CLARION, Pa. (EYT) — A little over a year after not hiring him as the women’s track and field coach, Clarion University has now changed course and hired Ben Bevevino as the head man for the women’s track and field program.(Photo of Ben Bevevino on left with assistant track coach and head cross country coach Eric Laughlin. A year after deciding not to hire Bevevino as the head coach of the women’s track and field team, Clarion University reversed course Friday and hired the son and grandson of Golden Eagle Hall of Famers. Photo courtesy of Clarion University)
In June 2018, after he had served two years as the interim head coach for the track and field team, Clarion University Athletic Director Wendy Snodgrass decided not to hire Bevevino, whose father, D.J. Bevevino, is the assistant athletic director at the school as well as a member of the school’s Athletics Hall of Fame and whose grandfather, David “Red” Bevevino is also in the school’s Athletics Hall of Fame.
Jason Falvo, who had resigned as the head coach at Waynesburg in the Fall of 2017, was hired instead of Bevevino. Falvo lasted one season with NCAA Division II Clarion before taking the men’s and women’s track and field head job at NCAA Division III Eastern University in July.
At the time of the decision to hire Falvo in June 2018 over Bevevino, members of the Clarion team expressed their disappointment in the university for not retaining Bevevino.
Bevevino, meanwhile, took an assistant job at Texas Luthern and was named the 2019 South/Southwest Regional Assistant Coach of the Year by the USTFCCCA.
In making the announcement Friday, October 4, to rehire Bevevino, Clarion Athletic Director cited his success at Texas Luthern.
“I’m pleased to announce that Ben will be taking over as our head track and field coach,” Snodgrass said. “He is a coach that is respected in the profession, as evidenced by the accolades he and his athletes earned this past year and is also a passionate advocate for Clarion University and the community.”
At Texas Luthern, Bevevino coached a pair of All-Americans and six athletes who had national qualifying performances as well as six school records, four conference championships and nine all-conference performances. He helped lead the Texas Lutheran men’s team to a conference championship and the women to a second-place finish.
“I’m really excited for this opportunity to return to Clarion and head the track & field program,” Bevevino said. “I look forward to leading my alma mater to success.”
Prior to his time at Texas Lutheran Bevevino spent a little under two years as the interim head coach for the Golden Eagles, from 2016-18. Bevevino’s athletes recorded 12 school-record performances and 38 that fell in the top-five in their respective events. The team also excelled academically, twice earning USTFCCCA Division II All-Academic Team honors.
Before coming to Clarion, Bevevino spent eight years coaching at the high school and college levels. He spent the 2015-16 season as a graduate assistant coach at California (Pa.), but before that spent five years on staff at Clarion. He served as a volunteer assistant from 2010-14 and a student assistant in the 2014-15 school year. He coached Clarion Area’s boys’ team from 2009-15 after spending one season as an assistant coach, helping them earn six PIAA championship medals and post-school records in the 100-meter dash, 200-meter dash, 400-meter dash and Long Jump.
Bevevino earned his bachelor’s degree in Liberal Studies at Clarion in 2015 and quickly followed that with a master’s degree in Exercise Science & Health Promotions from California (Pa.) in August 2016. He is USATF Level 1 coaching certified and is also a National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM) Certified Performance Enhancement Specialist and a National Association of Speed and Explosion (NASE) Certified Level 1 Speed Coach.
