When the 2022-23 season begins, Alex Wills will start his third year as an assistant track and field coach at Tarleton State University
Wills’ primary event groups are jumps, pole vault and multi-event athletes. He also works with Tarleton’s javelin throwers, coaches the Texans’ decathletes and lends his efforts to all areas of program operations.
A native of Fredonia, New York, Wills was instrumental in helping Tarleton produce a spectacular collective showing during its first full season competing at NCAA Division I in 2022. With Wills serving as the Texans' top assistant coach, the program broke a combined nine indoor and outdoor school records, saw 33 athletes garner All-Western Athletic conference first or second team accolades, and produced 112 new marks on its all-time indoor and outdoor top-10 record books.
Individually, Wills coached Jaden Hall to an indoor school record leap of 45’ 10” in the triple jump. He also helped Alan Palmer break his own indoor school record in the long jump at the WAC Indoor Championships (24’ 5”) and earn All-Conference second team recognition.
In total, five of the athletes Wills directly coached earned All-WAC accolades at the conclusion of the outdoor season. Hall finished third in the triple jump behind a season personal record of 47’ 1.5” and was one of two athletes to garner All-WAC first team credentials at the meet. Fellow triple jump specialist Nakia Dunn finished seventh at 38’ 2.25”. He mentored freshman Jamariyan Howlett to sixth-place finish in the high jump and season and lifetime personal record of 6’ 8”. Wills also coached Elise Smith to a fourth-place finish in the javelin. She currently ranks second in school history in the event behind a lifetime personal record of 152’ 10”. He also helped Allison Robling place eighth in the pole vault en route to All-WAC second team credentials.
In his first season at Tarleton, 14 athletes from Wills’ event groups both broke into or improved a mark on the top-10 of Tarleton’s outdoor record book and posted top-10 individual finishes at the Western Athletic Conference Outdoor Championships in May. He coached Ben Presley to a fifth-place finish in the javelin (162’ 6”) while Nakia Dunn and Jaden Hall both placed fifth in the triple jump with respective marks of 38’ 4.75” and 48’ 2.75”. All three athletes received All-WAC second team credentials at the conclusion of the meet. Wills also coached Kora Pennartz to an eighth-place finish in the javelin (125’ 9”), guided Chloe Smith to a ninth-place showing in the pole vault (10’ 0.5”) and helped Chandee Bachmeyer notch a personal record and finish ninth in the triple jump (35’ 9.25”) to conclude her Texan career. Additionally, his two decathletes – Isaac Hutchings and Skyler Sandusky – currently rank fourth and fifth, respectively, on Tarleton’s outdoor records list with personal records of 5,638 points and 5,566 points.
Prior to his arrival in Stephenville, Wills served as a volunteer assistant coach at Texas Tech during the 2020 indoor track and field season. Before moving to Lubbock, Wills worked as an assistant coach at Frostburg State in 2019 and was as an interim assistant coach at West Texas A&M from 2018-2019.
He has coached a combined 18 national qualifiers and 15 All-Americans at the Division I and Division II levels. Seven of Wills' athletes went on to break school records and he also mentored two Regional Field Athletes of the Year and one National Field Athlete of the Year.
WTAMU won the 2018 Women’s NCAA Division II Indoor National Championship during Wills’ tenure. Wills also coached two NCAA Division II individual champions during the 2018 season in Fatim Affessi and Rellie Kaputin. Affessi notched first-place finishes in the indoor triple jump and outdoor long jump while Kaputin took first in the indoor long jump.
Wills transitioned to coaching after competing as a decathlete for five years at Adams State University in Alamosa, Colorado.
