Track & Field
- Title:
- Assistant Coach
- Phone:
- 325-2541
A veteran at the national and international level for over 30 years, Steve Silvey has coached 28 collegiate national champion squads, numerous All-Americans, 17 Olympic Medalists and 20 World Championships Medalists at several of the nation’s most prestigious programs.
Silvey, who was inducted as a coach into the National Junior College Hall of Fame (2005) has a unique quality of having won 19 team championships in the SEC, Big-12 and PAC-10 conferences. Individually, his resume boasts 26 World Championship competitors, 34 Olympians and numerous NJCAA & NCAA All-Americans.
Silvey has coached several outstanding hurdlers in his first few seasons in Starkville, including 2015 SEC 400m hurdles champion Scottie Hearn and two-time All-SEC hurdler Jovan Davis.
Hearn won the SEC title with a 49.39 mark that tied the school record. Davis ran 50.14, the fourth-fastest time ever by a Bulldog, while also clocking a 13.99 in the 110m hurdles to cap the year as the SEC's top combination hurdler.
The duo also earned All-America honors in the 4x400-meter relay after helping the Bulldogs take third at the 2015 NCAA Outdoor Championships in Eugene, Oregon.
Three of MSU's Top 6 fastest times in the 400m hurdles and two of the Top 7 in the 110m hurdles have come under Silvey's watch. He added a pair this season with Ro'Derick Spears (13.99) in the 110m hurdles and Vince Castillo (50.74) in the 400m hurdles.
Castillo earned All-SEC laurels as a freshman after finishing seventh in the event. He followed that by posting the school's sixth-fastest time in the event at the NCAA East Regional Championship.
At the international level, Coach Silvey served as the Zambia Olympic Coach for Track and Field in the 1992 and 1996 Olympiads, and produced its first ever Olympic medal in the sport of track and field with Samuel Matete in the 400 hurdles (silver medal). Silvey also served as the head coach for Zambia at the 1993 World Championships in Stuttgart, Germany as Samuel Matete again won the World Championship Silver Medal.
Silvey served as Recruiting Coordinator and Assistant Track Coach for Texas Tech University from 2004 to 2007. While with the Red Raiders, Silvey Helped lead the 2005 men’s outdoor team to it’s first ever Big-12 Conference Championship. Silvey’s sprinters, hurdlers and relays scored over 100 of the 149.50 points that won the school's first ever Big-12 championship. The 2007 men’s outdoor track team also finished as Big 12 runner-up. Silvey’s impact on Texas Tech resulted in nine new school records during his three years with the program.
While at the University of Oregon from 2001-2003, Silvey made a quick impact on a struggling program. During Silvey’s first year, the men’s team jumped from fifth place to second place at the 2002 PAC-10 Outdoor championships. In his final season with the Ducks, the men’s team claimed the 2003 PAC-10 Championship, an accomplishment not seen in 12 years. Silvey’s two solid recruiting classes also produced another PAC-10 Conference Championship in 2005.
Prior to his arrival in Eugene, Silvey built his reputation at two of the nation's top track and field programs, the University of Arkansas and Blinn College. While at those schools, he was a part of 28 NCAA national team championships, including a stretch of 13 straight years before leaving the Razorbacks after the 2000 outdoor campaign.
As the Sprints/Hurdles/Relays mentor at the University of Arkansas from the fall of 1994 through the 2000 outdoor season, he was part of 13 NCAA indoor and outdoor track & field and cross country team titles and 17 SEC team championships. His athletes won 15 All-American honors (including one NCAA champion and three NCAA runner-ups) and 13 outdoor track and field SEC individual titles.The 2000 season was perhaps the finest by his athletes, who posted one of the nation's top times in the 4X100-meter relay (39.27), a collegiate record in the sprint medley relay (3:12.13), took second in the NCAA 4x400-meter final (3:02.02) and won the prestigious Penn Relays. His team's shuttle relay owned the fastest time in the world that season (55.37), which included DeMarcus Brown, who was an All-American in the 110 hurdles and owned a collegiate best of 13.72. Brown was one of three Hogs that ran 13.75 or faster that year under his guidance, while All-American 400-meter hurdler Samuel Glover owned a best of 49.08.
Prior to arriving in Fayetteville, he was five-time national coach of the year at Blinn College, where his squads won 15 national Championships in seven years. At the Brenham, Texas institution, Silvey produced 164 All-Americans, 128 individual national champions and 27 relay champions. His cross country program added a national championship 1993 and another in 1994. Silvey’s 1992 and 1993 Blinn College teams were voted the “Outstanding Team” at the Texas Relays, and the 1992 team also added the crown of “USA Men’s National Relay Ranking Champions,” according to Track and Field News.
Prior to his stint at Blinn, Silvey served as men’s and women’s assistant track coach and recruiting coordinator at Texas A&M University from 1984 to 1987. Silvey helped position the Aggies' rise to national prominence, as A&M finished among the top six NCAA men’s squads twice during his stay. Silvey’s star-studded recruiting classes at Texas A&M included world-class track athletes, such as 200-meter 2000 Olympian Floyd Heard, 1993 World Championships 100-meter silver medalist Andre Cason and Olympic shot put champions Randy Barnes (1996) and Mike Stulce (1992).
Silvey also has eight years of experience coaching on the high school level in Iowa, Texas and Louisiana.
A 1980 graduate of Truman State University (Kirksville, Mo.) with a bachelor’s degree in environmental science education, he added a master’s degree from Texas A&M University in physical education in 1987.
Before returning to coaching in Fall 2013 at Mississippi State, Silvey spent five years in a private business in Dallas, Texas. During this time, he published 19 books on speed training and track and field topics.
