Weber State University Athletics
Staff Directory
- Title:
- Head Coach
The 2013-14 season will mark the 33rd year for Jim Blaisdell as the head coach of the Weber State women’s track and field team. Blaisdell came to Weber State as head coach in 1981. He has also served as the Director of Track and Field at Weber State since 2006. He was also the WSU women’s cross country coach for 26 years at Weber State.
In his 32 seasons at Weber State Blaisdell has led the Wildcats to 18 Big Sky Conference Championships in cross country, indoor and outdoor track and field. He has coached more than 1,000 athletes at Weber State. He has also guided the Wildcats to 31 second place finishes in conference championships.
He has guided the Wildcats to nine Big Sky Indoor Championships, capturing titles in 1984, 1991, 1992, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007 and 2012 and finished second nine times. WSU still holds the conference record by winning four-straight conference titles from 2002-05.
The Wildcats have won five outdoor titles under his watch with wins in 1992, 1993, 1998, 2000, and 2002. WSU has also finished second 10 times in outdoor track and field. In 2002 the Wildcats set a Big Sky record with 242 points in route to winning the conference title by 111 points, also a conference record.
In cross country Weber State has won four titles under Blaisdell, 1993, 1997, 2000 and 2006 and have finished second 12 times. He led the Wildcats to a top 10 finish in the NCAA Cross Country Mountain Region Chamipionships in 25 of 26 meets, and finished in the top five 14 times.
From 1990-2007, a span of 50 conference championships in cross country, indoor, and outdoor track, Weber State finished first or second 42 times.
Blaisdell has been named Big Sky Conference Coach of the Year 18 times during his career at WSU and been honored as the District VII Coach of the Year four times. Blaisdell has served as the Mountain Region Cross Country representative for the NCAA for two terms and served until 2009 as the Big Sky Conference Track and Field representative on the executive committee of the track and field coaches association.
He has coached numerous All-Conference athletes and 28 All-Americans. A total of 16 of his All-Americans are from Utah. The 800 meter runners have especially excelled at Weber State under Coach Blaisdell. A total of 22 Big Sky individual titles in the 800 meters have been achieved by Weber State student-athletes in indoor and outdoor track since 1983.
Prior to coming to Weber State, Blaisdell coached at the College of Southern Idaho for eight years and coached numerous Junior College All-Americans. One of those All-Americans was Paul Pilkington, a former Weber State runner and current cross country and distance coach. He also was an assistant basketball coach for three years at Southern Idaho.
A native of Malad, Idaho, Blaisdell has been married to Cathy Heaton for 45 years and together they are the parents of six children and have 16 grandchildren. Two of Coach Blaisdell’s daughters ran track for their father, Michelle (1989-92) and Danielle (1998-2004).
