byLarry EderAt Runblogrun.com, we think that this is a wonderful program. Our only issue is that, this program could be so much bigger if USATF and Gill had reached out Track & Field News, American Track & Field and Coaching Athletics Quarterly, who all have magazines, prominent websites and could have put it in front of 35,000 head high school track & field coaches, Perhaps next year, as the offer is there on our side….another example of how the sport does good things, but could do great things if time was taken to work with already existing communities. TFN has been around since 1958, ATF since 1989.
Gill Athletics and USA Track & Field Honor National High School Track & Field Coaches of the Year
INDIANAPOLIS — Gill Athletics and USA Track & Field (USATF) will honor one boys’ and one girls’ high school track & field team coach with the inaugural Gill Athletics National High School Track & Field Coach of the Year Award. Pete Boudreaux, boys’ coach of Catholic High School in Baton Rouge, La, and James Holdren Jr., girls’ coach of Maggie L. Walker Governor’s School in Richmond, VA., will be recognized at the awards ceremony on Saturday, June 26 during the USA Outdoor Track & Field Championships in Des Moines, IA in front of a 14,000 Drake Stadium crowd. Both award recipients’ schools will receive $5,000 worth of Gill Athletics track & field equipment.
“High school track & field coaches are the backbone of the sport of track & field in the U.S.” says David Hodge, CEO of Gill Athletics. “Without their tireless work and dedication, the U.S. would not lead the world in the sport as it does. Gill Athletics is proud to recognize the great commitment of these coaches to our high school athletes.”
Out of 158 applications from throughout the country, Boudreaux and Holdren were selected as two of the 12 regional finalists for the Gill Athletics National High School Track & Field Coach of the Year Award. Based on the candidates’ coaching record, honors and recognitions, and service to the sport and their communities, the USATF Coaches Advisory Committee named Boudreaux and Holdren the final winners.
“I feel very fortunate and humbled by this recognition for our school and the CHS track program,” responds Boudreaux. “At the same time, I fully understand that this recognition is the result of many very special people; my wife and family, the Catholic High School family, the assistant coaches that have so loyally worked with us and, of course, the many, many athletes through the years who have bought into what we were doing and have helped make us the storied program that we are today. I have been very blessed to be surrounded by such loyal, giving and caring people.”
“I have spent the better part of my life of 68 years in this wonderful sport,” responds Holdren. “I am thrilled and honored to receive this national award.”
A list of the 2010 Regional Finalists and coaching highlights for Boudreaux and Holdren follow. All this information and further details about the award can be found at: www.gillcoachoftheyear.com.
Regional Finalists:
Eduardo Diaz – Loyola HS of Los Angeles in Los Angeles, CA
Claney Duplechin – Episcopal HS in Baton Rouge, LA
Yvonne Grimes – Bethel HS in Bethel, CT
John Gudgel – Yellow Springs HS in Yellow Springs, OH
Charles Harris – Lake Brantley HS in Altamonte Springs, FL
Rick Kates – Notre Dame Academy in Hingham, MA
Michael Kuhn – Mandan HS in Mandan, ND
Robert Nihells – Lake Park HS in Roselle, IL
Chris Schmidt – Spanish Fort HS in Spanish Fort, AL
Lorily Smith-Thompson – Junipero Serra HS in Gardena, CA
Pete Boudreaux coaching highlights:
Pete Boudreaux’s track & field and cross country teams have won 33 state titles – 11 state outdoor track titles, 7 state indoor track titles, and 15 state cross-country titles. The track teams own the four highest scores ever recorded in a 5A Louisiana state meet while the cross country teams own the three lowest scores ever recorded in the state championship. In 1991, Boudreaux’s school, Catholic High School, became the first school to ac-complish the feat of winning state titles in cross country, indoor track, and outdoor track in the same year. The 2008-2009 and 2009-2010 teams repeated the feat to become the only school in Louisiana to ever accomplish the feat in back to back years.
Boudreaux has been the Louisiana Coach of the year 14 times. He has also earned Athletic Director of the Year and National High School Regional Coach of the Year. Induction into the Louisiana High School Athletic Association Hall of Fame and LSU Track Officials Hall of Fame are prominent awards in Boudreaux’s career.
Boudreaux served as past president of the Louisiana High School Coaches Association and presently serves on the executive committee of the Louisiana High School Athletic Directors As¬sociation. He has served on several International coaching staffs and was named to the U.S Olympics Sports Festival coaching staff and was a staff member for the USA vs Great Britain in Edinburgh, Scotland (1993) as well as a staff member for the Junior World Cham¬pionships in Annecy, France in 1998.
James Holdren coaching highlights:
James Holdren has been coaching cross-country and track for 43 years. He has collected the most high school track wins in Virginia history, with a career total of 1,362 wins in girl’s track and cross country, including 91 District team titles, 42 District runner-up finishes, 47 Regional titles, 26 Regional runner-up finishes, 8 State titles, 10 state runner-up finishes, 243 major invitational titles and a 973-257 dual meet record. His girls’ outdoor track teams went undefeated in dual meets for 16 years with 109 consecutive victories. He has coached 10 National Record holders, 57 All-Americans and 115 State champions.
In 1988, Holdren won the NHSACA girls track coach of the year award, and he won the NHSACA girls cross-country coach of the year award in 2006. A coach can only win this award once in any particular sport, making it even more of an honor that he has won it both in track and in cross-country. He is the only Virginia coach to win the national coach of the year award in two sports.
Holdren was inducted into the Virginia High School Hall of Fame in 1993 and the National High School Athletic Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2006. Holdren was one of only two coaches in the Richmond area to receive the honor.
Holdren has been a member of the Virginia High School Coach’s Association since 1964, and has served on its Legislative Council since 1975 and its Executive Board since 1978. Over the past 46 years, he has served in every capacity in the Virginia USATF Association (formally AAU and TAC), including as its President for the past three Olympiads. He was a charter member of the National High School Athletic Coaches Association, serving on its Advisory Board (1980-1988), as a National Girl’s Track Chairman (1981-1987), and as a Board of Director (1981-1986, 1990-1997). He has served as the State Track & Field Rules Interpreter since 1994 and as a District and Regional Cross Country, Indoor Track and Outdoor Track Championship Meet Director, and on the State Championship Games Committee since 1965.
About Gill Athletics
Gill Athletics, founded in 1918, is the world’s oldest and largest manufacturer of Track & Field equipment. Gill implements and equipment are in use on most of America’s collegiate, high school, and junior high school tracks & fields. For more information about Gill Athletics, call 800-637-3090 or visit www.gillathletics.com.
About USA Track & Field
USA Track & Field (USATF) is the National Governing Body for track & field, long-distance running and race walking in the United States. USATF encompasses the world’s oldest organized sports, the World’s #1 Track & Field Team, the most-watched events at the Olympics, the #1 high school and junior high school participatory sport, and more than 30 million adult runners in the United States: www.usatf.org.
