Willy Wood - Track & Field, Cross Country Coach

Willy Wood

Title:
Director of Track & Field/Cross Country

With the Miami track and field/cross country programs adopting the combined model, Miami University tabbed Willy Wood to lead the RedHawks into the future.

Wood boasts 26 highly successful years of head coach experience, two decades of which were spent at Columbia.

“As we begin a new era with our combined women's and men's track programs, we need a competitive director with a passion for developing student-athletes into champions,” Director of Athletics David Sayler said. “Willy Wood is that perfect leader. His background as a successful head coach and dynamic recruiter positions him perfectly to lead our combined program. He brings a proven championship mentality to Miami and we look forward to his leadership.”

Wood spent the 2014-15 season as Bradley’s track and field/cross country coach. He guided the Braves’ women’s cross country team to a Missouri Valley Conference title and had them knocking on the door to a team berth in the NCAA Cross Country Championship after placing third at the NCAA Midwest Regional, their best regional finish in program history. The Braves’ men also enjoyed a program best 2014 cross country campaign, placing third at the MVC Championship.

"I am excited for the opportunity to lead the Miami University Cross Country/Track and Field programs,” Wood said. “I cannot thank David Sayler and Jennifer Gilbert enough for making this a very easy decision. From my first step on campus, I fully understood why Robert Frost called this ‘the most beautiful campus that ever there was’. Beyond the buildings, each and every person I met while in Oxford was amazingly welcoming and their love for Miami immediately evident. I look forward to leading both the men’s and women’s programs to great levels of success. Furthermore, I look forward to being a member of the Miami University community."

Before heading to Bradley, Wood built Columbia into a national power over his 20-year stint. The Lions were especially dominant in cross country as the men’s and women’s teams combined to win seven Ivy League titles and made nine team NCAA Cross Country Championship appearances, finishing in the top five 20 times with top showings of an eighth-place performance by the men in 2013 and a No. 11 placing by the women in 2002. The women’s track and field team also claimed an Ivy League Indoor title in 2012.

The 2012 Indoor Northeast Region Coach of the Year, Wood coached the second individual (Kyle Merber) in Ivy League history to break four minutes in the indoor mile. Merber later went on to break the American Collegiate Record in the 1500m.

Under Wood’s tutelage, five-time All-American Caroline Bierbaum received the 2005 Cross Country Honda Award, presented annually by the Collegiate Women Sports Awards to the top women athletes in NCAA-sanctioned sports.

Wood arrived at Columbia after two years as the cross country and track & field head coach at UNC-Asheville. The 1993 Big South Conference Coach of the Year, led women’s and men’s cross country teams to second and third-place league finishes, respectively, for the best showing in school history.

A 1986 graduate of Taylor University, Wood led the Bethel College (Minnesota) track programs from 1990-92, where he guided the women’s track squad to a seventh-place finish at the NCAA Division III Indoor Championship and produced a pair of All-Americans in addition to eight NCAA Division III national qualifiers.

Wood also served as head coach of the cross country/track & field teams at Kansas Wesleyan for the 1989-90 season. He also had stops at Georgia as an assistant coach and served as a graduate assistant coach at both Kansas and Pittsburg State before his first head coaching opportunity.

An All-American at Taylor University in Indiana and member of the school’s Hall of Fame, Wood went on to compete at Kansas in his final year of eligibility while attending graduate school. He earned a Master of Science degree in Physical Education/Exercise Physiology from Pittsburg State.

Wood has two daughters: Taelor and Hanna.

Wood by the Numbers

• Coached two Olympians and 29 All-Americans at Columbia.
• Saw 68 school records broken during his tenure at Columbia.
• Won a combined nine team conference titles at the Division I level (five women’s cross country, three men’s cross country and one women’s indoor track and field).
• Named 2012 Indoor Northeast Region Coach of the Year.