Newark Athletics

New Brunswick Athletics

Joe Puleo

Joe Puleo returns for his third season with the Rutgers-Camden cross country program after watching his Lady Raptors team collect several honors last year on their way to finishing fifth at the New Jersey Athletic Conference Championships. Joelle Diener earned Second Team All-NJAC honors, and also was one of four Lady Raptors to capture All-New Jersey Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women honors.

Puleo also has coached the Rutgers-Camden track program for two seasons, where he has guided Tameka Jackson to All-American status each year in the 100-meter dash. She is the only female All-American in the history of the Rutgers-Camden track program.

In addition to Diener, the Lady Raptors' cross country team featured All-NJAIAW performers Rachel McCormick, Sarah Roberts and Erin Rajauski last fall. Both Diener and McCormick return to the women's team this season.

On the men's side, the Scarlet Raptors finished eighth again at the NJAC Cross Country Championships last fall, but the team has been bolstered this season by three newcomers and the addition of former track captain Taiwan Lamb, who last ran cross country for Rutgers-Camden as a freshman. The anchor for the men's team is fourth-year runner Chris McGowan, who was the Scarlet Raptors' top runner in every meet last fall.

In Puleo's first year with the cross country program in 2003, he saw Tina DiGiovanni become the only First Team All-NJAC cross country runner in Rutgers-Camden history. That honor came after Puleo helped revive a women's program that was absent in 2002 due to a lack of numbers.

While DiGiovanni's success was the highlight of the Lady Raptors' rejuvenated program, the men also saw a measure of success in 2003. Led by McGowan, the men were able to field a complete team in all six of their races, only the second time the Raptors had a complete team in all their races since restarting the men's cross country program in 1992.

Puleo's track teams placed six new marks in the school record books during the spring 2005 season, raising the bar 14 times on those various records. The track season was capped by 11 team and individual honors at the NJAC meet, ranging from First Team to Honorable Mention All-NJAC status, and the women's team finished third at the NJAC Championships, earning Puleo honors as the NJAC Co-Coach of the Year. The track season ended with Jackson earning her second consecutive Division III All-American honor at the NCAA Championships.

During his first year with the track program in 2004, the Raptors broke 18 school records, raising the bar repeatedly in several categories. They eventually established five new Rutgers-Camden school records for both the men and the women.

Puleo, who has coached at Paul VI High School in Haddon Township and has worked with many post-collegiate runners, is a 1984 graduate of Phoenixville Area (PA) High School. He was a member of the scholastic wrestling program at Phoenixville.

Puleo continued his education at the College of William and Mary before transferring to Elizabethtown College. He earned five varsity letters for the Blue Jays - three in cross country and two in swimming - and was named the cross country team MVP during his senior year. He graduated cum laude from Elizabethtown College in 1989 with a B.A. in English Literature.

Since that time, Puleo has built a strong reputation among running circles. He has been the owner and operator of the Haddonfield Running Company, a retail specialty store, for the past nine years.

Puleo has coached numerous post-collegiate runners, including Cassy Byrne of Pottstown, PA, whose debut marathon time of 2:40.28 was the 12th-best time for U.S. women in 2002. He also has worked with Sean Mick (Pitman, NJ/Delsea High School), a 4:04 miler, and Abby Dean (Philadelphia, PA), who finished fifth among all female runners in the Broad Street 10-mile Run in Philadelphia in May. Dean served as Puleo's assistant cross country coach in 2003.

Puleo was the boys' head cross country coach at Paul VI from 2000-02, where he led his team to a trio of Olympic National Division championships and the overall Olympic Conference title in 2001. His team extended the school's amazing consecutive dual meet winning streak, which started in 1980, to 216 straight victories. The Eagles, who went 17-0 in dual meets under Puleo, finished fourth, third and fifth in the state meet during his three seasons.

A resident of Phoenixville, PA, Puleo and his wife Lyndi, have two children.