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Glen Sefcik (born April 27, 1950) is an American former international and national decathlon, sprints, and hurdles coach, collegiate coach, author, lecturer, and higher education advocate. In 1980, Sefcik served as a sprint and hurdles coach for the Saudi Arabian Olympic Team. During his career, Sefcik has held positions as head coach for four universities.
Sefcik was born in San Angelo, Texas, to Alvin and Leona Sefcik, and has one sibling, Wayne Sefcik. A native of Wall, Texas, and Sefcik was an outstanding three sport high school athlete and pursued a collegiate athletic career. An injury forced Sefcik to discontinue athletic participation and accepted a position as a student manager for the University of Texas Track and Field team. Sefcik went on to become a student assistant coach his senior year and was awarded letterman status in Track & Field. Sefcik completed his degree in Kinesiology at the University of Texas at Austin and began his coaching career. He later pursued a Master of the Arts in Teaching at Angelo State University.
After serving as the US National Coach for the USA vs. Germany Decathlon, Sefcik coached the Saudi national and Olympic team to win three golds and two silvers at alternative competition, Islamic Games—held as result of boycott of Russian Olympic Games. Sefcik also trained teams in Tunisia, Egypt, and Turkey.
Prior to accepting the Olympic position for the Saudi Arabian Federation Sefcik coached the Eastern New Mexico University’s track team to a third-place finish in the NAIA National Championships. Following his international experience, Sefcik joined Wayland Baptist University as Head Track Coach and professor in the Kinesiology Department. While at Wayland his team finished fourth in the national championships and produced numerous national champions. Sefcik later went on to coach and teach at Stephen F. Austin State University, with three Southland Conference Team Championships, a fourth-place finish in the NCAA II Indoor National Championships in 1984, and numerous All-Americans. During this time Sefcik served as the Executive Director of USA Track & Field - Florida Association and was Chairman for the USA Track & Field Coaching Education Committee responsible for developing the Level III Certification program as well as curricular revisions of its educational programs. Sefcik retired from coaching after a two-year coaching position at Texas A&M Kingsville to accept a position at the University of Phoenix. Sefcik currently teaches and is the College Campus Chairman for the Humanities Department at the University of Phoenix, Austin Campus. In addition, he is a certified life coach for the True Growth Academy and World Class Coaches’ organizations. Coach Sefcik has individually coached Colonels and Command Sergeant Majors at the Pre-Command Course for the US Army in leadership and development as well as leaders in the insurance and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)
As a result of many years of extensive research in developing human performance, Sefcik has developed a model of achieving one’s full potential by balancing and coordinating the energy levels in nine dimension of one’s lifestyle. This system provides a variety of leadership coaching tools, techniques, best practices, and case studies from analysis of peak performers in life that transfer into effective personal leadership development. The system includes two parametric assessments designed to identify one’s strengths and developmental areas that are the basis for learning how to process one’s talents into refining an ability to lead an organization to “Peak Performance.”
Glen Sefcik resides in Corpus Christi, Texas. He has two grown children and two grandchildren. Justin & Whitney. Daughter in law, Emily (Ermin) Sefcik and granddaughters Lillian and Eveland.
Robert Eugene Richards was an American athlete, minister, and politician. He made three U.S. Olympic Teams in two events: the 1948, 1952, and 1956 Summer Olympics as a pole vaulter and as a decathlete in 1956. He won gold medals in pole vault in both 1952 and 1956, becoming the only male two-time champion in the event in Olympic history.
Texas Lutheran University (TLU) is a private Evangelical Lutheran university in Seguin, Texas.
Bryan Ezra Tsumoru Clay is an American decathlete who was the 2008 Summer Olympic champion for the decathlon and was also World champion in 2005.
Jesse Philo Mortensen was an NCAA champion track athlete and coach. Mortensen is one of only three men to win Division I Men's Outdoor Track and Field Championship team titles as both an athlete and coach.
Wayland Baptist University (WBU) is a private Baptist university based in Plainview, Texas. It is affiliated with the Baptist General Convention of Texas. Wayland Baptist has 11 campuses in five Texas cities, six states, American Samoa, and Kenya. Chartered in 1908, it had about 4,000 students in 2021, including about 900 students on its main campus.
Charles Allen Austin is an American former athlete who won the gold medal in the men's high jump at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. He was inducted into the United States Track & Field Hall of Fame in 2012. Currently, Charles and Javier Sotomayor are the only two high jumpers that have won gold medals in the Olympics, Outdoor World Championships, Indoor World Championships and World Cup Championships. Hennadiy Avdyeyenko, who won the inaugural 1983 Outdoor World Championship setting the championship high jump record with a jump of 2.32m, and Charles are the only two high jumpers to win and establish the championship record in both the Outdoor World Championship and Olympic Games. He currently holds or previously held the high jump record at the three biggest outdoor track and field competitions.
