Shareese Woods Hicks: From third in the world of athletics to much-loved coach at the UofM

Of all the track and field coaches at the University of Memphis, only one is a woman.

Shareese Woods Hicks has been with the Memphis Tigers for less than two years, but her career path is much longer and paved with accomplishments in athletics both personally and with the athletes she coaches.

Born in North Carolina, Hicks joined the track team in high school to make friends.

Shareese Woods Hicks

¨My mom was in the military, so we traveled like every two or three years,¨ she said. Despite all the work, her parents were always a big support in sports. "They never missed a track meet ever," she said.

In Virginia, where her family moved next, Hicks won the Virginia state championship and received a scholarship that took her to the University of Charlotte (North Carolina).

In college, she was fourth in the NCAA championships in the Women's 200 meters in addition to winning nine individual conference championships.

As a professional runner after graduating, when she was sponsored by Adidas, Hicks won silver in the 4x100-meter relay at the Pan American Games in 2007. But she experienced tough lessons, as well.

´´I was really young and very unprepared, and I didn't realize that whenever you travel overseas, sometimes your luggage and stuff gets lost,´´ Hicks recalled.

In the lost bag, she had her spikes and with her small feet, no one could lend her any. Eventually, she found a runner who lend her steeplechase spikes.

´´I ended up running in her wet, soggy steeplechase spikes,´´ Hicks said. ´´I got eight in the in the 200 meters and I ran close to my personal best too.¨

Source: Jim Rogash/Getty Images North America

Hicks also won the bronze in the open 400 meters and the 4x400-meter relay at the World Indoor Championship in 2008 in Valencia. In the 2012 USA Olympic Trials, she was almost qualified to be part of the Olympic team in the 400 meters.

Her failure in qualifying for the Olympics was one of the reasons that prompted Hicks to continue work as a coach. ´´I didn't really go as far as I wanted to in the sport,´´ she said. ´´So I wanted to kind of selfishly train some Olympians and some world championship athletes.´´

Now she sees that her role as a coach is even bigger because she is helping young people prepare for life outside of sports as well. In fact, she sees different life lessons in her sport all the time.

´´Whether you run distance or whether you are in short sprints, you always get to a point in your training where you just really feel like giving up, and then all you have to do is just convince yourself to keep going and keep going and you end up being successful,´´ Hicks said. ´´I think that's a great metaphor for life.´´

Last year, the difficulties of the pandemic complicated coaching, she said. ´´Trying to keep student athletes motivated and focused has been challenging,´´ said explained.

However, she used the challenging timesto get creative and improve her own skills. In addition, this summer she is taking strength and conditioning courses that will help her grow as a coach.

She also will stay in Memphis to continue helping runners. ´´I absolutely adore the student

Hicks running for the University of Charlotte

athlete,´´ Hicks said. ´´Even though they give me gray hairs, I wouldn't trade them for the world.´´

Hicks love and respect for student athletes is reciprocated.

Reagan Casey, a sophomore sprinter, said she couldn't have a better coach. "She knows what she does, and she has done a great job recruiting new athletes,´´ Casey said.