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Courtesy: ACU
Release: 06/11/2009




Courtesy: Abilene



Hood resigns post

ABILENE -- Abilene Christian University head track and field coach Don D. Hood resigned his post Wednesday to accept a similar position at Brownwood High School.

Hood -- who took over the ACU program in August 2005 -- will be the head track and field and cross country coach at Brownwood. His final day at ACU will be July 17.

"I want to express my appreciation to Coach Hood for his service to our program while at ACU and wish he and his family the best as he moves into his new role at Brownwood High School," ACU director of athletics Jared Mosley said. "He has continued to build on the rich track and field history we have experienced at ACU and I know he will do well in serving the student-athletes and community at Brownwood."

Mosley said a nationwide search to find a new track and field coach would begin immediately.

Hood, the father of three young daughters, said the move wasn't something that he sought, but one that made sense for his family.

"I've thoroughly enjoyed my time as the head coach at ACU, and I'm thankful to have had the opportunity to coach at a place that means so much to my family," he said. "But this is a great opportunity that will allow me to be able to spend more time with my wife and family.

"My wife has carried the load for our family for 15 years or more, and my daughters have seen me choose my job over them too many times," said Hood, who was voted the United States Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches' Association Men's Coach of the Year in 2008. "As much as I love my job, I've got to let my family know they're the most important thing."

In his four seasons as the head track and field coach at ACU, Hood led the Wildcat men's program to three straight NCAA Division II outdoor team championships (2006-08), and directed the women's program to the 2008 outdoor team title, the program's first team championship since winning the 2000 indoor championship.

The Wildcat men's team won the Lone Star Conference team championship in each of Hood's four seasons, while the women's team won the LSC title each season from 2006-08.

Prior to becoming the ACU head coach, Don D. Hood served as an assistant to former ACU head coach Wes Kittley at Texas Tech from 2002-05, coaching men's and women's horizontal jumps and the pole vault.

Hood -- a 1987 ACU graduate -- was the head cross country and track and field coach at Texas State from 1996-2002 where he led the Bobcats to five Southland Conference championships and in the process earned five SLC Coach of the Year honors. He was the 2002 NCAA Regional Coach of the Year. He coached three NCAA all-America athletes, and more than half of the school's track and field records were set during his tenure.

He has also been an assistant coach at Sam Houston State and was the head cross country and track coach at Temple High School from 1988-94.

Brownwood gets to have another legendary coach join the ranks of their allready impressive resume of coaches, congrats Brownwood, Coach Hood is without a doubt the coach I would want to coach my kid. From pole vault to checkers, that's the guy I want mentoring my child.

http://www.reporternews.com/news/2009/j ... on-w-hood/

Hood’s son, Don D., recently resigned as ACU’s head track and field coach to coach at Brownwood High School. Don D. Hood had been the Wildcats coach for four years.

“Don’t make me cry again,” Don W. Hood said about his son’s move. “I don’t want to lose him, and I sure don’t want to lose those three little granddaughters. I guess I’ll be eating a lot at Underwood’s.”

Don W. Hood, who lives in Abilene, tried to talk his son out of the move, but Don D. Hood wants to spend more time with his wife and three daughters.

“I tried to find out all the reasons, and the only reason is time, because it was time away from his family,” Hood said. “He said he was away 70 days last year. I said, ‘Don D., think how sweet it was when you came home? Absence makes the heart grow fonder.’ But that didn’t work. So he’s gone.

“I just hope they bring somebody in who’ll keep up the vaulting heritage we have and everything.”

Don D. told me once that ACU requires all head coaches to be a member of the Church of Christ so the pool of available and qualified coaches is pretty small.