A lot can happen in 24 years.
That’s how much time has passed since Tom Heinonen took the reigns as head coach for the Oregon women’s track team.
As the lead Duck, he’s seen and accomplished a lot. His success has earned him international coaching jobs, such as coaching the U.S. junior women’s team in the 1989 World Cross Country Championships in Norway.
However, like anyone else who coaches a sport, Heinonen has had his ups and downs.
But unfortunately, more of the latter as of late.
Oregon finished last place at the Pacific-10 Conference Championships last weekend. Of all places, it happened at Oregon’s own Hayward Field.
It was the first time ever Heinonen’s Ducks wound up in the conference cellar.
“This is in fact a young team,” Heinonen said. “Last year we graduated a huge number of seniors, and it was clear from day one that we’d be far below our previous standards.
“I knew this was coming. I knew we’d be at or near the bottom six weeks ago, but I didn’t want to advertise it then. I could read the handwriting on the wall.”
Four of his athletes this season — middle distance runner Katie Crabb, javelin thrower Karis Howell, discus thrower Mary Etter and pole vaulter Niki Reed — did make it to the NCAA Championships being held this week in North Carolina.
Still, Heinonen is faced with a challenge of putting more of his athletes back in that position.

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Heinonen has always managed to find success when it comes to running.
A student-athlete at Minnesota, Heinonen received All-American accolades on the track and won the 1969 AAU marathon one year after graduation.
Since becoming the Oregon women’s track and field coach in 1976, he’s captured nine Pac-10 titles and three NCAA titles. He’s produced 13 NCAA individual champions and 71 track and cross country All-Americans.
But something began to change in 1986. The core group of seniors that led Oregon to an NCAA crown the previous season left, and Heinonen knew he couldn’t make his new squad perform like a group of veteran athletes. The Ducks won the Pac-10 title but finished with zero points at the next NCAA meet.
“At that point, I never thought we’d get back up to the national level again,” Heinonen said. “But we did. We went from top-to-bottom in a hurry.”
Oregon hasn’t been the NCAA champion since its 1985 title. But by 1988, his team was back on the national scoreboard — in third place.

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Coaching can only go so far in a great track and field team.
A great team also must have great athletes.
The Ducks were already an established women’s track and field team when Heinonen took over. Oregon’s most famous athlete of all time, Steve Prefontaine, died the previous year, but his legacy remained heavily felt.
Prefontaine’s influence continues to bring athletes to Oregon.
But according to Heinonen, not as much for the women.
Because when the Oregon women were inducted into the NCAA in the late 1980s and the NorPac Conference became the Pac-10, the track and field scholarship market boomed on a nationwide scale. History began meaning less and money began meaning more.
Track was a staple sport for the Ducks, but scholarships were focused on Oregon’s revenue sports.
Other schools began giving more lucrative scholarships early.
Oregon did not.
“We still offered athletes what they were worth, and then they earned more with their performances,” Heinonen said. “We were losing out on athletes left and right.
“Full rides are now required to recruit. Lesser schools are offering full rides. We realize we have to do that to get people to come here.”

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Heinonen said what happened to his team this season is comparable to what happened in 1986.
The Ducks didn’t fall from the top — they scored just four points at the NCAA meet last season, tying for 51st overall — but more than half of Heinonen’s team are underclassmen.
Heinonen challenged his team to score 74 points at next season’s Pac-10 meet. To do so would double Oregon’s score this season.
“We’re much better than we showed at the Pac-10 meet,” he said. “That’s simply with the people we have returning, not considering next year’s newcomers.”
The Ducks haven’t slipped lately at the national level. This week, the Oregon women have four athletes at the NCAA Championships in Durham, N.C.
“I don’t know if we can ever get back up to first, given today’s recruiting,” Heinonen said, “but I think we can be competitive and respectable.”
Heinonen has hope but looks ahead with a careful eye.
“We’ll see next year whether this was a bump in the road, or a fork in the road,” He said. “We’ll have the same coaches and the same amount of money to recruit with. I have every reason to think that we’ll get back to being respectable again, but talk is cheap. We have to make it happen.”