University of Rhode Island Men's Track

Copeland has been the head coach for men's cross country and track & field at Rhode Island since 1982. During his stint as cross country coach, he has trained the school's only three NCAA Division I qualifiers since 1949: Greg Hale (1983, 1985), Roger Bragg (1987) and Nick Jackson (1991). His harriers have racked up seven top 10 New England finishes including runner-ups Hale (1985) and Jackson (1991) and third-place finisher Hale (1983). He coached Hale to second place at the ICAAAA (1985) and Tim Dunn to the ICAAAA College Division Championship title (1989). At the Atlantic 10 Championships, the team has posted its best finishes in the history of the conference with three top four finishes (1991, 1997, 1998). His indoor track teams have earned numerous accolades. The Rams won the New England Indoor Championships in 1989 and placed second at the Atlantic 10 Indoor Championships in 1997 and 1999. Copeland has trained 14 NCAA qualifiers, three of whom became All-Americans: Butch Brown (1983), Patrick Egan (1985),and Bob Allen (1991). He has coached 16 All-ICAAAA athletes as well. Thirty-four Rhode Island athletes have been New England Indoor Champions while 29 have placed second. Copeland was named the 1989 New England Indoor Coach-of-the-Year and the 1996 Atlantic 10 Indoor Coach-of-the-Year. The outdoor team has enjoyed similar success. In 1992 the team won the New England Championship. In 1999 the outdoor squad earned third place honors at the Atlantic 10 Championship. Copeland has trained 12 NCAA qualifiers and three All-Americans: Egan (1985), John Walker (1989), and Jeffery Walker (1991). The Rams have had 25 All-ICAAAA athletes including Jeff Woods, the ICAAAA 400-meter intermediate hurdle champion in 1991 and runner-up in 1992. In 1992, Copeland was named the New England and the NCAA District I Outdoor Coach-of-the-Year. Copeland began his coaching career as a graduate assistant at his alma mater, Connecticut. He was also head coach at E.O. Smith High School in Storrs, Conn., before going on to serve as head coach at New Hampshire. During his nine seasons at New Hampshire, he was named the 1979 NCAA District I Cross Country Coach-of-the-Year and six cross country runners qualified for the NCAA Championship with one runner earning NCAA Division I All-America honors. He was also named New England Indoor Coach-of-the-Year while at New Hampshire. Since arriving at Rhode Island in 1982, Copeland's athletes have set 133 school records and five have earned the Albert LeBeouf Award presented to Rhode Island's outstanding senior athlete. He has served as secretary of the United States Cross Country Coaches Association, a representative for the United States Track Coaches Association, past president of the New England Track Coaches Association. He is a USA Track & Field certified Level I and II coach. Copeland had an outstanding career as a student-athlete at Connecticut. He captained the track team in 1967-68 and was twice named Connecticut's Outstanding Trackman (1965, 1967). A hurdler, he was a three-time qualifier for the New England Championship and was also a NCAA qualifier. He was a six-time Yankee Conference hurdle champion, two-time New England runner-up, an ICAAAA runner-up and twice named the MVP of the Connecticut track team. After Copeland earned a bachelor's degree in bacteriology, he served in the Army for three years where he was awarded the Bronze Star while on tour in Vietnam. He later returned to Connecticut where he completed graduate work towards his teaching certificate in secondary biology, chemistry and earth sciences. Copeland and his wife Jane live in West Kingston, Rhode Island. Updated 9/28/16

Carroll is responsible for working with the throwers. He holds his Level 2 United States Track and Field certification in Sports Science with a concentration in throws and is also a Certified Throws Specialist thru the United States Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA). During his five years in Kingston the throws group has flourished, garnering 7 individual Atlantic 10 Conference Champions, 6 Team Championships, 25 All-Conference performers and 2 field performer of the meet winners.  At the New England level Carroll has produced 5 individual Champions and been apart of 2 team Championships (2012 and 2015).  In 2012 Carrolls throwers scored more points than the second place team in the meet. On the bigger stage Carroll has helped coach 28 IC4A qualifiers, 4 Junior National Championship qualifiers and 7 NCAA Regional Championship qualifiers. Prior to arriving in Kingston, Carroll served as the head indoor/outdoor track coach at Stonington High School in Stonington, Conn. In just one year at Stonington, Carroll developed a program that saw 14 all-conference performers in the indoor season and a state champion in the discus and an all-state performer in the high jump during the outdoor season. Before his one-year stint in Stonington, Carroll was the strength, throws and assistant football coach at Westerly High School where he helped lead the boy's track team to the Rhode Island Outdoor team championship title in June 2009. Carroll was responsible for the coordination of daily strength training workouts for both throwers and members of the football team. Carroll is also the founder of Rhody Throws Track Club in Westerly. The Rhody Throws Track Club is an extracurricular youth club for current and recently graduated throwers who wish to throw competitively and expose their talents to a larger audience. Carroll is a 2006 graduate of URI with a B.A. in journalism with a concentration in broadcast journalism and a minor in political science.  He is also a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist thru the National Strength Coaches Association and a Level II Functional Movement Screen practitioner.  He lives in Westerly, Rhode Island.

Whitten currently works with URI's jumpers and multi-event athletes, and also serves as the program's recruiting coordinator. He has his USA Track & Field level II certification in jumps and combined events and USTFCCCA strength and conditioning certification. Since arriving in Kingston, Whitten has helped develop 30 A-10 Champions and 22 runners-up, 58 All-New England finishes, nine New England Champions and 21 All-East/All-IC4A selections. Seven Rhode Island athletes have qualified for the NCAA Championships, including three in 2015. There have been 25 all-time indoor top 10 performances and 22 all-time outdoor top 10 performances in his time with the program. The multi-events have been a particular strength for the Rams in Whitten's time, accounting for 11 A-10 champions, three New England champions and two IC4A champions. Rhody athletes have set and reset the A-10 record in multi-events five times (three times in the heptathlon, twice in the decathlon) and set the New England heptathlon record. The school record in both the heptathlon and decathlon has been broken four times each under Whitten's watch. Nine of the top 10 marks in URI history in the heptathlon have been set since Whitten's arrival. In the decathlon, seven of the school's top 10 marks have been established in the same time frame. As a team, Rhode Island has won four A-10 Indoor titles (2011, 2012, 2014, 2015), three A-10 Outdoor titles (2011, 2013, 2014) and four New England Outdoor titles (2009, 2010, 2012, 2015) since Whitten joined the staff. Prior to coming to Kingston, Whitten served as an assistant track & field coach at the University of Hartford for two years. In 2008, Whitten coached UH's first two America East individual champions and first-ever NCAA regional qualifier. During his two-year tenure, 48 men's and women's indoor and outdoors school records were broken. Before his time at Hartford, he spent two years as a graduate assistant coach at New Hampshire, assisting with the jumps and multi-event athletes. He was part of the 2006 America East Outdoor Track & Field Coaching Staff of the Year. In 2006, he received his master's degree in kinesiology from New Hampshire, where he graduated from in 2004 with a bachelor's degree in business administration. While with the Wildcats, he was a five-time all-conference and two-time All-New England performer in the pole vault and multi-events. He was a high school New England champion in the pole vault and is the former state of Maine indoor and outdoor pole vault record holder.