Fayetteville State University (FSU) women’s track and field coach, Inez Turner, was named the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA) Women’s Coach of the Year following her team’s win of its second consecutive title at the 2024 CIAA Indoor Track and Field Championships at the JDL Fast Track.

Accepts the honor with gratitude

After the team won its championship, she posted her thanks on Facebook, noting that it was “so very awesome to know that one’s labor is not in vain.” This was the team’s 14th championship title since Turner was assigned as coach in 2017. The Lady Broncos won four championships in five seasons with a total of 138 points. The achievements of the coach and her athletes display the championship mindset and spirit of the FSU track and field programs.

Personal athletic career

Turner was born in 1972 in Trelawny, Jamaica. She began her outstanding career as a runner at Barton Community College, taking 16 National Junior College All-American honors. She set several records at Barton that remain in place today. In 1993, she won the Division I NJCAA Championship in the 800 meters, clocking 2:04:88, still the fastest time in history at the championship level. During her time at Texas State University, where she graduated with a BS degree in Exercise and Sports Science, she was inducted into the school’s 2019 Hall of Fame after two seasons with the cross-country team. She won two consecutive NCAA championships in the 800 meters in 1994 and set a school record in 1995. She won 13 title races at the Penn Relays, set two World Junior records at the Penn Relays, and attained the title of Penn Relays Athlete of the Meet three times. She was named a Penn Relays Wall of Famer five times. She added several other titles and awards for her exceptional athletic talent in the 1990s and represented Jamaica at the 1996 Olympic Games as a member of the 4×400-meter relay team that took fourth place at the games. She won an individual gold medal at the 1994 Commonwealth Games in the 800 meters, and during her appearances at the CARIFTA Games from 1988 to 1991, she won seven gold medals and two silver medals. Turner was the first athlete from an English-speaking country in the Caribbean to run the 800 meters in under two minutes. She has been honored by inclusion in the Penn Relays and National Junior Halls of Fame and was named ISA Athlete of the Decade in the 1980s.

Achievements at FSU

During her first season, Turner brought the FSU team to win its first CIAA Women’s Cross Country Championship. Among her accomplishments with the program, was her leadership in bringing the team to the championship in 2018 and 2019, and following the COVID-19 lockdown, again in 2021. Every one of the titles also brought her a CIAA Coach of the Year honor. The women’s cross country program also won three Runne of the Year awards. In 2020, FSU attained 123 points for its first women’s title in history, and an Indoor Track Coach of the Year honor as well. The second consecutive conference championship was achieved in 2022.

Giving back

Turner created the Inez Turner Foundation in 2012 to provide financial support to disadvantaged students at Vere Technical High School in Jamaica. She has served three times as a keynote speaker at the US-JA International College Fair, an organization the provides help to Third World nations.

Photo – Inez Turner