MOREHEAD, Ky. – Brent Ericksen, whose impressive coaching resume is highlighted by two National Coach of the Year honors and who has also coached on the Olympic level, has been named the head men’s and women cross country and track and field coach at Morehead State.
He heads to MSU on the heels of his men’s and women’s cross country teams at Southern Oregon University being crowned NAIA combined national champions in 2010.
“I am extremely excited to be joining the Morehead State University athletic department. The vision that (Director of Athletics) Brian (Hutchinson) has for the cross country and track programs and everyone I met there was unbelievable,” said Ericksen. “MSU offers everything a distance runner could want in terms of hills and trails, and I can't wait to get both cross country and track started.”
Hutchinson announced Ericksen’s appointment this week and is thrilled that a coach with his credentials has chosen to help lead MSU’s running and track programs into a new and improved era.
“Coach Ericksen has won national championships on several levels and has coached Olympic athletes. The level of training our current and future cross country and track student-athletes will receive will be second-to-none. Coach Ericksen has been a proven winner and he knows what it takes to run a highly successful program,” he said. “His record of success demonstrates that we are dedicated to improving all aspects of our athletic program and with him leading our teams I have no doubt we will compete for championships.”
Ericksen comes to MSU after serving three years as head men’s and women’s cross country and track and field coach at Southern Oregon. His men’s cross country team won the 2010 NAIA national championship while the women finished seventh nationally. The teams combined to win the NAIA team championship. In three seasons, Ericksen built SOU’s men’s team from an unranked program into a team that finished in the top five nationally all three years. His men’s team finished fourth in the nation in 2008, third in the nation in 2009 and first in 2010.
He was a four-time Cascade Collegiate Conference Coach of the Year in cross country and track and his men’s cross country program won three straight conference championships. He also coached 15 All-Americans, including the school’s first-ever female All-American.
As the head men’s track and field coach at Wisconsin-La Crosse for one season, he was tabbed the 2007 NCAA Division III National Coach of the Year, the Midwest Region Coach of the Year and the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Outdoor Track Coach of the Year as his team won the NCAA Division III outdoor track national title while placing second at the national meet in the indoor season. At UW-La Crosse, he coached 36 All-Americans and four individual NCAA national champions. His team set an NCAA record for the largest margin of victory (65 points) at an NCAA championship meet.
Following La Crosse, Ericksen served one season as the Associate Head Cross Country and Track Coach at Texas A&M Corpus Christi. He helped the Islander women’s cross country team win the 2007 Southland Conference championship, and the men placed second. His men’s track and field team boasted the NCAA Division I indoor 5K national champion and the Division I outdoor 10K individual champion. The Islander men ranked 22nd in the nation for indoor and 25th in the nation during the outdoor season.
From 2000 through 2006, Ericksen was the head men’s and women’s cross country and track coach at Texas A&M-Kingsville where he coached 77 NCAA Division II All-Americans and five individual national champions. He was named Lone Star Conference women’s track Coach of the Year in 2002 and 2003 and was the league’s men’s Coach of the Year in 2006. His men’s track teams finished in the nation’s top 10 four times, and the women’s track squad finished sixth in the nation in indoor in 2004.
Prior to Kingsville, he spent two seasons as an assistant coach at his alma mater, Cal State University-Stanislaus where he mentored seven Division II All-Americans and two Academic All-Americans. He served one season as an assistant at South Dakota State in 1997-98 and helped guide the Jackrabbit women’s program to a 10th place finish at the 1997 Division II championships. He led one All-American in track as well as two Academic All-Americans.
Ericksen coached at Marquette University as an assistant for three seasons from 1995-97. At MU, he helped guide the women’s track program to five indoor and outdoor Conference USA championships while assisting his student-athletes in setting 16 school records. In 1996, he also helped guide the Golden Eagle men’s track program to the Conference USA indoor title.
He began his coaching career at Cal-Poly-San Luis Obispo where he served for three years under 1984 Team USA Olympic coach Brooks Johnson. Cal Poly’s women cross country team finished third nationally in 1992 while the men’s track squad finished in the NCAA Division I top seven all three years Ericksen was on staff.
His Olympic experience includes serving as a member of the Estonia national team staff in 2004 where he coached the country’s national record holder in 110-meter hurdle event. He has also coached athletes that qualified for the Pan-American Games, the European Championships, and the USA Outdoor Championships. In his career, he has produced 141 All-Americans.
Ericksen earned his bachelor’s degree in physical education from Cal State-Stanislaus in 1989 and holds a Master’s degree in human movement and sport from Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo in 1992.
