Kelven “Pee Wee” Halsell is just over three weeks into his well-earned retirement, but the longest-tenured head coach in Western Washington University’s history still has some gas left in his tank.
While he has no current plans to return to coaching, he isn’t ruling it out either.
“If I could work out the right situation, I would,” Halsell said. “I’m not saying I wouldn’t. Never say never, right?”
Halsell, 65, began coaching at Western in 1987, the beginning of a 36-year career in Bellingham leading both the cross country and track and field programs. He announced his retirement via a press release through the WWU Athletics Department on Dec. 16.
“As far as my time at Western, it’s been a blessing to me,” Halsell said. “Hopefully I’ve been able to help student-athletes, as well as young coaches, move up. Those are the things you want to see — you want to see your athletes be successful beyond track and field in life.”
Helping develop kids into adults was a major emphasis for Halsell. Athletes’ futures came first and running came second.
As simple as it may sound, having fun was rule No. 1 in each of Halsell’s programs. That made it even more difficult to cease participation in the activity he loved most: mentoring student-athletes.
“Why do it if you’re not having fun?” Halsell said. “That’s the hard part about retiring is when you have your job as your hobby, so to speak. It’s hard to fill that, and I can’t fill it in the same way, I don’t think, ever.”
Halsell said his retirement was a mutual agreement between himself and Western’s administration. He was not forced out, but also said he would have preferred to coach through the end of the outdoor track and field season.
“It was time,” Halsell said. “I wish I could have pushed it to at least June. That’s the one thing there that sticks with me, but it had to be now.”
Halsell endured his ups and downs with Western’s administration during his tenure, particularly when he was found to have allowed a volunteer coach to remain on staff despite being aware of a previous arrest of the coach, Tanner Boyd, in November 2014, as reported by The Bellingham Herald.
Boyd was charged with two counts of residential burglary after re-offending — while on the team’s staff — in November 2016 for breaking into women’s dorm rooms and wearing their clothing. Halsell was formally reprimanded by Steve Card, Western’s director of athletics, for not reporting Boyd’s 2014 arrest to administrators.
That affair was not brought up by Western’s administration during retirement discussions, Halsell said. He allowed Boyd to remain on staff so that he could keep him close and help him.
“I would try to help the young man again. I can only do so much,” Halsell said. “He was doing OK for a while. He needed to deal with some things, and he did afterward … I knew he was not a threat to anybody on my team.”
Sarah Crouch, a 13-time All-American at Western while competing in cross country and track and field from 2007–11, said Halsell was a major reason she chose to come to Bellingham in the first place.
An NCAA Division I program may have focused on maximizing her college career, Crouch said, whereas Halsell emphasized how to make it enrich her life beyond college.
That was key for Crouch, who won the NCAA Division II national championship for the 10,000-meter run in 2011, in pursuing a professional career after college.
“Honestly, I don’t know if I’d have had a professional running career if I hadn’t been coached by him,” Crouch said of Halsell.
While providing life guidance, Halsell also produced champions. He coached 10 individual national champions, 163 All-Americans and led the Vikings to 36 team championships.
Halsell compiled many accolades during his career, but it was always about the people around him.
“The one thing I will miss is the kids,” Halsell said. “I’m not going to say I’m going to miss Western’s administration or Western, necessarily. But I will miss the time out, I will miss Western track and field, and athletics.”
Halsell has no ill will toward Western or its administration, he said. He does, however, wish they were more supportive of athletics at times and provided more assistance in cultivating a culture that encourages the student body to be excited about the Vikings’ success.
“I think Western’s a great academic school and it’s a great athletic school, and I hope that continues,” Halsell said. “I think athletics could be funded a bit better, and even more equitable throughout the athletics department.”
Current Western Assistant Coach T.J. Garlatz was a member of the first-ever men’s team in school history to qualify for the national meet in 2003. Garlatz has the unique perspective of having run for Halsell and coached alongside him.
Garlatz and Crouch said Halsell’s impact will live on in the program, especially in the culture he established.
“He’s helped shape me, especially with how you work with athletes,” Garlatz said. “So long as I’m here, I am definitely going to make sure [that culture] is at the forefront of our program.”
Halsell received 44 Coach of the Year awards, 26 of which were Great Northwest Athletic Conference Coach of the Year titles since the league’s conception in 2001.
Western finished top 20 in the nation in cross country and track and field 48 times under Halsell’s leadership — 32 in cross country and 16 in track and field.
Halsell’s retirement was a bittersweet moment, Garlatz said, as he reflected on all the two accomplished together.
Crouch said his influence was, and is, especially important for the age of athletes he’s coached. He cared about academics and his athletes’ personal lives, in a non-intrusive, supportive way.
“It’s sort of like when you put up bumpers at a bowling alley,” Crouch said. “We were just bowling balls barreling through college, and he just gently guided us along the way to make sure we didn’t end up in the gutter.”
