BYU's Diljeet Taylor, Oregon's Jerry Schumacher and Shalane Flanagan, NAU's Mike Smith Selected as Coaches For Nike's New Pro Training Network

By Oliver Hinson for DyeStat

Nike announced the formation of Swoosh TC, a “network of elite distance runners, coaches, and innovators” Friday morning.

The network will consist of track clubs in Eugene, Oregon; Provo, Utah; and Flagstaff, Arizona; each led by storied coaches. Jerry Schumacher and Shalane Flanagan, the track and cross country coaches at the University of Oregon, will lead the Eugene club. Diljeet Taylor, the women’s cross country coach and associate director of track and field at BYU, will lead the Provo club. Mike Smith will lead the Flagstaff club, with his wife and Tokyo Olympian Rachel Smith following his final year as the head coach of the Northern Arizona University cross country and track and field programs.

“Our aspiration is to be the most dynamic, collaborative, and competitive professional run club,” Taylor said in a release from Nike. “We’re doing that through working as a collective to fulfill athletes’ dreams, helping them unleash their potential and creating a community where they can be successful.”

Each club will have a physical hub and resources that all pro Nike athletes can use, regardless of where they live and train. 

The Eugene club will be a new version of the Bowerman Track Club, which moved its professional branch from Portland to Eugene in 2022 (the youth, masters and community club will remain unchanged in Portland). The Flagstaff and Provo clubs are mostly new developments, although Taylor has coached Whittni Orton, Courtney Wayment and Anna Camp-Bennett in Provo under the name “TaylorMade Elite,” and Smith has coached Woody Kincaid, Nico Young, Nikki Hiltz and other pros in Flagstaff for the last few years.

According to a Nike spokesperson, non-Nike athletes that train with these coaches can continue to train with them until their contracts are up, and they will not have access to the Swoosh TC resources.

Smith announced last August that he would be stepping down as the head coach at NAU after the 2025 outdoor season to coach professionals full-time. In eight years with the program, he has led them to five national championships.

Taylor will keep her job at BYU, as it is a Nike-sponsored school, and Schumacher and Flanagan will likely also stay on at Oregon.

The project could give new life to Nike’s pro running scene; after the exodus of many of Bowerman’s top athletes in the past few years, as well as the dissolution of the Nike Oregon Project, the company has lacked a premier destination for their top athletes.