| THE DANA BOONE FILE |
| COACHING ACCOLADES |
| 2014 | USATF World Junior Championship Women's
Head Coach |
| 2013 | WAC Men's Outdoor Championship |
| 2013 | WAC Men's Outdoor Coach of the Year |
| 2013 | WAC Women's Outdoor Championship |
| 2013 | WAC Women's Outdoor Coach of the Year |
| 2013 | WAC Women's Indoor Championship |
| 2013 | WAC Women's Indoor Coach of the Year |
| 2011 | USTFCCCA Midwest Region Women's
Assistant Coach of the Year |
| 2011 | USATF Junior Pan American Assistant Coach
(Jumps) |
| 2007 | USTFCCCA Midwest Region Assistant Coach
of the Year |
| Career | Coached 56 All-Americans |
| COACHING EXPERIENCE |
| 2011-Present | Texas State Head Coach |
| 2007-11 | Oklahoma Associate Head Women's Coach
(Sprints, Hurdles and Relays) |
| 2005-07 | Oklahoma Assistant Coach
(Women's Sprints and Hurdles) |
| 2004-05 | LSU Assistant Coach/Recruiting Coordinator
(Sprints and Hurdles) |
| 1999-04 | Texas Assistant Coach
(Field Events) |
| 1997-99 | Tulane Assistant Coach
(Sprints, Hurdles and Jumps) |
| 1994-97 | Middle Tennessee Assistant Coach
(Sprints, Hurdles and Jumps) |
| 1993-94 | South Carolina Assistant Coach
(Sprints, Hurdles and Jumps) |
| 1991-93 | Middle Tennessee Graduate Assistant Coach |
Head coach Dana Boone is in her fourth season at the helm of the Bobcat Track and Field program after setting the bar high for Texas State in her first three seasons.
The three-time conference Coach of the Year served as head coach of the USA Track and Field World Junior Championship women’s team in the summer of 2014, helping lead Team USA to a tie for the most medals ever with great production from her relay teams which she individually coached.
It was a great way to cap off a season in which her team at Texas State saw success. After winning three conference championships in 2013, Boone’s team saw two Bobcats go to the NCAA Outdoor Championships and 20 go to the NCAA West Preliminary, making it three consecutive years in which Boone’s teams have qualified 20 or more athletes for the NCAA West Preliminary.
The 2014 squad showed it can compete in the classroom just as well as on the track, with the women’s team winning the Academic Achievement Award from the Sun Belt Conference for earning a team grade point average above 3.0.
On the track and in the field, however, the Bobcats proved to be strong under Boone’s guidance. Sprinter Marika Brown was named the SBC Freshman of the Year as she quickly made her mark in sprints for the Bobcats competing and advancing to the NCAA national quarterfinals in the 100-meter dash. In just her freshman season, she clocked in times of 11.37 in the 100m and 23.24 in the 200m.
She was named All-Conference in both indoor and outdoor, garnering honors in the indoor 60-meter dash, 200-meter dash and 4x400-meter relay while also taking home honors in the outdoor 100m, 200m, 4x100m relay and 4x400m relay. Under Boone’s tutelage, Brown was able to cap off her freshman campaign by qualifying and competing at the USA Track and Field Junior Nationals over the summer, finishing fifth in the 200-meter dash.
Boone individually coaches the relay teams, short sprints and the short hurdles group. In short hurdles, Chelsea Stephen broke her own school record with a time of 8.40 in the indoor 60-meter hurdles at the SBC Indoor Championships to finish second. Stephen’s season best 13.49 in the 100m hurdles ensured her to be an NCAA West Preliminary qualifier. Meanwhile, freshman Antonisha Stewart also qualified for the NCAA West Preliminary with a 13.72 in the 100-meter hurdles and finished third at the SBC Outdoor Championships to be an All-Conference selection. Stewart also finished just behind Stephen in the 60-meter hurdles at the indoor championships to both garner Sun Belt All-Conference honors.
