PROVO, Utah — Former BYU head women’s track and field coach Craig Poole will be inducted into the Utah Sports Hall of Fame in a ceremony at the Little America Hotel in Salt Lake City on Sept. 9.
Poole is one of five inductees in the Class of 2024 joined by Lindsey Anderson, Kyle Beckerman, Kevin Gates and Rod Tueller. They were all selected for their outstanding achievements and valuable contributions to sport in the state of Utah.
Craig Poole was the head coach of the BYU women’s track and field team for 30 years. During his tenure, which lasted from 1980-2010, the Cougar track team recorded an almost-perfect record on the conference and regional levels and was consistently among national contenders. Poole’s teams won 27 of 29 outdoor conference championships and 17 of 20 indoor conference championships.
Although he was never able to quite grasp a team national championship trophy, reaching a career-best third-place NCAA finish in 1998 and 2009, he did help several individual athletes realize their national championship dream. A total of 14 of his athletes were crowned national champions 18 times, while 81 of his athletes earned 165 All-American citations. Poole was honored as Mountain West Conference Coach of the Year seven times and Western Athletic Conference Coach of the Year 10 times.
Poole was named to the 2004 U.S. Olympic coaching staff and traveled to the games in Athens, Greece where he coached American athletes in heptathlon, long jump and triple jump. He was also on staff at the 2012 Paralympic Games in London.
Starting in the fall of 2010, Poole took on a new group of athletes to prepare for the future. For seven years he served as the head coach at the USA Track and Field Resident Program at the Chula Vista Olympic Training Center in California.
In December of 2011, Coach Poole was inducted into the USTFCCCA Hall of Fame. Poole and Clarence Robison are the only coaches in BYU track and field history to be inducted.
Poole is currently a volunteer jumps coach at San Diego State. Most recently, he coached 33-year-old heptathlete Chari Hawkins to the Paris Olympic Games.
Poole received a doctorate in physical education and educational administration from the University of Utah in 1970. Poole also served as a full-time professor at BYU in sports psychology. Married to the former Sharon Woodland, the couple has four children.