CULLOWHEE, N.C. – After a highly successful coaching career spanning the better part of 30 years, Western Carolina head cross country / track & field coach Danny Williamson has announced his retirement, effective Aug. 1. Williamson guided the Catamounts to a combined 32 Southern Conference championships during his storied career, including 18 on the women’s side and 14 in men’s competition.
Assistant coach Cale McDaniel, a former WCU track & field student-athlete who is in his sixth season on-staff in Cullowhee, has been named interim head coach.
“I feel honored to have been able to do something that I have loved doing for the past 30 years,” Williamson said in a statement. “It has been an incredible ride that not everyone gets to take. This decision is based upon my wanting to be able to spend more time with my family. For 30 years, my family has allowed me to do this job, regardless of the amount of time that it took or all of the demands that it took and required to get the job done. Now I feel it is time to devote more time to my family, and be able to relax and enjoy the time with them.”
Williamson’s squads swept both the men’s and women’s 2016 Southern Conference Outdoor Championships held in Cullowhee, giving him three titles last season when counting the men’s third straight SoCon indoor crown to add exclamation points to his career.
In addition to the numerous conference titles, Williamson has won 39 SoCon Coach of the Year awards between men’s and women’s indoor and outdoor track. He twice earned three straight men’s indoor coach of the year honors, making him the only coach to win the honor three straight times dating back to 1976. Williamson also garnered three straight SoCon Women’s Outdoor Coach of the Year plaudits from 1999-2001.
Williamson has thrice been selected the NCAA Division I Regional Track and Field Coach of the Year, collecting those honors in 1999, 2004 and again in 2006.
A 1985 graduate of Western Carolina University with a bachelor's degree in physical education, Williamson completed his Master’s in Education at WCU in 1986, at which time he began his duties with the track & field program. During his years at the helm of the WCU program, he guided the Catamounts from the lower part of the SoCon to a perennial power at the top of the conference standings.
Williamson leaves a lasting impression on the WCU track & field program, as he has witnessed over 700 of his student-athletes receive All-Southern Conference honors and well more than 250 Western Carolina cross country / track & field student-athletes be named individual conference event champions. In addition, he directed three Western Carolina student-athletes to NCAA All-American status and has seen over 200 student-athletes acquire NCAA Automatic or Provisional Qualifying marks, including three that most recently qualified and competed in Jacksonville, Fla., in May.
Under Williamson’s tutelage, a combined 25 Catamounts collected Southern Conference Most Outstanding Performer awards on the men’s and women’s side during both the indoor and outdoor seasons. A total of 18 track athletes earned Most Outstanding Track Performer honors with another 18 earning Most Outstanding Field Performer accolades.
All told, 30 first-year Catamounts earned SoCon Freshman of the Year plaudits – 20 on the men’s side, including one in cross country, and 10 on the women’s side.
A total of 124 Catamount men’s and women’s student-athletes earned SoCon Athlete of the Week plaudits over Williamson’s career, with athletes garnering a combined 37 SoCon Athlete of the Month honors.
“’Thank you’ does not begin to express my personal gratitude to Danny for his years of unselfish service to our student-athletes, our athletic department and Western Carolina University,” WCU Director of Athletics Randy Eaton said. “I am extremely proud of the competitive and academic success that our student-athletes have achieved under Danny’s leadership. Danny leaves a legacy that will be impossible to surpass, but we will do our best in choosing his successor.”