Tom Black, who worked five seasons coaching sprints, hurdles, jumps and throws with the VCU men’s track and field program, enters his second season as the assistant coach for the woman’s team.   

While with the Rams, Black has continuously pushed his athletes to new levels as many have broken school records. Last season, Yvette Simmons and Lauren Stewart each set new school highs in the long jump and pole vault, respectively, under the guidance of Black.  Pia Ruth and Tanika Brown also set new school records in the 60m hurdles and the high jump respectively.  During the 2001-02 indoor season, three records were broken under Black’s reign, the 55-meter hurdles, the 400 meters and the 60-meter hurdles.  In the spring of 2001, the Rams set school records in the indoor and outdoor 4x400-meter relay and the 400-meter hurdles. 

Black has also led the Rams to many successes at the CAA Championships.  Last season, the Rams produced a second-place finish at the 2005 CAA Championship, VCU’s highest-ever finish.The Rams earned individual event titles in the high jump, triple jump, long jump, 100-meter hurdles, 200 meters and 400 meters. He also aided in the men’s team’s second-place finish at the CAA Championships in 2004.  In 2001, sophomore Will Lawrence won the decathlon to claim the CAA crown. 

Black arrived at Virginia Commonwealth in January 2000 after serving as a graduate assistant at Marshall University the previous two years. At Marshall, Black coached the sprints, jumps, hurdles and multi-events for both the men and women’s track teams and helped develop a Mid-American Conference champion in the women's indoor 60-meter hurdles. In 1999, he earned his Masters of Science degree in athletics administration at Marshall in 1999. Before his stint at Marshall, Black was the head coach at Liverpool High School in New York for one year.

An accomplished athlete himself, Black attended the State University of New York at Cortland, where he was a four-time conference champion in the pole vault and participated in the 1995 NCAA Division III Track and Field Championships.

He graduated from SUNY-Cortland in 1996 with a Bachelor of Science in Education degree in physical education.  A native of Warwick, N.Y., Black earned his Level I USA Track and Field certification in 1997. Black is married to the former Melissa Olson and the couple had their first child, Tyler Black, in February of 2005.