Gary Sievers Position: Head Coach Experience: 2nd season Alma Mater: Oregon, 1977

Beginning his third track season at Wake Forest, Gary Sievers continues to fuel the fire that has the distance programs running so fast. With a wealth of knowledge and experience, Sievers is on his way to returning the Demon Deacons back to their winning ways - and in a hurry. In his second year as the men's cross country coach, Sievers takes on the new role of Assistant Director of Track & Field this spring in the new combined track & field program at Wake Forest, headed up by Annie Schweitzer Bennett. After serving the last two track seasons as an assistant men's track coach, the men's and women's Deacon distance runners will all benefit from Sievers' expert tutelage now.

Last fall, Sievers led the Deacon harriers back to the NCAA Cross Country Championships again, where they finished in 19th place. Led by ACC Champion Nathan Sisco, three Wake runners captured all-conference honors in route to the Demon Deacons placing second at the ACC Championships.

In 2000 Sievers saw the Deacs take fourth-place at the ACC Cross Country Championships, qualify for the NCAA Championships and then guided Wake Forest to an 18th place finish, ahead of 11 ranked teams.

In the spring, Sievers saw his distance runners really take off. Wake Forest's indoor Distance Medley Relay team broke the school record, ACC record, won the ACC Championship and finished ninth at the NCAA Championships. Under his supervision, Wake Forest runners captured ACC Championships in the indoor Mile, outdoor 1,500-Meter Run and the outdoor 10,000-Meter Run. Twelve distance Deacons earned All-ACC honors on the track.

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, as well as a runner-up finish at four Cross Country National Championships. Between the cross country and the track & field programs, The College of Southern Idaho finished in the top 10 nationally 17 times during Sievers' time there. The head coach from 1992-1999, Sievers coached 109 All-Americans and two individual national champions. Twenty-two school records fell while Sievers was the coach and in 1997 his men's squad were ranked the number one academic team in the nation.

Before taking the head coaching position at Southern Idaho, Sievers was the assistant coach at Louisiana State, where he led the Tigers to three national championships. In only three years spent at LSU, Sievers directed the Tigers to five SEC Championships, breaking 16 school records along the way. Seventeen of his athletes earned All-America honors while Sievers was on board, including two individual national champions. Sievers coached seven SEC individual champions as well as the world's second fastest women's 4x800m indoor relay team.

Sievers began his coaching career at Oregon State, where he worked from 1981-1986. During his stint with the Beavers, he produced six All-Americans, one National Champion, five Pac-10 Conference Champions and one Pan-American Junior Champion. Sixteen school records were broken during Sievers' reign at Oregon State.

A two-time all-conference selection at the University of 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 succeeded at Wake Forest in 2000.

Sievers, who hails from Twin Falls, Idaho, graduated from 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. He resides in Winston-Salem with his wife Kimberly. They have three children, Kara (10), Nika (15) and Sarah, (21) who is in her first year of Dental School.

Send an E-mail to Coach Sievers: sievergk@wfu.edu