World-renowned coach, author and speaker takes over the BC programs

Brevard, N.C. - The Brevard College Athletic Department and Athletic Director Kim Pate are pleased to announce Dr. Jack Daniels, a world-renowned coach, author and speaker, as the new Brevard College cross country and track & field coach.

"We are excited to have Dr. Jack Daniels join our coaching staff; his wealth of experience, depth of knowledge for the sport, and love for coaching will continue to lead our cross country and track programs toward great promise and success," said Pate. "Coach Daniels is a very humble and remarkable individual and I am honored to have the opportunity to work with him."

Daniels has been involved in both collegiate and post-collegiate track and cross-country for 35 years and has coached 30 individual DIII NCAA National Champions, eight NCAA National Team Champions and 130 All-Americans. He was also named the NCAA DIII Women’s Coach of the Century and was a three-time NCAA National Coach of the Year.

"For me, what makes a job most enjoyable is to be working with nice people and I was very impressed with the several people I met during my visit to Brevard," said Daniels. "Simply put, I love to coach both young ladies and young men, and to be able to continue doing that makes life real enjoyable for me."

Daniels has also coached five Olympians in men’s and women’s distance events and has also coached two sub-2:10 male marathoners on his way to being named "World’s Best Coach" by Runner’s World Magazine. Recently, he has been working at the Center for High Altitude Training, working and developing athletes from around the world.

"Jack was my coach and mentor at the University of Texas and truly shaped my life," said Dr. Sue Carter, a former athlete under Daniels. "Under his guidance I was able to excel in distance running as well as academics. He supported me in my preparation for medical school while earning All-American status in Track and Field. He is the best coach and the nicest man on the planet!"

In addition to his coaching ability, Daniels is an accomplished author, featured speaker and researcher, having written four books on running, including his most recent title, Daniels’ Running Formula, 2nd ed. He has also had over 50 articles published in scientific journals and also seen numerous articles on running published in popular magazines. Daniels is a featured speaker at coaches’ clinics, running camps and symposia that deals with training and has spent the past 13 years as the National Running Coach of Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s "Team in Training" program. Daniels was also part of a research program which examined performances and known VDOT values of elite middle and long distance runners, which helps determine an equivalent performance at a different race distance, providing a better value from which to access fitness and determine training paces.&l t;/span>

Other professional accomplishments and merits of note for Daniels includes being the named Meet Director at the National Cross-Country Championship and has been the meet director at 25 conference championships and annual invitationals in both cross country and track and field. He was the Altitude consultant to the U.S. Olympic Track & Field team for the 1968 Mexico City Olympics and also served as a color commentator for CBC Television for the 1976 Olympics in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Daniels has also been involved and conducted considerable research involving elite runners, swimmers and paddlers in both the U.S. and Canada, often working with U.S. teams in swimming and running at Colorado Springs and Lake Placid.

Daniels has a number of personal accomplishments as well, having received both silver and bronze medals in the Olympics in the Modern Pentathlon competition. He has also received a World Championship Bronze Medal and is a two-time U.S. National Champion and was the first foreign winner of the Swedish National Championship in the same event. Daniels also competed eight years as a competitive swimmer and four years on the University ROTC Rifle team. He was also a U.S. Army officer and military triathlon champion in Seoul and Tokyo.

Daniels has received numerous honors and awards, including the 2009 H. Browning Ross Outstanding National Service Award of Merit from the USATF. He was also awarded the title of "Master Coach" by the USA Track Coaches Association and is a Fellow with the American College of Sports Medicine. Daniels also serves as the Exercise Physiology consultant to Runner’s World Magazine and is an Editorial Board member of American Running & Fitness Association and serves as a consultant to college and club coaches and runners around the U.S. and the world. Daniels was also a recipient of the Outstanding Alumni Award from the University of Montana, and was inducted into the Cortland C-Club Sports Hall of Fame in 1997 and the Sequoia High School Sports Hall of Fame in 2006.

"I truly get as much enjoyment out of watching a young runner improve his/her performance as I get from seeing one of my runners make it to the Olympics," commented Daniels. "The road traveled is certainly as important as is the destination because every day along the way is part of a person's never-ending education, and I still feel I learn as much from my runners as they learn from me."

Courtesy of Brevard College Athletics