Billy Poole-Harris started his tenure as assistant cross country/track & field coach at Marist in August 2023.
Poole-Harris brings a wealth of experience in a variety of roles. Prior to his arrival at Marist, he served as Bard’s cross country/track & field head coach from 2021-23. Prior to that, he worked with the distance runners at Indiana State for two years and was a volunteer assistant at Northern Illinois for one year. He was head cross country coach and assistant track & field coach at Whitney M. Young High School in Chicago for 12 years. Poole-Harris is also the founder, owner, and president of Windy City Hammers Youth Track Club, which started in 2012.
In his tenure at Bard, the Raptors amassed 28 school records in indoor and outdoor track & field (16 men, 12 women). He coached a two-time runner-up in the 800 indoors and outdoors in Jack Keelan, and third-place finisher Claire Dickson in the 800 outdoors.
At Indiana State, the 4 X 800-meter relay team of Wyatt Wyman, Napoleon Hernadez, Leroy Russell, and Will Smith turned in a time of 7:22.93 at the Drake Relays, which shattered the school record by over 14 seconds. Russell, Wyman, and Smith all held top-10 times in the outdoor 800 in the Sycamores’ record book from the 2021 season. Poole-Harris also oversaw five all-Missouri Valley Conference selections at the conference’s 2021 indoor championships.
At Whitney M. Young, Poole-Harris was head cross country coach, and was assistant track & field coach. Whitney M. Young became the first Chicago Public School to win a sectional championship in 2016. In his 12 years at the school, Poole-Harris coaches 29 individual state qualifiers and 14 relay team qualifiers.
The Windy City Hammers Youth Track Club started with 12 athletes, and now has over 100 from ages 8-18. The club has raised over $4,000 annually since 2014 to supplement the efforts of athletes from low-income families.
Poole-Harris has a USATF Level 3/World Athletics Level 5 Endurance Certification and is a USATF Level 1 Coaching Education School Instructor. He earned his Bachelor’s degree in Exercise Science and Fitness Management in 2008 from Concordia University.
