University of West Alabama Women's Cross Country

Stanfield was named the head cross country and track and field coach at the University of West Alabama on Jan. 10, 2014. Less than two calendar years later he had delivered UWA's first-ever Gulf South Conference title in both men's and women's cross country and had taken the Tigers to their first-ever NCAA national competition. A veteran of both the collegiate and prep ranks, Stanfield earned GSC Coach of the Year honors in his first season at the helm of the Tigers program while coaching six all-conference and three all-region performers. Stanfield came to UWA from Central ISD in Texas where he served as both athletic director and head track/cross country coach. His collegiate coaching stops include the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), Samford, McNeese State, Sam Houston State and Rice. The 2006 UAB cross country team won the C-USA title, becoming the first UAB team to win a league championship in that sport. Stanfield was also named the 2006 conference cross country Coach-of-the-Year and the 2005 C-USA Indoor Track Coach of the Year. He was the C-USA Track Coaches Chairman for three years. While guiding the UAB program from 2002-09, Stanfield guided the track and cross country programs to national prominence, coaching 40 All-Conference USA athletes, 34 NCAA regional qualifiers and six NCAA national qualifiers. At Rice, he mentored nine Southwest Conference champions and 14 All-Americans in six years. A native of Houston, Stanfield began his coaching career in 1976 at the high school level in Texas where he coached numerous district, regional and state champions. Married 40 years, Ray and Pat Stanfield are the parents of two grown children, Tori and Tyler.

Speaks joined the University of West Alabama track and field staff as an assistant coach in March of 2015. A track and field record holder at the University of Mississippi as a collegiate student-athlete, Speaks came to UWA from the Los Angeles area where she was director of athletics at Discovery Charter Preparatory School and assistant track and field coach at Bishop Alemany High School in Mission Hills, Calif. Speaks, while competing at Ole Miss under her maiden name of Kirby Patterson, was an indoor 800 meter record holder and also set school marks outdoors as a member of the 4x400 meter relay team. She was a four-time outdoor scorer for the Rebels in the Southeastern Conference Outdoor Meet. Speaks was two-time Alabama Class 6A 800 meter record holder at Daphne High School. She still holds the Alabama 6A record in the outdoor 800 and is the former indoor record holder at 800. , Other stops along the way for Speaks include working on the track and field staff at the University of South Alabama, where she was a part of two Sun Belt Conference championships. She was also assistant coach at Daphne High School where she helped produce 30 state qualifiers and a public relations executive at Stand Strong 3D, LLC. Speaks recently earned her USATF Level 2 Certification in Jumps.  

Nicosia Allie Nicosia assumed duties as assistant coach for womens triathlon, cross country and track and field and academic mentor at the University of West Alabama in June 2015. Nicosia, a triathlete herself, was the captain of the University of South Carolina track and field team from 2010 to 2012 where she competed from 2008 to 2012 as a pole vaulter. She most recently worked in the areas of sports psychology, mental conditioning and as an academic mentor specialist in South Carolina, Tennessee and Florida. She was also the sprint and long jump coach at Farragut Middle School in Knoxville, Tennessee. Nicosia earned her Bachelor of Arts in Experimental Psychology in 2012 and a Masters in Kinesiology, specializing in Sports Psychology and Motor Behavior, from the University of Tennessee in 2014. She is also certified as a Level 1 USA Triathlon Coach, USA Triathlon Youth and Junior Coach, USA Track and Field Level 1 Coach and a Slowtwitch Cycling Certified Coach. She is an active member of the Collegiate Varsity Triathlon Coaches Association, the Association of Applied Sports Psychology and is currently in progress toward her AASP certification. She has served as a grief counselor at Camp New Horizons and as a volunteer at Camp Kemo. She is also a member of Fellowship of Christian Athletes and is American Red Cross CPR/AED Certified.