Coaching Staff

Chris Belcher
Assistant Coach

Chris Belcher enters his first season as the assistant coach of St. Cloud State Track & Field and Cross Country in 2023-24. Primarily working with the distance athletes and assisting in all areas of operations for both programs, Belcher comes to the Granite City with extensive coaching experience at the collegiate and prep levels in Idaho.

Belcher returns to the coaching world after spending the past 20+ years in the higher education administration industry, holding numerous roles at Idaho State (2000-09), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA, 2012), Dickinson State (2013-2016), Colorado Mesa (2017-19) and Lewis-Clark State (2019-present).

Spending 14 years as the head coach of Highland Senior High School track & field and cross country, Belcher coached his athletes to seven individual cross country state championships, seven individual track & field state championships and seven All-America honors. Four athletes were also named Gatorade Idaho Athlete of the Year honors under his guidance. He additionally spent time coaching at the collegiate level at Idaho State, serving as graduate intern in 2005 and as an assistant coach from 2009-10.

A collegiate standout at Idaho State, he was a two-time All-Big Sky Conference and All-Mountain Regional cross country performer and was a member of the 1998 Big Sky Indoor Track & Field Championship team. He remains on the Bengals' outdoor top-10 list to this day, ranking sixth in the 5000 Meter at 14:28.22 and No. 10 in the 10,000 Meter at 30:45.42.

Belcher earned three degrees from Idaho State University, receiving his bachelor's degree in political science in 1999, master of physical education, athletic administration in 2002 and doctorate of education, higher education administration in 2009. While obtaining his doctorate, he received the prestigious ISU College of Education Kole-McGuffey Prize for his dissertation on distance running.