NOTE: An earlier edition of this article was briefly published stating that Brad Herbster was to be the Director at Appalachian State. That, however, has since been corrected to head men's distance coach.
Earlier today, The Stride Report confirmed that Brad Herbster, the head distance coach at the University of Pittsburgh, has been hired as the next men's distance coach at App State.
The hiring comes roughly a month after Michael Curcio, the team's former distance coach, left to take a head coaching position at Sewanee.
Prior to his time at Pitt, Herbster oversaw the distance program at Texas.
There, he was responsible for recruiting and developing former high school distance standout, Sam Worley (for one year). He also guided Alex Rogers to a sub-four mile time, an 8:35 steeplechase PR and an All-American honor in that same event. Rogers would go on to sign a pro contract after graduating.
And then there was Craig Lutz, a long distance standout who was an All-American over 10,000 meters and went on to sign a pro contract with HOKA. Ryan Dohner, meanwhile, was a two-time top-20 All-American in cross country.
On the grass, the Texas men would qualify for every single cross country national meet in the Herbster era. Admittedly, the Longhorns would often struggle on the national stage, although they did place 14th overall in 2013 thanks to Dohner (11th) and Lutz (15th).
On the women's side, Herbster worked with Marielle Hall who thrived during her senior year in 2014. The collegiate distance star ran 15:19 for 5000 meters, 4:35 in the mile (outdoors) and would win the 5k national title at the outdoor national meet.
In 2017, Mary Beth Hamilton would run a 4:39 mile PR which, at the time, was a new indoor school record. Herbster was also able to sign Destiny Collins in 2016, one of the top high school distance running recruits in the nation that year.
The former Longhorn coach later ventured to Pitt following a program revamp in 2018 when Coach Edrick Floréal was introduced as Texas' next Director.
During his time with the Panthers, Coach Brad Herbster would quietly develop a handful of very solid distance talents. During the 2022 outdoor track season, Pitt was one of only four men's programs to have three men run under 8:50 in the steeplechase.
The other three schools? BYU, Oklahoma State and Washington.
Jack Miller, a cross country national meet qualifier and sub-8:00 (3k) runner, was among that steeplechase contingent with an 8:44 PR. Miller has largely been the focal name of Pitt's distance program during Herbster's tenure.
Herbster will soon join an App State men's program that has proven to be fairly competitive in the Sun Belt Conference during cross country, but has had limited success beyond that level. He will now step into a coaching role which, up until this summer, went over three decades without any change.