Bill Ross - Head Coach

Contact: bill.ross@allegheny.edu
814-332-2827

Since the fall of 1996, Bill Ross has kept the Allegheny cross country and track and field programs at the top of the NCAC. He is without a doubt the winningest coach in the 24-year history of the conference, having amassed 26 team championships, including winning five of the six yearly sports on three occasions, as well as being named NCAC Coach of the Year a remarkable 26 times.

During 2006-07, Ross led the Gators to conference team championships in men’s cross country and men’s indoor and outdoor track & field, earning NCAC Coach of the Year honors for all three. Allegheny placed 93 student-athletes on all-conference squads, including 19 NCAC individual champions.

In his 11 years with the Gators, Ross has been named NCAA Regional Coach of the Year eight times while coaching athletes to 58 national appearances, 20 All-America performances, and two NCAA Division III National Championships.

Ross also has the distinction of being the first NCAA Division III track and field coach to place an athlete on either an Olympic or World Championship team for the USA. In 2003, pole vaulter Jeremy Scott placed second at the U.S. Indoor National Championships to make the IAAF Indoor World Championship Team for the United States. Scott went on to place 10th at the World Championships.

Ross has a long history of developing winning programs. Prior to arriving at Allegheny, he served as the head coach at nearby Thiel College, leading the Tomcat men and women to four President’s Athletic Conference Championships. As the Thiel coach from 1989 to 1996, Ross also saw two NCAA Division III champions and took 30 athletes to nationals with 12 earning All-America honors. Five times he picked up PAC Coach of the Year honors, while also being named Div. III Mid-East District Coach of the Year three times.

It is obvious Ross knows how to win, but it is not his main focus when it comes to his coaching philosophy.
“My number one goal is to provide a program that has a life changing experience for our scholar-athletes,” he said. “That is accomplished through teaching dedication to team, academics and self-achievement.”

Many of Ross’ former athletes have gone on to become doctors and lawyers and leaders in research as well as successful coaches at the Division I, II, and III levels.

Ross is a 1984 graduate of Slippery Rock University where he was a three-year letterwinner in both track and field and football and qualified for three NCAA Division II Track and Field Championships. Ross, a native of Mt. Jewett, Pa., earned his master’s degree in science of exercise and sport from SRU in 1989. Currently, he resides in Meadville with his wife, Wendy, and their five sons: Tim (23), Zac (18), Tyler (17), Nat (8), and Noah (6).

Joe Eby- Assistant Coach

Contact: joseph.eby@allegheny.edu
814-332-3318

Joe Eby is in his second season as Allegheny’s cross country/track and field assistant coach.

In his first year, Eby helped the distance squad to many school bests, highlighted by the cross country team’s third place finish at the NCAA Division III National Meet and helping six earn NCAA Division III qualifying marks.

Eby came to Allegheny following a successful two-year graduate assistantship at one of the top NCAA Division III cross country/track and field programs in the nation, DePauw University. With his help, the Tiger cross country teams ranked among the top 10 in the nation from 2004-05 and produced three All-Americans, while the track and field squads dominated the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference, winning the outdoor men’s championships in 2005 and 2006 and the women’s title in 2005.

Prior to working at DePauw, Eby was an All-American runner at Mount Union College, placing fifth in the 1500 meters at the 2002 NCAA Division III Indoor Track and Field Championships. He also earned MVP honors from the Ohio Athletic Conference that season for his performance at the indoor conference meet. Overall, he claimed four OAC individual championships and 13 all-conference honors, including two in cross country.

A 2004 graduate of Mount Union, Eby received a bachelor’s degree in physical education and went on to complete his master’s in coaching at Indiana State University.