Coach Joe Lee Has Program Humming Along, Embraces 'Unconventional' Model

Story by Oliver Hinson for DyeStat

Photos courtesy Erica Calhoun

INTERVIEWS

POTOMAC, Md. - On a sunny, slightly windy afternoon, Joe Lee walks through the gates of the track at the Bullis School. He sports his signature look, a black sweater and a Yankees hat. 

Almost immediately, he walks over to Ashley Wallace, a professional hurdler and Bullis alum who competed at Kansas and now trains under Lee. Wallace finished eighth in the women’s 60 meter hurdles at the USATF Indoor Championships last Saturday, and Lee gives her some feedback on the race. They’ll be working on form this week.

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After that, he walks around the track, sending out a flurry of high fives and checking on his athletes, most of whom are in different stages of their warm-up.

“It’s pretty crazy today,” Lee says. Some of Lee’s best athletes are still in the school building, preparing for a slate of exams this week. Practice will be especially fragmented today, with no more than a few athletes starting and ending at the same time. He doesn’t mind the craziness for a few reasons.

First, this week isn’t that heavy in terms of stimulus. Most of the real work, Lee says, was done in the fall and early winter.

“By now, the money’s in the bank,” Lee said. “We’re not making deposits anymore. We’re making withdrawals off of the deposits that have happened in September, October, November and December.”

At this point in the season, the Bullis athletes are already deep into competition. New Balance Nationals Indoor is only three weeks away, and this weekend, most of Lee’s roster will be competing at The CIRCUIT in Philadelphia at the brand new Ott Center.

The meet will feature some of the best teams in the Mid-Atlantic, including Bishop McNamara MD, St. John’s College DC and Dematha Catholic MD, as well as some of the best athletes in the country, such as Jayden Horton-Mims and Elise Cooper.

Lee’s athletes, of course, are some of the biggest headliners. On the girls side, Payton Payne, Morgan Rothwell, Sydney Sutton, Kennedy Brown, and Kassidy Hopkins all hold top 10 national marks, and Gabby White (US#15 55mH) and Chrishelle Campbelle (US #18 300m) aren’t far behind. Their 4x200 and 4x400 relay teams are also ranked US#1.

The boys team carries some big names as well. Olympian and gold medalist Quincy Wilson is naturally the biggest of them all, but he is far from the only star. Colin Abrams is US#4 in the 600, 800 and 1000 meters. Connor Salmin, a recent transfer from Woodgrove VA, sits at US#10 in the 200 meters, and Cameron Homer is in the top 20 in the 200, 300 and 400 meters. Alex Lambert is US#10 in the 500 meters and US#19 in the 600 meters.

They certainly showcased their depth at the VA Showcase in January, when their sprint medley relay team set a national record of 3:22.50 — without Wilson.

Both teams, but especially the girls, gladly chase their own lofty goals and answer to expectations; with a roster containing so many high-caliber athletes and a season already ripe with history-making performances, onlookers have looked to the history books. The title “greatest high school team of all time” is not out of the question. Lee knows this, but he doesn’t let it get to him or his athletes.

“Expectations really, to me, start internally,” Lee says. “It’s really about what you believe you can do yourself. Everything else outside of that is just projections or opinions.”

Lee is surprisingly nonchalant for someone managing a team with as much talent as this one, both in an overall sense and in the moment. He is soft-spoken, only raising his voice to give real-time feedback, like, “Core tight!” and “Hips up!”

At times, his calmness is almost disorienting. He says nearly eight or nine workouts are happening simultaneously, and he is keeping tabs on all them while also giving an interview and taking phone calls through the Airpod in his left ear. It’s almost a guess where his next word will be directed; he’ll start a sentence asking one of their athletes how they’re feeling, and he’ll end it by telling another to go to the weight room.

Even a low-key practice is a constant, metaphorical game of Whac-a-Mole.

Part of the reason he’s able to manage it well is because of his staff. He has 13 assistant coaches, most of whom specialize in a certain event, so they are able to give a lot of attention to a small group of athletes. He knows what workout they’re doing, and he’s going to check in on them, but he doesn’t have to be the one getting it started. 

He says that, in the same way a great sports team has to have great athletes, a great “leadership team” has to have great leaders.

“You can’t be afraid to bring people in who know more than you or who are better than you at something,” Lee says. “I love that. I embrace that.”

Still, he makes sure to give care to all of his athletes.

“The key,” Lee says, “is making sure everyone feels like they have a part in this thing and that they have my attention.”

About 25 minutes into practice, Wilson makes his way down to the track. He will demand much of Lee’s attention today because, as Lee puts it, he is “a pro who’s in high school.”

Wilson is especially jovial today, perhaps because of his fifth place finish at the USATF Indoor Championships last weekend, or maybe because the temperatures in Potomac are finally trending upwards after an unusually cold and snowy winter. He carries a wide, infectious smile, of which Lee is a victim the moment he sees him.

Today, Wilson’s workout is nothing too strenuous: sets of short repeats with short rest that he knocks out in 12 seconds each. After one of his sets, he walks up to Lee and takes the hat off of his head. 

“You see what I have to deal with?” Lee jokes.

But he is not upset. His athletes are encouraged to have fun at practice — “life is already stressful enough,” he says. There is a mutual trust between athlete and coach; the athletes know that their program is working and that Lee respects and cares deeply about them, while Lee knows that the respect is returned and that they are invested in their training. The reward for both parties is that practice doesn’t have to be a stiff, formal affair.

“When you respect them and care about them,” Lee says of his athletes, “they’re gonna give you their best.”

At meets, the atmosphere isn’t much different. When it’s time to work, they work, but they also take time to throw a water bottle around like it’s a football. Both rituals are important.

Remarkably, they are able to switch from work to play almost instantly. Between reps of his workout, Wilson jokes around with his teammates, but as soon as Lee says “ready,” Wilson stops mid-sentence and reclaims his signature intense look. When he throws his hand up and Lee yells “12!” the smile comes back.

In Lee’s view, this is a microcosm of the program he’s built over the last 12 years. He keeps coming back to one word to describe it all: “unconventional.” It’s a word that outsiders have used to describe him and the program, and he embraces it.

“When you do things in an unconventional way and produce excellence,” Lee says, “it demands the attention of the world.”

Lee has hammered this home for all of his athletes, and they understand what having the attention of the world means. In many of their interviews — both today and throughout their careers — they talk about wearing the “Bullis B” on their uniforms. Sutton, a senior and a leader in the program, says being part of a program so widely known for its excellence creates some pressure.

“You have an expectation to hold,” Sutton says, “that once you wear the Bullis B, you’re gonna perform the best you can perform, do the best you can, and you’re gonna do something crazy, something good.”

However, the “B” also reminds them that they have a wide network of support, including coaches, trainers, alumni, parents and friends. When they step on the brand new track at the University of Pennsylvania this Saturday, they’ll know it took a village to get them there.

“Every time we go out on the track with a Bullis uniform on,” Abrams says, “we know we’re running for something bigger than ourselves.”