Jackie Richards
Jackie Richards is in her eighth season as an assistant coach at UTSA. She oversees the program's quarter-milers, hurdlers and relays.
In her six years with the Roadrunners, her student-athletes have broken 10 school records and captured 15 Conference USA championships, while Bashiru Abdullahi and Patrick Prince have earned All-America honors in the 110-meter hurdles. Additionally, the UTSA men have posted five runner-up and six third-place team finishes at the conference meets, while the women finished second at the 2022 C-USA Outdoor and third at four other league meets.
Richards made an immediate impact in her first season in 2017, as she coached the Roadrunners to five school records, including the men's 400 meters and 60m hurdles, the women's indoor 400m and 4x400m indoor relay marks. In addition to aiding Prince (110m hurdles) and Randy Bermea (400m hurdles) to C-USA titles, Richards helped five individuals and two relay teams advance to the NCAA West Preliminary Round, with student-athletes in four events moving on to the event's semifinal rounds.
Individual highlights in Richards’ first season included Prince's 60m hurdles personal-best of 7.81 (missed a berth to the NCAA Indoor Championship by 0.02 second), Prince's school-record time of 13.88 in the 110m hurdles and Vasha Sheriff's UTSA record-setting time of 45.72 in the 400m.
In her second season with the Roadrunners in 2018, Richards saw her athletes win three conference crowns and break two more school records. Desmond Jefferson won the C-USA Indoor 400m with a 47.35 clocking, while Prince swept the league’s indoor 60m (7.91) and outdoor 110m (13.75) hurdles. The 4x400m relay team established new UTSA standards for the indoor (3:11.22) and outdoor (3:06.69) record books.
Richards helped a trio of individuals and the men’s 4x400m relay team advance to the NCAA West Preliminary Round, with Prince advancing to the NCAA Outdoor Championships in Eugene, where he finished 20th to collect his first honorable mention All-America certificate.
In 2019, four of her athletes — Orla Brothers (400m hurdles), Andrew Pirog (400m hurdles), Prince (110m hurdles) and Sheriff (400m) — advanced to the NCAA West Preliminary Round.
In a 2020 season cut short by the COVID-19 pandemic, Richards helped mentor Abdullahi to a C-USA Indoor crown in the 60m hurdles with a program-record time of 7.80.
Richards helped develop the top two women's 400m hurdlers in UTSA history in 2021 in C-USA Outdoor champion Faith Roberson, who set the school record with her winning time of 56.98, and runner-up Alanah Yukich, who ranks as the program's No. 2 all-time performer (57.00). Both athletes advanced to the NCAA West Preliminary Round along with Abdullahi (110m hurdles) and Pirog (400m hurdles).
In 2022, Richards helped guide Abdullahi to a sweep of the C-USA hurdles crowns, as he cruised to gold in the 60m hurdles with a school-record time of 7.77 and then set meet and facility records with a 13.53 clocking in the 110m hurdles outdoors. He went on to break the school record with a 13.52 clocking at the NCAA West Preliminary Round and finish 15th in the 110m hurdles at the NCAA Outdoor, collecting second-team All-America accolades in the process.
Meanwhile, Yukich struck gold in the women's 400m hurdles with a 57.93 clocking at the 2022 C-USA Outdoor to give the Roadrunners two straight league crowns in the event.
The men's 4x100m relay team of Dennis Phillips, Diego Pettorossi, Trevion McCalla and Jose Garcia broke the school record with a 39.34 clocking and eventually grabbed the silver medal at the C-USA Outdoor, while the women's 4x4 collected bronze medals at both league meets in 2022.
In 2023, Richards helped mentor Mike Roth to four conference medals, including a sweep of the 400m titles. He also secured silver in the 200m and anchored the 4x1 to a win at the C-USA Indoor and earned the meet’s High-Point Scorer award. Yukich also collected four league medals in 2023, winning gold in the 400m hurdles, silver in the 100m hurdles and anchoring the 4x400m relay to second place outdoors after helping the 4x4 claim the bronze indoors. Abdullahi capped his UTSA career by earning his second straight second-team All-America certificate with a 16th-place finish in the 110m hurdles.
Richards came to UTSA after spending the 2016 season as a volunteer assistant coach at Southwestern (Texas) after serving in the same capacity at Missouri in 2014 and 2015.
An accomplished coach, she has mentored student-athletes at five NCAA Division I universities.
Richards spent eight successful seasons as an assistant track & field/cross country coach at Florida State. While in Tallahassee, Richards helped lead the Seminoles' men's team to three consecutive NCAA Outdoor Championships from 2006-08 and mentored a total of 19 All-Americans. She also helped Florida State recruit a pair of national top-three classes.
Prior to joining the Seminoles, Richards was the head horizontal jumps coach and assistant cross country coach at Sacramento State. During her first year, she coached eight Big Sky Conference finalists, including two that earned all-conference accolades.
Prior to her position at Sacramento State, Richards served as the assistant coach at Idaho. She helped guide both the men’s and women’s track & field squads to the 2001 Big West Conference Championship. After a successful NCAA finish, the Vandals women ranked 14th in the nation, while the men finished 23rd.
She also spent two years at Missouri as the volunteer assistant in charge of the Tigers' sprinters and hurdlers.
Her coaching career began in 1994 with the Prince George Track & Field Club in British Columbia, where she served as the head junior development coach. After her fifth year with the club, she was recognized in Canada for excellence in coaching.
She ran for the Prince George Track & Field Club and competed nationally for Canada, including a three-medal performance at the Canadian Junior Championships. She was a multiple provincial champion in her native British Columbia.
Richards competed collegiately for New Mexico. She earned All-Western Athletic Conference scholar-athlete honors from 1995-98 and graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor's degree in exercise science.
In 2002, Richards received her master's degree in physical education with a concentration in sport science from Idaho.
Richards is a USATF Level 2 Track and Field certified coach.
Richards is married to UTSA Associate Head Coach Kareem Streete-Thompson and the couple has two children, Janae and Kaiya.