After being hired on November 8, 2018, Cale McDaniel enters his sixth season as Director of Track and Field and Cross Country at Kennesaw State University in 2023-24.
Since McDaniel took over in 2018, the program has met remarkable milestones.
Daniel Haugh became KSU's first national champion in the Division I era in 2019 and finished 11th in the hammer throw at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. Haugh won the hammer throw at the 2022 USATF Outdoor Championships and finished sixth in the World Championships in 2023. Isaiah Rogers won the National Championship in the weight throw in 2023. The women's program won the 2021 ASUN Conference Indoor Championship and the 2022 ASUN Conference Outdoor Championship with McDaniel taking home Coach of the Year honors. KSU has produced 19 All-Americans in the nine NCAA Track and Field Championships that have been contested since 2019.
Academics have also strengthened under McDaniel's leadership. Sarah Hendrick garnered CSC First Team All-Academic honors in 2023. Katie Meyer took home ASUN Scholar-Athlete of the Year honors for outdoor track in 2022.
Lindsay Billings was named ASUN Indoor and Outdoor Scholar-Athlete of the Year in 2021. Since 2019, the Owls have landed on the ASUN Cross Country and Track and Field All-Academic teams a total of 41 times. His teams have earned USTFCCCA All-Academic Team honors nine times and USTFCCCA Track and Field All-Academic individual honors 28 times. All four of the cross country and track and field programs have recorded their best semesters in the classroom in the McDaniel era.
The Owls reached the podium at the ASUN Championships 362 times with 113 earning gold medals. McDaniel's Owls have set 60 school records and 16 ASUN Championship records since the beginning of the 2019 indoor season. In addition, the KSU men's track and field team was awarded the ASUN Beam Award in 2020 and Isaiah Rogers collected it in 2023.
McDaniel came to KSU from Western Carolina where he was the Director of Track and Field and Cross Country for the 2016-17 and 2017-18 seasons.
McDaniel took over a Kennesaw State program that has enjoyed tremendous success in recent years. The men's team track and field team program had captured seven straight ASUN Conference indoor championships and eight straight outdoor titles. Meanwhile, the women's team has also enjoyed significant success, winning back-to-back indoor championships and an outdoor title in 2017.
McDaniel, who served primarily as the throws coach for six seasons at WCU prior to being named head coach of the Catamounts, produced six women's Most Outstanding Field Performers of the Year, three men's indoor Most Outstanding Field Performers of the Year, two women's outdoor Most Outstanding Athletes, and one women's Freshman of the Year. He has also led 30 student-athletes to Southern Conference individual championships and has had 104 student-athletes earn all-conference honors.
McDaniel is a five-time Southern Conference Coach of the Year and has been a member of the NCAA Executive committee since 2017. Under his tutelage, 11 Catamounts went on to qualify for the NCAA East preliminary round with three student-athletes achieving qualifying marks for Junior Nationals.
As both a student-athlete and coach, McDaniel has helped bring 19 Southern Conference titles back to Cullowhee, including three during the 2017-18 season with the men's indoor championship, and the women's and men's sweep of the outdoor championships.
He also helped WCU's women's team earn USTFCCCA All-Academic Track and Field Team honors every season.
McDaniel received his U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) Throws Specialist Certification in 2012 and his USTFCCCA Strength and Conditioning Specialist Certification in 2016.
As a student-athlete, McDaniel was a six-time All-Southern Conference performer, while capturing two outdoor team titles in 2007 and 2010 and one indoor championship in 2008.
McDaniel is a 2010 graduate of Western Carolina University. He holds his bachelor of science degree in physical education and earned his Master's in Education while focusing on physical education and health in 2013. A licensed health and physical education teacher in the state of North Carolina, McDaniel served as an adjunct professor in the health education department at WCU since 2013.
"My family and I are thankful for all the experiences at Western Carolina, and we look forward to the new challenges ahead," McDaniel said. "I would like to thank Mr. Overton and Mr. (Travis) Glasgow for taking the time and providing my family and me with such a wonderful opportunity."
McDaniel is married to former WCU women's soccer standout, Erin McDaniel. The couple has four children, Braxton, Georgia Grace, Max and Brock.
