After Five Years, Huffins Steps Down as Head Coach

Four remaining days of competition will close the official season for the Cal track and field team, but the Bears will close more than a season for the director of the program.

Following the conclusion of the NCAA track and field championships in Sacramento this weekend, Cal head coach Chris Huffins will resign from his post after spending five seasons at the helm for the Bears.

The announcement was made Tuesday by Cal athletic director Sandy Barbour, who said a national search will be conducted to replace Huffins.

Huffins preferred not to comment about his reasons for leaving, but he told the San Francisco Chronicle that there was no “smoking gun” that led to his decision.

“I want to keep the focus on nationals,” Huffins said.

After serving as an assistant coach for the Wake Forest and Georgia Tech track and field programs, Huffins took over for the Bears on Oct. 16, 2002. Since then, Cal has continually elevated its number of athletes at regional and national meets.

“Being at Cal has been a great experience,” Huffins said. “We actually have a track and field program again. There’s a lot of national and local interest, and there has been humongous uplift in the program.”

Huffins is taking 16 athletes to the outdoor nationals this year—the highest tally of his tenure. He said that the news of his upcoming departure shouldn’t affect the Bears as they begin competition at the NCAA championships on Wednesday at the Alex G. Spanos Sports Complex.

“If they focus on what they’re supposed to be doing, they’ll be fine,” Huffins said.

Alysia Johnson said that she hopes the announcement of Huffins’ resignation doesn’t prevent the Bears from achieving success at the NCAA championships. Under Huffins’ system and watchful eye, the junior has become a national contender in the women’s 800-meter race.

“It’s kind of a shocker,” Johnson said. “I just hope everyone can keep their heads together.”

For Huffins, the impending resignation brings to a close his second stint as a member of Cal track and field. In addition to coaching for the last five years, Huffins competed as a sprinter, jumper and decathlete from 1991 to 1993. He places second on Cal’s all-time long-jump list with a mark of 26-3 1/2, which he set in 1993. Huffins also holds the school record in the decathlon with 8,007 points—a total which earned him the 1993 NCAA decathlon title—and won a bronze medal for the United States at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia.

Though he had not yet officially graduated from Cal when he began coaching the Bears, Huffins recently earned his degree in political economies of industrial societies.

Huffins said he has been offered several opportunities, coaching and otherwise, since the announcement of his resignation.

“I’m still undecided,” Huffins said. “I’m going to take my time and pick the right one.”

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