Don McGarey Position: Head Coach Experience: 4th Season Alma Mater: Louisiana State

Don McGarey returns for his fourth season as the head coach of the men's and women's Indoor and Outdoor Track & Field programs at Kennesaw State University. A dedicated believer in the duality of the scholar-athlete, Coach McGarey challenges his student-athletes to excel in the classroom as well as on the track. He believes that a NCAA-I level track and field is more than just a sport; it is a lifestyle choice that requires motivated student-athletes to have proper nutrition, rest and training structure. For McGarey, it all comes down to vision, recruiting the right people, training smart and training to win.

McGarey himself has been a long time distance runner. In college he competed in both cross country and track as a scholarship athlete first at Santa Fe Community College (Gainesville, FL) and then at Louisiana State University. After finishing his eligibility at LSU and graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree in microbiology, he stayed on as a graduate assistant coach for three years. After attaining his Masters degree in microbiology, McGarey took a hiatus from coaching to pursue a doctorate degree from the University of South Florida in Tampa. After earning the Ph.D. from USF in biology and completing a post-doctoral research study at the University of Florida, McGarey became an Assistant Professor of Biology at Jacksonville State University in Alabama. It was there that he returned to coaching as an Assistant Coach for the Gamecock's cross-country teams. In 1998 McGarey came to Kennesaw State University as an Associate Professor and met Stan Sims. Still interested in cross country McGarey was aware of the fact that he was working at a university with one of the most successful distance programs in the southeast. In 1999 he was able to gain an assistant coaching position on the staff headed by Sims. McGarey was able to infuse new practice regiments into the program that helped develop some of the University's greatest runners. During their time in the Peach Belt Conference the two coaches were able to embark on one of the most successful winning streaks in KSU history. Over the next few years they brought home multiple titles including nine Peach Belt Conference championships. Additionally, the men's and women's teams posted top ten finishes in the NCAA Division II Cross-country National Championships in 2002, 2003 and 2004, and had 7 All-Americans. In 2005 he helped lead the women's team to an Atlantic Sun Championship for their first year in the conference.

While in NCAA Division II track and field, McGarey with the help of his assistant coaches had 4 All-Americans including two time national champion Marjo Venalainen (1500 m and 3000m; 2001), two time track All-American Patrina Hayes (3000m and 5000m; 2005), Francis Korir (3000 m SC; 2004) and Julita Kusmierek (800 m; 2005). Additionally, three other runners competed at nationals and several more made national qualifying provisional times. Marjo Venalainen also out ran some of the best NCAA Division I runners to win the Penn Relays women's collegiate invitational 3000 m in 2000 and 2001.

In 2005, the KSU Athletic Department was facing the monumental challenge of putting together a track & field program from scratch. Thanks to his success as assistant coach for the cross country team and heading the Division II track program, McGarey was chosen to be the head coach for the new Division I indoor and outdoor track programs. Building a program from the bottom up was not new to McGarey as he was part of the LSU program in the 1980s when it transitioned from a respectable program to a track and field powerhouse. McGarey assembled a lineup of athletes from the cross country team that could make a significant impact as distance runners in track. He then focused on building a team of talented sprinters and throwers to round out his roster of athletes. In their first year of conference competition (2006) the men's team was able to place second at the Atlantic Sun Outdoor Track and Field Championship on the strength of their runners. Five runners won individual titles as well as winning the 4 x 400m relay. Another seven earned All-Conference honors. The women's team came in a respective sixth in the competition with three individual titles and another 2 earning All -Conference honors. In 2007, the men's and women's teams each added 4 more All-conference honors with 2 winning individual events. In the past two years of indoor competition, the men have posted seventeen All-Conference performances including 6 individual and 1 relay champions. The women have 9 All-Conference performers including 2 individual champions.

As each season goes by the Track & Field team becomes a more defined program under McGarey's leadership. The roster which was once based heavily on the existing cross country team continues to expand. The program has become more balanced as focus is being placed on recruiting athletes to compete in every event. The 2008 season will feature KSU's most talented and diverse team to date. Last year's top performers return and are joined by a talented group of freshmen and transfer throwers, jumpers, vaulters, sprinters, hurdlers as well as more distance runners. Coach McGarey has gathered an experienced and devoted staff dedicated to the sole purpose of making the Track and Field team champions in the A-Sun Conference.

In addition to coaching, Dr. McGarey is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biology and Physics at Kennesaw State University. Don, his wife Toni and their children Alix and Chance make their home in Kennesaw, GA.