Mike Esposito, track and cross country coach at Mount Tabor HS in Winston-Salem, has resigned and accepted a position as track and cross country coach at High Point University.

Esposito, who has coached at Mount Tabor since 1987, has worked with several noteworthy athletes, including J-Mee Samuels, who set a new National High School Record in the 100 (10.08), and won the 100 (10.34) and 200 (20.76) at the Nike Outdoor Championships in Greensboro and the 200 (21.22) at the Nike Indoor Championships. Samuels, headed for Arkansas, has a 200 best of 20.32.

Other notable athletes from Mount Tabor's program include Mike Loyd (13.60, 21.12 2002), Matt Debole (1:52.4, 4:08.28m 2002, 8:50.16m 2003), Erica Montgomery (11.78, 24.09 2004), and Carly Matthews (5:05.79, 10:52.67 2002). Loyd's 13.60 (2002 Golden West) and Debole's 8:50.16 (2003 Arcadia) are the best-ever by North Carolina high school athletes in those events.

Mount Tabor also has North Carolina's fastest-ever times in the boys 4x100 (41.06 2002) and girls 4x100 (47.09 2004). The boys team was third in the 4x100 Championship of America at the 2002 Penn Relays.

Esposito's Mount Tabor boys team won state championships in both indoor and outdoor track in 2001 and 2002. His girls team took four consecutive indoor titles from 2001 to 2004, and won the outdoor meet in 2003.

His cross country program has produced two Foot Locker National Championship finalists: Matt Debole (2001, 2002), and Carly Matthews (2001). Debole placed 5th at the 2002 finals.

Esposito has been Mount Tabor's cross country coach since 1993, with his girls team winning state titles in 2001 and 2002. The boys team has placed in the top 4 in the state meet five of the past six years. They have been in the top 9 for eleven consecutive years.

The girls have placed in the top 3 in cross country five of the past 10 years. They have finished in the top 4 four of the last 5 years.

Esposito has been meet director for the state high school cross country meet since 2002. He is currently serving as president of the North Carolina Track and Cross Country Coaches Association.

--George Phillips, NCPrepTrack.com

Photo of Coach Esposito with his 2001 girls cross country team.

The following article appeared in the August 6, 2005 Winston-Salem Journal:

Esposito to take High Point job
Successful Mount Tabor coach will run college track-and-field, cross-country programs

By Mason Linker
JOURNAL REPORTER

Mike Esposito came to Mount Tabor in 1986 as a girls basketball coach who had designs on moving to the college ranks.

He's heading there now, but he's far removed from the basketball career he once said "was turning me into a lunatic."

Esposito, 46, said yesterday that he is leaving Mount Tabor for High Point University to coach track-and-field and cross country, the sports in which he made his mark. He submitted his letter of resignation to Principal Martha Land of Mount Tabor on Thursday.

Esposito said he hates the timing of his move - cross-country practice at Mount Tabor is scheduled to start Monday - but that High Point presented him with a great offer.

"That makes a decision pretty difficult being this late," Esposito said yesterday by telephone from San Diego. "I have had a really special relationship with the parents and kids, and I guess this would have been 20 years.

"And this sounds like it's made up, but this group of kids coming back is probably my favorite group. We have had a real good summer, and they are ready to roll. But this is a very rare opportunity, especially for a high-school coach."

Esposito was planning to return home today and said he would meet with his team this afternoon.

April Goode of High Point's sports information office said that the university would name a track and cross-country coach Monday but yesterday said that she couldn't say who the coach would be.

Esposito will leave behind the running programs at Mount Tabor that flourished under his leadership - the Spartans have won 11 NCHSAA team championships in cross country, indoor track and outdoor track since 2001 and have had many individual state champions through the years.

Don Martin, the superintendent of the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County schools, announced Esposito's resignation and new job at a meeting of city/county athletics directors and coaches Thursday.

"I actually thought they did know about it since it had been in the works since early in the week," Martin said. "But I could tell folks went 'Whoa,' and they were really surprised.

"Mike is the kind of guy you would want coaching your high-school child. He has been a real asset to our school district. His shoes, we won't be able to fill them. We hope we get someone to follow his footsteps."

Land said that Esposito called her July 29 and told her that officials from High Point had contacted him about their coaching vacancy. Land said she spoke with people from High Point early this week, and that Esposito told her Wednesday that he was leaving.

Land said that Esposito would work a 30-day notice unless she can hire a social-studies teacher and cross-country coach before then.

"I hate this, especially with the timing, but Mike deserves this," Land said. "I think a lot of Mike, and he has impeccable character."

Land said that she might have to hire a non-faculty coach for cross country but that she eventually wants to hire a coach who can keep Mount Tabor's program from slipping.

"We have had a very successful track program that, quite honestly, Mike Esposito built," she said. "Our goal is to keep our program where it is.... I have the Pollyanna attitude about it in that we will find a nice coach that will keep us right where we have been."

Esposito, a native of Punxsutawney, Pa., graduated from Westmintser College in New Wilmington, Pa., in 1980, then coached and taught at Drewry Mason (now Magna Vista) High in Ridgeway, Va., and at North Moore before he was hired at Mount Tabor.

He has coached boys track at Mount Tabor since 1987 and has had a hand in coaching all of Mount Tabor's running programs since 1993, his last year as a basketball coach.

Esposito said that when he left Winston-Salem with his wife almost two weeks ago, he was more excited about the coming year at Mount Tabor than he had been "in a long time." But while on his way to Pittsburgh, he received a call from an official at High Point. That initial contact evolved into an offer to replace Al Barnes, who resigned as High Point's coach July 29 because of family concerns.

Esposito said that a new track and field house at High Point are nearly complete and that he would have control over "the entire running program."

"I know the previous coach very well, and they have a well-established cross-country program at this point," Esposito said. "I guess the biggest thing, too, is that it's time for a new challenge. Initially I was scared to death thinking about it, but then pretty excited. I have a pretty big learning curve to give up."

Mason Linker can be reached at 727-7324 or at mlinker@wsjournal.com

Link to actual article

NCPrepTrack.com