Randolph adds Smith to track and field staff
The men’s and women’s track and field teams added a new member to the coaching staff.
Glenn Smith joins the Chippewas for the 2009-10 season and will primarily work with jumps and multi-events.
“He brings in experience similar to coach Dionne (Henley),” said track and field and cross country director Willie Randolph. “He has the elite level of competition mentality and workout style that I’m very much so accustomed to.”
The addition comes at a time when CMU was lacking leadership in jumps and multi-events. Jeff Petersmeyer, track coach at Texas Christian University for the past three seasons, initially agreed to join the CMU coaching staff over the summer, but decided in August to go to Boise State University.
“Scoring is going to be extremely important, and that is an area we feel has been neglected with the recruiting piece,” Randolph said.
Smith spent the past three seasons as an assistant coach at Tulane University. During his time in New Orleans, five athletes reached NCAA regionals and school records were set in the hammer throw and weight throw.
Smith said he hopes to have similar success in Mount Pleasant.
“I want to develop athletes — the people that we have that are good, get them better,” Smith said. “Hopefully, we’ll start to have a good group of people qualifying for NCAAs every year and bring in good quality talent that will help us win in the conference as soon as possible.”
As an assistant at Neosho Community College in Chanute, Kan., Smith helped guide the women’s team to a No. 15 ranking and men’s team a 18th-place finish nationally.
A 2002 graduate of the University of Calgary, Smith was the Canadian 200-meter champion in 1999 and placed 13th at the International Association of Athletics Federations World Track and Field Championships in Sevilla, Spain.
“He’s coming from a very strong tradition of jumps coaches and being an elite athlete,” Randolph said. “Bringing him here was a natural transition.”
