Thirty-three time conference and 1999 NCAA Mountain Regional Coach of the Year Eric Houle is in his 18th season as head track and field and cross country coach at Southern Utah University. Since his arrival at SUU in 1992, the Thunderbirds have won 36 conference championships, including four Summit League titles, 31 Mid-Con titles combined in track and cross country, an American West title and one NCAA Mountain Regional cross country championship.
In addition, Houle has coached 615 all-conference athletes, 242 individual conference champions, 23 conference athletes of the year, 26 conference newcomers of the year, 25 NCAA national qualifiers, 85 NCAA West regional qualifiers and two NCAA All-Americans.
In 2007-08, Southern Utah cross country swept the inaugural Summit League cross country titles, marking the tenth time the men have capture the conference title and the eighth time for the women. The men followed up the feat the very next year for their third consecutive cross country title during the 2008-09 season. The men also added an outdoor championship trophy to the case last year as well.
In 2006-07, Coach Houle led the Thunderbirds to four conference titles, including a “Triple Crown” season for the Southern Utah men. SUU’s men captured the Mid-Continent cross country title by finishing first through fifth to set a new scoring record and finishing a perfect race. The men then went on to finish first in the indoor and outdoor track and field championships for the complete sweep on the year. The women joined the men on the top step of the podium during the outdoor season.
For his efforst, Houle was named the Mid-Con Coach of the Year for men’s cross country, men’s indoor/outdoor track an field and women’s outdoor track and field.
In 2003-04, Houle led the Thunderbirds to a dual Mid-Continent Conference “Triple Crown” sweep as both programs won the cross country, indoor and outdoor track titles, marking the first time in conference history that a program had won all six championships in one season. The cross country sweep was the fifth Mid-Con sweep six years, with the SUU women taking home their sixth-straight Mid-Con crown overall, while the T-Bird men won for the sixth time in seven tries.
Meanwhile, the women repeated as indoor and outdoor track champions to claim their second straight “Triple Crown” and their third in four years, while the men tasted victory in the indoor season for the first time in program history and notched their second outdoor title overall in the sweep.
In 1999, Coach Houle led the Thunderbird men to their first-ever NCAA Mountain Division Cross Country Championship, stopping a streak of six-straight titles won by nationally-ranked Colorado, as well as knocking off four other nationally-ranked teams, a feat no other collegiate team in Utah has accomplished to date. The win put the Thunderbirds into the national rankings for the first time ever (#11 overall) and earned them their first-ever berth to the NCAA Championships, where SUU placed 21st overall. Houle’s efforts garnered him NCAA Regional Coach of the Year honors.
On the track, the Thunderbirds have been just as dominant, winning 17 conference championships while finishing second in 19 other conference meets and third six times. In June of 1999, Natalie Gibson became SUU’s first-ever track NCAA All-American, competing in the 400-meter hurdles at the NCAA Outdoor Championships in Boise, Idaho. In addition, school records have been set or re-set almost 300 times over the past 10 years, including 11 records this past season.
Overall, SUU has won 33 of 66 conference championships competed for since joining the league in 1997-98, while placing second in 22 meets and third in eight others.
In addition, Houle’s athletes have done it in the classroom as 15 Thunderbird athletes have garnered CoSIDA(College Sports Information Directors of America) Academic all-District VIII honors, with nine of those athletes having gone on to earn Academic All-America accolades, over the past five seasons. SUU’s men’s cross country program has also won two academic national championships in 1997-98 and 2004-05, while the women’s program was academic national runner-up in 2002-03.
Houle graduated with two bachelor’s degrees from SUU – in physical education and communication – in 1981, and added a Master’s degree in secondary education in 1998. Houle began his head coaching career in 1982 at Salt Lake City’s Judge Memorial High School. In eight seasons at JMHS, Houle’s cross country teams won 10 region and three state championships and had five runner-up finishes.
Houle and his wife Diane are the parents of two grown sons, Deric and Nick, and reside in Cedar City. In 2004, Coach Houle was inducted into the Utah Summer Games Hall of Honor in recognition of his career coaching accomplishments.
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Courtesy: SUU Publications
