Sandy Fowler Signs Three-Year Contract Extension
6/10/2002 12:00:00 AM
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TUSCALOOSA, Ala.-- Alabama women’s track and field head coach Sandy Fowler has signed a three-year extension to her contract athletics director Mal Moore announced today.
“I am very pleased to announce the extension of coach Sandy Fowler's contract,” Moore said. “I appreciate very much Coach Fowler's efforts in handling her team and she has always impressed me with her expectations of her team. I am sure in future years we will have outstanding results. I am proud that she is our coach and proud of her staff.”
Fowler, in her fifth year as Alabama’s head coach, is now under contract to the Crimson Tide through the 2005 season.
“I am extremely pleased to have renewed my contract,” Fowler said. “We are in the midst of building an elite level program here at Alabama and the support of the Coach Moore and the entire athletics department has been outstanding at every turn.”
In the season before Fowler joined the Crimson Tide, Alabama finished last at the Southeastern Conference Outdoor Championships. By her second season Alabama was up to seventh and last year the Tide posted its first top-half finish since the 1994 season. On the national scene, before Fowler came to Tuscaloosa, Alabama hadn’t posted a top-20 finish since 1994. In 2000, the Tide finished 13th at the NCAA Outdoor Championships. Under her guidance, Alabama athletes have brought home a dozen All-American honors.
Assistant coaches Caryl Smith and Steve Keith will also return next season, a fact that Fowler was excited about.
“The bottom line is that I think we have one of the very best coaching staffs in the country,” Fowler said. “Caryl and Steve have been instrumental in the success we’ve enjoyed to this point.”
Smith, in her third season with Tide, coaches sprinters and horizontal jumpers.
“Caryl is one of the bright young stars in the coaching profession. Her athletes have made an immediate impact on our program. Her freshmen this year made a statement at the SEC Championships and should have similar success at the national level.”
Keith is finishing his first year as Alabama’s distance coach and has already made strides with that group.
“In addition to making our current athletes better,” Fowler said. “Steve has signed a class of athletes for next year that are going that has the potential to give us a very, very good distance corps.”
Alabama is gearing up for the NCAA Outdoor Championships to be held May 29-June 1 in Baton Rouge, La.
