The 2020-21 campaign will serve as Alonzo Webb’s19th season as head coach of the track & field and cross country programs at Pitt. Since taking over the program, Webb has helped the Pitt track and field team compete year in and year out on the national stage.
Throughout his tenure at Pitt, Webb has produced 77 NCAA All-Americans, 30 ECAC/IC4A champions, nine ACC champions and 73 Big East champions. For Webb’s first 11 years on the job, the Panthers competed in the Big East before making the move to the ACC in 2013-14.
Since joining the ACC, Webb has helped to produce 17 different All-Americans who have combined to receive 33 All-America honors and has had 32 of his athletes qualify for NCAA Championships. He has also coached nine ACC Champions including current Panther and 2019 indoor ACC Champ in the high jump Greg Lauray.
Under Webb’s tutelage, the Panthers have also been strong inside the classroom over the years as they have produced 33 All-ACC Academic Team members since joining the league in 2013-14. The Panthers have also seen 425 student-athletes earn a spot on the ACC Honor Roll (SA’s with at least a 3.0 GPA) since joining the league.
The 2019-20 indoor campaign started off strong for the Panthers as they had a pair of student-athletes qualify for the NCAA Indoor Championships for the first time since 2014. Shyheim Wright qualified for NCAA’s for the first time in his career as he was tied for the seventh fastest time in the country in the 60m hurdles (7.67 seconds) while Greg Lauray qualified in the high jump clearing the ninth best height (7’3.75”, 2.23m) in the nation. Before Lauray was able to compete at the NCAA Indoor Championships, the event was canceled due to COVID-19 and Lauray was awarded All-American honors for the first time in his career.
The 2019 outdoor season was an impressive one for the Panthers as they were able to post their best finish at the ACC Outdoor Championships in program history on the men’s side as they took home fourth place with 62 points. A total of 17 Pitt student-athletes earned All-ACC honors including a trio, Nate Sloan, Crockett Schooler and Sydni Townsend, who earned All-ACC honors in two events. Pitt had three earn podium spots including Sloan (1500m), Daveon Finley (110m Hurdles) and the women’s 4x400m relay quartet of Townsend, Nina Crawford, Flora Ahiarakwe and Nikki Scherer. Townsend then went on to earn Second Team All-American honors in the 400m Hurdles and was named ACC Freshman of the Year.
Desiree Garland made history for the Panthers at the 2018 ACC Indoor Championships as she became the first Pitt woman to earn an ACC title. Garland posted the win in the 400m dash with a personal best time of 53.16 seconds while also becoming the first Pitt female to earn indoor First Team All-ACC honors.
Webb helped Desmond Palmer become the most decorated athlete at Pitt during their time in the ACC as he claimed back-to-back ACC titles in the outdoor 400m hurdles in 2015 and 2016. Palmer is the only Pitt student-athlete to earn multiple ACC outdoor titles and closed out his illustrious Pitt career earning a program record 72.25 points for the Panthers at the ACC Championships while earning All-America status seven times in four seasons. In 2017, Palmer was one of just two hurdlers in the country to appear in the finals in the 110m hurdles and 400m hurdles at the NCAA Championships while also earning First Team All-American honors in both events.
2014-15 In Pitt’s first year in the ACC, Webb produced five All-Americans, had seven of his athletes qualify for NCAA’s and saw three claim ACC titles. Impressively, the Panthers were just one of four teams in the country to produce multiple athletes (Carvin Nkanata and Brycen Spratling) who claimed more than one All-America first team honor in the 2014 indoor season, along with Oregon, Arkansas and Notre Dame.
Nkanata won the 200 meter dash at both the indoor and outdoor ACC Championship Meet, and he also placed third at indoor nationals, garnering First-Team All-American status. Spratling won the 400 meter outdoor title, and placed fourth at the national meet, also becoming a First-Team All-American. The two graduated with their names cemented in the Pitt record book as Spratling earned 10 All-America honors and Nkanata was an eight-time All-American in just two years as a Panther. Nkanata competed for Kenya in the 200m dash at the 2016 Rio Olympics while Spratling continues to run professionally for Team USA.
In the 2014 outdoor season, the 4x400 relay team also solidified themselves as one of the best teams in program history when they won the Championship of America 4x400 meter relay at the 2014 Penn Relays, something Pitt had not done in exactly 75 years. The quartet of Micah Murray, Carvin Nkanata, Desmond Palmer and Brycen Spratling set the school record as they crossed the finish line in 3:03.44. The quartet also won the IC4A Championship during the successful 2014 campaign for the Panthers.
Prior to the Panthers joining the ACC, Webb guided the Pitt men's team from the bottom of an expanded conference to the top half of the Big East while the women's team moved from eighth in the Big East to first and along the way won four consecutive ECAC team titles (six titles overall) and its first ever outdoor title in the 23 year history of the women's program in 2006. Also under Webb's guidance were four Big East Outstanding Performers including Justin Clickett, Kim Lyles, Maureen McCandless and Amanda Walker. Elizabeth Bayne, an NCAA qualifier in the 400 meter hurdles, was also selected as the NCAA Mondo Mid-Atlantic District Female Athlete of the Year in 2004.
For his accomplishments, Webb was named the United States Track Coaches Association Mid-Atlantic District Coach of the Year in 2003, and repeated that honor in 2004 and 2005 to become one of only two coaches in the country to achieve that distinction, the other being John McDonnell of Arkansas.
In a vote by the Big East coaches, Webb was elected to serve as President to the Big East Track and Field Championship and Competition Committee for 2006. From 2004-06, Webb served as the Vice President of the Championship and Competition Committee while also serving on the Seeding Committee and Big East Standards Committee.
