 Regarded and respected nationwide as an authority on endurance running and training, Al Schmidt enters his 21st season at the helm of the Mississippi State’s men’s and women’s track teams. Since his hiring on Oct. 22, 1988, Schmidt has parlayed his 37 years of collegiate coaching experience into many individual and team accomplishments for MSU, both on and off of the track. In his previous 20 seasons, Schmidt has produced 33 all-Americans and 35 SEC champions.
In 2008, Schmidt coached two athletes to become SEC Champions. Marrissa Harris won the heptathlon with a school record of 5,600 points. Jamil Hubbard won the 400-meter SEC title. During the SEC Outdoor Meet, 14 athletes qualified for the NCAA Regional Meet and 10 athletes scored in their events. The men placed eighth and the women placed 11th.
At the NCAA Regional meet, two Bulldogs, Jamil Hubbard and Golden Coachman, won titles in the 400-meter run and in the 800-meter run. O’Neal Wilder took second in the 400-meter behind Hubbard, while Chris Woods took fourth in the 800-meter. The 4x400-meter relay team, consisting of Wilder, Hubbard, Woods, and Emmanuel Mayers, took first. The men’s team placed sixth, which was the best finish for the Bulldogs at the meet. The 4x100-meter relay and Kendall May received at-large bids to the NCAA National Meet. Marrissa Harris qualified in the heptathlon.
Out of these athletes, O’Neal Wilder continued his season by competing in the Junior National Championships, where he won the 400-meter run title. At the World Junior Championships, Wilder won the bronze in the 400-meter event. Marrissa Harris continued hers at the NACAC Under-23 Championships, where she won the bronze in the pentathlon.
The highlight of the 2008 season for Schmidt was being named the coach for the U.S. Men’s Under-23 team at the NACAC Championships.
In 2007, Schmidt guided five Bulldogs to All-American status. Schmidt also witnessed three school records broken. At the SEC Championships, the men’s team had a total of four athletes score 30 points to finish 11th overall. Among those scorers included Golden Coachman and Travis McKay scoring in the 800-meter run and 3000-meter steeplechase, with third and fourth place finishes, respectively.
Out of the 21 events the Bulldogs competed in, 62 of the athletes marked a personal best in their respective event. There were also six regional qualifiers for the men’s team and two relay regional marks met. Bruce Davis, Ezra Jones, Nathan Daniels, and Arthur Davis finished fourth at the NCAA Championships, with a time of three minutes, 3.49 seconds.
On 22 separate times during the 2007 season, 15 Lady Bulldogs met their personal best marks, along with seven regional qualifiers. Marrissa Harris finished fourth in the heptathlon at the SEC Championships with a personal-best 5,242 points, along with Jennifer McPherson who finished fourth in the 1500-meter run with a time of 4:20.87, and Michelle Corrigan who took sixth in the 10000-meter run with a time of 37:15.760. A total of 16 Lady Bulldogs scored a total of 19 points for MSU as they finished 11th at the meet.
In 2005, Schmidt witnessed six Bulldogs garner All-America accolades. At the 2005 NCAA Outdoor Championships, Elzie Coleman, Arthur Davis, LaChristopher Lewis and Jamel Ashley ran a school-record 3:01.63 to finish fifth in the 4x400-meter relay. Ashley placed second in the 400, while Lewis took 11th in the long jump to earn his first All-America honor in the event. At the Mideast Regional, Steve Mullings won the 100-meter dash title, repeating his performance from the SEC Championships. Lewis also won the long jump title at the conference meet, while Ashley finished second in the 400-meter dash. Travis McKay finished seventh in the steeplechase, setting the third-best time in school history. As a team, the Bulldogs finished 19th in the last Trackwire 25 of the season.
On the women’s side, Meggan Hodge broke the MSU school record in the 3000-meter steeplechase with a 10:46.04 eighth-place finish at the SEC Championships. Jasmine Walls cleared a personal best to tie for second in the high jump. Crystal Averitt ended her career atop the all-time list in the hammer throw, while Lacey Johnson extended her school record in the pole vault.
Three-time All-American Tiffany McWilliams closed out her MSU career in 2004 by becoming the most decorated female athlete in Lady Bulldog track and field history. McWilliams repeated her 2003 feat of winning the outdoor 1500-meter title and also won the NCAA Indoor title in the mile. Behind McWilliams and a strong distance corps, MSU achieved a No. 12 national ranking.
On the men’s side, decathlete and All-American Trey Hardee set a school record in the event after tallying 8,041 points in a second-place finish at the NCAA Outdoor Championships. Five Bulldogs were named all-Americans in 2003. Ashley Davis, Lewis and Keston Nelson all earned the recognition following a third-place finish in the 4x400-meter relay at nationals. Ashley picked up the honor in the 400-meter dash in addition to the 4x4.
