Alpharetta Raiders Cross Country Coaches
Coleman Binford, Boys Head Coach
Binford@fultonschools.org
Shane Sweet, Girls Head Coach
SweetS@fultonschools.org
Angie Reed, Assistant Coach
ReedM@fultonschools.org
Melissa Massey, Assistant Coach
MasseyM2@fultonschools.org
Tom Woodall, Community Coach
tmwoodall@comcast.net
Ben Hines, Community Coach
bhines1029@netscape.net
Booster Leaders and Committee Chairs
Dan Peters, President
Sharon Mai, Treasurer
Leah Narro, Communications
Nancy Mullins, Registration
Tracy Morton, Registration
Kimberly Moore, Registration
Susan George, Fund Raiser
Lisa Aiken, Kick Off Breakfast Coordinator
Susan Andes, Meet Snacks/Equipment Coordinator
Bridget Thorne, Spirit Wear & Middle School Recruiting
Marijo Mahoney, Spirit Wear
Gail LaFleche, Pizza/Pasta Party Coodinator
Patty Peters, Travel Meet Coordinator & Kick-off/Ice Cream Social
Dana Peele, Team Awards/Banquet Coordinator
Carmela Natale, Team Awards/Banquet Coordinator
Khanh Mai, website
Coach Binford's bio:
Coach Binford enjoys working with young people to help them achieve their goals, and is looking forward to another great year at AHS. His philosophy is that one should always attempt to be well rounded by striving for excellence in all fields of life.
Coach Binford has been coaching cross country for the past 18 years of a 19 year teaching career, all in Fulton County. He started at Crestwood, moving to Chattahoochee when it opened in 1991, and has coached at Alpharetta since it opened in 2004. His teams have won twelve varsity championships (more than any active coach), numerous boys and girls JV championships, and six Best Overall Program awards at the yearly Fulton County meet. Additionally his teams' accomplishments include two Region Championships and eight straight years of placing a team in the top 10 at the state meet. Twice he has been honored as Region Coach of the Year. He has had the pleasure of coaching many athletes who have gone on to run in college, including several at the Division 1-A level.
Here at Alpharetta High, in just a short time, Coach Binford is duplicating this tradition of excellence. Both the boys and the girls have steadily moved up in the county and region standings including a surprising 2nd place finish for the varsity girls last year. His goal is to have teams that are state championship level competitive, and that appears to be coming soon.
Coach Binford grew up in Sandy Springs, took up competitive running as a high school junior to get in shape for wrestling season and fell in love with it! He ran on two varsity state champion cross country teams at Ridgeview High School and ran one year on Emory University's cross country team.
Mr. Binford earned his bachelor's degreee in Chemistry at Emory University. He has taught a variety of levels of science, including chemistry, physics, honors physics, and physical science. He is married to Melissa. They met at Chattahoochee where she was a Spanish teacher. They have two children, daughter, Haley and???.
Coach Sweet's bio:
This will be Coach Sweet's 7th year coaching Cross Country at Alpharetta High School. While at AHS, she has coached both Cross Country and Track, coaching county champions and a state qualifier. She teaches Health and PE at AHS.
Before coaching at AHS, Coach Sweet was the head girls' coach at Centennial High School. After her arrival, the girls qualified for the state meet for the first time in school history. In the three years she was there, the Cross Country team grew from 24 total runners, mostly seniors, to a significantly deeper team including 78 girls. Coach Sweet also was a graduate assistant cross country coach at North Georgia College and State University while she was earning her masters degree.
Coach Sweet started her running career at Parkview High School in Gwinnett County. She continued running at Berry College in Rome, Georgia. While running at Berry, she qualified for twelve NAIA national meets (4 Cross Country, 4 Indoor Track, and 4 Outdoor Track). She earned six All-American titles and six more Academic All-American titles. Her best national finish was a 3rd place in the 3000 meters in outdoor track. She has competed in meets all over North America, including meets in Canada, California, Pennsylvania, Nebraska, and Chicago. After college her best placing was at the Peachtree Road Race where she finish 36th overall on the women's side.
Coach Sweet no longer runs competitively since the birth of her son, Corey, 3, but enjoys running with her classes and her athletes. You might see her jump into a road race now and then.
Coach Reed's bio:
This is Coach Reed's 8th year as an assistant coach for Cross Country at AHS. She is an avid Cross Country fan, having a son just graduating from UGA who ran Cross Country at Milton High School for 4 years. Coach Reed grew up in Los Angeles, CA and graduated from UCLA. If you see her plugging along the Greenway or at Webb Bridge Park, encourage her as she inches towards her goal of one day running a marathon with her husband, who has run marathons in Atlanta, Boston, Cincinnati, St. George, Orlando, and Monterey. She just completed her first half marathon, in Cincinatti - half way to her goal!
Coach Massey's bio:
This is Coach Massey's fith year at Alpharetta High School. She teaches American Government, US History and World History. As a competitive swimmer and captain of her crew team, Coach Massey began running in college as cross training. She is currently training to complete her goal of running a marathon in all 50 states.
Coach Massey attended Berry College and Kennesaw State University. She earned degrees in American History, Public History and Social Science Education. She previously taught in Cobb County.