Alcorn State Names Ryan McKenzie as New Track and Field Coach
Alcorn State University announced Thursday that Ryan McKenzie will serve as the new head coach for its cross country and track and field programs. The appointment follows the departure of Alonzo Banks, who recently took a similar role at Grambling State University, according to the university’s athletics director, E. D’Wayne Robinson.
McKenzie, a Columbia, Mississippi, native, joins Alcorn from William Carey University, where he has been the head coach of the track and field team since 2022. He previously spent more than a decade at WCU as an assistant coach, focusing on horizontal and vertical jumps, and was named Southern States Athletic Conference Men’s Indoor Coach of the Year in 2024. He also earned SSAC Women’s Coach of the Year honors for indoor and outdoor seasons in 2024 and was the 2023 Women’s Outdoor Coach of the Year. Additionally, McKenzie received back-to-back USTFCCCA Women’s Outdoor National Assistant Coach of the Year awards in 2021 and 2022.
Robinson praised McKenzie’s track record of developing student-athletes and his leadership qualities. “His proven track record of developing student-athletes both on the track and in the classroom made him the clear choice to lead our track & field program,” Robinson said. “We’re excited about the direction our program is headed.”
During his tenure at William Carey, McKenzie coached 33 conference champions, 44 NAIA national qualifiers, 33 NAIA All-America performers, and nine NAIA national champions. Under his guidance, nearly all of his athletes achieved personal bests and set school records across the jump events, along with several conference records. McKenzie also coached the men’s long jump NAIA national record holder at William Carey.
McKenzie, who graduated from Alcorn in 2005 with a bachelor’s in recreation and physical education and earned a master’s in secondary education in 2014, called returning to his alma mater “more than a career opportunity.” “It’s coming home,” he said. “The lessons, discipline, relationships, and pride that I developed here shaped my journey, and I will always be grateful for that.”
He previously coached high school athletes at Oak Grove High School and East Marion High School in Mississippi. In 2022, he was selected as the horizontal and vertical jumps coach for the U.S. team at the FISU America Games in Merida, Mexico.
Robinson described McKenzie as “exactly the leader our student-athletes can look at as one of our own.” The university expressed confidence that McKenzie’s coaching philosophy aligns with its vision for athletics.
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