PORTLAND, Ore. - Warner Pacific University has named Randy Dalzell the new Director of the Cross Country and Track & Field Programs for Knight Athletics. Dalzell is an award-winning coach in previous stops at George Fox University, Concordia University-Portland, Northwest Nazarene University, Bend High School, and Cascade College. He comes to Warner Pacific after leading or assisting three programs to national championships – Northwest Nazarene men's cross country in 2001, Concordia's women's track & field in 2011, and George Fox's women's track & field in 2018.
 
"I am very excited about the opportunity to work with people at Warner Pacific University," said Dalzell. "I love the stated mission and ministry they have for underserved populations and first generation college students, and I strongly believe in making an impact in the Portland community through that mission. I have always liked the NAIA model of athletics and think it offers the best opportunity to serve the largest number of student athletes. Warner Pacific is growing and adding some key majors and academic programs that will be very attractive to potential student athletes. Couple this with the fact that we are putting together a highly qualified staff of assistant coaches and I think the future of track & field and cross country will be very bright at WPU."
 
"We are very excited to announce Randy Dalzell as the next leader for cross country and track & field at WPU," said interim athletic director Frank Johnson. "He is a championship coach, ready to take on the challenge of rebuilding our programs. His history of success is amazing, but more impressive is his eagerness to serve students in all areas of their college experience."
 
Most recently, Dalzell was Head Cross Country and Associate Head Track & Field coach at George Fox, where he was named west region assistant coach of the year in 2014 and 2015 while rebuilding the distance programs and assisting in building the overall track and field programs. He coached a number of all region cross country runners and a host of conference champions in the middle and long distance events in track, including six men's 800m titles in a row. The last two years, the GFU teams won both the men's and women's Northwest Conference titles in track & field as well as the women's national championship in track & field in 2018.

"The last six years at George Fox were great and I am thankful for the opportunity to help build the programs there," said Dalzell. "The timing just seemed right to make a change and go where I can do the most good helping build another program. The main campus for Warner Pacific is not far from my home and is rooted in a culture and philosophy that I strongly believe in."
 
"Coach Dalzell is a welcome addition to our athletic department," said Jon Sampson, Vice President of Student Life. "There is so much potential to use track & field to impact student success at WPU. Randy is the obvious leader to make that happen."
 
Most of Dalzell's accolades occurred at Concordia University, where he directed the cross country and track & field programs for seven years (2005-12). In that time, he led the Cavaliers to 15 Cascade Collegiate Conference titles, winning seven in a row in men's track & field, six in women's track & field, one in women's cross country, and one in men's cross country, as well as the NAIA regional title in men's cross country in 2006. In 2011, the women's outdoor track & field team won the NAIA National Championship while the men finished fifth. In his final year at Concordia, women's outdoor track came in second in the nation, men's outdoor track finished fourth, men's indoor track finished third, women's indoor track was seventh, women's cross country finished placed eighth, and men's cross country finished 19th. This accounted for over 70% of the NAIA National Director's Cup points for the university. Overall, the programs produced 24 NAIA individual national champions, 165 All-Americans, and 23 NAIA Scholar-Athletes. He was named the NAIA Women's Track & Field National Coach of the Year in 2011, and was named regional or conference Coach of the Year 17 other times.
 
Concordia was the third collegiate program Dalzell started, having also launched programs at Cascade College in 1996-97 and at Northwest Nazarene, where he coached from 1999-2002. At NNU, Dalzell was named the National Christian College Athletic Association Men's Cross Country National Coach of the Year in 2001 after his men's team at NNU won the NCCAA National Championship with all seven runners finishing in the top 14, making the entire team All-Americans. He produced 19 NCCAA and NAIA All-American at NNU and 16 NAIA or NCCAA Scholar-Athletes. He also had three NAIA All-Americans at Cascade College during two years there.
 
Also a successful high school coach with 10 years of track & field experience at that level in the Portland (Ore.) and Bend (Ore.) areas, Dalzell was twice named Intermountain Conference Coach of the Year while at Bend High School.
 
In all, Dalzell has been named conference, regional, or national Coach of the Year 27 times; two at George Fox, eighteen in seven years at Concordia, two at Bend High School and five times while at NNU, and produced 39 Scholar-Athletes and 187 All-Americans.
 
In addition to his coaching duties he also owns Dalzell Enterprises, which manages athletic facilities and events in the Portland area.
 
Dalzell received a bachelor's degree with honors in secondary education/mathematics from Columbia Christian College in 1987, where he played basketball and soccer and was named the school's Scholar-Athlete of the Year while earning an Academic All-American Award.  He did post-graduate studies at Abilene Christian University in biology, Oregon State University in exercise physiology, the University of Puget Sound in physical therapy, the United States Sports Academy in Sport Management, and Concordia University in school administration. He attained his master of education degree from Linfield College in 1995.
 
Dalzell lives in Happy Valley, Ore., with his wife Charlene and their three children.