Bill Lawson

Class:
Redshirt

Lawson arrived at Kent State with visions of raising the school's track and field performance beyond success at the Mid-American Conference level and into the upper echelons of regional and national competition.

Under Lawson's watch, the Golden Flashes have had a total of 43 MAC champions, 52 have qualified for the NCAA Regional meet, 21 have qualified for the national championship meet and four have finished as an all-American.

"Coach Lawson has brought enthusiasm, energy and stability to our track and field and cross country programs," said Athletic Director Laing Kennedy. "He is doing an outstanding job, recruiting outstanding men and women to our program and the results are starting to show on the track and in the classroom."

The 2008-09 season was a banner year in the history of Kent State track and field as the men's indoor team captured its first ever MAC championship, dominating the field on its way to the title. The Kent State women's team also took a step forward, finishing second at both the indoor and outdoor meets.

For the season, a total of 13 student-athletes went to NCAA regionals while three made the outdoor championships. Kim Hamilton, who had only been training for ninth months after four years of playing softball for the Golden Flashes, reached the podium with a fifth-place finish in the javelin. For the indoor season, a total of six athletes qualified for the NCAA championships while LeVania Henderson captured All-American honors in the weight throw.
The 2008 season saw the KSU men finish third in both the indoor and outdoor MAC championships. The women finished eighth and fourth, respectively.

In 2007, Lawson had the men's team on the cusp of capturing an outdoor MAC title. In a wild finish that came down to the final event, KSU finished in third. However, two athletes achieved All-American status when Chris Caine finished eighth in the decathlon and Andy Nicholas finished eighth in the hammer throw.

In Lawson's first year at the helm, both the men's and women's teams finished the 2006 MAC Outdoor Championships in fourth place while the indoor men's squad took second place in the conference.

Lawson, 53, is the 11th head coach in the program's 86-year history and was welcomed to the Kent State coaching family by Director of Athletics Laing Kennedy on Sept. 8, 2005, succeeding Wendel McRaven. Lawson is the Director of Track and Field and Cross Country, overseeing both programs while also working with athletes in the heptathlon, decathlon and pole vault events.

Lawson is of the belief that one builds a national track and field power through great recruiting, and with the infusion of young talent on both the current men's and women's roster since his arrival, it is hard to argue with that sentiment.

Jeremy Brading and Chris Caine are evidence of this. As a true freshman during the 2006-07 campaign, Brading won the indoor MAC Championship in the pole vault with a mark of 17'-1 ½", won the conference's outdoor pole vault with a best effort of 16'-10 ¾" and earned a berth in the NCAA Division I Outdoor Championships by clearing 17'-1" at the NCAA Mideast Regional Championships.

Caine reached the podium after recording career-highs in three of the 10 events in the decathlon at the 2007 NCAA Outdoor Championships. Caine finished with a career-best total of 7,394 points, edging out the ninth-place finisher by 16 points thanks to a thrilling finish in the 1500-meter run (4:24.51).

Lawson also takes great pride in the assistant coaching staff he has assembled, a young and talented group made up of five individuals that all possess glittering resumes filled with success as athletes at not only the collegiate, but even the Olympic level.

Lawson cut his teeth in dealing with top collegiate athletes and discovering what qualities these athletes possess during a 15-year tenure as associate head coach at his alma mater of Northern Iowa, followed by a six-year run as recruiting coordinator and jumps, throws and decathlon coach at Oregon. With the Ducks, Lawson coached student-athletes to 10 different all-America honors and two national championships.

In his final season at Eugene, Oregon, Lawson helped guide the Ducks to a Pacific-10 Conference team championship. Two of Lawson's decathletes finished in the top four in the conference meet in 2005, while Cody Fleming went on to a top-10 finish at nationals. Lawson directed Ryan Voge to All-American honors in the heptathlon during the 2005 indoor season, Voge's debut in the event. Lawson's individuals helped Oregon to the best pair of top-10 NCAA team finishes ever - sixth at indoors and ninth at outdoors.