In short sprints, in addition to Brown, Boone also coached two NCAA West Preliminary qualifiers on the men’s side. Raymond Hatton ran 10.39 in the 100-meter dash and 21.02 in the 200m to qualify while Reggie Reed finished the 200-meter dash in 20.96 for a spot at the NCAA West Preliminary.
In 2013, Boone led Texas State to the athletic program’s only conference championships in the program’s only season as part of the Western Athletic Conference, claiming three total championships for the track and field teams.
Her women’s team started the season strong with a WAC Indoor Track and Field Championship that yielded Boone her first conference Coach of the Year honor. The Texas State women won three gold, three silver and four bronze medals in the conference competition to win it. In addition, the men added 10 more medals. Kelsey Titzman was recognized as the WAC Women’s Field Athlete of the Year.
Under Boone, the Bobcats showed even more improvement during the outdoor season as both the men and women went on to sweep the WAC Outdoor Track and Field Championships, leading to Boone’s second and third conference Coach of the Year awards.
The women dominated with a 39-point victory while the men came from behind to win the championship by six points. In addition to Boone’s awards, Titzman was named the Women’s Outdoor Field Athlete of the Year while Darian Brown won the WAC’s Men’s Outdoor Field Athlete of the Year. Timothy Young, a sprinter individually coached by Boone, was the high-point scorer at the meet, finishing with 36 points, 11 more than the next highest scorer.
That marked the second consecutive season in Boone’s tenure that Young was the high-point scorer at a conference meet. He also won the Presidential Scholar Award in both 2012 and 2013.
She also coached Alexus Hebert to a second place finish at the WAC Championships in the 100-meter dash (11.64).
To show that the Bobcats aren’t just competing well against present-day competition, Boone’s team broke nine team records during the 2013 indoor season. Four of those records came in events that Boone individually coaches: Young in the 60-meter hurdles and Chelsea Stephen in the 55-meter and 60-meter hurdles.
Four more Texas State records were broken during the 2013 outdoor season to make it a total of 20 team records the Bobcats have set since Boone took over the program.
The team was strong on a national level outside of just the WAC in 2013 with 13 athletes going to the NCAA West Preliminaries and four athletes going to the NCAA Nationals during the indoor and outdoor seasons. Both Titzman and Young along with pole vaulter Logan Cunningham achieved All-American status to make it 56 All-Americans under Boone’s tutelage.
In her first season, Boone led the Texas State men to a second place finish at the Southland Conference Outdoor Championships, while the women placed third. The men’s team enjoyed its highest finish since 2004 and an improvement of five places from the previous year as they more than tripled their point total. At the SLC Indoor Championships, both teams demonstrated improvement as well when the women’s squad moved up a spot to finish third and the men’s team improved four places to fifth place.
Boone’s athletes broke 10 school records as sprinters rewrote records in the indoor 200 meters (21.36), outdoor 200 meters (20.61) and the 4x100-meter relay (40.15). Texas State also dominated the short sprints at the SLC outdoor meet as the Bobcats won all three events in a single year for the first time in school history.
As a team, the Bobcats boasted SLC Freshman of the Year Darian Brown, won seven individual championships and set three meet records at the SLC Outdoor Championships. In addition, Young was the men’s high-point scorer at the outdoor meet with 27.5 points. The record holders included Chante’sean White in the 400-meter hurdles (57.299), Logan Cunningham in the men’s pole vault (5.53 meters) and Elena Horn in the women’s pole vault (4.15 meters).
Texas State also had 19 NCAA Preliminary Round qualifiers, which was the most in school history. Cunningham qualified for the NCAA Indoor and Outdoor Championships in the pole vault and earned NCAA Indoor All-American honors. Cunningham also represented Texas State at the U.S. Olympic Trials, and won the bronze medal for the United States at the NACAC-Under 23 Championships in Irapuato, Mexico.
A native of Springfield, Va., Boone brought a vast amount of high-level coaching experience to Texas State, which featured positions at Oklahoma, LSU, Texas, Tulane, Middle Tennessee and South Carolina.
Boone spent six years at Oklahoma where she coached sprints, hurdles and relays and served as an assistant coach for two seasons before her promotion to associate head women’s coach in 2007, after being named the USTFCCCA Midwest Region Assistant Coach of the Year.
