If you're looking for pieces to the personality puzzle that is Jerry Schumacher, go back eight days to when the University of Wisconsin men's cross country coach met with his team.

At issue was today's NCAA Division I championship meet in Terre Haute, Ind., where the Badgers are projected to contend for another national title.

Schumacher isn't one to wear his heart on his sleeve — even to his athletes — but his passion for the moment was on display for all those in attendance.

"I think he's more excited about this than some of his athletes are," sophomore Andrew Lacy said. "Some of his athletes are kind of scared. He's off the wall almost.

"He lives for this. We all live for this, but he absolutely loves cross country. He loves track, too, but he loves the dirt and grit of November running when it could be muddy or 10 degrees out.

"I think he probably goes home and doesn't sleep a wink. He told us that he's already run the race through his head about 1,000 times and seen 1,000 different outcomes for us as a team."

The fourth-ranked Badgers have finished in the top two at the national meet five straight years, a remarkable run of consistency that includes a title in 2005. They are among eight teams thought to have a shot at having the lowest score today on the 10,000-meter LaVern Gibson Cross Country Course.

Schumacher, 37, is a former UW All-American in cross country and track from Waukesha who took over the cross country program in 1998.

The Badgers have had a long tradition of excellence in the sport, having been the only team to earn a berth in the NCAA meet every year since regional qualifiers were introduced in 1972. That stretch includes the late Dan McClimon and Martin Smith — who coached Schumacher and now runs the show at Oklahoma — and includes NCAA titles in 1982, '85 and '88.

But the boyish, personable Schumacher appears to have taken things to another level.

In addition to five straight finishes in the top two — only Texas-El Paso, with six, had a longer streak since the course was changed from six miles to 10,000 meters in 1976 — UW has claimed a record nine consecutive Big Ten Conference titles.

Jim Stintzi coached against Schumacher when the former was at Michigan State and now has a front-row seat as overseer of the UW women's track and cross country programs.

"I honestly think Jerry's the best college distance coach out there right now," Stintzi said. "He does everything right. He recruits well. He works well with his athletes. He gets them ready at the right time of the year."

That time is now if the Badgers expect to get the upperhand today against the likes of Oregon, Northern Arizona, Texas-El Paso, Colorado, Iona, Stanford and Arkansas.

"This will be a fun one we haven't seen in years," Schumacher said. "A lot of times it's come down to a two- or three-way team battle out of 31 teams, and this year I think there's eight of those 31 that are really going to be banging away for the win."

Though calm at a news conference last Monday, Schumacher's enthusiasm for the task at hand was not lost on his athletes.

"He's twitching," junior Matt Withrow said. "We know he is."

Not just a coach

Withrow, from Tinley Park, Ill., remembers when Schumacher came to his home on a recruiting visit.

"I had other coaches come and they're in their clean-pressed pants and they have a sweater on from their university," Withrow said. "I think Jerry had a pair of jeans, a shirt — I don't even think it was tucked in — and a pair of sandals.

"I had a hard time pinning him down as a coach. That was my first impression of him."

Those who run for Schumacher — his UW student-athletes and a small, but elite collection of Olympic distance hopefuls — describe him in a variety of interesting ways, depending on the moment. To some he's a father figure. To some he's a friend. To some he's a big brother.

"He can be a little brother, too, sometimes," Withrow said.

Chris Solinsky is a Stevens Point product who won a school-record five NCAA individual titles under Schumacher. Solinsky, former UW teammates Simon Bairu and Matt Tegenkamp and former Stanford standout Jonathon Riley, a 2004 Olympian, now train with Schumacher in Madison with an eye toward the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China.

"(Schumacher) fills those roles when needed," Solinsky said. "If he needs to be a disciplinarian, he can be. If he needs to be someone that you can talk to about any kind of issue, he's there. He's a guy you can joke around with and have a lot of fun with."

Schumacher, who graduated from UW in 1993, is all business when it comes to workouts and the task of deciding who is best ready to run in a given meet.

But Schumacher has the type of engaging personality and youthful approach that allows him to fit into just about any social situation with his runners.

"He's not an old fossil, 40 years your senior, trying to tell you what to do," Lacy said. "He can really relate. He knows the struggle between running and school. He's really just a great guy like that.

"We come into the locker room joking about girlfriends and such and he'll be, 'You think that's a bad story about a girlfriend, let me tell you this one.' He'll kind of open himself up, which is really nice for a coach, because it helps you make this connection with him."

Schumacher and his wife, Kathy, have four children and live in McFarland. Those who know him say he loves sweets, has a problem with most vegetables and has been known to good-naturedly force his runners to listen to one of his favorite musical artists, Rod Stewart.

"He's a fun guy who knows what he's doing, thank God," Lacy said.

Secrets of his success

There are those in the distance running world — internationally as well as in college — who are curious about Schumacher's coaching methods.

Solinsky said he's talked with athletes and coaches, some from Europe, who think there is some sort of secret formula being used. He said Schumacher's system is simply about tailoring workouts — the levels of strength, speed and conditioning — to each individual and mixing in the right amount of psychology and intuition.

"He's able to make a hard session something that's not dreaded; it's kind of enjoyable," Solinsky said.

Withrow, who last month became the fifth UW runner to win a Big Ten individual title under Schumacher, said his coach is great at keeping things simple.

"Because running is such a pure and primal thing — there's no skill, it's pure effort — and it's such a basic, simple activity that he is able to make you kind of forget about everything else," Withrow said. "He's able to break things down real basically. He's really able to, in a mentoring sense, get you not to worry about little things."

Other Schumacher strengths are patience and adaptability.

"Every season's different," Lacy said. "Every athlete's going to have different issues. Every athlete's going to have a little injury, just about, every season. You can't be that rigid."

Lacy said Schumacher has a guideline for workouts, but the structure and timing vary.

"You might have a workout on Wednesday or you might have a workout on Friday and he doesn't know what it is," Lacy said. "He's not going to tell you what it is.

"You kind of get this dread if you're told that you're going to have this hard workout. You kind of over-think it. Not knowing what you're going to be running the next day is kind of a good thing."

Schumacher has had eight different runners place in the top five at the NCAA meet, including two-time winner Bairu in 2004 and '05.

Solinsky said Schumacher invests considerable time trying to figure out what training and fitness methods work best for each runner.

"Sometimes it takes him a year or two to really figure out 100 percent what each person needs," Solinsky said. "But once he figures it out, he's pretty dead on."

Schumacher has amazed his runners by mapping out how fast each will go in a given meet.

"He'll make a prediction of what he thinks they can do and he's pretty spot on, within a second or so each time," Solinsky said. "He's pretty good at knowing what his athletes can do once he figures them out."

Wonder what Schumacher has in mind for today?

"I would not put us as the favorite to win by any means," Schumacher said. "But I also wouldn't rule it out."