The 2021-22 campaign marks Grier Gatlin's 11th back as head coach of Southern Oregon University's cross country and track and field programs, which have regularly reached new heights under his leadership.
Since returning to SOU in 2011 after spending two years as an assistant at Oregon Tech, the Raiders have continued to flourish into NAIA powerhouses under Gatlin's watch. An SOU alum and former student-athlete, he previously served as the Raiders' head cross country coach from 1999-2005. In 2016, he delivered SOU's second men's NAIA cross country championship and was subsequently named the NAIA Men's Cross Country Coach of the Year, and in 2018 his men's and women's cross country teams captured an NAIA combined title.
Since returning, Gatlin has been named the Cascade Conference Men's Cross Country Coach of the Year seven times and the CCC Men's Track and Field Coach of the Year five times (2013-14, 16-17, 19) -- all in championship efforts.
The Raider men's cross country team finished third in the NAIA in Gatlin's first year back and was runner-up the next three seasons, also running its conference title streak up to nine. (In 2015, SOU was ranked No. 1 going into the NAIA Championships before sickness kept its two top runners out of the race.) The 2013 season produced the school's first individual national champion (Eric Avila) since 1978, and the Raiders have produced a total of nine men’s and four women’s individual NAIA All-America performances since 2011. In 2016, the men needed just one All-American in a balanced championship effort, while the women produced two All-Americans at the same national XC meet for the first time in team history in matching a program-best seventh-place finish.
SOU's 2018 combined title was the product of fourth-place showings for the men's and women's teams. The men were fourth overall, making them top-four for the 10th time in 11 seasons, while the women outdid their No. 7 ranking for the top finish in team history.
In track and field, Gatlin has overseen 62 men’s All-America performances – the most of any coach in SOU history – with four individual national titles. The Raider women have produced 26 All-America showings during his tenure, and they captured one NAIA title in four consecutive seasons starting in 2014 (pole vault, 400-meter hurdles, 10K, 5K) after going the previous 19 years without one. Since Gatlin took over, SOU has also won 53 individual event conference titles on the men’s side and 37 on the women’s side.
Gatlin also instigated SOU's venture into indoor track and field competition for the first time in early 2012. Three seasons later, the Raider men’s distance medley relay team had already set and broken its own NAIA record with its second straight national championship.
During his first go-round with the Raiders, he was twice named men's Cascade Conference and NAIA Region I Coach of the Year, receiving the honor in 2004 and ‘05. His 2004 SOU men's cross country team competed at the NAIA national meet for the first time in 15 years, finishing 12th in the nation. In 2005 the Raiders returned to the national meet and placed 10th.
While coaching track and field at SOU, Gatlin was named CCC women's coach of the year in 2001. During his tenure he coached nine distance All-Americans and over 30 all-conference athletes in the distance track events from 2000-05.
Gatlin has been an assistant coach for five men's track and field and three women's track and field CCC championship teams.
He worked as an assistant cross country and track and field coach at Pacific University in Forest Grove from 2006-07 before moving to Oregon Tech in 2009.
Gatlin and his wife, Courtney, married in summer 2015.