Goodbye NAZ Elite

It is time for me to announce that after 11 wonderful years I have left HOKA NAZ Elite and will once again be launching a new venture (to be revealed December 18). Back in January of 2014 when NAZ Elite was born, it was just my wife Jen and I and our original roster of nine athletes. From the beginning, we treated the team like a business and took a calculated approach to everything from training, to race decisions, to social media strategies, and...of course...to sponsorships. With the help of my good friend, Josh Cox, and armed with the awesome results that our athletes posted throughout the first year of our existence, we were able to reach a title sponsorship agreement with HOKA in February of 2015. It is not hyperbole to say that the HOKA partnership changed my life, and the lives of our athletes, and I will be forever grateful to the brand and its leaders for the belief they showed in us back then, and have continued to show in us, for the last 10 years.

Before that deal was struck we had already made the decision to dissolve our original LLC and switch NAZ Elite over to a non-profit organization committed to helping our athletes and the greater running community. As such, we created a Board of Directors and for the vast majority of the last decade that Board has consisted of Peter Abraham, Paul Brinkmann, Pamela and Ted MacMahon, and Bob Tusso. I owe each of them a tremendous amount of gratitude for their guidance and their commitment to the organization. I am proud of all of the ways we stayed true to our mission and I am proud of how we navigated the team through all of the ups and downs that are inevitable in the sports business world.

I feel a similar debt of gratitude to the city of Flagstaff and all of the wonderful people I have met during my time here. It was always important to me personally, and to our team, to be a real part of the Flagstaff community. Over the years, at various times, I have coached the Mt Elden Middle School cross country team, served as a volunteer assistant at Flagstaff High School, directed the Kids on the Run program at Sechrist Elementary, coached the Mogollon Monsters Youth Track Club, and co-hosted the Northern Arizona Middle School Cross Country Championships. As a result, I have met countless friends, worked with amazing young people, and created lasting memories that collectively made my time in Flagstaff more special than I could possibly convey.

Beyond Flagstaff, it was an important part of our team’s mission to seek out and elevate running communities around the world. Early on we were able to forge a relationship with the Hopi High School cross country team and over the years our NAZ athletes and coaches have visited the Hopi Reservation, and our annual Trivia Night has raised thousands of dollars for their program. Following the civil unrest during the summer of 2020, we reached out and partnered with the Ferguson Twilight Run in Ferguson, Mo. to ensure that we were helping promote diversity in the sport. Taking NAZ athletes to Ferguson to speak to elementary and middle school students were some of the most meaningful moments for me over these last couple of years.

But ultimately, my favorite memories occurred between January of 2014 through the spring of 2022 when I served as the team’s head coach, a time period that produced some of the very best days of my entire life. I am so thankful for those days, and so grateful to those I shared them with. I will never forget watching Amy Van Alstine win our first national title at the 2014 USATF Cross Country Championships or Matt Llano running a 1:01:47 half marathon and qualifying for the World Championships. I’ll always cherish running around San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park in 2015, watching our men win the USATF Club Cross Country title (even though Craig Lutz went out too fast!). Our first Olympic Trials Marathon was in Los Angeles in 2016 and I vividly remember tearing up during the national anthem, and doing so again before the start of the 10,000 meters at the Olympic Track Trials in Eugene. The visceral emotions that sport induces are tough to beat.

By the time 2018 came around we were really clicking on all cylinders. The core of the team organically became a group of five athletes: Stephanie Bruce, Scott Fauble, Scott Smith, Kellyn Taylor, and Aliphine Tuliamuk. In a three-year stretch those five athletes won 18 races—including five national titles, posted six World Marathon Major Top 10s, and all five finished inside the top 20 at the 2020 Olympic Trials Marathon—led by Aliphine’s historic victory. I don’t know if I’ll ever have the type of collective relationship with a group of people that I had with those five. It was a special time to say the least.

I would be remiss not to also mention at least a few other highlights. On the field of play, things like riding a rental bike all over Houston following Alice Wright as she ran her marathon debut and finished in second place after a furious sprint to the finish; lifting a sprawled-out Matt Baxter up off of the BU indoor track after he set a New Zealand national record; screaming for virtual unknown Rochelle Kanuho on her way to a seventh-place finish at the Olympic Trials 10,000 meters; and giving Tyler Day a hug after his first race back following nearly four years of battling injuries. Off the field there were fun moments like the unforgettable 2020 Olympic Trials after party; playing blackjack into the wee hours of the morning in a tiny Prague casino with Josh and Kellyn’s husband, Kyle; or having a celebratory beer with Scott Fauble’s parents after his seventh-place finish at the 2019 Boston Marathon. I also had the honor of watching Scott and his wife Hayley get married, Eric Fernandez and his wife Angela, Craig Lutz and his wife Meg, and Scott Smith and his wife, Nicole, (that one was followed by some epic late-night karaoke). I could go on and on because, honestly, I feel like I had a lifetime of memories in these 11 years.

But all good things must come to an end. I made the choice in 2022 to focus on my role as Executive Director and though I am proud of the things we’ve accomplished in the last three years on the business side, the role ultimately wasn’t as fulfilling as I’d hoped. Fortunately, the team is in a great place and I am confident is on the precipice of another revolutionary cycle in its storied history. Head coach Jack Mullaney is the quintessential modern professional sports leader. He’s got an incredible work ethic. He’s bright. He’s a great orator and motivator. And he coaches not only with a drive to win, but also with compassion. In his 14 months with NAZ, the athletes have set team records at 1500 (men and women), Mile (men), 3,000 meters (men), 5,000 meters (men and women), 10,000 meters (men), 15k (men), 10 miles (men), Half Marathon (women) and Marathon (men). They’ve also won two U.S. road titles (8k and 5k), placed 5th at World Indoors (3,000 meters), 9th at the Chicago Marathon, 10th at the NYC Marathon, and 10th at the Olympic Games (10,000 meters).  

I wish Jack, his staff, and the entire roster the best of luck, moving forward. To all of the athletes, agents, race directors, co-workers, colleagues, and NAZ interns that I did not have the time to mention in this statement please know that I enjoyed working with you, and getting to know you, and I hope our paths will cross again soon. And finally, a giant thank you to the HOKA NAZ Elite fans all over the world that I spoke to every week in our e-newsletter, interacted with on social media, and met at hundreds of races across the globe. You have all meant a great deal to me and I hope you will continue to cheer for the team—I know I will.

As I said in many an email to the athletes over the years,

Onward... 

BEN ROSARIO