| Don Yentes is
entering his second season as the head coach of the Wyoming track and field
team. In Yentes’ first year as head coach Wyoming produced seven All Americans,
seven conference champions, nine NCAA Championships participants and 16
Conference Scholar Athletes.
Yentes was an assistant coach
with the Wyoming program in charge of sprints, jumps and hurdles from 1997-2000.
He was hired as Wyoming’s head track and field coach June, 13, 2000.
Yentes came to UW from Eastern
Michigan University. At Eastern Yentes coached the Eagles to the 1997 Indoor
and Outdoor Championship titles. He also coached the Eagles to their first
ever Michigan Intercollegiate Championship in 1997.
He also served as an assistant cross country and track coach at Butler
County Community College (1987-'89) producing 21 All Americans. He was
the head cross country and track coach at Neosho County Community College
(1989-'91) coaching seven All-Americans. Yentes also helped start the track
and field program at Neosho County.
As an assistant track coach
at Barton County Community College from 1991-'95, he helped the women win
seven Indoor and Outdoor National Championships. Barton’s women won the
triple crown (cross county, indoor and outdoor track) in back-to-back seasons.
He coached 152 All Americans and 20 NJCAA Individual National Champions
while at Barton.
Yentes’ coaching resume at
the junior college level includes nine NJCAA Women’s National Championship
teams and 180 All Americans.
Prior to Eastern, Yentes
coached track and cross country at Jac-Cen-Del and Oak Hill High Schools
(Ind.) for five years (1982-'87) amassing a record of 53-1 in cross
country and 33-6 in track. Yentes will use his expertise to oversee the
sprints, jumps and hurdling events for the Cowboys and Cowgirls. In 1999,
Yentes coached four WAC Champions for Wyoming. During the 2000 season,
he coached six Mountain West Conference Champions.
Yentes is a USATF Level II
coach in sprints and jumps and is currently working on his Level III certification. |
Jim Sanchez is
currently in his 21st season at the University of Wyoming. During his tenure,
Sanchez has earned the reputation as one of the top distance coaches in
the West. Sanchez, who is in the head coach of the men’s and women’s cross
country team, also handles all distance and middle distance events during
the track and field season. He has excelled in leading the Cowboy distance
crews to national prominence.
Over the past twenty years
with UW Sanchez has coached 14 NCAA All-Americans, seven men and seven
women (three in cross country, four in track and field for both sides),
four Wyoming Hall of Fame Inductees (Patricia Miller-Davis, Jay Novacek,
Kathy Van Heule-Romsa and Joseph Nzau), three Olympians (Ryan Bolton, Joseph
Nzau, Espen Borge), five Academic Cross Country All Americans and one Academic
All American Women’s Cross Country Team.
Sanchez has also earned five
Western Athletic Conference Cross Country Coach of the Year Awards. His
teams were consistently among the top finishers in the WAC with a combined
two first place, seven second place, and eight third place finishes.
Sanchez’s expertise is in
altitude training and he’s been a major attraction at coaching clinics
nationally and internationally. In June of 1987 he was invited by the Peruvian
Track Federation and Olympic Committee to give a seminar in altitude training.
Sanchez has coached All American
student athletes from small towns (John Wodny, Cloquet, Minn.) to big cities
(Nick Thiel, Chicago, Ill.) and from the local area (Brenda Gray, Glenrock,
Wyo., Ryan Bolton, Gillette, Wyo., and Monte Still, Cheyenne, Wyo.) to
the international field (Espen Borge, Norway and Joseph Nzau, Kenya). |
Assistant coach
Paul Barrett is entering his second year with the Wyoming Track and Field
program after spending two years coaching throws at the University of Kentucky
and most recently a year at the University of Colorado.
Last season Barrett coached
five All Americans and four conference champions in his second go-around
with Wyoming.
Barrett previously coached
the throwing events at the University of Wyoming from 1991-1997.
He coached five All Americans while at UW, including three time All American
thrower Ryan Butler, who was the 1996 NCAA Champion in the 35-pound weight
throw. Over the course of his previous stint at UW, Barrett led Wyoming
athletes to the NCAA Championships in each of the five throwing events.
While at the University of
Kentucky (1997 - 1999), he coached two All Americans including Matt
Kavanaugh, who placed seventh in the hammer at the 1999 NCAA Outdoor Championships.
Kavanaugh was the third best American finisher in that event.
Barrett competed collegiately
for Washington State University, where he was a PAC-10 finalist in the
hammer throw. He also competed in the discus, and javelin events for the
Cougars.
He graduated from Washington
State in 1991 with a bachelors degree in sport management. |
|
