Meet the Coaches

Coach Steve M, Coach Eddie, Coach Steve W, and Coach Tommy

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Steve Wilcox

Head Coach

Steve has been coaching at the high school level starting in June 2009 when he helped launch the Cross Country program at a brand new high school in Suwanee, Georgia.  At Lambert High School, Steve worked with the school’s coach to grow the program from around 50 runners to a roster of approximately 100 runners.  Successes over the years at Lambert included: trips to the State meet by both the boys’ and girls’ teams in the first year, a girls’ team regional championship, 5 straight appearances at the State meet by the girls’ team, athletes successfully moving on to run at colleges such as Rice, University of Georgia, and Ole Miss.

Due to a job relocation to St. Petersburg, FL, Steve would eventually take over the head coaching duties at Northeast High School in July 2015.  Steve worked to grow the program from 10 runners in 2015 to 24 runners in 2019.  Over that period of time, some of the highlights included: in 2015, an individual boy qualifying for the Regional meet, in 2016 the boys’ team qualified for the Regional meet and an individual boy went on to the State meet, in 2017 a return trip to the Regional meet by the boys’ team, in 2018 the boys’ team won the City, County, and District championships and made its third straight appearance at the Regional meet, after graduating 5 of its top 7, the 2019 boys team repeated as City champions and finished 5th overall at the Regional meet which qualified the team for the State meet for the first time in 5 years!

Steve grew up in St. Petersburg and ran Cross Country and Track at Boca Ciega High School from 1984-1988.  While, at that time, his focus was on soccer, Steve began to pursue running more seriously in college.  Steve joined the club Cross Country program at St. Petersburg Junior College and eventually walked-on to the Florida State University Cross Country and Track teams.  Through his hard work and dedication Steve eventually earned a partial scholarship at FSU during his Senior season.

Steve still competes in local and national races.  Steve has successfully competed in 10 marathons, including 4 Boston marathons.  As a member of the Atlanta Track Club’s Masters team, Steve was able to be part of a team that won numerous USATF Master’s club team national championships.  Steve’s PRs include a 15:08 track 5k, a 31:35 track 10K, and a 2:48:29 Chicago Marathon time.

Steve credits much of his running and coaching success to the time he spent being coached by Joe Burgasser of the Forerunners of Florida Track Club.  Some of Steve’s other accomplishments include:

  • Prior completion of the USATF Level 1 Coaching Certification course
  • 2018 Pinellas County Boys Cross Country Coach of the Year
  • 2019 Pinellas County Boys Cross Country Coach of the Year


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Tommy Brown

Club Director

BS Information Systems – Indiana State University

HarriersXC@gmail.com

Tommy loves being the Club Director of the Harriers and seeing the success of the boys and girls who join the team.  The idea of the club is to gather together youth athletes who love running and guide them with good coaching to become better runners.  His son, Oscar ran for the Harriers for 7 years and currently is one of the top-ranked high school freshman xc runners in the state. Tommy’s son, Alec is in 6th grade and currently runs on the Harriers team.

Tommy grew up in Fort Wayne, Indiana and attended Indiana State on an academic scholarship.  He has worked in Information Technology at FIS since 1997.

Tommy is a competitive marathon runner with 13 Boston Marathon qualifying times, 4 sub-3 hour marathons with a lifetime best of 2:52 in the full marathon and 1:15 in the half-marathon.  He was the top Floridian at the 2020 Atlanta Marathon with a time of 2:54.  He is also the current Masters (40 and over) Champion of both the Clearwater Turkey Trot 10k and the Gasparilla 8k.  Tommy ran in the 2022 Boston Marathon and will be lining up again in Hopkinton in 2023.

His love of running includes a passion for running shoes and the latest foams and technologies.   He loves reading very old running and training books for their practical knowledge.  He also has watched every movie about running ever made.  His favorite running movie is Saint Ralph, a story about a 14 year old boy with a mother in a coma, who tries to win the Boston Marathon to perform a miracle and save her life.

Tommy’s favorite thing about the Harriers is seeing a young runner make improvements year-by-year and really develop a lifetime love of running.


Steve Mindrup

Youth Coach

Coach Steve is focused on the youngest of the Harriers squad to help build the next round of great Harrier Cross Country runners.

Steve grew up in California where he was first introduced to running on the Diablo Valley Track & Field Club at the age of 8. He went on to compete in cross country in high school where he finished 13th in his division at the California State Championship with a 5k PR of 16:52.

Now a father of 4 boys, Steve completed his first marathon in 2022 and loves to compete and bring a fun and positive experience of running to both new and experienced young runners, following his mantra of: Have fun, don’t give up and just keep running.

Steve broke 3 hours in his second-ever marathon on December 11, 2022 in Jacksonville, which qualified for Boston 2024!

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Eddie McDonald

Youth Coach

BIO in progress.

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Sarah Brown

Social Director/Administrative Assistant

Sarah’s number one goal for the Harriers is to make running FUN! She coordinates all of the holiday practices including Valentine’s Day (Valentine exchange with Harrier friends), St. Patrick’s Day (wear Harrier GREEN, of course!), Easter practice (special visit from the Easter Bunny), Scarier Harrier Halloween practice (running in costumes!), and the annual Holiday Harriers Jingle Jog Christmas Lights run. We have also been known to wear tutus to practice (on 2-22 day)- even coaches!

“DO NUT” forget about our occasional outings for donuts after long runs and races, as well as smoothies and bowls. Sarah has been known to bring a gigantic cooler filled with hot chocolate on especially cold running days and popsicles on those sweltering hot Florida summer days. Several Harriers recently ran 7.11 miles to/from Sarah’s house to the local 7-Eleven for Slurpees!

Sarah is often found behind the scenes taking photos, handing out bib numbers, tracking statistics, coordinating events, posting to the Harriers Instagram account, updating the website, adding reminders on Facebook and the Remind App, and taking care of the paperwork and finances for the team.

3 of Sarah’s 4 kids are runners. Izzie ran 4 years Varsity XC and Track for Land O Lakes High School. Oscar ran 7 years for the Harriers and now runs Varsity XC and Track for Sunlake High School. Alec is currently a 6th grader on the Harriers.

Sarah began running as an adult and mostly races the 5k (21:19) but has also worked her way up to a half marathon (1:44:31). She began a running streak in December 2020, and she is currently a member of the United States Running Streak Association with over two years of continuous daily running. She encouraged the Harriers to start their own running streaks this past December 2022, and several kids and parents completed the month-long challenge. Sarah is the current Masters Champion of the Lutz Independence Day Run, the Tampa Police Memorial Run and the Wiregrass Wobble Turkey Trot.