East Carolina Track assistant coach takes long road back to program

The East Carolinian continues the special series of profiling former East Carolina  student-athletes who now work for the university with former track athlete and now assistant track coach Udon Cheek.

Coach Udon Cheek came to ECU’s track program in 1987 as a walk-on. Cheek said that his father gave him one year to get a scholarship or he would have to come back home to Manassas, Virginia; after all, out-of-state tuition is not cheap.

“I just worked,” said Cheek about his time as a walk-on. “I used to envision everyone who had a scholarship with a dollar sign on their back. So every time I ran against them I would envision I was chasing them, and every time I beat them I’d say ‘cha-ching.’”

Cheek said he was dedicated to not going back home, not because home was bad, but because he really wanted to run for a Division I program and ECU was the only one interested.

“I used to run to class everyday,” said Cheek. “I would put all my books, even the ones I didn’t need, into my backpack. I’d put on my backpack and run to class with my heavy backpack on my back. Even when I watched TV, I would stretch while I was watching TV. On the commercial breaks I would do crunches or pushups. I was determined to get better. I did not want to go home because people said I wasn’t good enough.”

Cheek said that he wasn’t offered a scholarship until spring semester 1989, after he had went home and trained. Cheek said that George Mason Hall of Fame Head Coach John Cook asked ECU Head Coach Bill Carson to let Cheek run for George Mason. Instead Coach Carson gave Cheek a 50 percent scholarship, which was about the cost of George Mason as a walk-on. Cheek continued his hard work, and eventually earned a 75 percent scholarship.

Cheek’s scholarship ran out before he could finish his degree. So Cheek was forced to drop out so he could continue to support himself. Cheek then began his coaching career as a volunteer at ECU with the women’s track team. He volunteered for four years before he had to leave for personal reasons.

Cheek pursued a music career for a while. Cheek even wrote the song, “Purple and Gold”, which is often played at ECU sporting events.

Cheek soon missed coaching, so he went back to volunteer coaching: this time at D.H. Conley High School. He coached there a year before he started coaching at J.H. Rose High School for six years. While he was volunteering at the high schools, he was also working at DSM Pharmaceuticals as an inspector. Cheek said that he would get off work just in time to go coach, which he said bothered him.

“I hated my job,” said Cheek. “One day, I went to the back and cried my eyes out and prayed. ‘Lord, I hate my job, and you’re the only one who knows it. God if there is anything that you have planned for me that I’m in the way of, Lord just remove me Lord. I just want to coach kids Lord, please.”

Cheek said that when he got off work that night, ECU had called him to interview for an assistant coaching vacancy. Cheek said he knew that the lack of the degree would hold him back. But his wife, former ECU sprinter Shantell Cheek, told him to still go to the interview.

Eight years later, Cheek is a graduate and assistant coach of ECU. Cheek said there is no better place for him.

“I am a proud Pirate,” said Cheek. “This is not a stepping stone for me. I am happy right here, where I’m at. There is no place for me, but here. Yeah, I could go to bigger programs, and do what I do now. But I love it here.”

During his time as a runner, Cheek ran 400-meter hurdles and the 4x400-meter relay. His efforts are highlighted by All-East (IC4A) honors for his participation on a 4x400-meter relay that qualified for the NCAA Track and Field Championships.

As a coach, he has trained NCAA Championship qualifiers, Conference USA champions, All-East (ECAC) sprinters and relay teams, as well as ECU record holders in the hurdles, sprints and relays.

Cheek is now a father to a eight-year-old daughter, Alyssa and a four-year-old son, Johnovan. Cheek said that coaching is his higher purpose.

“I just want to enrich these young men and women’s lives,” said Cheek. “I want to make sure all my athletes don’t make the same mistakes I did.”