Ron Grigg

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Seasons

• 2009-10 - Head Coach

Grigg became the director of track and field and cross country at JU in 2002 after serving as the associate head coach under former head coach Becky Motley for a year. Grigg originally came to JU in 1998 before leaving to serve as an assistant coach at Kansas State from 1999 to 2001.

Grigg has helped the Dolphins track program win the Atlantic Sun Indoor and Outdoor Championships in each of the last four seasons – earning “Coach of the Year” in all eight of those titles as well as receiving the United States Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association South Region Women’s “Coach of the Year” in 2008.

He also led the JU women’s cross country team to its best finish in school history in 2008. The Dolphins won four of five regular-season meets, while also finishing with program-bests at the A-Sun Championship (2nd) and the NCAA Regional (10th). Grigg had four Dolphin runners earn all-conference honors and led JU to its first ranking in the USTFCCA regional poll.

Over the last four years Grigg has worked Natasha Harvey who finished her career as one of the best athletes in school history. Harvey earned a school-record five All-America honors in the long jump, secured seven berths in the NCAA Championships, produced 18 NCAA regional qualifying marks, won 22 individual conference titles and recorded 35 all-conference honors. She also won “Most Outstanding Performer” meet honors at the A-Sun Championships nine times and competed with Team USA twice (2006, 2008).

Harvey got it done in the classroom as well, earning JU female “Student of the Year” honors and becoming the first female athlete in school history to be named A-Sun “Student-Athlete of the Year.”

Grigg recruited and coached Monique Tubbs, the school's first national champion (60-meter dash, 7.29) and a four-time All-America honoree; and Andrea Pressley, who finished fourth in the heptathlon at the 2004 NCAA Outdoor Championships.

Besides the four All-America honorees and the 16 NCAA Division I Championship qualifiers, Grigg has coached 66 A-Sun Conference champions and 129 all-conference performers. School records have been set in 19 of 23 outdoor events and 16 out of 19 indoor track events during Grigg's tenure as assistant and head coach.

His teams have also shown success in the classroom, receiving the USTFCCCA All-Academic Team award eight consecutive years (2002-09). Since his return in 2001, the Dolphins had 158 academic all-conference selections among the cross country and track teams.

While at Kansas State, Grigg served as the team's recruiting coordinator, sprints and hurdles coach and assistant meet director. In 2001, he helped lead the Wildcats to a Big 12 women's outdoor track championship. Grigg also coached 100-meter All-America selection and Big 12 indoor and outdoor champion Terence Newman, now a cornerback with the Dallas Cowboys.

Prior to coming to Jacksonville in 1998, Grigg was an assistant coach at Division III power Wheaton (Mass.) College. Under Grigg's tutelage, nine Wheaton athletes earned a total of 21 All-America honors while capturing two individual NCAA championships and two national titles in the 4x400-meter relay. In addition, the 1997 men's team finished seventh in the nation and the women's squad finished as NCAA runners-up in both indoors and outdoors in 1998.

Grigg began his coaching career at Carver High School in Baltimore, Md., in 1994 as the head cross country and track and field coach for one year before assuming an assistant coach position at Coppin State College in 1995.

Grigg earned his bachelor's degree in political science from the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth in 1993. He holds USATF Level II coaching certifications in sprints, hurdles, jumps, throws and multi-events, and instructs USATF Level I and Level II schools regularly.