Arkansas hires former Texas head track coach as assistant
FAYETTEVILLE — Mario Sategna, the 11-time former Big 12 champion head coach for the Texas Longhorns men’s and women’s track and field teams, is now the Arkansas’ men’s field events coach.
Razorbacks men’s head track coach Chris Bucknam announced the hire this week. He replaces Travis Geopfert, who recently became the associate head coach at Tennessee.
Texas athletic director Chris Del Conte was hired in December. Sategna was the head coach at Texas from 2013 until he was dismissed by Del Conte in February during the indoor season.
Bucknam said Sategna will coach all of Arkansas’ men’s field events, including the pole vault and the decathlon. The move frees spring-vault coach Doug Case to concentrate strictly on sprinters and hurdlers.
“I’ve known him for 20 years, ever since he was an assistant at Minnesota,” Bucknam said. “An unbelievable guy.”
A former NCAA decathlon champion at LSU in 1995, Sategna started coaching as an LSU volunteer assistant in 1996-97. Sategna assisted at Wichita State in 1998-99 and Minnesota from 1999-2003 before moving to Texas in 2003 as an assistant coach.
Sategna’s Texas tenure includes coaching U.S. Olympic silver medalist decathlete Trey Hardee, 2016 Olympic men’s gold medalist shot-putter Ryan Crouser and U.S. Olympic women’s gold medalist shot-putter Michelle Carter. He was the U.S. Olympic men’s throwing coach in 2016 and head coach of the 2017 U.S. men’s team at the World Championships.
His time at Texas also included a personal leave of absence in 2016 “followed by an administrative leave while he was under a school ethics and misconduct investigation,” according to the Associated Press.
“The school has previously said the investigation didn’t involve NCAA compliance or gender discrimination issues,” according to the AP.
Sategna upon his 2017 return was quoted that he needed the time off “for self improvement” and was grateful to return. Thereupon Sategna coached the Texas men to a third consecutive Big 12 Outdoor title.
Del Conte removed a number of previous coaches at Texas after the tumultuous term of former athletic director Steve Patterson, who was fired in September 2015. Former Longhorns football player Mike Perrin served in an interim role for two years.
“The new athletic director wanted to go a different direction,” Bucknam said. “There’s been a lot going on at Texas, and it’s been a tough time to be a head coach there. Though, he’s had great teams at Texas. I know he’s a phenomenal coach.”
Bucknam said he appreciates adding an assistant who has been a successful head coach.
“I kind of like assistant coaches who have had head coaching experience,” Bucknam said. “Doug was the head coach at Drake and Travis was head coach for a year at Northern Iowa for a year. It’s a big benefit when you have assistants who have sat in the head coach’s chair.”