McKinley Ward-La Salle Hired as Head XC/Assistant Track Coach
Coach McKinley Ward-La Salle enters his sixth season working as a long-distance coach and joins Fort Scott for his first season as the head cross country/assistant track coach for the Greyhounds.
Ward-La Salle comes to The Fort having spent the 2023 indoor and outdoor seasons as a long-distance events coach for Georgia Tech in Atlanta. During his time On the Flats Ward-La Salle was mentored by coaches Alan Drosky and Becky Megesi. The 2023 campaign saw the Yellow Jackets achieve great heights, as Tech male steeplechase runner Zach Jaeger captured the Penn Relays 3K Steeplechase title in late April. While at Tech Ward-La Salle worked with the 800m, 1500m, 3K, 5K and 10K student-athletes.
In the Spring of 2023 McKinley earned his masters in sports administration from Northwestern State University, graduating with a 3.7 GPA. In Natchitoches Ward-La Salle worked as kinesiology and yoga instructor, while also performing duties as a physiology lab assistant and guest 400-level lecturer. In 2022 and 2023 he volunteered his time to the Natchitoches Central High School swimming and cross-country programs.
McKinley's first stint in Atlanta came in 2020 until the summer of 2021 when he held the role of athletic communications director for the men's & women's cross country/track & field, swimming & diving and men's tennis programs. During that period of time Ward-La Salle developed his professional relationships with coaches Drosky and Megesi, progressing into a short role as volunteer coach before leaving for graduate school in Natchitoches.
Prior to his time at Georgia Tech, McKinley was a graduate assistant in a communications role for the men's and women's cross country and track & field programs at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, Ariz. In 2018 the Lumberjack men cemented their third consecutive NCAA Division I national title, then also coming in second in Terre Haute in 2019. The coaches, student-athletes and culture of the NAU program motivated McKinley to become a collegiate coach for distance events. In Flagstaff he volunteered with the Flagstaff Middle School physical education and athletics departments.
Ward-La Salle graduated with a kinesiology degree from Louisiana Tech in Ruston, La., in the Spring of 2018. In high school McKinley attended Saint Andrews College in Dublin, Ireland, completing his studies in 2013.
Coach Ward-La Salle on coming to The Fort: "I would like to express gratitude to the school's Athletic Director Luke Demko and Head Track Coach Philip Redrick for giving me the opportunity to be a part of a program and department that has consistently shown its alignment with the morals, ethics and values that make the Georgia Tech and NAU programs as successful as they are. Coach Redrick was a great inspiration for me making this move, as I could see the true care and passion that he has for his student-athletes, the Fort Scott community and our sport."