Sievers Resigns Post As Men's Cross Country Coach
8/11/2003 12:00:00 AM | Men's Cross Country
Aug. 11, 2003
Gary Sievers, head coach of the Wake Forest men??s cross country team and assistant director of the track and field program, has resigned to pursue a career in business.
Sievers worked three years with the Demon Deacon men??s cross country and track and field teams. He led the cross country team to consecutive appearances in the NCAA Championships in 2000 and 2001. Sievers?? 2001 team included ACC champion Nathan Sisco and two other Deacons who earned All-ACC honors. The 2000 team finished 18th at the NCAA Championships, ahead of 11 nationally-ranked teams. In track, Sievers helped coach the distance medley relay team to a school and ACC record and back-to-back ACC titles.
A national search for his replacement will begin immediately. Annie Bennett, who serves as Wake Forest??s director of track and field and head coach of the women??s cross country team, will lead that search.
??Gary did a great job with the athletes at Wake Forest,?? Bennett said. ??Our distance athletes will miss him, but we wish him the best in his endeavors."
Prior to his arrival at Wake Forest, Sievers served as the cross country coach at the College of Southern Idaho, where he led the Golden Eagles to two combined national championships. Before taking the head coaching position at Southern Idaho, Sievers was the assistant coach at Louisiana State, where he helped lead the Tigers to three national championships. Sievers began his coaching career at Oregon State, where he worked from 1981-1986.
A two-time all-conference selection at Oregon, Sievers was a member of two national championship cross country teams in 1973 and 1974. While at Oregon, Sievers trained with some of the great Oregon long distance legends, such as Steve Prefontaine, Alberto Salazar, Rudy Chapa and Matt Centrowitz. Sievers was coached by the Ducks' track & field legendary hall of fame coach, Bill Dellinger, whom Sievers replaced at Wake Forest in 2000.
Sievers, who hails from Twin Falls, Idaho, graduated from the University of Oregon with a bachelor's degree in physical education in 1977 and earned a master's degree in Cardiovascular & Respiratory Physiology at Oregon State in 1983.
