Southwest Mississippi Community College’s men’s track coach James Williams has a new office with some bare walls.
On Thursday he signed a runner who, along with the rest of the inaugural recruiting class, will have every opportunity to fill up those walls with trophies, plaques, or at the very least, pictures.
Ronnie Alexander out of Baton Rouge signed with the Bears track program on Thursday. Alexander won the 400 meters at the Golden West Invitational in Folsom, Calif., on June 10. He also finished third in the 200 against runners from all over the nation.
This fall he will start as a Southwest Mississippi Bear.
“He’s a blue-chipper, one of the best in the nation,” Williams said.
A nice addition to the team, there are still plenty of athletes Williams would like to sign for the first season at Southwest.
“We want seven to eight more quality athletes,” Williams said. “We don’t want to rely on one or two athletes in an event. We want to have depth.”
While his walls may be bare, the conference table, left over from his office’s previous purpose, was full of envelopes.
He was sending some out to runners and a few had come from athletes, one from Virginia, another from St. Louis.
Besides Williams’ spot as men’s track coach at Southwest he has been the committee chairman on the speed development committee for USA Track and Field.
As such, he returned from the national championships held in Indiana on June 20-24. Being the chair adds more work, but it doesn’t interfere with being a track coach.
“It’s e-mails and conference calls after work,” Williams said. “So it doesn’t interfere, it enhances.
“Working with the best athletes in the world and trying to help them keeps you on the cutting edge and complements being a coach.”
Along with women’s coach, Charlie Floyd, Williams has set out to fill a roster for the first season of track at Southwest. Plenty of athletes come from Mississippi and Louisiana, while the rest of the team may come from anywhere else.
“I know coaches from around the country and they call with runners that they think we can develop,” Williams said. “Those athletes will help boost what we have here.”
Getting those athletes isn’t too difficult either. Track scholarships aren’t the most prevalent in athletic departments around the nation.
With the scholarship limits that exist schools have to pick and choose what sports those go to, Williams said.
