LeTourneau University Athletics is excited to announce that the sport of track & field will be added to its men's and women's intercollegiate programs, beginning in January of 2018. With the addition of indoor and outdoor men's and women's track & field LeTourneau University now sponsors 15 sports competing at the NCAA Division III level in the American Southwest Conference.

"We appreciate LETU President, Dr. Dale Lunsford, and the Board of Trustees for the unique opportunity to add men's and women's track & field," said athletic director Terri Deike. "The last sports added to the LETU athletic department were men's and women's cross country in 2009. We are excited to have track & field student-athletes arrive on campus next fall to begin training for the competitive season beginning in January 2018.

Track & field is one of the most popular sports in the state of Texas. According to participation data from the UIL, 1,311 high schools participate in the sport with over 75,000 boys and nearly 60,000 girls competing at the high school level. Only basketball has more female participants than track & field in Texas.
 
Further, there were over a million high school athletes participating in track & field in 2015-16. The boys made up 591,133 competing in track & field in the United States, 485,969.

LeTourneau will be the 10^th member of the ASC to sponsor outdoor track & field and just the sixth member to offer indoor. The men's program will be the ninth Division III program in Texas while the women will be the 10^th in the Lone Star state.
 
This will also be a huge step forward for LETU's cross country programs led by head coach Britton Koestler. The long-distance runners will now have the ability to train and compete throughout the winter and spring seasons with the addition of track & field. LeTourneau cross country had their best performances in school history at the NCAA Regional Championship Meet this past November as the women finished in 19^th among 27 teams and the men finished in 15^th among the field of 29 teams.
 
Expanding on track & field's presence in Division III, it is also worth noting that LETU will be the 274^th of 443 DIII institutions nation-wide to offer men's track & field and the 285^th to sponsor a women's program.
 
The YellowJackets will be led by a familiar name in Texas track & field as Don Hood has been named the head men's and women's track & field coach at LeTourneau.
 
"We are very blessed to have Don Hood, a well-known Texas track & field coach, agree to head the new program.  Don brings a wealth of knowledge after coaching at the high school level as well as four NCAA institutions.  Don's expertise will be invaluable in establishing a successful indoor and outdoor men's and women's track & field program. He has a proven record of teaching skills and helping student-athletes achieve success. Don's character and integrity will make him a wonderful addition to the athletic department staff."
 
Hood joins LeTourneau after serving as the girl's athletic coordinator and head boys and girls track and cross-country coach at Brownwood High School since 2009.  Hood's track and cross country teams have won 9 district championships and the girls cross country team has qualified for the state meet 3 of the last 5 seasons under his direction.

Prior to Brownwood, Hood spent four seasons as the head track & field coach at Abilene Christian University. During his tenure, Hood led the Wildcat men's program to three straight NCAA Division II outdoor team championships (2006-08), and directed the women's program to the 2008 outdoor team title, the program's first team championship since winning the 2000 indoor championship. Under his direction, the Wildcat men's team won the Lone Star Conference team championship in each of his four seasons, while the women's team won the LSC title from 2006-08.

In 2008, Hood was voted the United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches' Association Men's Coach of the Year.
LeTourneau will use local high school track facilities for all practice and home competitions as they begin the process of raising funds for an on-campus facility of their own.

"I am thrilled to be chosen to lead the beginning of the LeTourneau track & field program," said Hood. "It's a rare opportunity to begin a program from scratch - to be able to lay the foundation of what will become a well-respected track and field program across the state of Texas and throughout the NCAA. It's long been a desire of mine to have this type of opportunity. Being able to do it at a quality school like LeTourneau, where we can sell the combination of a great educational and spiritual experience, makes this a can't miss opportunity."