Simon Hodnett completed his 11th season as the head coach of the LIU track and field programs in 2018-19. He approaching his 20^th season in downtown Brooklyn, bringing the men’s and women’s track and field programs to new heights since his arrival in 1999.
 
He has led LIU to 10 Northeast Conference championships in his career as the head coach, earning his most recent team title at the 2019 NEC Men’s Indoor Championship. A 10-time NEC Coach of the Year, Hodnett has coached 461 All-NEC honorees in his tenure in Brooklyn including 273 individual NEC champions along with 188 individual runner-ups.
 
Hodnett has coached six individual Division I indoor and outdoor track and field All-Americans, three Olympians, one Indoor World Relay Gold medalist and one Outdoor World Relay Bronze medalist. Brendon Rodney ’16 became LIU Brooklyn’s first Olympic track & field medalist under Hodnett’s tutelage, earning bronze for Canada in the 4x100 relay at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
 
He has also been named the Northeast regional coach on two occasions. During his tenure at the LIU-Brooklyn campus, his men and women's teams have garnered an incredible 104 awards for Rookie of the Year, Most Outstanding Track Performer, Most Outstanding Field Performer, Most Valuable Performer and Athletes of the Year.
 
The women's team has 65 of those accolades, while the men's team has won the 39 accolades. Since Hodnett arrived at LIU in 1999, the two programs have won a combined 15 Northeast Conference championship team titles.
 
LIU men’s track & field team has flourished in the last six years under Hodnett, earning the NEC indoor championship in five out of the last six seasons. The 2019 team used a 118-point effort in the final day of the meet to secure the title. LIU’s dominance started back in 2014 that started a streak of four straight league titles.
 
Notably during the four-year title stretch, Hodnett had three athletes advance to the NCAA championships in the 2014-15 season in which his coaching staff garnered the NEC Coaching Staff of the Year. He helped Brendon Rodney earn Second Team All-America status in the indoor 200-meter dash for the second straight season. Rodney was also an Honorable Mention All-American after the outdoor NCAA Championships. Mica-Jonathan Petit-Homme was named a Second Team All-American for his performance in the 400-meter hurdles at the NCAA Outdoor Championships that season.
 
LIU’s women’s track & field team has garnered four NEC titles under Hodnett’s guidance. The most recent title and seventh overall for the program came back in 2018. LIU’s coaching staff earned the league’s coaching staff of the year and Hodnett was named USTFCCCA Northeast Region Coach of the Year. The team scored 109 points at the meet to end Sacred Heart’s four-year stretch and the first NEC indoor title since 2011.
 
In 2014, Hodnett guided the women’s team to its second NEC Outdoor Championship in program history. His first two NEC Championship titles as a head coach came back in 2010 as both program’s swept the league’s indoor championships.
 
Hodnett has also established the team’s strength and conditioning program and is responsible for recruiting, assisting with team travel and purchasing equipment. He has helped expand the LIU recruiting base outside of the United States, bringing in athletes from places such as Trinidad and Tobago, St. Vincent, Jamaica, the Bahamas, Kenya, Canada and Uganda.
 
As an assistant coach, Hodnett helped elevate the program to levels not seen at the Brooklyn campus prior to their arrival. He garnered AFLAC National Assistant Coach of the Year in 2003 after helping the women’s team to back-to-back indoor titles.
 
On the men’s side, he helped Bryan Steele finish second in the 400-meter hurdles with a time of 49.02 at the NCAA Championships in Sacramento, Calif. in 2006. Steele’s performance garnered All-America honors for the second time in his career. Hodnett also coached Richard James to an eighth place finish in the 400-meter dash in 2003 at NCAA Outdoors to become the program’s first All-America honoree.
 
He arrived at LIU following an impressive five-year run as an assistant men’s coach at his alma mater, Norfolk State from 1994-1999. Working closely with the sprinters, hurdlers, jumpers and relay teams, he was instrumental in developing five All-Americans in his final year at the school. During his stay, the squad captured six Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association team championships along with a pair of Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference championships.
 
Hodnett graduated from Norfolk State in 1994 with a bachelor’s degree in hotel, restaurant and institutional management. He was a five-time CIAA Division II champion as a member of the sprint, hurdle and relay teams. Hodnett received his master’s degree in health science from Long Island in 2005. He currently lives in Brooklyn, N.Y. with his son Jyshawn.