well,” Nebraska cross country and distance coach David Harris said. “I think it’s his charisma and his self confidence that he likes to put himself out there in a position to try to win and perform his best every time out.”
 
He certainly did that day. More than 2,500 fans stood and roared as Kusche entered his final lap at the Devaney Sports Center. The freshman finished first with a school-record time of 3:59.61.
 
“At the end of the day, it’s still entertainment,” Kusche said. “You still want people to be engaged. And I think it’s too bad that track and field doesn’t always get fans engaged, because at the end of the day, the sport is nothing without fans. I think it’s really important to get the community engaged.
 
“One thing I’ve learned about Nebraska, people don’t really care what the sport is, as long as you do well. I’m not expecting to fill stands with 90,000 people like football, but I think if you do your part and you run hard and run well and represent Nebraska in an honorable way, then people will be engaged and interested in what you’re doing and support you.”
 
Once again, Kusche is in the spotlight, with an opportunity to make Nebraska history, pleasing his fans in the process.
 
Kusche will attempt to become Nebraska’s first All-American cross country runner since 1997 when he runs in Saturday’s NCAA Championships in Terre Haute, Indiana. He placed 55^th last year as a freshman, and is the first Husker to qualify for the national meet in consecutive years since James Bowler in 2001 and 2002.
 
“I think I learned a lot from last year’s race, in terms of the quality of people you have around you and the depth of the competition,” Kusche said. “I’ll take that experience, and I’m pretty sure I’ll be able to race better.”
 
The top 40 finishers earn All-America honors, although Kusche is setting his sights higher, eyeing a finish in the top 10. Only three Nebraska men’s runners have done that in school history – Jonah Kiptaurs (second, 1996), Jean Verster (fifth, 1985) and Cleophas Boor (sixth, 1997).
 
Earlier this season, Kusche finished second in the Big Ten Championships, the first runner-up finish by a Nebraska men’s runner in a conference meet since Boor in 1997. Kusche also won the Greeno/Dirksen Invitational, placed fifth at Pre-Nationals and seventh at the NCAA Midwest Regional.
 
“The NCAA is very competitive. It’s incredibly deep, the competition,” Kusche said. “I don’t think you’ll find that anywhere else in the world. Like in high school, I did local cross country meets – not seriously, but I competed. And it wasn’t nearly as competitive as it is in America.
 
“You pretty much have to push yourself from the start to the end. If you give up the last half a mile, there’s going to be 20, 30 people passing you. You have to stay mentally sharp, because as soon as you give up, there’s going to be a whole lot of people overtake you.”

 

Kusche actually grew up wanting to play rugby, a popular sport in South Africa. Running wasn’t a mainstream sport, and therefore didn’t entice him as much.

 

“I’m sure boys in America grow up thinking they want to become a football player. Especially if you grow up in Nebraska. You want to be the quarterback,” Kusche said. “But then when reality sets in, you realize maybe that won’t be an option because you don’t do as well as you thought you would.”

 

In Kusche’s case, he realized he simply wasn’t big enough to play rugby, even though he loved playing the sport.

 

“I was pretty skinny and not that tall,” he said. “I tried my best, but you find when you play against 200-pound people and you’re only 150 pounds. …”

 

He quickly discovered he was better suited for distance running.

 

“If you find you’re good at a skill, you learn to like it,” Kusche said. “As soon as I started running well, I fell in love with running. Running is also a tool to reach people and live a good lifestyle. If you can harness that, you stay motivated and keep your love for running.”

 

Kusche became interested with Nebraska in part because of Verster, who’s also from South Africa.

 

“I knew of him and I knew he came here, and when I heard about Nebraska, he spoke highly of Nebraska,” Kusche said, “so I thought it would be a good fit.”

 

A very good fit, actually, given Kusche’s penchant for pleasing fans, and fans showing appreciation for success.

 

“George is an elite athlete, so when he stepped on our campus, we knew that we had a very good person, character and athlete,” Harris said. “It’s not hard for him to represent us very, very well.”

 

Harris admits it’s rare to have an athlete as passionate about pleasing fans and performance as Kusche.

 

“I had a really good athlete when I was here the first time named Dieudonne Kwizera, and he definitely, when he ran in the Devaney Center, he’d acknowledge the crowd,” Harris said. “George is that same way, and maybe even more. He wanted to perform in front of the home crowd last year indoors. Every time we have a home meet in cross country, he says he’s running that meet at home.”

 

Kusche’s workload, however, became taxing, especially for a first-year runner.

 

“Last year I competed a lot,” Kusche said. “This year I won’t be competing as much, because it’s a long season, and you realize halfway through the season how long it is. On paper, it doesn’t seem that long, but as soon as you get into races week in and week out, you get tired.”

 

Harris agreed, saying that upon further evaluation, coaches should have held back Kusche more often, picking and choosing certain meets.

 

“We’re doing that now,” Harris said. “We project him to the national meet every single season now, so we know there’s going to be a big meet at the end of the year. So we’re going to be much more careful in the future of racing too much.”

 

Of course, Kusche will still run in the major home meets, like the Frank Sevigne Husker Invitational, where he ran his record mile time last year, and the Nebraska Invitational for the outdoor season.

 

After Saturday’s race, Kusche will take a week off before focusing on the indoor track season. And yes, he’ll again target to run a sub-4 mile at the Devaney Center, and improve on his personal-best time.

 

Give the fans what they want, right?

 

“I’m pretty sure I’ll be able to break my record,” Kusche said. “I’m in a lot better shape, I’m a lot stronger than I was last year. I’m pretty sure I’ll be able to break the time that I set last year.”

 

Reach Brian at brosenthal@huskers.com or follow him on Twitter @GBRosenthal.