GEISMAR - Longtime track and field coach Irving "Boo" Schexnayder has reached the pinnacle of his profession, having been named the jumps and multi-events coach for the USA men's track and field team for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China, this summer.
But Schexnayder certainly has not forgotten where he started.
Schexnayder coaches a group of international-level athletes in the morning, but takes a couple of hours every week to work with the jumpers and pole vaulters at Dutchtown High.
"It's a blast," Schexnayder said. "I've always had a soft spot in my heart for the developmental end which is why I used to really enjoy decathlon and heptathlon because I could teach things from scratch, and here I am back doing it again. It's just something I like. I like the building process of coaching."
Schexnayder, a native of Vacherie, got his start coaching football, track and cross country at St. James High for eight years. He moved on to Blinn College in Brenham, Texas, in 1992, helping the program win the NJCAA indoor and outdoor national championships his one year there.
Schexnayder served on the track and field staff at Southwestern Louisiana (now Louisiana-Lafayette) from 1992-95. During that time, the Cajuns won five men's Sun Belt Conference titles and one women's title. Ndabe Mdhlongwa also won the triple jump at the 1995 NCAA Outdoor Championships, becoming just the second USL athlete to win a national title.
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By Mike Kiral
The Weekly Citizen