While the city of Austin sleeps, head track and field coach Edrick Floréal readies for work. Sometimes Floréal wakes up at 5 a.m. to lead the award-winning University of Texas track and field team.
Since joining UT in 2018, Floréal has led the team to multiple triumphs. During his fifth year with Texas, the women’s team won its fifth NCAA outdoor track and field title, its first title in 18 years. Floréal was named Big 12 Women’s Indoor Coach of the Year in 2024 shortly after the Longhorn women’s team won its 14th Big 12 indoor title.
But the success hasn’t gone to his head.
“Coaches don’t actually achieve anything. I’ve never achieved anything as a coach, and I’ve just convinced young people that they could do things,” says Floréal, who previously coached at Kentucky and Stanford. “I think my most notable accomplishment or achievement is to convince young people that they can be the best version of themselves, and then they actually have to physically go do it.”
In his time at Texas, Floréal has coached numerous Olympians. This year, 10 current or former Longhorn athletes competed in Paris for several different countries in women’s and men’s track and field. Despite his pride in his athletes, Floréal has a matter-of-fact attitude about their accomplishments: He considers winning a part of the process.
“You have a great crowning moment, and then you better get back to work because the next five more meets are coming, so you don’t really have the luxury of having these long celebratory periods,” Floréal says.
Floréal was a student-athlete himself. In 1990, he graduated from Arkansas as the NCAA’s top triple jumper. Floréal was a five-time national champion and nine-time All-American while being a part of four NCAA team championships. He competed in triple jump at the 1988 and 1992 Summer Olympics for Canada and won bronze at the 1990 Commonwealth Games.
In the 2023-24 season, Floréal led a staff of seven coaches working with 91 athletes. Assistant coach Ricky Morgan Jr., who works in sprints, hurdles and jumps, says it was difficult to pinpoint just one memory of working with Floréal because the head coach is so involved with all aspects of the program.
“We’ve had so many men and women championships,” Morgan says. “Every moment has been the greatest learning opportunity on both ends.”
He’s doing this to keep being able to push and motivate you to be the very best that you can be on the track.
Over the years, Floréal has seen a shift in coaching and has taken on different responsibilities beyond making training regimens. Part of this is because of a growing concern for collegiate athletes’ mental health, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic. The Fall 2021 NCAA Student-Athlete Well-Being Survey found that 29% of respondents in Division I men’s sports said that they feel overwhelmed constantly or most every day, while 24% reported feelings of mental exhaustion. In women’s sports, 48% of participants reported feeling overwhelmed, and 38% reported feeling mentally exhausted.
“Coaching has changed a lot. I think it used to be more teaching. You know, you were just teaching people how to do stuff,” Floréal says. “Now you’re teaching them how to carry themselves. You’re guiding them with more mentoring and more counseling now.”
His heavy involvement with the team makes him more than just a coach.
“He is a father figure to some athletes, but he’s going to keep everybody accountable,” Morgan says. “That’s the biggest thing, and he’s doing this to keep being able to push and motivate you to be the very best that you can be on the track.”
Floréal’s dedication to his team shows in the long, early hours he spends on the track.
“He shows up, he knows that you’re going to show up every day and every time on time, he’s going to say where he’s going to be, and he’s going to do what he promises,” Morgan says. “He’s going to make sure he gets the mission accomplished, and if you give him a goal, he’ll hold you up to it.”
