Pacific University’s track and field squad brought in a new head coach over the summer in the form of Matt Lydum. After applying and being turned down last year, Lydum said he is “very happy to be here” and expecting big things from Pacific this season.
Lydum is bringing with him twenty years of coaching experience and two head coaching jobs under his belt with one being at Defiance College, a division III in Defiance, Ohio, and the other at San Francisco State University a division II school.
Lydum has also been an assistant coach on two under-19 USA track and field teams that he helped lead to the IAAF (International Association of Athletics Federations) World Championships.
Lydum had also been involved as a coordinator of the Instructor Training Courses for USA Track and Field and being responsible for certifying hundreds of track and field coaches across the country. In 2010 USATF honored Lydum with the Fred Wilt Award recognizing his status as a national leader in coaching education.
After moving to Oregon two years ago, Lydum had been serving as an independent coach for elite post-collegiate athletes, while he was “moving a million miles per hour in a different direction,” the freedom made the difficult transition a little easier, as he was available to drop his stuff and pick up the job he had wanted.
When asked how he was planning on going about recruiting and getting his new athletes, Lydum said he has plenty of contacts throughout the country sending him new athletes to look at. He also said that he goes to meets to try and find talent and if he sees someone he wants, he goes into calling their coach and checking the academics of the person.
Lydum then checks into the person’s academic interests to see if they would be a fit and then if they are he goes to talk to the whole family to “tell them why Pacific is the perfect fit for their child.” Lydum brings to this team a plethora of experience and promise for the present and future.
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