Coaching Staff

Eric Houle, Head Coach

Twenty-four time Mid-Continent Conference and 1999 NCAA Mountain Regional Coach of the Year Eric Houle is in his 14th 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 27 conference championships, including 26 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 480 all-conference athletes, 183 individual conference champions, 19 conference athletes of the year, 15 conference newcomers of the year, 20 NCAA national qualifiers, 35 NCAA West regional qualifiers and one NCAA All-American since the Thunderbirds joined the Mid-Con in 1997.

Last season, Houle led the Thunderbirds to their sixth Mid-Con cross country title sweep in seven years. The SUU women took home their seventh-straight conference crown overall, while the T-Bird men broke their own Mid-Con championship scoring record in winning for the seventh time in eight tries. Meanwhile, the SUU men’s outdoor track team successfully defended its Mid-Con crown and placed second overall at the indoor championships, while the women claimed third place at both conference championships.

Houle’s charges got it down in the classroom as well in 2004-05, as his men’s cross country program won its second USCCCA academic national championship during his tenure, while he had three athletes voted to the College Sports Information Directors of America/ESPN the Magazine Academic all-District VIII team, with two of those athletes, Jess Baumgartner and Chad Sanada, earning Academic All-American recognition.

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 12 conference championships while finishing second in 15 other Mid-Con meets and third five 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 201 times over the past nine years, including eight records this past season.

Overall, SUU has won 26 of 48 Mid-Con championships competed for since joining the league in 1997-98, while placing second in 17 meets and third in five others.

In addition, Houle’s athletes have done it in the classroom as 11 Thunderbird athletes have garnered CoSIDA (College Sports Information Directors of America) Academic all-District VIII honors, with seven of those athletes having gone on to earn Academic All-America accolades, over the past four 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.