Doug Knol is in his 21st year with the SU track & field program, serving once again as the sprints and hurdles coach. He joined the Shippensburg staff in 1993, and since that time, his athletes have won 48 individual PSAC championships along with 10 PSAC relay championships and a multitude of All-PSAC honors.Â
Knol has coached eight All-Americans – including Caitlin Stuetz in 2013 – and had 24 NCAA Division II national qualifiers. He represents the solid foundation of consistent excellence at Shippensburg University with his service to the program.
During his tenure at Shippensburg, Knol has worked with a score of talented sprinters. Jamal James ‘08 was a back-to-back champion in the 200-meter run and won three total indoor sprint titles along with one outdoor sprint title during his career. One of Knol’s recent protégés, Erica Hess, won five PSAC titles in the 400-meter dash in her career and competed several times at the NCAA Division II Outdoor National Championships. Knol also served as a coach for Megan Elliott, who won back-to-back 400-meter titles in 1998 and 1999.
Since 2003, Knol has helped Raider athletes achieve 11 conference championships between the 55/60, 100 and 200-meter dashes. In addition to three titles by James and Herman Kirkland, Alton Richards won the 100-meter dash in 2005 and the 200-meter dash in 2003. On the women’s side, Flo Yerokun won the 55-meter indoor title in 2005 while Siobhan Richards was a 2009 outdoor champion in the 100-meter dash.
As a hurdles instructor, Knol has also influenced many talented athletes. Tunisia Lacy, while perhaps most known as a skilled jumper, was an indoor champion in the 55-meter hurdles as a junior and capped off her career with indoor and outdoor conference titles for the sprint hurdles in 2005. The aforementioned Stuetz finished up a storied career with seven PSAC titles, including three in the outdoor 100-meter hurdles.
Knol has guided two men to conference titles in the 400-meter intermediate hurdles. Mark Piccolo won championships as a freshman in 2002 and a senior in 2005 while Bernie Richards won a PSAC title in 2007. Corey Nolan earned an outdoor 110-meter hurdle championship under Knol’s guidance in 2002. Â
A 1991 graduate of Shippensburg, Knol was a four-time PSAC qualifier in his specialty event, the 400-meter intermediate hurdles. During his junior and senior seasons, Shippensburg won conference titles beginning a string of four consecutive championships.
Knol has a master’s degree in applied mathematics from the University of Delaware and is a teacher in the Big Spring School District.