She would go on to win the USTFCCCA Midwest Region Women's Assistant Coach of the Year in 2011 after training five NCAA All-America First Team and six NCAA All-America Second Team student-athletes between the indoor and outdoor seasons, including NCAA 100-meter dash champion Candyce McGrone (11.08). McGrone also finished fourth at the NCAA Indoor Championships in the 200-meter dash (22.84). In the same season, she also coached Ti'Anca Mock to a second place finish at the NCAA Championship Finals in the long jump (21-feet-9.5-inches).
Boone’s athletes helped the Sooners enjoy the program’s best finishes at both the NCAA Indoor and Outdoor Championships, placing sixth and fourth, respectively. They also accounted for 46.5 points at the Big 12 Championships as the Oklahoma women recorded a program-best third-place finish.
In 2007, Boone was named the USTFCCCA Midwest Region Men’s Sprints/Hurdles Assistant Coach of the Year, the lone woman that year to earn a coach of the year honor for work with a men’s team.
Of the 22 Sooners who qualified for the NCAA Outdoor Championships that season, Boone coached 13 who earned 10 All-America honors spread among them. Under her guidance, the OU men’s and women’s 4x100 and 4x400-meter relays qualified for the NCAA Championships in the same season for the first time in school history. Her athletes also set five-school individual event or relay records as the Oklahoma men won the Big 12 team title.
Under her guidance, Sooner athletes broke 12 program records during her seven- year tenure in Norman.
Prior to coaching at OU, Boone served as recruiting coordinator and assisted with the women’s sprinters and hurdlers at LSU. During the 2005 season, Boone helped guide Hazelann Regis to three of her 10 career All-America honors at the NCAA Indoor Championships when she finished as the runner-up in the 400-meter dash in a school-record time of 50.62, ran fourth in the 200-meter dash and anchored the 4x400-meter relay team to fourth place. Regis also captured two Southeastern Conference titles as she won the 200m and anchored the relay team to a victory.
Boone went to LSU after serving as an assistant coach for five seasons at Texas where she oversaw field events and assisted with sprints and hurdles.
Field events at Texas flourished under her watch as 15 athletes earned All-Big 12 honors, and six athletes qualified for the NCAA Championships while setting four school records. On the track, Boone helped train Marshevet Hooker, who, as a freshman, qualified for the national championships in both the 100 meters and the long jump. Hooker also was on the Midwest Region-winning 4x100-meter relay team and the 100m champion before advancing to the semifinals in the 100m at the U.S. Olympic Trials. She was the youngest competitor in the field. During Boone’s tenure, the Longhorn women captured two indoor (2002 and 2003) and outdoor national titles (2003 and 2004).
Boone also enjoyed successful stints as an assistant at Tulane, Middle Tennessee and South Carolina, coaching sprints, hurdles and jumps at each stop.
At Tulane, Boone coached 15 all-conference athletes who led the Green Wave to a Conference USA team championship in 1998. Boone also worked with the Green Wave football team, helping develop its speed and flexibility program.
From 1994 to 1997, Boone served as an assistant at Middle Tennessee State and tutored 22 individual OVC champions, five NCAA qualifiers and one All-American. She went to Middle Tennessee after spending one season at South Carolina where her athletes established numerous school records.
Boone has also coached numerous athletes who have competed independently on the national and international stage, including such meets as the CARIFTA Games, U.S. Olympic Trials, NACAC Track & Field Championships, Pan American Athletics Championships and the World Championships. In 2011, she also served as a coach for the U.S. Pan Am Junior team in Miramar, Fla.
An outstanding jumper at Virginia, Boone was a six-time All-American and six-time ACC champion. She still owns the school records for the indoor and outdoor long jump, and outdoor triple jump.
Boone earned a bachelor’s degree in communication studies at Virginia in 1991, and a master’s degree in physical education at Middle Tennessee State in 1995. She is a Level 2 certified coach in sprints, hurdles and jumps and has one son, Jackson.
