 In 1897, while attending Noble and Greenough, Coe was already competing in the shot put and recorded a distance of 35 feet, 7 inches.In 1898, while attending the Frye School, he won the interscholastic championship with a distance of 41 feet, 9 inches.He enrolled at the Princeton Preparatory School in the fall of 1899 and won the Amateur Athletic Union (A.A.U.)