Erin Leonard has served as an assistant cross country and track and field coach at The Citadel for six years after joining the staff in January 2014. Leonard works primarily with the middle distance and distance athletes.
While at The Citadel Leonard has coached athletes to set multiple program records. She also coached the first ever women’s cross country team in Citadel history to place five athletes in under 20 minutes in the 5,000 meters, and coached the program's first-ever All-Freshman Team honoree for women's cross country, Heidi Fortin in 2019.
The 2020 track and field season may have been cut short, but the Bulldogs still managed to make the most of the indoor season as the ‘Dogs collected six medals and set 17 personal records at the 2020 SoCon Indoor Track and Field Championships.
During the 2020 campaign, the Bulldogs set nine program records, including four by freshman distance runner Sam Sharnas. Sharnas set the program freshman record in the 3,000-meter, 5,000-meter and mile races, and was also part of the men’s freshman distance medley relay (DMR) team, along with Andrew Smith, Kane Duncan and Aidan Richter that set the program freshman record in the event. Fortin set the women’s program freshman record in the mile.
In 2019, The Citadel claimed six medals at the 2019 SoCon Indoor Championships, and the ‘Dogs took home eight medals during the outdoor portion of the 2019 campaign.
The 2018 season added another chapter to the Bulldog success with over 20 school records and one Southern Conference record, nine conference champions, 24 all-conference athletes and a record number of points scored at the conference championship meet.
In 2017, Leonard coached Ross Jordan who broke the 26 year old school record in the 3,000-meter indoor race. He also ran the third fastest indoor 5,000 meters in school history. Caillian Colquitt moved to the No. 2 spot on The Citadel’s all-time 3,000-meter indoor list and to No. 3 on the 5000-meter indoor list. Colquitt also set a new program record in the 5,000 meters during the 2016 outdoor season.
During the 2016 cross country season, Jordan and Mike Lantz earned the No. 2 and No. 3 fastest 8,000-meter times in school history.
Leonard came to The Citadel after two seasons as a graduate assistant coach at Western Carolina where she also coached the distance runners, assisted with recruiting and designed and administered workouts.
She earned a master’s degree in health and physical education from Western in May 2013.
While at Western, Leonard helped lead the Catamounts to three Southern Conference championships while coaching a total of 11 all-conference performers in track and field and cross country, including a distance medley relay title at the 2013 indoor meet.
She also gained teaching experience at Western, serving as an adjunct instructor in health and physical education during the fall 2013 semester and a graduate teaching assistant for three years.
Leonard attended Auburn and was a member of the track and field and cross country teams for three years, earning the Academic Top Tiger award three times. She graduated magna cum laude in December 2008 with bachelor’s degrees in both political science and criminology.
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