Wayne Pate (courtesy kuathletics.com)
For the second consecutive year, former LaPorte Slicer standout athlete Wayne Pate has been named Assistant Coach of the Year for women’s outdoor track by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association. Pate is assistant coach of women’s track and field at the University of Kansas.
Pate, a 1976 LaPorte High School graduate, excelled in track and field as well as basketball as a Slicer. He joined the Jayhawks’ coaching staff six years ago. The Jayhawks women won the NCAA Women’s Outdoor Track & Field championship for the first time in its history in 2013. The Jayhawk women’s head coach, Stanley Redwine, was also honored by the USTFCCCA.
Pate, the Jayhawks’ horizontal jumps and combined events coach, saw his athletes combine to score 26 of KU’s 60 points at the recent NCAA Championships. He mentored 12-time first team All-American Andrea Geubelle to runner-up finishes in the long jump and triple jump and her second Big 12 Championship in the triple jump. Pate pupil Lindsay Vollmer won the NCAA Championship in the heptathlon, becoming the first Kansas female to win an NCAA individual title.
Pate has been named the national and Midwest Region Assistant Coach of the Year for both indoor and outdoor seasons each of the last two seasons. He has now been named a national assistant coach of the year six times in his career.
Pate has coached four Olympians, 65 All-Americans and eight national champions.
At Indiana University, from which he graduated, Pate was named the 2003 and 2005 National Assistant Coach of the Year. Under his guidance, 22 Indiana athletes became Big Ten champions. While an IU student, Pate was a two-time Big Ten Champion in the long jump and was a member of IU’s 400-meter relay Big Ten Championship team.
He and his wife, Laura, have a daughter, Charlize, and a son, Justin.
Jayhawks information from www.kuathletics.com