Wayne Phipps
The Washington State Athletic Department announced Tuesday that Wayne Phipps has been named the Director of Cross Country/Track and Field programs at WSU and will officially take the position on July 1.
Phipps spent the last 19 years with the University of Idaho Cross Country/Track and Field programs. He came on as an assistant coach in 1995, in 2000 he was promoted to co-head coach and in 2010 he was named the program director. In his 19 years, Phipps led the Vandals to 16 conference titles and has been honored 14 times as conference coach of the year — he now takes his impressive resume 8 miles west to Pullman.
“I also want to thank Mike Keller who gave me my start at Idaho,” Phipps told WSUCougars.com. “As well as Rob Spear and my staffs at Idaho for all of their support.”
Phipps will go to WSU with the tall task of replacing the legend and former “Dean of Cougar coaches” — Rick Sloan, who spent 40 years at WSU, including the last 18 as head coach of both the men’s and women’s programs.
“The Cougars have a legendary past in track and field,” Phipps said. “The teams and athletes that coaches such as John Chaplin and Rick Sloan have produced will go down in track and field history. I could not be more excited about the opportunity to keep this tradition alive, to make Cougar nation proud, and to represent Washington State University at the highest level possible.”
In his last year at UI, Phipps led the Vandals to conference titles in women’s cross country and both men’s and women’s track and field. Since 2000, Phipps has produced five Olympians, including Angela Whyte — who is currently an assistant coach at Idaho and is being coached by Phipps, too.
The Idaho Athletic Department has confirmed the news of Phipps leaving, but has yet to release a statement.