Chris Huffins is an athlete from the United States who competed in the field of Decathlon. He was the Director and Head Coach of the Men's and Women's Track and Field and Cross Country programs at the University of California from 2002 to 2007. He married Monique Parker in 1997 with whom he had one son Zachary. He earned a degree from the University of California in Political Economies of Industrial Societies in 2007. Huffins is a member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity. He is currently married to Tamika Huffins with whom he had another son, Jaxon.
Brutus Kerr Hamilton was an American track and field athlete, coach and athletics administrator.
Clyde Littlefield was an American sports and athletics coach. The head track and field coach at The University of Texas from 1920 to 1961 as well as its football coach from 1927 to 1933. In his 41 years at Texas, his athletic teams won 25 Southwest Conference championships and in football the Longhorns had a 44–18–6 record and won two Southwest Conference championships. He was also on the US coaching staff at the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki.
John Kenneth Doherty was an American decathlon champion, college track and field coach, author and longtime director of the Penn Relays. While a student at the University of Michigan, Doherty won the American decathlon championship in 1928 and 1929 and won the bronze medal in the event at the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam. He later served as a track coach at Princeton University (1929–1930), the University of Michigan (1930–1948), and the University of Pennsylvania (1948–1957). He was also the meet director for the Penn Relays from 1956 to 1969 and of the first dual track meet between the United States and the Soviet Union in 1959. He was also a published author of works on track coaching, and his Track & Field Omnibook was regarded as "the track coach's bible" from the 1970s through the 1990s. Doherty has been inducted into at least six athletic halls of fame, including the National Track and Field Hall of Fame and athletic halls of fame at the University of Pennsylvania, University of Michigan, and Wayne State University.
Ashton James Eaton is a retired American decathlete and two-time Olympic champion, who holds the world record in the indoor heptathlon event. Eaton was the second decathlete to break the 9,000-point barrier in the decathlon, with 9,039 points, a score he bettered on August 29, 2015, when he beat his own world record with a score of 9,045 points, and remains the only person to exceed 9000 points twice. His world record was broken by Frenchman Kevin Mayer on September 16, 2018, with a total of 9,126 points, who became the third man to pass the 9,000-point barrier.
James Edward "Trey" Hardee III is a retired American track and field athlete who specialized in the combined events. He is a former NCAA Champion, a two-time World Outdoor Champion, a member of the United States 2008 Olympic team, and the silver medalist in the decathlon at the London 2012 Olympics. He was Inducted into the Texas Track and Field Hall of Fame in 2018.
Ronald Parker Mills is an American former competition swimmer for Southern Methodist University and a 1968 Olympic medalist in the backstroke. He later had a career in advertising in the Dallas area.
Jill Ann Sterkel is an American former competition swimmer, Olympic champion, former world record-holder, and water polo player. Sterkel won four medals in three Olympic Games spanning twelve years from 1976 through 1988. She was the women's head coach of the Texas Longhorns swimming and diving team at the University of Texas at Austin from 1993 to 2006.
Elbert Pratt is a track and field coach. He currently resides in Monterrey, Mexico and serves as the Olympic Development Coach at the Tec de Monterrey and the President of the Pan American Pole Vault Association. Elbert Pratt also owns UniversalSport, a supplier of brand-name fitness equipment.
L. D. Weldon was an American track and field coach. He trained decathletes, including two Olympic medal winners, 40 years apart.
Jeff Bennett is a native of Vinita, Oklahoma. He is an American former decathlete who competed in the 1972 Summer Olympics.
Marielle Hall is a long-distance runner from the United States. She competed in the Women's 5000 meters event at the 2015 World Championships in Athletics in Beijing, China as well as the Women's 10,000 meters final at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Barbara J. Jacket was an American track and field coach. She was the women's track and field head coach for Prairie View A&M from 1965 to 1991. While with the university, Jacket won ten National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics titles and was promoted to athletic director in 1990. Apart from college athletics, Jacket was the head coach at the 1992 Summer Olympics for the American women's track and field competitors. Her position made her the second African-American woman to become an Olympic head coach for the United States. Additional events where Jacket coached the women's track and field team for the United States were the 1987 World Championships in Athletics and 1991 World Championships in Athletics. Jacket was inducted into the International Women's Sports Hall of Fame in 1995.