Track staff announced; Kaczor retained
The track and field and cross country staff has been announced with the possibility of more hires to come.
Willie Randolph, the director of men's and women's track and field/cross country, confirmed the hires of Matt Kaczor as distance/middle distance coach and Jeff Petersmeyer as jumps/multi-events coach and recruiting coordinator.
Kaczor is a carry-over from former men's track and cross country coach Jim Knapp's staff. Randolph said Kaczor will work extensively with the cross country teams as well as distance runners during track season.
"He'll be in charge of the exact training for the distance side of it," Randolph said.
Kaczor has been on staff for the past two years, while Petersmeyer spent the past three seasons at Texas Christian University, where he held the same position.
Randolph also said the team hired two more coaches, Dionne Rose Henley and John Ridgeway.
Henley, previously an assistant track and field coach at Middle Tennessee State, will coach long sprints, relays and she will assist in hurdles. Ridgeway will be the throws coach. He previously coached throwers for the women's track and field team at the University of Central Florida.
"We just offered him the position on Thursday and he accepted on Friday morning," Randolph said. "He will be here within the next week and a half."
The rest of the coaches have arrived on campus, Randolph said.
Randolph will also serve as a specialty coach. He will head sprints, hurdles and relays, but said at some point, he will relinquish that role.
"In the near future, I will begin to pull away from speciality coaching," Randolph said in an e-mail.
Kaczor said there will be one major difference in his role compared to last year.
"I'm in charge of men and women now," he said, "which expands my student athletes that I'll be covering this year."
Under the new model, Randolph will allow Kaczor to take a prominent role at the top of the distance side of the program.
"Coach Randolph and I will be working together, but he is giving me my opportunity to coach and do what I need to do with the cross country piece," Kaczor said. "He is giving me the opportunity to be more hands-on. I'll be doing the same training program that I've done in the past."
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