Ohio State is bringing back a Buckeye great to lead its track and field program.
After the retirement of longtime head coach Karen Dennis, the Buckeyes have new leadership as Ohio State announced former Buckeye track star Rosalind Joseph as the new Director of Track & Field and Cross Country on Tuesday afternoon.
Joseph, who was inducted into the Ohio State Athletics Hall of Fame in 2014, graduated from Ohio State in 2006 after a four-year stint with the Buckeye track team. During her time with Ohio State, she became a two-time outdoor All-American and won six individual Big Ten championships.
Joseph still holds the Ohio State program records in the outdoor long jump (6.39m) and indoor triple jump (13.37m). She also held the outdoor triple jump record (13.50m) for 17 years before Jaimie Robinson broke it at the NCAA regional meet this season.
Following her graduation, Joseph served as an assistant coach under Dennis for a decade and helped the Buckeyes win six Big Ten team titles.
“WOW – this is a dream come true,” Joseph said in an Ohio State release. “It is not often one gets to return to their alma mater to lead. Ohio State is a place that has given me so much as a student-athlete and as a young professional, so to come full circle as director is almost unbelievable."
After her 10-year run as an assistant at Ohio State, Joseph has spent the past four years serving as the Director of Track & Field and Cross Country at Southern Illinois University. There, her women's teams posted four runner-up finishes at the Missouri Valley Conference indoor and outdoor track and field championships while the men finished as high as third. A total of 10 of her athletes earned All-America honors – seven women and three men.
Joseph now takes over for Dennis, who retired on Monday after serving as Ohio State's Director of Track & Field and Cross Country for the past eight years. The Buckeyes are coming off of Big Ten titles from both the men's and women's track and field teams this spring.
