After having an incredibly successful past few years as the head coach of the Salesianum indoor and outdoor track and field programs, Mr. TIm Byrne was  awarded the 2022 United States Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCAA) High School Boys coach of the year award. Mr. Byrne was awarded the state coach of the year by USTFCCAA (in addition to being selected in 2019 and 2021). Mr. Byrne was then chosen from among all the other state winners and named national coach of the year.

Over the summer, Mr. Byrne received a call from the USTFCCAA leadership team notifying him of his award. This call came only months after winning his second consecutive track and field state championship of the year in late May of 2022. He described the experience as “incredibly humbling and made me feel validated about what our coaching staff has been doing these past few years.” He will be flown out in December to accept the award and present at a convention in Colorado.

Salesianum had a dominating performance in both the indoor and outdoor state championships winning by an astounding margin of fifty-four points in indoor and ninety-eight points in outdoor. At the outdoor state championship, Salesianum deficited second place by ninety-eight points, which was the most points scored in division 1 history, narrowly missing A.I, DuPont’s all time record back in 2018. In addition, Salesianum had a total of five individual state champions and four relay titles, and had athletes score in almost every event.

Mr. Byrne not only oversaw the team in its entirety, but also specialized in coaching the shot put. His athletes placed second and third at the indoor state championship and finished strong with a commanding first, and second-place finish at the outdoor state championship. Not only did Mr. Byrne coach Salesianum to two state championships, he also led the team to a county championship in early May. Although it is difficult to narrow down the reason for this exceptional award to just one thing, Mr. Bryne said that it “was a byproduct of the work put forth by both the coaching staff and our athletes who consciously made the decision that this is important to them.” With indoor track starting back up, Mr. Byrne and the Salesianum track team look to continue this dominant hold they have over the state of Delaware.