Hokie ClubBLACKSBURG – Charles Foster, an assistant track and field coach at Virginia Tech, announced today that he will be retiring from coaching. He has been the Hokies’ sprints, hurdles and jumps coach for the past six years.
Foster’s retirement concludes a coaching career that spans almost three decades. During his nearly 30 years in the coaching profession, he has tutored two Olympic gold medalists, one silver medalist and a bronze medalist. He has coached 12 other Olympians and more than 50 All-Americans.
“On behalf of our student-athletes and our entire staff, we appreciate the lasting impact that Charles Foster has made on our program at Virginia Tech,” said Dave Cianelli, Director of Track & Field and Cross Country at Tech. “Coach Foster’s legacy as a competitor, an instructor and a mentor has been marked by much success, and we will continue to consider him a member of Hokie Nation.”
Hired to come to Tech in August of 2009, his best success story came in the form of Queen Harrison, whom he coached in his first year and her final year at Virginia Tech. Harrison won three national titles that year, including the 60-meter hurdles during the indoor season and both the 100- and 400-meter hurdles during the outdoor season. She went on to win the 2010 Bowerman Award, the most prestigious award in track and field.
Foster also mentored the likes of Kristi Castlin, Jeff Artis-Gray, Ronnie Black, Darrell Wesh and Hasheem Halim. All earned All-America honors at various points in their respective careers, with Castlin, a hurdler, earning a program-record seven honors during her time at Tech. Halim finished third in the triple jump at the 2012 NCAA Division I Indoor Track and Field Championships and fourth in the event at the NCAA’s outdoor meet that spring.
Prior to coming to Tech, Foster spent 10 years as the sprints, hurdles and relays coach for the men’s track and field team at Clemson, where the United States Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association named him the NCAA Assistant Track Coach of the Year in 2008.
Before his time with Clemson, he worked on the Special Olympics World Summer Games Organizing Committee from 1997-99, and was the Manager for Sports Planning on the Atlanta Committee for the 1996 Olympic Games from 1992-97. He began his coaching career at North Carolina as an assistant track coach from 1986-92. Along with working with the sprints and hurdles units with the Tar Heels, he assisted in the design of a new track and field stadium.
As an athlete, the 1975 graduate of North Carolina Central was a member of the 1976 United States Olympic Team that competed in Montreal, Canada. He won the high hurdles at the Olympic Trials that year to earn a spot on the squad. A former world record holder in the high hurdles event, Foster received the Distinguished Citizen Award of North Carolina, the highest award presented in the state.