Ralph White, who has helped lead two schools to NCAA championships, has been
named the new head track and field coach at IUP.
White
comes to IUP from Williams College less than a year after his women’s indoor
team claimed the 2007 Division III national title. Last spring, the
Williams women took first place at the All-New England Outdoor
Championships, which encompasses all divisions, and White was named the
All-New England Coach of the Year, an award given predominantly to Division
I coaches.
White had been the head coach of the men’s and women’s teams at Williams
since 2001 after serving as an assistant coach during the 2000-01 season.
Williams finished in the top four at NCAA meets seven times and his athletes
earned a total of 101 All-America nods.
White also won a national championship as an assistant coach on the Division
I level when the Southern Methodist men’s team won the 1986 outdoor title.
The Mustangs were also the men’s indoor national runners-up the previous
season.
"I am extremely excited to
be at IUP. Being from western Pennsylvania, I know the rich history
and tradition of the university's athletic department," said White.
"With the tremendous student, faculty and administrative support we have at
IUP, I am confident we can take the track and field program to higher
levels."
A 1974 graduate of Penn State, White began his coaching career at Laurel
Junior High School and Eleanor Roosevelt High School, both in Maryland,
before joining the college ranks. His team at Roosevelt won back-to-back
state titles and rose to No. 1 in the nation on the prep level.
He coached at George Mason from 1980-84, developing 15 All-Americans, two
national champions and a pair of Olympians. He was inducted into the George
Mason Athletic Hall of Fame in 1988.
Over the next three years at SMU, the Mustangs achieved the best time in the
world in the indoor mile relay in 1985, garnered 41 All-America accolades,
produced 18 national champions and saw five athletes earn berths on the U.S.
Olympic team.
White then spent the next nine years at Allegheny and was head women’s track
and field coach each season and men’s head coach from 1989-94. Under his
tutelage, 25 Allegheny women and five men merited spots on the All-America
team and 61 new school records were established.
His last stop prior to Williams was at Clemson, where he was the top men’s
assistant coach for two years and the women’s head coach in 1999-00. Two
women and five men made the Olympic team during his time with the Tigers,
and Clemson won the national championship in the men’s 200 meters at the
1998 indoor meet and the 400 meters and 4 x 400 meter relay at the 1999
indoor meet.
In all, White has coached 15 Olympians, 31 national champions and over 300
All-Americans as well as earning multiple conference, regional and national
coach of the year honors during his highly successful career.
"I enjoy taking on the
challenge of rebuilding programs, and that is something that can definitely
happen at IUP," said White. "We will be one of the teams to watch out
for in the near future, both in the PSAC and on the national level."
<back to
top>
