The cross country coach that went the distance

PHOTO: Timothy Groth, associate head coach of DHS XC and track

By Jacqueline Rivera 

BlueDevilHUB.com Staff–

The power of loyalty is evidenced in Timothy Groth every day when he shows up to practice. Groth is the associate head coach for both Davis High cross country and track teams, and has been since 2009.

Groth is also the DHS campus safety coordinator and has been in this position since May of 2023. Before becoming coordinator, Groth was a campus safety supervisor for 10 years. 

Groth ran on the DHS cross country and track teams as a DHS student. After graduating in the class of 2004, Groth later returned, hoping to be on head coach Bill Gregg’s coaching staff.

Gregg told him that he needed more experience, so Groth became a coach for the Holmes Junior High cross country team. 

After about five years of coaching for Holmes, Groth returned to Gregg, requesting again to be a part of his coaching staff. This time, Gregg agreed, and Groth became part of his coaching staff in 2009. 

“Loyalty,” is what Gregg said Groth’s most admirable quality is. Groth loves interacting with the students. “He cares about what he does very deeply,” Gregg said.

“Ultimately I want students and athletes to know that I’m doing the job both as a coach and as a part of the security team because I am trying to make a better place for them,” Groth said. 

Groth loves coaching at DHS because he is able to see the variety of talent that the team is composed of. “My favorite part is watching athletes of any talent grow over the course of the year,” Groth said.

During Groth’s time running cross country and track at DHS as a junior he was diagnosed with a heart irregularity; he had an extra ventricle and that led to heart palpitations. He would pass out during both practice and races.  He had to wear a heart monitor for a while and that led to the discovery of this heart irregularity. This made it harder for him to progress throughout cross country. However in his senior year he went to the race in Mount Sac as a member of the varsity cross country team. 

Part of the reason he returned to DHS with the interest of becoming a coach is he missed being around the running community that DHS offered. 

After being a coach at DHS for 14 years he has become close with the head track coach Spencer Elliot as well as Gregg. Groth said both men have had an extremely positive impact on him as a person, and he considers both of them good friends.