Whelan takes on leadership role for Syracuse, looks to help team win Big East title

When Brian Whelan wanted to practice his running, he’d take his son, Joe, along with him to the track. Brian told his son to stay in the sandbox and practice long jumps, but Joe always ran out on the track alongside his father.

Whenever Brian had a race, Joe would ask to join.

“There was a race I asked if I could run in and he said I was too young, but when the gun went off I went anyways,” Joe Whelan said.

When he was 10, Whelan unknowingly completed his first 5K in 23 minutes. Brian was proud of his young son’s tenacity, realizing he raised a runner.

As a runner himself, Brian was hesitant to let his small son start cross country, knowing the stresses and injuries it could have on the body. Joe’s will to run overshadowed his father’s worries.

In the eighth grade, Whelan recorded times faster than high school runners in his hometown of Hamburg, N.Y. Hamburg’s high school head coach Ron Fortuna approached Joe and Brian, and asked Joe to try out for the varsity team.

Brian was hesitant to let his son run with older boys, but it was something Joe was willing to try.

“I talked to the coach and told him ‘I don’t want you running him a lot,’” Brian said. “He was running with juniors and seniors, like were they going to get mad at him?”

Recording the best times on the team, the upperclassmen gravitated to Whelan.

“They used to take him out for pizza,” Brian said. “Here is this little eighth grader, and all the older guys were taking him out all the time.”

Whelan applied the leadership role his high school teammates bestowed on him and translated it to being a team leader this season at Syracuse. As the team prepares to run in the Big East championship Oct. 26, Whelan’s goal is to bring another Big East title to the program.

One teammate he thinks can help the Orange accomplish this goal is freshman Daniel Lennon.

“He seems the strongest in the workouts,” Whelan said. “He’s not redshirting and we all understand he has a certain talent and he can help us out this year.”

For this reason, Whelan took Lennon under his wing. Resuming the leadership role did not always come naturally for Whelan as he needed a leader to be there for him too. After suffering an injury his sophomore year, Whelan almost walked away from cross country.

While ice skating with a group of friends, Whelan fell and fractured his knee. He then practiced on the fractured knee; the pressure caused it to break.

“It was a crazy accident,” Whelan said. “It’s just like your iPhone, you can drop it 100 times and it may not crack, but if you drop it that one time and it hits the right angle it may crack.”

The accident caused Whelan to reach his breaking point. Due to the extent of his recovery, Whelan struggled with not competing.

Through the encouragement of head coach Chris Fox, Whelan stuck with cross country. Whelan says Fox believed in him sometimes more than he believed in himself.

“I appreciate Joe’s words, but he was an easy one,” Fox said. “Joe was a good guy about rehabbing and doing the right things when he’s hurt”

Redshirt senior Griff Graves also played a role in sticking with cross country. He found hope in Graves, who did not run cross country for two years, but remained positive about getting better.

Though he’s a leader, Whelan still looks up to teammates.

“I look up to Griff,” Whelan said. “He’s been through injuries that needed surgery and he was able to bounce back. He is the epitome of a teammate.”