Steven Cary was hired as the head cross country and track & field coach of the Hilltoppers in August of 2022. He spent the previous three years as the Southwestern University head cross country coach with his teams earning USTFCCCA All-Academic Honors in his final two seasons. Additionally, Southwestern's John Hattan broke the program's steeplechase record, Noah Dennis was a two-time all-conference performer in cross country and track & field, and Emma Cooper became the first member of the women's team to earn all-conference honors in four years during Cary's tenure.
Before Southwestern, Cary spent eight years with the NCAA Division II Georgia College Bobcats of the Peach Belt Conference (PBC), starting as a graduate assistant in 2011 and working his way up to head coach in 2015.
In his four seasons running the Bobcats cross country teams, the program had a strong track record combining academic and athletic excellence. In the classroom, his teams produced three PBC Elite 15 recipients, 50 PBC All-Academic award winners, and 24 USTFCCCA All-Academic award winners. On the cross-country courses, Cary coached the 2017 PBC women's cross-country champion in Katherine Yost and produced 10 All-Conference runners, six DII Southeast All-Region runners, and two runners combining for three qualifications for the NCAA Championships.
Cary ran four seasons at Valdosta State University(VSU) and served as a Blazer student-assistant coach for the 2010 campaign. He graduated from VSU with a Bachelor of Arts in English in May of 2011 and received his Master of Education in Kinesiology: Human Performance degree from Georgia College in May of 2013.
