John Frazier: Director of Track and Field/Cross Country-Throwing Events

Texas State Athletics named John Frazier as its Director of Track & Field/Cross Country on August 2, 2021.

In his third season as the director of track and field/cross country, Frazier led the Texas State women's team to a Sun Belt Conference Championships and led the men's team to a second-place finish. Frazier was named the 2024 SBC Women's Coach of the Year and had 19 athletes earn All-Sun Belt honors.

Under his direction, 20 athletes qualified for the 2024 NCAA West Regionals and had 10 athletes qualify for the NCAA National Championships. At the NCAA National Championships, Frazier coached Elisabet Runarsdottir to a first-place finish in the hammer throw and helped the Bobcats earn their first individual title in 28 years. Frazier also coached Lara Roberts who placed 14th overall and was the No.1 freshman hammer thrower in the country. 

Under Frazier in 2024, the Bobcats recorded eight school records and earned six SBC postseason specialty awards. 

In the first two years of leading the program, Frazier has helped the Bobcats rewrite the school record books and re-establish Texas State among the best in the Sun Belt Conference as well as in the nation.

Texas State has finished runner-up four times as a team in the Sun Belt Championship meets during the 2022 and 2023 seasons (2022 men's indoor, 2022 women's indoor, 2023 men's outdoor, 2023 women's outdoor) as well as top-three six times. The Bobcats have also won 29 individual conference championships over that time span.

Frazier has also seen four Bobcats and one relay team qualify for eight different events at the NCAA Indoor and Outdoor Championships in his first two years. Throwers Alyssa Wilson and Elisabet Runarsdottir and jumper Chris Preddie all earned first or second team All-America honors in 2022 and 2023 as the trio combined for five All-American awards.

In the Texas State record books, the Bobcats set 16 school records in 2023 -- a year after setting 10 in 2022. 

Frazier arrived at Texas State with over 30 years of coaching experience. In the eight seasons prior to the Bobcats, he was the throws coach at UCLA as well as the men's head coach for four seasons.

While at UCLA, Frazier’s throwers won All-American awards 19 times. In 2021, Alyssa Wilson threw the fourth-best hammer throw for a collegian and was the top women’s collegiate discus thrower at the U.S. Olympic Trials.

Frazier was named the 2016 USTFCCCA West Region Men’s Assistant Coach of the Year after leading the Bruins to an 18th-place finish at the NCAA Outdoor Championships and mentoring Greek Olympic shot putter Nicholas Scarvelis, five All-Americans and three Honorable Mention All-Americans.

He went to UCLA after coaching seven seasons at Tennessee. He began as the women’s throws coach for the Volunteers before coaching both the men’s and women’s throwers in his third year and serving as the associate head coach in his last two seasons. His top athlete was Annie Alexander, a seven-time All-American and eight-time SEC champion. He also coached 2016 Olympic discus thrower Tavis Bailey, another two-time All-American in the discus and a Second-Team All-America javelin thrower.

Frazier went to Tennessee after spending six years as an assistant coach at Arizona. While he was with the Wildcats, he coached 11 All-Americans and two U.S. Junior champions.

He was named the 2005 USTCA National and West Regional Assistant Coach of the Year after coaching seven NCAA qualifiers and five All-Americans.

He coached two seasons at Florida, where he mentored two All-Americans, and his athletes set school records in the javelin, hammer throw, and weight throw. He began his coaching career at UC-Irvine and was an assistant coach at Humboldt State, CSUN, and Cal State-Los Angeles.

Frazier earned his bachelor’s degree in political science at UCLA, where he was a three-time All-American in the shot put, earning First-Team honors at the 1985 NCAA Indoor and Outdoor Championships and the 1986 NCAA Outdoor meet.

In his four seasons as a Bruin thrower, UCLA was 38-1 in dual meets and was the NCAA’s top-ranked team in dual meets during his freshman and senior seasons. In addition, he held two UCLA all-time best marks in the shot put (65’ 2.75”) and No. 10 in the hammer throws (208’ 6”).