Former Red Dragon Curtis Merrick joins the Cortland coaching staff in 2011-12 and will work with the teams’ sprinters. Merrick comes to Cortland after coaching on the scholastic level in Central New York for 11 years.
Merrick was the boys’ track and field head coach at Liverpool High School from 2001-05 and was an assistant coach at Cicero-North Syracuse High School from 2006-11. He coached a total of 17 different high school All-Americans, including a National Scholastic indoor champion girls’ distance medley relay team that won in 12:03.19 and a boys' DMR at Liverpool that placed second at outdoor nationals in 10:11.26, just 0.57 off the winning time.
Merrick has also coached 20 all-state athletes, including athletes who won three individual New York State Federation titles and four individual New York State crowns. His athletes have broken a total of 12 different Section Three records, and one of his athletes broke a New York State age group record when she ran the 1,500 meters in 4:31.67 as an eighth grader.
Merrick is a full-time physical education teacher in the North Syracuse Central School District. He earned his undergraduate degree from Cortland in 1998 after transferring to the College from SUNY Brockport. Merrick also earned a master’s degree from Cortland in 2005. At both Cortland and Brockport, he competed as a jumper and hurdler and was also a football defensive back.
A graduate of Liverpool High School, Merrick was an all-league jumper and hurdlers under Coach Oscar Jensen, who was named the 2002 National Coach of the Year by the National High School Athletic Coaches Association. Jensen was also enshrined into the Greater Syracuse Sports Hall of Fame in 2002 and the Niagara Track and Field Hall of Fame in 2003, and he received the USA Track and Field’s Coaching Lifetime Achievement Award in 2003.
A native of Liverpool, Merrick resides there with his wife, Bonna, and their two sons, Curtis and Christopher. Merrick is a Certified Personal Trainer through the National Academy of Sports Medicine.
