Cougar alumni and longtime assistant coach Hannah Alexander has been named as the new Head Coach for the Pulaski County High School track and field program. The move was made official with a vote from the Pulaski County School Board at their February meeting Tuesday evening.
Coach Alexander graduated from Pulaski County High School with the Class of 2015. She was a member of the track and field program for all four years at PCHS, until she tore her lateral meniscus just before the start of her outdoor season her senior year.
The road to becoming the head coach wasn’t a direct one for Alexander. After high school, she married her long-time friend, Conner Alexander, and moved out of state.
“We weren’t high school sweethearts, but we had a crush on each other,” Coach Alexander said. “We never dated due to our age difference. He joined the Army after he graduated in 2013, and when I married him, we moved to Fort Riley, Kansas. He left active duty and is now a Sergeant in the National Guard’s 429th BSB out of Danville. He is a Network Communication Specialist.”
After leaving active duty, the family moved back to Pulaski County in 2017. Her interest in track and field led her to helping out the program and former Head Coach Sirak Ogbagabir.
“I was always a huge track and field fan,” Alexander said. “Coming back home was great. Our family is all here, and we wanted them to be able to be involved with our kids. Our first daughter (Winnie Lee) is six now and our son (Brandon) is four. When COVID hit, I reached out to Coach Sirak to see if I could help out with the travel program to keep the players in shape. I started helping with the varsity programs not long after that, and became an official coach with the program in 2021.”
While coaching helped Coach Alexander fulfill a lifelong dream, it did come with difficulties at times.
“The entire situation around COVID created havoc for everyone,” she said. “I think as a school system, Pulaski County really put in the work to make sure our students had every opportunity, despite being virtual for the time they were. Things at home could get crazy sometimes too. Conner was deployed for a year, leaving me and two kids here to take care of business. That was a pretty busy year with just that, but we also did some pretty big things. My kids were with me at practices. Sometimes they were with me at meets. The team members really enjoyed getting to know them and the kids loved all the attention. I think it brought us all together a little more and gave us more of a family atmosphere, which is what we want. It seemed to work out well. We won the men’s State Championship in the spring outdoor season. I also coached through having major knee surgery last year during our outdoor season. We just made it work.”
Having coached everything but discus and shot, Coach Alexander has a solid grasp of what needs to be done. She currently works with sprinters, jumpers, hurdlers, and middle- and long-distance athletes.
“This program has a rich history of excellence,” Coach Alexander said. “We want to encourage young athletes the way I was encouraged. We want to keep the family feel of the program that I experienced. We need to bring back the energy that is Pulaski County track and field. If we do all of those things … if we get back on the warpath … the winning will come with it. We need Pulaski County to be competing for Region and State titles, individually and as a team, every season.”
The track and field program is currently one of the most successful programs in the school. Several former Pulaski County athletes are now making a mark at the college level. Keyontre Hayden is at Virginia Wesleyan University. Diego Turner is setting the standard at Virginia Commonwealth University. Grace Boone, after starting out with the Virginia Tech track and field program, is now shining at Oklahoma State University.
Several athletes that Coach Alexander worked directly with are also competing in the college ranks now. Madison Woolwine is running at the University of Charleston. Kelsey Arnold is running at Radford University. Brady Fowler, Olivia Viers, and Davis Neel are all running at Roanoke College. Shai-Anne Lyman is running with the Old Dominion University club track team, hoping to make the cut on the varsity squad soon.
“We’ve got a long history of incredible athletes,” she said. “We also have a ton of talent here right now. We have a middle school and now high school athlete who is a four-time National Champion and an eight-time All-American. Cole Boone is still just a sophomore. On top of that, we’ve got so many young athletes that are breaking their own personal records almost weekly. We have to push ourselves and we have to be hungry for success. I’m excited and honored to be selected to lead this program and will commit myself to ensuring its success.”
