July 28, 2003

Helen Lehman-Winters has been named head men's and women's cross country coach and women's track coach at the University of San Francisco, as announced today by USF Athletic Director Bill Hogan. Lehman-Winters brings a wealth of coaching and running experience to the USF program and will serve as the first coach for USF women's track when it begins competition in the 2004-05 academic year.

Lehman-Winters comes to USF after spending three successful seasons working at UCLA where she worked primarily with distance runners in both the cross country and women's track programs. The Bruins qualified for back-to-back berths in the NCAA Championships.

Prior to arriving in Westwood, Lehman-Winters served as head coach at Carondelet High School, an all-girl's school in Concord, from 1989-2000. During her tenure there, Lehman-Winters built a dominant program. Her cross country team posted a 78-4 record, while her track squad registered an 81-1 dual meet slate. Lehman-Winters 1996 team captured the CIF State Championships and guided Kristen Gordon ot the Footlocker National Championship individual title. The following year, Carondelet's distance medley relay program won the 1997 National High School Indoor Championship.

USF Athletic Director Bill Hogan believes Lehman-Winters will be the perfect fit and make USF competitive in the West Coast Conference.

"Helen brings a tremendous amount of experience to the new men's and women's cross-country and women's track position at USF. Her experience at the college level developing elite athletes at UCLA, coupled with building Carondolet into a national power at the prep level, give her an outstanding recruiting base. We are confident Helen will propel the men's and women's cross country and women's track programs to a new level of competitiveness in the West Coast Conference," Hogan said.

Lehman-Winters is ready for the challenges of the new position at USF and is eager to get under way.

"I am very excited about the opportunity to return to the Bay Area and come to USF to begin work on building a successful cross country program and women's track team. There are so many advantages for runners in the Bay Area. Runners have the opportunity to train in Golden Gate Park, which is a haven for distance runners and the potential is endless. I am confident with good recruiting, we can attract good athletes to USF. With a funded program we can bolster the cross country team immediately and the track program will only improve the quality of cross country at USF," Lehman-Winters said.

In addition to her duties with cross country and track at Carondelet, Lehman-Winters served as the director of athletics from 1993-96 and served as the State Track & Field Rules Interpreter for the California Interscholastic Federation.

Lehman-Winters competed in cross country and track at UC Santa Barbara, before graduating from California in 1987. In addition, Lehman-Winters earned her Master's Degree in sports psychology from John F. Kennedy University in 1997.

NOTE: Long time men's and women's cross country coach John Drocco will continue to serve as the Director of Cross Country at USF. Drocco will enter his 16th season working with Dons and Lady Dons harriers.