There was no denying Oregon's decathlon corps of being the nation's best in 2004. Freshman Tommy Skipper debuted in the Pac-10 Championships and won Oregon's fourth straight Pac-10 title in the event despite having limited work. Joining Skipper were three other Ducks that came away with then-personal bests in the Pac-10 finale, as Oregon placed 1-3-4-5 against the deepest decathlete league in the nation.

Skipper took second in the 2004 NCAA Indoor Championships under Lawson in the pole vault with a mark of 18'-4 1/2" - Oregon's highest indoor finish in the event. Skipper cleared 18 feet in four of his appearances, including a then-school record 18'-8 ¾". Oregon's Leonidas Wilson ranked ninth among collegians in both the long jump and triple jump indoors in his first year, garnering All-America accolades in the NCAA long jump.

Lawson's field event crew scored 53 points and helped Oregon to its first team win since 1993 at the 2003 Pac-10 Championships. In all, Lawson's athletes claimed two of the Ducks' three individual titles. At the national level, two of Lawson's three NCAA outdoor qualifiers claimed All-America honors, helping Oregon to a 13th-place team finish.
Lawson's most impressive coaching efforts may have come in 2002. Trevor Woods cleared 17'-11 ¾" in the pole vault to take third place at the NCAA Indoor Championships. All-American Billy Pappas emerged as Oregon's ninth conference decathlon champion, while Adam Kriz grabbed the Pac-10's hammer championship. Four individuals earned berths in four different events (decathlon, pole vault, hammer, javelin) at the national level under Lawson's tutelage.

Santiago Lorenzo (decathlon) and John Stiegeler (javelin), both national champions in their respective events, propelled the Ducks to ninth nationally in 2001. Stiegeler shattered the school's javelin record and finished the season third among All-Americans. Pappas put in an All-America performance as a junior in the outdoor decathlon, as did Jason Boness in the indoor high jump, marking the third time Boness received the accolade during Lawson's tenure. Boness captured the Pac-10 title in the high jump with a mark of 7'5 ½", at the Pacific-10 Championships in 2000 as well as recording a 7'4 ½" at the PAC-10 Championships on 2001.

Lawson also has Olympic experience, as he coached Lorenzo in the decathlon in 2004 at the games held in Athens, Greece.

Oregon reaped the benefits of Lawson's arrival right away, as his field event group accounted for a whopping two-thirds of Oregon's points at the PAC-10 championships in 2000. Boness enjoyed a second All-America honor by way of placing seventh in the outdoor high jump. Earning his second Pac-10 runner-up placement was Lorenzo, who also grabbed All-American recognition. Lorenzo wound up improving his collegiate best by nearly 500 points.

With the incredible amount of success Lawson enjoyed as a coach at UNI, it's little wonder that Oregon - consistently one of the nation's top track and field programs - eventually came calling. The Panthers saw Lawson help to develop 18 All-America athletes and take the program to 132 individual and 15 team titles, with cross country earning seven, indoor track six and outdoor track two team championships. Five of Lawson's former athletes were recognized as conference athletes of the year.

Lawson's coaching career began and spanned three years at John Marshall High School in Rochester, Minn., leading the school's cross country, track and field, and women's basketball squads before returning to Northern Iowa. Lawson also coached nine indoor Mountain Pacific Sports Federation competitions. In 2003, the UNI Athletics Hall of Fame opened its doors to Lawson as an inductee. As a Panther, Lawson garnered All-America honors four times and his 7,314 decathlon points earned in 1980 are still good enough for fourth in UNI's all-time annals. Lawson captained the Panthers for two seasons and earned fours berths apiece in the NCAA Division II Championships in the decathlon, pole vault and triple jump.

Lawson graduated from UNI with an undergraduate degree in physical education and a master's degree in physical education with a concentration in exercise science.

A native of Carthage, Ill., Lawson, and his wife, Jodie, have a daughter, Abbie, 15, and a son, T.J., 12.