Gill Athletics and USA Track & Field (USATF) will honor one boys' and one girls' high school track & field team coach with the inaugural Gill Athletics National High School Track & Field Coach of the Year Award.
Pete Boudreaux, boys' coach of Catholic High School in Baton Rouge, La, and James Holdren Jr., girls' coach of Maggie L. Walker Governor's School in Richmond, VA., will be recognized at the awards ceremony on Saturday, June 26 during the USA Outdoor Track & Field Championships in Des Moines, IA in front of a 14,000 Drake Stadium crowd. Both award recipients' schools will receive $5,000 worth of Gill Athletics track & field equipment.
“High school track & field coaches are the backbone of the sport of track & field in the U.S.,” says David Hodge, CEO of Gill Athletics. “Without their tireless work and dedication, the U.S. would not lead the world in the sport as it does. Gill Athletics is proud to recognize the great commitment of these coaches to our high school athletes.”
Out of 158 applications from throughout the country, Boudreaux and Holdren were selected as two of the 12 regional finalists for the Gill Athletics National High School Track & Field Coach of the Year Award. Based on the candidates' coaching record, honors and recognitions, and service to the sport and their communities, the USATF Coaches Advisory Committee named Boudreaux and Holdren the final winners.
“I feel very fortunate and humbled by this recognition for our school and the CHS track program,” responds Boudreaux. “At the same time, I fully understand that this recognition is the result of many very special people; my wife and family, the Catholic High School family, the assistant coaches that have so loyally worked with us and, of course, the many, many athletes through the years who have bought into what we were doing and have helped make us the storied program that we are today. I have been very blessed to be surrounded by such loyal, giving and caring people.”
“I have spent the better part of my life of 68 years in this wonderful sport,” responds Holdren. “I am thrilled and honored to receive this national award.”
A list of the 2010 Regional Finalists and coaching highlights for Boudreaux and Holdren follow. All this information and further details about the award can be found at: http://www.gillcoachoftheyear.com
Regional Finalists:
Eduardo Diaz – Loyola HS of Los Angeles in Los Angeles, CA
Claney Duplechin – Episcopal HS in Baton Rouge, LA
Yvonne Grimes – Bethel HS in Bethel, CT
John Gudgel – Yellow Springs HS in Yellow Springs, OH
Charles Harris –
Rick Kates
Michael Kuhn
Robert Nihells
Chris Schmidt
Lorily Smith-Thompson
Pete Boudreaux coaching highlights:
Pete Boudreaux's track & field and cross country teams have won 33 state titles – 11 state outdoor track titles,
7 state indoor track titles, and 15 state cross-country titles. The track teams own the four highest scores ever
recorded in a 5A Louisiana state meet while the cross country teams own the three lowest scores ever recorded
in the state championship. In 1991, Boudreauxâ's school, Catholic High School, became the first school to accomplish
the feat of winning state titles in cross country, indoor track, and outdoor track in the same year. The
2008-2009 and 2009-2010 teams repeated the feat to become the only school in Louisiana to ever accomplish
the feat in back to back years.
Boudreaux has been the Louisiana Coach of the year 14 times. He has also earned Athletic Director of the Year
and National High School Regional Coach of the Year. Induction into the Louisiana High School Athletic
Association Hall of Fame and LSU Track Officials Hall of Fame are prominent awards in Boudreauxâ€s career.
Boudreaux served as past president of the Louisiana High School Coaches Association and presently serves on
the executive committee of the Louisiana High School Athletic Directors Association. He has served on several
International coaching staffs and was named to the U.S Olympics Sports Festival coaching staff and was a staff
member for the USA vs Great Britain in Edinburgh, Scotland (1993) as well as a staff member for the Junior
World Championships in Annecy, France in 1998.
James Holdren coaching highlights:
James Holdren has been coaching cross-country and track for 43 years. He has collected the most high school
track wins in Virginia history, with a career total of 1,362 wins in girl's track and cross country, including 91
District team titles, 42 District runner-up finishes, 47 Regional titles, 26 Regional runner-up finishes, 8 State
titles, 10 state runner-up finishes, 243 major invitational titles and a 973-257 dual meet record. His girls'
outdoor track teams went undefeated in dual meets for 16 years with 109 consecutive victories. He has coached
10 National Record holders, 57 All-Americans and 115 State champions.
In 1988, Holdren won the NHSACA girls track coach of the year award, and he won the NHSACA girls cross-country
coach of the year award in 2006. A coach can only win this award once in any particular sport, making
it even more of an honor that he has won it both in track and in cross-country. He is the only Virginia coach to
win the national coach of the year award in two sports.
Holdren was inducted into the Virginia High School Hall of Fame in 1993 and the National High School
Athletic Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2006. Holdren was one of only two coaches in the Richmond area
to receive the honor.
Holdren has been a member of the Virginia High School Coach's Association since 1964, and has served on its
Legislative Council since 1975 and its Executive Board since 1978. Over the past 46 years, he has served in
every capacity in the Virginia USATF Association (formally AAU and TAC), including as its President for the
past three Olympiads. He was a charter member of the National High School Athletic Coaches Association,
serving on its Advisory Board (1980-1988), as a National Girl's Track Chairman (1981-1987), and as a Board
of Director (1981-1986, 1990-1997). He has served as the State Track & Field Rules Interpreter since 1994 and
as a District and Regional Cross Country, Indoor Track and Outdoor Track Championship Meet Director, and
on the State Championship Games Committee since 1965.
