March 15, 2003
INDIANAPOLIS – Longtime St. Augustine’s
College coach George Williams has been named the head coach of Team USA’s men’s
track & field squad for the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece.
Since
becoming head track and field coach at St. Augustine’s in Raleigh, N.C., in
1976, the 59-year-old Williams has built a dynasty. He has won 24 NCAA Division
II titles during his tenure and he has received 90 Coach of the Year honors.
His scholarship athletes at St. Augustine’s have achieved a 95 percent
graduation rate.
Williams
was men’s head coach at the 1999 World Outdoor Championships, the 1993 World
Indoor Championships and the 1992 IAAF World Cup. He was an assistant coach for
the 1996 Olympic Games, where U.S. athletes won gold medals in all the event
groups he was responsible for – 400 meters, hurdles, long jump and the 4x400m
relay. World-class athletes currently being trained by Williams include 2002
U.S. women’s 400m runner-up Michelle Collins, 2000 and 2001 U.S. women’s 400m
champion and Olympic 4x400m gold medalist LaTasha Colander-Richardson, and
men’s 4x400m relay world record holder and relay gold medalist Jerome Young,
“I’m
still dizzy,” said Williams, a 1965 St. Augustine’s graduate and the school’s
athletic director since 1996. “I think this one of the greatest things that can
happen to anyone in this business. I’m so grateful to the athletes and the
people who helped nominate me. I’m going to be sure to make sure I’m the coach
they know I am and to make sure they get what they have been training for, an
Olympic medal.”
-Onnidian News