In 2003, McWilliams became the first woman in MSU track and field history to win a national championship. Running 4:06.75, McWilliams broke an NCAA Championships record en route to winning the 1500-meter run. She was also crowned the SEC indoor champion in the mile run in addition to the outdoor 800- and 1500-meter runs.
At the Outdoor Championships, State tallied the second-highest point total with 20 points. MSU finished in tied for 15th behind Pierre Browne’s second-place showing in the 100-meter dash (10.34). Hardee took fifth in the decathlon for his first all-America honor, while Kelvin Harris ran 13.86 in the 110-meter hurdles to earn his first All-America nod.
The men topped all previous indoor squads at the NCAA Indoor Championships. The Bulldogs scored 15 points to score in the top 10 for the first time in school history. Browne won the 60-meter dash title (6.60), while Marquis Davis finished second in the 200 (20.70).
During 2002, Schmidt and the MSU program hosted the SEC Outdoor Championships. At the meet, State’s men scored 35 points as a team, the second-highest total of an MSU squad since his arrival. He also witnessed the men’s program tally its highest points total since 1991 at the SEC Indoor Championship.
Elisha Williams became the school’s first indoor all-American in 2001 after taking second in long jump. Later in the season, Williams became the second woman to become a double All-American in the same year. Williams took fifth in the outdoor long jump. Schmidt also helped Falilatu Ogunkoya finished her MSU career in 2001 as a five-time All-American, and Camille Harper closed out her career as an All-American in the 100-meter dash.
The 1990s saw Aki Bradley benefit from the tutelage of Schmidt. Bradley became a double All-American at the 1994 NCAA Outdoor Championships, placing in both the 100- and 200-meter sprints. In 1992, MSU hosted the SEC Outdoor meet. In the first year Arkansas and South Carolina were members of the conference, the Bulldogs finished seventh overall.
Schmidt’s first men’s team in 1989 showed immediate improvement, finishing fifth at both the SEC Indoor and Outdoor Championships. It marked the first time in five years the Bulldogs finished in the top half of the conference.
During Schmidt’s first three years, he saw Festus Igbinoghene earn six All-America awards in horizontal jumps, including three runner-up finishes in the triple jump.
ACADEMICS
Under Schmidt, State’s squads have also excelled in the classroom. A total of 208 student-athletes have been named to the SEC Academic Honor Roll a combined 253 Times. Three athletes - Rob Irwin, Tina Bridgeman and April Ecke- each earned Academic all-America honors. Distance runner Ecke earned the 1995 H. Boyd McWhorter Scholar Athlete of the Year honor after an outstanding career on the track and in the classroom. Chris Boldt earned First Team Academic All-District honors from the College Sports Information Directors of America in 2003, while Matt Denton collected the honor in 2005. Joining Boldt and Denton in 2006 and 2007 was Ryan Irwin who finished First Team Academic all-District for the Men and Joy Griffith who finished First Team Academic all-District for the Women. Zita Magloire finished with Second Team Academic all-District honors in 2006. Also, in 2006 the Lady Bulldogs were selected by the U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association, as an All-Academic Team. They were one of 77 teams nationally and joined four other Southeastern Conference squads for the prestigious honor. In 2007, both cross country teams were selected the Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association, as an All-Academic Team. The MState women were one of 158 schools, while the men were one of 98 nationwide that receive the honor. Only six SEC teams had both their male and female teams represented. PRIOR TO MSU
Before coming to MSU, Schmidt was instrumental in the success of Florida State University’s track and field program in the mid 1980s. First serving as an assistant women’s track coach and head cross country coach, he later became an assistant men’s track coach and head cross country coach. Under his guidance, the Lady Seminoles won two national titles, taking the 1984 outdoor and 1985 indoor titles. The FSU women also claimed runner-up honors at the 1983 and 1985 outdoor meets. Upon earning his bachelor’s degree from St. Louis University, Schmidt made his coaching debut as an assistant cross country coach at the University of Missouri-St. Louis before returning to his alma mater as head men’s track coach for the next five years. After spending two years in private business, Schmidt returned to the track in 1982 as a graduate assistant at the University of Kansas. Following his one season at KU, he began his six-year stint at Florida State.
PERSONAL
In 1997, Schmidt served as a District 9 representative for the NCAA Women’s Cross Country Championships. Having rewritten the endurance curriculum for Levels I and II, Schmidt currently serves as the vice-chairman of USA Track and Field’ Coaches Education Committee. Schmidt, 58, is married to the former Jessie Garfield of St. Louis, Mo. They are the parents of two children - daughter Sara Lynne, a senior at MSU and son, Daniel, a MSU freshman.
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Courtesy: mstateathletics.com
