Steve Belanger was named head coach for the Concordia University Chicago track and field in July of 2019.
Since arriving at CUC, Belanger has overseen a great deal of success. During the COVID-shortened 2020 season, the team set eight school records and produced three All-Americans.
The 2021 season brought three more All-Americans and seven more school records, in addition to five NACC records. The team also produced a National Champion along with two Midwest Elite Championships and a pair of Academic All-Americans. All of these accolades were accomplished despite no Indoor Nationals.
The 2022 season will go down as the most successful in school history. Under Belanger’s direction, the Cougars captured two more national titles, with Simone Wilson and Kayla Armstrong securing the top spot at outdoor nationals in May. In total, four student-athletes qualified for both indoor and outdoor nationals. To cap off the successful year, Wilson and Armstrong both qualified for the historic USA Championships held in Eugene, Oregon.
A Connecticut native, Belanger comes to Concordia-Chicago from an NCAA Division I background. He was an assistant track and field/cross-country coach at Boston College this past year and, before that, held the same positions at Quinnipiac University (CT) for eight years. His position at CUC will be his first as a head coach at the collegiate level.
While CUC will be Belanger’s first experience with a Division III situation, he does not anticipate a big difference in his philosophy of recruiting potential student-athletes.
Belanger’s time at Quinnipiac was a fruitful one for a program that became Division I only two decades ago. He recruited and signed 14 high school state champions and five New England champions. Belanger had a major role in the development of 29 event conference champions, six New England champions, 57 Eastern College Athletic Conference qualifiers, five ECAC champions (the ECAC has 87 Division I members), five NCAA I East Regional Championship qualifiers, and the first national-qualifying sprinter, hurdler, and jumper in the school’s history. Shameal Samuels broke a 27-year-old Collegiate New England Championship record, lowering her time in the 400-meters from 57.17 to 53.35. Jessica Lee set three facility records and ran an 8.18 in the 60-meter hurdles, which was the 20th best in the country across all three NCAA divisions in 2018.
The team finished as runners-up in the 2015, 2016, and 2018 conference championships (with seventh place being the team’s previous best finish). In addition, the Bobcats were successful in the classroom with eight All-Academic Team designations and a 3.55 average GPA, which was in the top 10 percent among all Division I track and field teams.
In his lone season at Boston College, Belanger aided Amanda Sinkewics in shattering an Eagles' school record by nearly 20 feet in the javelin.
Belanger competed in track and field at Newington (CT) High School and Central Connecticut State University as a sprinter and jumper. He also “dabbled” in the decathlon, something that helped him foster “a deep appreciation for all the events.” An injury cut short his competitive career but also turned his interest to coaching track and field. He returned to his alma mater and led the Newington program for three years, helping them to 10 school records and three individual class state champions.
In Belanger's coaching career he's accumulated a multitude of achievements including:
o 3 NCAA National Champions
o 2 USA Track & Field Championship Qualifiers
o 34 NCAA National Championship Qualifiers
o 13 NCAA All-Americans
o 14 Academic All-Americans
o 2 Coach of the Year Awards
Belanger is a USA Track & Field Sprints/Hurdles/Relays Level 2 certified coach and USATF National Level certified official. In addition to 10 years of track experience, Belanger also worked as a volunteer firefighter between 2007 and 2011 for the town of Newington and is a state-certified firefighter.
Belanger earned his B.S. in industrial technology with specializations in environmental and occupational safety from Central Connecticut State University in 2010.
