SUU track, cross-country coach to retire after 34 years

CEDAR CITY — Southern Utah University head men's and women's track and field and cross-country coach Eric Houle will oversee his last indoor conference championship this weekend. With one more outdoor season left before he retires, he is taking time to look back on the last 34 years.

"It's kind of bittersweet," Houle told KSL. "It's hard to believe I've been paid to do this job all these years because it's such a cool job."

Houle announced his retirement earlier this week, and his legacy over the years has seen many records broken, including one all his own: He is the longest-serving track and field/cross-country head coach at a university in Utah.

Houle started coaching at SUU in 1992, but that wasn't his first time at the university. In fact, he was a track and cross-country athlete under Coach Steve Lunt in the late 1970s to early 1980s, having been recruited after winning a state championship in Cedar City. Houle recalled the day of the state track meet and said he felt like it was "meant to be" that he ended up coaching in the southern Utah town.

"The first time I was in Cedar, someone took a picture of me on the SUU track," he recalled. "It was the gun lap at the state championship meet, and you could see the red mountains and all that behind me. When I won that state championship, Steve Lunt, the track coach, talked to me about taking a scholarship there. ... I felt like it was meant to be."

He took the head coaching job after leading the team at Judge Memorial Catholic High School to win several state championships. He said he quickly learned that he had his work cut out for him.

"We struggled there in the beginning, but seven years later, we had the '99 team," Houle said.

The 1999 team Houle eluded to was the men's cross-country team that won the Mid-Continent Conference Championship and then went on to win the Mountain West Regional meet, taking two of the top three individual spots.

Jody Benson was a member of that team and a top finisher. He has also been the head track and cross-country coach at Timpanogos High School for the past 25 years. He said Houle was key to the team's success.

"He had so much belief in performing and competing against those top teams even though SUU was a smaller school," Benson said. "He always had that passion and belief that he could create and bring in the athletes to not only qualify for nationals but be one of the top teams in the nation, and I believe he did that. ... Coach believed that we could compete with anyone, and we believed it, too."

That big win in '99 was the first in what would eventually become 47 team conference championships, 36 runner-up finishes, an NCAA Mountain Region Championship and 10 NCAA National Championship team appearances. Houle's teams earned 1,345 All-Conference athletes and produced 412 individual conference champions.

The program under Houle's guidance has also produced 30 NCAA All-Americans, two individual NCAA National Champions, 32 Conference Athletes of the Year, and 156 NCAA First-Round National Qualifiers. He has also been awarded 41 Conference Coach of the Year honors and an NCAA Western Athletic Conference Coach of the Year award.

"In 2004, we swept all six conference championships," Houle added. "In 2018, the women's cross-country team won the Big Sky and finished 21st in the country. We had a run for about 10 years we qualified in the men's team for nationals in cross-country. And then Cam (Levins) winning the two national titles and then going to the Olympic Games and receiving the Bowerman. ... I think I'm at close to 1,000 athletes I've had in this program. There have been so many moments."

Houle said he's been looking at old rosters and remembering those moments with great fondness. He said that he has coached 1,800 track meets and over 30,000 events between indoor, outdoor and cross-country seasons for both the men and women.

This weekend's Western Athletic Conference Indoor Championships will be his 203rd conference championship.

SUU interim Director of Athletics Tom Higbee said even with all the success Houle's team has seen, Houle has "never measured success solely by times or trophies."

"He measures it by the growth he sees in the young people who come through his program," Higbee said. "He has created an environment where athletes feel valued, challenged and supported. He teaches them to represent Southern Utah with pride, to compete the right way, and to carry themselves with confidence and character in every arena of life. That's the true mark of his career."

"The whole experience has been amazing," Houle said." "The fact that I've been given this opportunity to chase something that I love doing and I get paid for it. That's just a bonus."

As for what's next, Houle said he is excited to spend time with his wife, children and grandchildren. He also said he has another hobby he'd like to pursue.

"As hard as it is to let it go, I'm moving into something that is even better," he said. "I want to spend time with my family and travel. One thing I do want to do is write. I really like writing."

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