Barbara Crousen
Head Track & Field Coach; SWA;

Forevermore, head coach Barbara Crousen will go down in McMurry history as the first head coach to lead a team of any kind to a team national championship. Crousen guided McMurry’s men to the NCAA III Outdoor National Championship in 2008 giving the school its first national title of any kind since it began intercollegiate athletic competition in 1923.

Since taking over the program in the summer of 1998, Crousen has helped McMurry become a consistent track power in the south region and nationally among NCAA Division III schools.
 
Since her first season in 1999, Crousen led the men’s team to 11 consecutive American Southwest Conference titles (1999-2009) and the women’s team to 10 ASC championships in the last 11 seasons (1999-2004, 2006-2009).

During that time, she has been named the ASC’s Men’s Coach of the Year all 11 seasons and nine times she was named the Women’s ASC Coach of the Year.

In 2009, she was named the men’s South Region Coach of the Year marking the sixth time she’d earned the honor. The men’s team finished four points shy of repeating as the national champions, but McMurry finished as the national runner up, which is the second-highest finish in school history.

In 2006, she led the men’s team to a fourth-place finish marking the third-highest finish for the men in school history. In 2007 and 2008, she coached the men’s sprint relay team to two consecutive national titles as Hann Ollison, Bert Green, John Mikalik and Chris Kelley repeated as champs.

Crousen was named the women’s South Region Coach of the Year three straight years (2000-2002) including the nation’s highest honor in 2001 when she was named NCAA Division III National Coach of the Year. The women’s program finished fourth overall at the national outdoor meet in 2001 and followed in 2002 as the national runner up.

120 all-America honors have been passed out to McMurry athletes since Crousen’s tenure began in 1999, including 12 this past season in 2009. 18 have earned academic all-America honors and she’s coached 27 national champions between indoor and outdoor competitions. She also coached the South Region Athlete of the Year 13 times including Ollison most recently who won the honor for the fourth-straight season in 2009.

Darcell Edwards, who may be the most prolific female athlete to compete in McMurry’s track and field program, won six individual national championships under Crousen. Edwards still holds the NCAA Division III outdoor record for the triple jump with a mark of 44 feet and two inches that she set in 2004. Edwards also qualified for the 2004 Olympic Trials in the triple jump.

Brad Parris, who is now Crousen’s assistant, set the NCAA Division III record in the outdoor pole vault with a jump of 17 feet and nine inches in 2000. Parris’ record fell in 2002.

A renowned clinician throughout the Lone Star state and well respected by her peers, Crousen is USA Track and Field Level I certified in the sport, certified in USA TF Level II for sprints and hurdles and a USATF Level I Lead Instructor.

She has been published in the Texas High School Coaches Association Magazineand has produced four track- related videos detailing tips on coaching and improving athletes’ performance. She has had five athletes attend the USA Junior Elite Olympics Training Camp in Colorado Springs, Colo., and San Diego, Calif.

Before coming to McMurry, Crousen worked in the Texas public school system for 32 years including a stint as Cooper High School’s head track and cross country coach in Abilene.

In addition to her coaching duties, Crousen also serves McMurry as the assistant athletic director for compliance and is the senior woman’s administrator for athletics.

Her husband, Joe, was the head football coach at McMurry for the 2005 and 2006 seasons. The couple has three children (Kevin, Kerri and Tamra), six grandchildren (Cooper, Claire, Carson, Foster, Stealey and Levi) and one terrier “Choco.”

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