Keith Herston enters his fifth season at Texas State, this year serving as the horizontal jumps and high jump coach, after spending the previous four seasons propelling Bobcat Track and Field into the national forefront. He began at Texas State after serving two seasons as a horizontal jumps and combined events coach at Sam Houston State. Herston also leads the team’s volunteer and community service efforts while serving as the liaison to the academic support staff, assisting in recruiting and serving as assistant home meet director at Texas State.
Â
The jumps and combined events groups have seen nationally renowned success under Herston’s leadership. In total, Herston has coached seven First- and Second-Team All-Americans, 10 NCAA Indoor and Outdoor Championship qualifiers, 28 NCAA Outdoor West Preliminary qualifiers, 20 conference champions, 10 school-record breakers and 49 All-Conference performers within his first four years at Texas State. Herston's athletes have also excelled in the classroom, as he has also coached eight USTFCCCA All-Academic All-Americans, helping lead the 2015 women’s team to USTFCCCA All-Academic status for the first time in school history.
Last season, Herston led Allie Saunders to break out onto the national scene with All-American honors in long jump and triple jump during the outdoor season and triple jump in indoor. The nation took notice when Saunders triple jumped 13.64 meters (44-feet-9-inches) at the NCAA West Prelims for the third longest triple jump in the entire NCAA in 2015 and the longest in either preliminary round last year. In fact, her 44-foot-9-inch triple jump is the second longest measurement ever in an NCAA Preliminary round. In addition, she set the indoor and outdoor school records in triple jump and went on to finish eighth at the 2015 USA Track and Field Outdoor Championships in the event. She ended her collegiate career as one of the most storied athletes ever to come out of the Texas State Track and Field program and plans to train with Herston post-collegiately.
For her efforts in conference competition, Saunders won conference championships in both long jump and triple jump at the 2015 Sun Belt Conference Indoor Championships to be recognized as the SBC Women’s Field Athlete of the Year and boost the women’s team to the SBC Indoor Team Championship, the fourth conference championship Herston has played an integral role in at Texas State. His group of student-athletes scored 52.5 (36 percent) of the team’s 147.5 points to win the 2015 championship. That comes as no surprise to anyone who has followed Herston’s work at Texas State as the women’s jumps and combined events groups scored 73 points (41 percent) of the 179 it took for a team win at the 2013 WAC Outdoor Championships and an outstanding 60 points (49 percent) of the 122 points the Texas State women used to win the 2013 WAC Indoor Championship.
In his first season at Texas State, Herston helped guide Logan Cunningham in pole vault where he broke a long-standing school indoor record with a clearance of 18-feet-1-inch. Cunningham went on to earn All-American honors at the NCAA Indoor Championships and won a Southland Conference Championship with a conference-record height of 18-feet-1.75-inches. Cunningham also competed in the NCAA Outdoor Championships and went on to earn a bronze medal for U.S.A. in the NACAC Under-23 Championships. He competed in three NCAA Championships altogether, earning a First-Team All-American nod. Also under Herston’s direction, Cunningham earned All-America Second Team honors in indoor in 2013 and a top-five finish at the USA Track and Field Indoor Championship in 2014.
Proving Herston has a wide array of coaching knowledge that stretches from jumps to pole vault and into the multis, he coached Danessa Lyssy to a banner season in the women’s heptathlon. She holds the school record with 5,522 points in the event, breaking her own previous record under Herston. With her 5,522 points, Lyssy won first place at the 2013 WAC Outdoor Championships to help lead the Bobcat women to a team championship and qualify for the NCAA Outdoor Championships. Lyssy also qualified for the NCAA Outdoor Preliminary Round in the high jump in both 2012 and 2013 while earning All-Conference honors.
As a recruiter, Herston has proved his worth by signing seven top-20 athletes in the United States and 13 top-20 athletes in Texas ranging across all events in track and field. Last season, he brought Chelsie Decoud, Alvin Chikaeze, Courtney Johnson and sprinter Tramesha Hardy to Texas State. Decoud was ranked third in the U.S. and first in Texas in high jump while Chikaeze was 11
th in America and third in the state in triple jump. Johnson ranked eighth in Texas and 40
th across the U.S. in high jump while Hardy was ranked 20
th and fourth in the 200-meter dash and 32
nd in the country and second in Texas in the 100-meter dash.
Previously, in his two seasons with Sam Houston State, Herston helped guide Matthew Johnson to 2011 NCAA All-American honors in the decathlon and to top-10 finishes at the 2011 USA Track and Field Outdoor National Championships and the 2011 Pan-American Games. Also at SHSU, Herston coached four Southland Conference champions, 13 All-Southland Conference athletes, four team MVP award winners, five school record holders and six NCAA preliminary round qualifiers.
Before his stint with the Bearkats, Herston was a volunteer assistant/intern coach at Auburn while completing his Master’s of Education in kinesiology in 2009. In pursuit of that degree, Herston had the opportunity to work for some the greatest exercise scientists in the country. As a coach at Auburn, he guided the men’s and women’s javelin throwers and worked with combined events. During his time at Auburn, the Tigers sent 16 athletes to the NCAA Regional Championships with 14 advancing to the NCAA Championships. With the help of Herston, the men’s team placed second at the 2008 NCAA Outdoor Championships.
Herston began his coaching career as an undergraduate at Bevill State Community College (Hamilton, Ala.) in Dec. 2004 as the women’s track and field assistant coach. Bevill State placed in the top 15 at the 2005 NJCAA Outdoor Championships with 11 national qualifiers. The women’s team broke 14 indoor and outdoor school records under Herston’s tutelage.
As a collegiate athlete, Herston competed in the horizontal jumps at the University of Alabama, where he was named to the SEC Academic Honor Roll and earned a bachelor’s degree in human environmental sciences at Alabama in 2007.
In addition to his USA Track and Field Level I certification and USATF Level II Jumps certification, Herston was also selected to attend the prestigious USATF Emerging Elite Coaches Camp for jumps/multis.
