By Jack O'Marra
Coordinator, Sports Communication
 
KINGSTON, R.I. - There is a high likelihood of running into Jesse Principe on the campus of the University of Rhode Island. Whether it's on the football practice field assisting the athletic training staff for his internship, running at his multiple daily practices, or in the Kinesiology classroom, Principe packs his schedule with as much as he can to stay busy and gain valuable hands-on experience.
 
"My dad kind of just always instilled a good work ethic," Principe said. "I think that's where it comes from."
 
Principe's motivation not only stems from the work ethic instilled in him through his upbringing, but his drive to perform is elevated by the loss of a close friend in high school, who was a victim in a drunk driving accident.
 
"I kind of carry that with me," Principe said. "I think he would have been a college athlete. He was a very good hockey player. So, I am often thinking of that, thinking that's something I got to perform for; for him."
 
It was only fitting that Principe committed to running for URI and the Cross Country and Track & Field teams. A few years ago, the distance runners adopted a "blue-collar" mentality to identify the type of team they were. The group has worn hard hats for their annual photoshoot to represent that every year since. Now, in 2026, that identity is still embraced by the athletes, especially Principe.
 
"I think it was a year or two before I actually even came here," Principe said. "They had a lot of engineering majors on the team. So, they were joking around, saying we're blue-collar, and it's just a bunch of blue-collar type of guys. We don't really have that many engineering majors anymore, but it's something that just kind of stuck. And it kind of holds true because a lot of the guys are some gritty athletes, cross country especially. It's a sport where a lot of the time you've got to dig down and kind of just muscle through it. Having that extra grit will take you a long way."
 
Clearly, that has worked out well for this core group of runners. The cross country program was picked to finish fifth in the Atlantic 10 this season, the highest preseason selection in more than two decades. This comes off last season, when the team finished third at the A10 championships. Principe credits the buy-in from the athletes and upward trajectory of the program to the foundation being built by head coach Trent Baltzell and assistant coach Brian Doyle.
 
"Coach Doyle's really built our distance squad up from the ground," Principe said. "I remember my freshman year, we had a couple of guys who were really good, like Ben Fleischer. Coach Doyle is kind of the pathfinder for us. The crew that he's brought in and recruited, we've just built off of that. We're just trying to roll with it week by week and get better each week, and we think we may have a shot."

From a young age, Principe was well involved in sports. However, he did not take to running right away. Football was always the primary focus for him as it was his favorite sport to play, and it helped him continue to develop that extra edge he carries today. One thing Principe wanted to improve upon, however, was his conditioning. That's when he turned to running.
 
"My dad was training me in the off-season, and he said you should try track, because we would do a good amount of running," Principe said. "So, I started just running a mile here and there. And then the next day I went up to two, and then three."
 
Principe originally just used running to build endurance to prepare for football, but his consistency in training and hard work allowed him to join the track team in middle school and then eventually high school.
 
"I ran the 3000; it was an event nobody wanted to run," Principe said. "And I kind of had some instant success there. And then kind of took off and started doing track and cross country throughout high school."
 
Before he knew it, Principe was developing a solid resume of running in his hometown of West Warwick, and he ended up becoming a better runner than a football player. But he still wanted to stick with the game of football.
 
"So high school came around, and I had to decide if I was going to still try and do football or just fully commit," Principe said. "I tried to blend both of them, then junior year came around, and I had a season-ending elbow dislocation injury. So, I ended up finishing out the cross-country season, and then senior year, I had to make the call to not do football and run all three seasons."


 
Despite the injury, the decision worked in Principe's favor. He put his head down and continued to train and improve as a runner. Months later, he committed to run for the University of Rhode Island.
 
"URI was a school I had been thinking about going to, just keeping it local," Principe said. "I visited here and then Stonehill. Loved both of them, but at the end of the day, I love Rhode Island. I like being near the beach, and I had friends on the team who I raced against in high school. Then they all started committing, and I was like, 'You know what? That's kind of going to push me over the edge [to commit].'"
 
Now Principe is in his fourth year running with the cross country team, building off the success that is a result of his and the team's blue-collar efforts. His days don't just stop around the grueling task of running nearly 100 miles a week in practice and individual workouts. On the academic side, Principe studies Kinesiology in the College of Health Sciences. Principe is still figuring out the plan post-grad but is captivated by the widespread opportunities that come with the Kinesiology major.
 
"I feel it's a good gateway to branch off into a lot of different areas," Principe said. "But it also ties into what I'm doing as a sport and running specifically. You don't learn a lot of the fundamentals or skills, like you would with football. It's more about human physiology, biomechanics, stuff like that. So, I felt Kinesiology would kind of tie into the sport as well and help me there."
 
Principe's internship with the URI Athletics Sports Medicine department allows him to take the lessons he learns in the classroom and his understanding of the sport he competes in and put them together with real-world experience. The internship takes up most of his days, as he earns 12 credits working with the training staff and the different programs on campus, and he still gets to be around the game of football too.  
 
"It's great hands-on experience," Principe said. "With the internship, the biggest team that we work with is football. So, I go out to practice in the morning, then we do treatment. I usually practice, then I go right there and then go back to practice."
 
Principe keeps the blue-collar mindset regardless of what he does. He even has another job he works when he can to fill in the gaps of his schedule. If he can find any.
 
Now with just a week to go before championship season begins for URI Cross Country, Principe is hoping that the long hours and the work he's put in pays off for him and the team. His goal this season is getting his break on the course and being a key contributor to a conference championship. Something the program has never done.
 
"Winning that A10 championship and being a part of scoring, like one of our top five guys would be a huge, huge accomplishment in my eyes," Principe said. "Just having that one with the team would be very special. I just got to stack some good weeks, some good days, just consistent training. Trust that it all comes together."


Principe continues his busy schedule next in competition, when Rhode Island heads to Bethpage, N.Y. for the IC4A Cross Country Championships on Saturday, October 17.