Winston-Salem State names new track coach
January 18, 2006
Winston-Salem, NC - Winston-Salem State University has named
Halcyon M. Blake as permanent head coach for men's and
women's track & field and cross country. Black succeeds Benny
Morgan who had served as interim coach since the program was
revived last summer. Blake began her position at
WSSU effective January 17, 2006 and will prepare the WSSU teams
for their first season
of track and field competition after nearly a five-year layoff.
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Halcyon M. Blake |
Winston-Salem State University, who has not fielded a track
and field team since 2001, will return to the track for their
first season of competition this spring (2006) as the Rams
have revived a program that, at one time, fielded one of the
most talented track and field teams in the nation. The Rams
will return to Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association
(CIAA) conference track and field competition in the spring
as Blake looks to help WSSU capture a CIAA track and field
championship in only their first year of competition.
“After having gone through a national search and the
interview and selection processes, Halcyon Blake has accepted
the challenge of getting the Track and Field program at WSSU
off the ground after a nearly five-year layoff as we try to
return the program to the prominence of previous years, and
as we transition to the NCAA Division I level," said WSSU
Director of Athletics, Dr. Chico Caldwell. "She is supremely
qualified and will bring a level of coaching and recruiting
ability to a program that is beginning its re-development stages.
Despite the infancy of our program we expect great things from
Coach Blake and her program and we are pleased that we could
bring someone as talented and motivated as Halcyon Blake on
board as we revive the track and field programs, and take our
cross-country teams to the next level.”
Blake
comes to WSSU after serving as both the head coach for men’s
and women’s cross country/track and field teams at Methodist
College in Fayetteville, NC. She has over 24 years of coaching
experience. She has coached the Methodist teams to perennial
runner-up finishes for the past five and a half years in the
Mason Dixon and USA South Conferences. While there she was
named Coach of the Year and has produced over 97 All-Conference
and First-Team student-athlete honors. Under her tutelage,
10 student-athletes received Academic All-America honors and
over 19 student athletes have were recognized on the Dean’s and President’s
Lists.
She has seen student-athletes named
the South/Southeast Regional Champion in cross country (2005)
and the Mason Dixon, USA South Conference Champion in cross
country in the same season. On the track she has produced
over 18 NCAA National qualifiers and Indoor and Outdoor 55m,
400m Long Jump, Triple Jump, Shot Put, 100m and 200m champions
as well as both the men’s and women’s Hammer Throw
Conference Champions.
Prior to Methodist College, Blake led more than 16 All-Americans
while at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her
sprinters and jumpers were instrumental in winning the ACC
Championship in both the Men’s and Women’s divisions
at Clemson University in 1999. Her Men’s 4x100m Relay
finished 3rd at the NCAA Championships in Boise, Idaho in 1999.
While at Carolina, Blake’s sprinters won many ACC Championships
as the sprinters and jumpers dominated the conference.
As the mentor of the Pine Forest High School programs in Fayetteville,
NC, Blake’s teams have won State, Regional and Conference
Championship titles.
As an athlete, Blake attended The University of Kansas
where she excelled as a Sprinter and Long Jumper. A
three time Olympian, she had the women’s long jump named
after her in 1995 at the Kansas Relays. She won the Triple
Crown at Texas, and Drake and the Kansas Relays from 1981-1983.
She is an 11-time All-American in the 4x400mRelay and Long
Jump. She still holds the women’s long jump record at
the University of Kansas and the Kansas Relays. In 2003, she
was inducted in the John F. Kennedy High School
Hall of Fame and the New State Public Schools Athletic League
November, 2003.
She is a certified USATF Coach, a member of
NACWAHERS foundations, a member of the NCAA coaches foundation,
a member of the North Carolina HS Athletic Association, a graduate
of the Women’s Coaches Academy, a member of the Women’s
Sports Foundation, a member of the Black Coaches Association,
and has coached nine former or current Olympians and continues
to be a mentor to elite athletes.
Blake is a graduate of the University of Kansas in Applied
Behavioral Science/Human Development and Family Life. Blake
was chosen as the Rams’ and Lady Rams’ head track
and field and cross-country coach following a national search
that produced a very diverse, and very qualified pool of candidates.
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