Tommy Barksdale begins his first season as head women's track and field coach. He is the first head women's track and field coach in program history.

Barksdale led the University of Montevallo women's cross country team to the NCAA Championship last season for the first time in program history. The Falcons dominated the Peach Belt Conference Championship winning by 30 points and had the individual champion who won the race by over 30 seconds. UM posted four of the top-10 all-time fastest 5k times in program history in 2011 and posted seven of the top-10 fastest 6k times in program history. The Falcons went on to finish second at the NCAA Southeast Region Championship which earned them a trip to the NCAA Championship.

Barksdale was named the Southeast Region Women's Cross Country Coach of the Year while three of his athletes were named All-Region. His team received a USTFCCCA Academic Award while four of the runners were named to the USTFCCCA All-Academic list.  

Barksdale came to Montevallo after spending the previous two seasons as head cross country and track and field coach at Division I Morehead State University. Prior to his time at MSU he spent two seasons as assistant coach at Division I Troy University, one season as an assistant at Wallace State Community College and one season as a volunteer assistant coach here at Montevallo as he helped get the women’s program started.

During his time at MSU, coach Barksdale helped 33 athletes set personal bests in cross country and 37 athletes hit personal records in outdoor track. Both of his teams placed in the top-6 at the Ohio Valley Conference championships during his tenure. His teams won two conference Sportsmanship Awards and earned two All-Academic team honors from USTFCCCA.

While at Troy he helped guide both the men’s and women’s cross country teams to top-seven finishes at the Conference Championships. He guided both teams to All-Academic Team awards during his time as well.

During his stay at Wallace State the team had two NJCAA Indoor All-Americans and three Outdoor All-Americans. The men’s cross country team finished as the Region XXII Runners-up.

As an athlete, Barksdale competed at Bevill State Community College for two years before transferring to Division I Mississippi State University. While at Bevill State he was team captain of the NJCAA National Championship winning team, he was named All-Region and was elected as a representative to the USOC Running Camp.

Barksdale graduated from Mississippi State University with a bachelor’s of arts in political science in 2002. He is USA Track and Field Level I certified and took part in the USTFCCCA Convention in 2010 and the Super Distance Summit in 2010 and 2011.