BATON ROUGE — LSU head track and field coach Dennis Shaver and assistant jumps and combined events coach Boo Schexnayder were awarded Coach of the Year honors once again by the U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association on Tuesday.
Shaver, who was named the South Central district’s Co-Women’s Coach of the Year by the organization on Monday, has now been named the Women’s Coach of the Year in the Mideast Region for the 2007 outdoor season.
Shaver guided the second-ranked Lady Tigers to their first SEC Outdoor title in 11 years at the conference meet three weeks ago, while also leading the squad to back-to-back NCAA Mideast Regional championships with a dominating win a week ago.
The third-year head coach is accompanying a total of 19 Lady Tigers and two relay teams to Sacramento for this week’s NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships, which is the largest contingent of any team in the field. The Lady Tigers are looking to win their first outdoor national title since 2003.
Schexnayder has been honored by the organization once again as he was named the National Women’s Jumps/Combined Events Coach of the Year. This comes on the heels of being named the top women’s assistant coach in the Mideast Region in his specialty on Saturday.
Under his guidance, junior Andrea Linton won her first career Southeastern Conference title in the triple jump at the outdoor conference meet, while she is also set to compete at the NCAA Outdoor Championships in both the long jump and triple jump.
In addition, senior Shaunette Davidson (high jump), junior Kathy Coleman (long jump) and freshman Katelyn Rodrigue (pole vault) will also compete at the NCAA Championships after scoring valuable points in leading the Lady Tigers to conference and regional titles this season.
The USTFCCCA has honored the top men’s and women’s head coach in each of the nation’s four regions in collegiate track and field, including the East, Mideast, Midwest and West regions. The organization has also selected the top men’s and women’s assistant coaches nationwide in each of four categories, including sprints/hurdles, distances, throws and jumps/combined events.