Two-time national coach of the year Lucky Huber has been a Coyote nearly his entire life. He grew up less than 20 minutes away in Elk Point, graduated from USD in 1990, worked 17 years in the Academic Advising Center and, in 2008, was named Director of Track and Field and Cross Country. As such, Huber has set the tone for a department that has sprinted into a new era.
Under Huber’s influence, the Coyotes have accomplished three program goals since 2008. For 14 consecutive years, both the Coyote men and women have earned USTFCCCA All-Academic Team honors to accomplish goal one. Another goal has been to win conference titles and the department’s six programs have won 19 conference titles since 2008. Finishing in the top-10 nationally is goal three. The Coyote women accomplished that feat in 2014.
Huber has been the women’s track and field coach since 1994. The Coyotes have 20 conference titles since then including 11 indoor and nine outdoor. South Dakota’s women swept the indoor and outdoor meets in 2022, earning Huber Summit League Coach of the Year accolades twice. The team also has 15 national top-10 finishes at either indoor or outdoor championships. Those include a second-place indoor finish in 1998, a fifth-place outdoor finish in 1999, and a 10th-place indoor finish at the Division I championship meet in 2014.
South Dakota boasts 13 national champions, including four multi-time champions for 22 titles, during the Huber era. Those 13 athletes represent nine different events. Bethany (Buell) Firsick won South Dakota’s first Division I NCAA Championship when she cleared 14 feet, 7 1/2 inches to win the pole vault at the 2013 outdoor championship meet in Eugene, Ore. Chris Nilsen followed suit with a trio of NCAA Division I pole vault titles, breaking the NCAA Championships meet record in 2019 with a vault of 19-6 1/4.
The spectrum of athletes Huber has coached varies across events and gender. Huber coached three-time Olympian and 2008 Olympic Bronze Medalist Derek Miles in the pole vault, two-time NCAA Champion Emma Erickson in the 800 meters, two-time NCAA Champion Steve Gordon in the triple jump, national heptathlon champion Brianne Edwards and NCAA Division I All-American high jumpers Megan Glisar and Zack Anderson. Huber has also created a recruiting pipeline in Jamaica, coaching All-Americans Teivaskie Lewin in the hurdles, Shanice Cannigan in the pentathlon and Danii Anglin in the high jump. Huber worked with Gawain Williams, who became the first Summit League athlete to win four titles in the 100 meters.
Huber’s experience as an academic advisor has paid off big time for the Coyotes. Of South Dakota’s 34 NCAA postgraduate scholarship recipients, 22 are track and field athletes who had Huber on staff. The Coyote track and field programs also boast 21 Academic All-Americans in Huber's tenure. Then there’s Alexa Duling, an All-American 400-meter hurdler who in 2013 earned a Walter Byers Postgraduate Scholarship, the most prestigious scholarship awarded by the NCAA with a renewable value of $24,000.
Most recently, Huber took the lead in designing USD’s first outdoor track facility since 1979. The facility opened ahead of the 2016 Summit League Outdoor Championship Meet held in Vermillion. The Lillibridge Track Complex features a nine-lane, 400-meter, NCAA-certified BSS 2000 track surface and competition areas for field events all viewable from the 1,000-seat grandstands. Opposite of the grandstand is a 120-meter incline and decline training lane.
Huber is married to the former Stacy Kracht of Mitchell, S.D. They have two daughters, Mackenzie and Josie. Stacy is a member of the Coyotes Sports Hall of Fame and formerly a four-year starter on the Coyotes’ women’s basketball team (1987-91).
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Huber File:
- Director of Track and Field and Cross Country since 2008
- Head Women’s Track and Field Coach since 1994
- Spent 17 years working as USD’s Director of Academic Advising
- B.S. in elementary education from USD in 1990
- M.A. in education from USD in 1992
- Two-time National Coach of the Year (2008, 2004)
- Eight-time Regional Coach of the Year (1997, 1998, 2004, 2005, 2006 2007, 2008, 2022)
- 21-time Conference Coach of the Year (1997 [2x], 1998 [2x], 1999 [indoor], 2004 [2x], 2005 [2x], 2006 [2x], 2008 [2x], 2009 [indoor], 2010 [indoor], 2011 [indoor], 2018 [outdoor], 2022 [2x], 2023 [2x])
- 21 Conference Championships
- 15 top-10 national finishes*
- 13 National Champions (who won 18 titles)
- 17 National Runner-Up Finishes
- 48 All-Americans (who combined for 155 All-America honors)
- 16 All-American Relay Teams
* Indoor Team Finishes (7 top 10):Â 2nd in 1998; 6th in 1999; 7th in 2001; 9th in 2003; 7th in 2004; 10th in 2006; 6th in 2008; 10th in 2014
* Outdoor Team Finishes (8 top 10):Â 5th in 1998; 7th in 1999; 6th in 2000; 6th in 2001; 7th in 2003; 10th in 2004; 6th in 2008