Webb's coaching talents were recognized in 2006 when he was asked to coach the North American Central American and Caribbean (NACAC) Under-23 Championships. Webb was able to coach Pitt student-athlete Julianna Reed to a fourth-place finish in the 400-meter hurdles.
Prior to being named head men's and women's track and field coach at the University of Pittsburgh in 2002, Webb helped direct Kent State University to two Mid-American Conference track and field championships in three years as the program's associate head coach.
Webb, a 1972 graduate of Peabody High School, boasts over 45 years of track and field coaching experience on the collegiate, club, high school and junior high levels. He was also a standout performer himself, competing in the jumps and decathlon at Western Michigan, where he helped the Broncos to the 1976 MAC championship.
Webb joined Kent State in 1999 as an assistant coach and was promoted to associate head coach in 2000. He worked with both the men's and women's programs, focusing on the sprints, hurdles, jumps and multi-events.
During his Kent State tenure, Webb helped the men's team capture the 2000 outdoor MAC championship, the program's first conference title in 25 years. In the 2002 outdoor season the Golden Flashes' women's team won its first MAC title ever.
During his final two years at Kent State, Webb's athletes achieved 16 school records, 14 MAC titles, two All-America citations, two MAC records, four NCAA provisional qualifying performances and two NCAA automatic qualifying performances.
Prior to Kent State, Webb served as the head track and field coach and interim cross country coach at Woodland Hills High in 1999. While with the Wolverines, he coached former University of Pittsburgh football players Lousaka Polite (javelin) and Shawntae Spencer (long jump), both finalists at the '99 Pennsylvania State Championship meet and former NFL players.
He has also been very active on the club level and served as the founder and Head Coach of the River City Elite Track Club in Pittsburgh from 1993-99. The club won 33 national AAU Junior Olympic medals, the most of any club in the country in 1999. Among the athletes he tutored was Cassy Richards, who was Track & Field News' No. 1-ranked women's high school indoor long jumper and also set a sophom*ore class national record in that event. He also coached former Pittsburgh Steelers standout Ryan Mundy.
In his final two years with River City Elite Track Club, Webb's athletes won 27 medals at the Pennsylvania outdoor championships, including six state champions and five runners-up.
Every year since 1994, athletes under Webb's tutelage have advanced to the USATF Junior National Meet, including two who earned Junior All-America honors. He coached Munhall native Heather Hanchak to the Pan-Am Junior Team in Chile (1995) and the World Juniors in Australia (1996). He also helped Oliver High's Talise Manuel to the IAAF World Youth Championships in Poland (1999). Additionally, Webb coached Mike Sanford, a Pine-Richland High product, who was a Footlocker Cross Country National Finalist.
Webb has also served as Youth Chair of the Three Rivers Association USATF and meet director of numerous associations, regional and Junior Olympic meets.
Webb earned his bachelor's degree in art from Western Michigan in 1979. He and his wife Noel have four children: Tanisha, Crystal, Justin and Alonzo III. His son Alonzo is currently an assistant coach for the Panthers track and field program. He also has nine grandchildren DeJuan, Terrance, Tearra, Cailah, DeAsia, Kennedy, Christopher, Brayden and Zara.
Achievements Under Webb’s Tutelage:
First Team All-America (26):
Beyond the Bio
What is your favorite sports moment at Pitt?
My favorite sports moment at Pitt was when our 2014 men's 4x400m relay team won the Historic Penn Relays Championship of America, the marquee event of the meet. Before the meet, we were not even in the conversation to have a chance to win. The last time that the Pitt men had won that event was 75 years prior when our 1936 Olympic 800m Gold Medalist John Woodruff anchored the win in 1939. Coincidentally the 1939 team was being recognized that year on the 75th anniversary for that achievement.
What is your favorite thing to do in the city of Pittsburgh?
My favorite thing to do in the city of Pittsburgh is to take long walks in the summer on the North Shore along the Allegheny River in the evening with my beautiful wife, Noel.
What is your favorite aspect of working in Pitt’s athletic department?
Working here allows me to do something that I'm absolutely passionate about. I wake up every morning looking forward to coming in and doing something that I love, coaching and making a difference in young people's lives. Helping them make good decisions and ultimately developing them into successful young men and women.
Favorite place on the University of Pittsburgh campus?
My favorite place on the University of Pittsburgh campus is the Fitzgerald Field House, because that's where magic happens. The legendary “Black Tuesday” workouts happen there every Tuesday: they test the athletes’ will and make them question themselves. They make them wonder why they decided to choose track as a sport. But in the end, after all of the questions they ask themselves, they come to realize that the things that they thought were impossible were in fact, possible. They begin to understand that they are capable of much more than they ever thought possible and they feel a tremendous amount of confidence and pride of accomplishment in their abilities to do many things, not all necessarily track related.
What do you love most about the University of Pittsburgh?
What I love most about the University of Pittsburgh is that it has a great academic reputation that I can confidently share with recruits and their families. I love its unique location in Oakland, being a city within a city. Although it appears to be in an urban setting, it's merely a few minutes walk from lower campus to the beautiful 450-plus acre Schenley Park with lots of trails, swimming, tennis and ice skating opportunities.
What do you love most about working in athletics?
I get to work with great people. My staff is the best. I love competition, I love challenges, I absolutely HATE losing! Also, I not only have the opportunity but I have a responsibility to positively impact the student-athletes that I mentor daily. Encouraging them to set goals and helping them achieve their goals. In my opinion, if you want to be successful in athletics you have to have a “Blue-Collar” mentality. That's what Pittsburgh sports were built on, from Western Pa. high school football to all of our pro sports, we outwork people, we outlast people, we go hard to the finish line.
