(718) 780-4094
julia.sandiford@liu.edu

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ABOUT COACH SANDIFORD
Former two-time NCAA champion Julia Sandiford enters her eighth year as head coach of the Long Island University men’s and women’s track and field and cross country programs. In her time in Brooklyn, Sandiford has built the Blackbird program into a perennial conference power. She has guided Long Island to four Northeast Conference women’s championships, including a sweep of both the 2006 indoor and outdoor crowns. The Sandiford-led Blackbirds also captured the NEC women’s indoor title in 2002 and 2003. Sandiford’s squads have also finished second in the conference a total of seven times.

In addition, Sandiford has seen her athletes garner seven NEC Most Valuable Performer awards and earn Most Outstanding Performer honors 11 times.

Her efforts have not gone unnoticed by the conference. Sandiford has been named the NEC Women’s Coach of the Year a total of five times. She took home her first of four indoor trophies in 2002, and followed that up with awards for her work during the 2003, 2005 and 2006 seasons. Sandiford added her first outdoor Women’s Coach of the Year award last season.

With a plethora of talent returning and several strong newcomers in the mix, Sandiford is confident the overall program will continue to grow and remain one of the Northeast Conference’s elite.

“I am looking for us to develop a winning program at the conference level, as well as the regional and national levels,” Sandiford said. “At the same time we recognize that winning is not the single measure of success. We work to boost school and community interest in the team, to make our program more attractive to prospective athletes and to improve the performances of each individual and the team as a whole throughout the season.

“Also through track and field and the associated training, we seek to develop skills and a work ethic among our athletes that can be transferred to activities off the track.”

Prior to her arrival in downtown Brooklyn, Sandiford was an assistant men’s and women’s track coach at SUNY-Albany. Her women’s teams won the ECAC Division II indoor title, the NECC indoor championship, the CTC indoor and outdoor championships and produced eight All-Americans. Her men’s teams captured the NECC indoor and CTC outdoor titles and had NCAA qualifiers in 14 events. Sandiford came to Long Island during the 1997-98 season as an assistant coach.

Sandiford’s own running career saw her become a seven-time NCAA All-American at Seton Hall. A four-time Academic All-American, she was also a GTE Academic All-American in 1995. She graduated magna cum laude in 1995 with a Bachelor of Science degree in marketing. She currently resides in Brooklyn, N.Y.