Lyles Lashley has received an unbelievable amount of coaching honors in his nearly 20-year career. The most prestigious of them came when he was chosen to be a member of the most recent class to the National Junior College Athletic Association Track and Field Hall of Fame released this past week. He was one of eight people to earn the honor and the only coach in the group.
Lashley was the track coach at Barton Community College from 2003-06 and was an assistant the prior five seasons. He served as secretary to the NJCAA Track Coaches Association from 2002-2006.
Currently he is the coach at Ellinwood High School where the honors kept coming this past week.
To top of his week, Lashley learned Thursday that he had been named 2014 Midwest Sectional Boys Cross Country Coach of the Year by the National Federation of High Schools. The Midwest section includes the states of Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota.
“It is a great honor to receive,” Lashley said of his Hall of Fame induction. “I just think the whole Juco system itself is a great situation for kids to get an education. Especially at Barton where these kids come to a small town with not a lot to do. They can just focus on their studying and running.”
The numbers from his Barton days are staggering.
During his tenure with the Cougars his teams won a combined 31 team titles and Lashley earned an astonishing 20 coaching honors between both indoor and outdoor championships in both men’s and women’s as well as cross country for men and women. During his four years as head coach his women’s teams won seven of a possible eight titles between indoor and outdoor and the men six of eight.
There were 181 NJCAA individual national champions and 476 All-Americans. Currently 22 of those athletes still hold Barton records and three were in the Top 10 in the world rankings.
Oh, and there was little thing double digit Olympians he coach while they were at Barton. Headlining that group is Veronica Campbell who is the only woman in Olympic history to win consecutive gold medals in the 200m, which she did in 2004 and 2008. She currently has a total of six Olympic medals – the latest a bronze in the 100m from 2012.
But for all the honors and accolades, Lashley’s teaching kept going after the practices and meets.
“My whole thing was get your degree,” Lashley said. “I think of all the kids that came to Barton 95 percent went on to graduate from a 4-year school.”
Nearly every coach will say they care about their athletes beyond the competition and several do. But in the case of Lashley not only is it true but it is what he cherishes most.
While the honors, titles and Olympians are nice, Lashley loves that connection on a personal level. In fact after Campbell won her gold in the 2004 Olympics the conversation wasn’t about winning gold. Nope, it was about Lashley teaching the Jamaican native how to drive.
“She called right after she won the 200m and the first thing she said to me was ‘Coach I got my driver’s license’,” Lashley said. “It wasn’t the gold medal, it was her driver’s license she wanted to tell me about.”
His athletes will tell you the same thing.
Kelley Jackson came to Barton from Baltimore and had good success as a thrower in his two years as a Cougar. He went on to the University of Texas at Arlington and things didn’t go so well.
“I messed around and didn’t do the things I should have that first year away from Barton,” Jackson said. “I called Coach and, first, he chewed me out, then he found me a place to go. I finished my degree at Lindenwood University in Missouri.”
Jackson went on to earn NAIA All-American honors indoor in the shot put and outdoor in the shot and hammer throw. Currently Jackson is a police officer in the public school system back in his hometown of Baltimore.
“If it wasn’t for him and his support I don’t know where I would be right now,” Jackson said. “Like he said ‘make your mother proud, make me proud’. If he hadn’t challenged me mentally and physically I don’t’ know where I would be today.
“To this day I don’t look at him so much as a coach but more as a father figure. He made me realize it is not what you accomplish but where you want to go. Have fun in sports but an education is more important than sports.”
Lashley is more apt to tell you about a local kid who came from nowhere to do something or someone that worked hard to get better than he is about Barton legend Tyson Gay.
“It was really fun to watch a lot of kids get really good,” Lashley said. “We had a lot of walk-ons that got better while they were here and ended up with a scholarship to a 4-year school when they left and some that became national champions.
“I really enjoyed the local kids. If you come here as a Texas State Champion in the sprints you are supposed to be good.
“But it’s Tyler Penn’s part in winning an Indoor Championship I will never forget. A Great Bend kid and he had to run against four Kenyan’s and beat them all but one in the 1000m to wrap up the national championship for us that year. It’s Josh McMullen, from Ellinwood, who came in throwing the javelin 160 feet. He threw it 210 feet and won the nationals. I will never forget that.”
His is a method his athletes seem to respond to. By no means is he an easy coach. He works his athletes to get the best out of them. But the athletes understand.
“I always let them know when they mess up,” Lashley said. “I don’t sugarcoat it. But the kids know it is for the right reasons. I don’t yell just to yell. I yell because I love them and they realize that.”
Jackson agrees.
“He was a very aggressive, loving, caring coach,” Jackson said. “There was nothing easy about him. He was stern when you were wrong. He would put you in your place but still showed he cared about you.
“He didn’t care if you were Tyson Gay or Veronica Campbell or someone like myself. If you were wrong or didn’t do things right he let you know. He played no favorites.”
It is because of that style he has achieved success at every stop at every level.
Since taking over the Ellinwood program in the Fall of 2008 the titles kept coming. The Ellinwood boys have won three state titles in cross country while the girls have four runner-up efforts and a third place. The girls track team also finished runner-up this past spring.
In addition to his NFHS award he just received, Lashley has twice been named the 2A Boys Cross Country Coach of the Year and once the 2A Girls Track Coach of the Year. In 2013 he was named the Kansas Coaches Association Track Coach of the Year for all classifications.
But, like his time at Barton, his former athletes at Ellinwood remember more than just the accolades from competition.
“I just feel I was so blessed to be there at just at the right time he came to Ellinwood,” Michelle Klepper said. “Of all the coaches and teachers I have had he has had the largest impact on my life. I just feel very lucky to have been there when he came.”
Klepper was a sophomore when Lashley took over the cross country program. She recalls being intimidated as a freshman runner but Lashley gave her – and her teammates – the confidence to compete.
“He came in and pretty much told us through our workouts we were in control and able to do amazing things,” Klepper said. “I know he gave me confidence and helped me realize I was a decent runner.”
And those workouts were not easy.
“I remember sitting there on like the 16th 400 of a workout and he is still cracking jokes,” Klepper recalled. “You want to laugh but you are too sore. He has really intense workouts but we got great results out of them. Looking back it was so tough but I am glad he put us through them. We benefitted so much from it.”
Klepper went on to be a part of state runner-up team at Ellinwood her senior year that started a string a five-straight Top 3 efforts at the state meet. Four of those runner-up. She then competed for Barton and Fort Hays State University.
While the NJCAA honors were and still are nice and the relationships Lashley developed while at Barton are priceless to him, it is the high school level he cherishes.
“I loved it at Barton, but high school is where my true love is,” Coach Lashley said. “It is more of a family in high school cross country. The kids work all summer and dedicate themselves to getting better.
“That was my favorite thing when I was in high school. We worked all summer and then won a state title. I remember there was no better feeling. I learned that if you work and sacrifice there is a reward. That is what I try to teach.”