[media-credit name=’Derek Montgomery’ align=’alignnone’ width=’648′][/media-credit]For over three decades, you couldn’t discuss Badger women’s track or cross country without mentioning the name Peter Tegen. Tegen became synonymous with the sports, and had been the only face behind the teams since their inception. But after a bitter confrontation, legal battles and even a plea from players, the university decided to end Tegen’s time at the helm after last season.

Enter Jim Stintzi.

Stintzi, who will take over the UW women’s track and cross country teams, was a seven-time All-American and six-time Big Ten Champion when he donned the cardinal and white during the late 70’s and early 80’s. The Menomonee Falls, Wis. native was named the Athlete of the Championship at the 1981 Big Ten Championships.

Stintzi also coached briefly at UW during the 1983 season as a temporary assistant coach after the untimely death of former men’s coach Dan McClimon. Despite his heavy ties to Madison, Stintzi nearly passed up the job.

“[The Athletic Department] called me, and I actually originally turned down the job,” Stintzi said. “But when I thought about it I called them back. And when I came here I was really blown away with the commitment to the sport from the athletic department.”

Though the visit left Stintzi excited about the Badgers program, there was still the difficulty of moving his family away from their home.

“My family played a big factor in my decision,” Stintzi said. “One of the difficult decisions in coming here was because we’d been in Michigan for 20 years. And I actually still have two children who go to Michigan St. On the other hand, I have extended family that is right in the area. So it really was a situation of, ultimately, long term what would be the best situation for the family. And we thought that the best situation was here in Madison.”

Once he decided on the best family situation, Stintzi was forced into the difficult position of replacing the father of the Badger women’s cross country and track and field teams. And while Stintzi relishes the chance to coach in Madison, he is well aware of the situation to which he is entering.

“It’s an honor to replace him, but it was a little bit of a touchy situation,” Stintzi said. “I don’t know the ins and outs of it, but I’m not sure he was quite ready to retire. He’d been here a long time, and it will definitely be a challenge to replace him.”

Stintzi joins the Badgers after a successful 20-year coaching career at rival Big Ten school Michigan State. During his time with the Spartans, Stintzi spent 16 years as the head coach of the men’s team before spending his last four years in the dual capacity of men’s and women’s head cross country coach.

In the four seasons Stintzi coached the Michigan State women, he led the team to the NCAA championships three times. During those years the lady Spartans won the Big Ten title in 2001, and followed up the performance with back-to-back second place finishes in 2002 and 2003.

His brief period with the women’s squad also garnered him Big Ten coach of the year accolades following the 2001 season. Even more remarkable is the fact that Stintzi managed this after the women’s job basically fell into his lap.

“There was an opening that came up there really late, it was almost September when the coach left,” Stintzi said. “So they asked me if I would do it for a year and if it worked out well we’d keep on doing it, and it worked out well. And I enjoyed it, I enjoyed coaching both.”

However, the current state of this year’s Badger cross country team looks quite different than the Michigan State program Stintzi was handed five years ago. With the difficulties surrounding Tegen’s exit the Badgers barely landed a recruiting class, bringing in only one freshman to join this year’s young squad, which lost several key contributors from last year’s team.

“Cross country I think this is going to be a rebuilding year for us,” Stintzi said. “From this year to last year there were four of the top five gone, and because of the transitional situation there wasn’t a lot of recruiting. So we’re just hoping to build this year and try and make a strong showing during the season.”

While the recruiting situation for this year was less than stellar, Stintzi is confident that the allure of the UW program’s history will be more than enough to draw in recruits next season with a stable coaching situation in place.

“Frankly I hadn’t done a lot of recruiting in Wisconsin because a lot of the athletes in the state of Wisconsin have Wisconsin as their first choice,” Stintzi said. “The kids here dream of going to Wisconsin, so it’s hard to get them out of the state.”

The in-state recruiting will also bring a big lift to the track and field team. This is Stintzi’s first time as the head coach of a track and field team, though he spent many years as an assistant with the Spartans. Despite the lack of head coaching experience, Stintzi believes his assistant coaching experience and experience as an athlete should ease any difficulties in the transition.

“I’ve always coached both; I wasn’t the head coach at Michigan St. but I still coached it,” Stintzi said. “I mean I’ve been around track and field and no, head coaching isn’t the same thing, but I don’t expect to see any difficulties in the transition.”

Perhaps the most difficult transition for Stintzi was saying good-bye to all of his athletes in East Lansing.

“Yeah, that was really difficult,” Stintzi said. “And even more than the ones I had just recruited were the ones that had been there for years. They had spent a lot of time and commitment in the program, and you have those relationships with them so that makes it tough.”

The Badgers will be hoping that tough transition won’t be coming for him again anytime in the near future.