FPC's Halliday finalist for national award

Dave Halliday is in line for another honor in his long career as track and field coach at Flagler Palm Coast — this time on the national stage.

The National High School Athletic Coaches Association recently announced that Halliday is one of eight finalists for the organization's national boys track and field coach of the year award. He will travel to South Dakota in June to learn if he will be selected for the honor at the national convention of the NHSACA.

“This selection was based on longevity, service to high school athletics, honors, championship years and winning percentage,” Dave Dougherty, executive director of the NHSACA, wrote in a notification letter to Halliday.

Winning honors is old hat for Halliday, who has been with FPC since 2004 and also coaches the Bulldogs’ boys and girls cross country teams.

Since his coaching career began, Halliday has accumulated four state titles in boys track and field and cross country, all but one of them at FPC. He is a four-time Florida Dairy Farmers FHSAA boys track coach of the year and was inducted into that organization’s Hall of Fame, and two years ago he was selected to the Florida Track and Field Association Hall of Fame.

More than 50 young men and women who ran track and field at FPC were mentored by Halliday and have obtained collegiate athletic scholarships at colleges and universities throughout the country.

Halliday’s teams have won more than 11 individual state championships in various running, relay and field events at the Florida High School Athletic Association state championships. Former athletes Justin Harbor, a four-time state champion in distance and cross country, and Jarius Cooper in the 110 hurdles, were named national High School All-Americans, as well as athletes from two relay teams over the years.

His teams have won dozens of district, regional, Five Star Conference and individual meet championships in the two sports.

Before coming to FPC, Halliday, a Seabreeze graduate, had coaching stints at Seabreeze, Crescent City, Atlantic, East Gadsden and Lake City Columbia, where one of his teams won a state title in track. Halliday ran track at the University of Florida where he obtained his undergraduate degree, and he has a master’s from Florida State University.

Halliday will be recognized during the June 27 NHSACA convention at the Ramkota Hotel in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, along with seven other track finalists and 150 other coaches and athletic directors in various sports from across the country. 

Other boys track nominees include: John Artman, Illinois; Randy Johnson, North Dakota; Adam Kedge, New Mexico; Rich Kosta, Connecticut; Don Perry, Nebraska; and Rob Stanton, Montana.