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Head Coach
David Harris

Dave Harris is in his 17th season as the head coach of the track and field and cross country programs at Emporia State in 2008-09. He is an 11-time MIAA Coach of the Year. Under his guidance, the Hornets have established themselves as a nationally prominent NCAA Division II power in both track and cross country as 167 times his athletes have earned All-American honors, including 15 NCAA II individual championships since 1995. He was named the 2001 NCAA Division II Women’s Outdoor Track Coach of the Year by the United States Track Coaches Association.

Harris won his 11th MIAA Coach of the Year Award in 2003 after leading the ESU women to their third straight outdoor track title and fourth outdoor championship in five years after finishing second indoors.

The Hornets swept both the indoor and outdoor MIAA women’s championships in 2001 and 2002.  Emporia State won the indoor title despite not having a full length indoor facility.

Harris was named the 2000 South Central Regional Men’s Cross Country Coach of the Year.  

His 2000 women’s track team placed second at both the MIAA Indoor Championships and the MIAA Outdoor Championships. The men’s team placed third at both meets.

In 1999 he became only the third coach to lead both the men’s and women’s teams to MIAA outdoor titles in the same season.  The Hornets followed that with the school’s first ever top four national finish by the women’s team.  He was named MIAA Men’s and Women’s and USTCA Women’s Track Regional Coach of the Year.

In 1996 his outdoor teams posted their best combined finishes ever at an NCAA Championship event, placing fifth nationally on the women’s side and seventh on the men’s. His women’s outdoor team also captured its first MIAA team championship.

In 1995, ESU captured first place at the MIAA Men’s Outdoor Track and Field Championships and captured the school’s first-ever women’s conference title at the 1994 MIAA Cross Country Championships. The year culminated with ESU hosting the 1995 NCAA II Outdoor Track and Field Championships.In addition, the men’s cross country program finished second in the MIAA and Jurmain Mitchell finished third at the NCAA Championships.

The leadership and direction of Harris was essential in bringing the  NCAA Outdoor Championships to the Flint Hills in 1995, 1999 and again in 2006. He was heavily involved in the completion of the Zola Witten Track in 1993. It was Harris’ enthusiasm and leadership which allowed the E-State community to embrace the enormous task of hosting these prestigious events.

Harris came to ESU in 1992 from the University of Nebraska, where he coached middle distance runners and men's sprinters and hurdlers. In his seven-year stint as an assistant coach for the Cornhuskers, Harris coached 31 All-Americans and three Olympians.

Harris received his bachelor's degree in physical education/social science and a master's degree in athletic administration from Truman State, formerly Northeast Missouri State University. At TSU, he was a four-year letterman in cross country and track and field and captained the track team for two years.

After college, Harris joined the elite section of the St. Louis Track Club sponsored by adidas.  From 1979-81 he ran seven marathons with a personal best of 2:19.54 in New Orleans. At the 1979 Boston Marathon, he qualified for the 1980 US Olympic Trials with a time of 2:20.46.  Harris retired from competitive road racing in 1981 to concentrate fully on coaching.

Harris is married to the former Kathy Bechhold, and the couple have two sons, John-David and Jared.

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