Track and Field

Coach MJ joined the Eastside Catholic Athletics Department in 2025. Her journey in track and field began at the remarkable age of three and has grown into a lifelong passion for developing athletes. She believes in building a strong athletic foundation through body awareness, balance, stability, proper technique and flexibility. A strong advocate for multi-sport participation, she emphasizes how track and field can enhance speed, agility and overall performance in a wide range of sports.

Coach MJ brings extensive coaching experience to EC. She has served as head coach for track and field and cross country at Bellevue High School, trained jumpers at West Seattle High School, and coached hurdles and jumps at Kirkland Middle School. In 2020, she founded R.E.A.C.H. Speed and Agility, a program designed to help athletes across sports improve their speed and performance. She also coached jumps at Ford Sports Performance before founding F.O.R.M. Track Club in 2024.

Beyond athletics, she understands the importance of balancing academics, community service and extracurricular activities. Coach MJ is deeply committed to creating an environment where students excel both on the track, and in life.

Known for her high-energy approach and unwavering dedication, Coach MJ empowers her athletes to achieve their goals while preparing them for life beyond sports. She believes that success in track and field extends beyond athletic performance, equipping students with skills and values for life’s next chapter.

With a deep-rooted love for distance running and a teacher’s instinct for growth, Andrew Harris coaches cross country and track and field athletes to push past limits and discover their potential. What began to get in shape for basketball became a lifelong love for running. Coach Harris started his running journey on the trails around his high school and continued to grow his passion for the sport through college and beyond. He has competed in hundreds of races, from as short as a quarter mile to over 30 miles.

Known for blending science with sport, Coach Harris enjoys bringing physics lessons onto the trails. You might hear him at practice guiding runners toward improving their foot strikes while citing Newton’s Laws. Coach Harris’ coaching philosophy is grounded in hard work, dedication and the belief that every athlete can rise. Inspired by a random meeting at the top of a mountain with Olympic 1500m bronze medalist Rod Dixon, Coach Harris frequently quotes Dixon’s words from that day, “Always run to the top!” He believes this theme inspires student-athletes to chase excellence in their races and in life.

This is Coach Merritt’s fifth season as head coach of the Crusaders. Before coming to EC, he was an assistant coach at Garfield High School. Coach Merritt attended high school in Oakland where he achieved high honors in both basketball and track and field. He earned a scholarship to the University of Washington where he played basketball and ran track. His senior year at UW, Coach Merritt averaged 12.6 points per game and 2.5 steals under Coach Lynn Nance. In 1990, he earned All-American honors for track and field, and in 1991 at the Pac-10 Championships, he won first place in the mens 4x400 and second place in the 400m. After college, Coach Merritt went on to play basketball in the Brazilian Professional League from 1993-2001, consistently averaging 20 points per game. Coach Merritt works as an Advancement Associate at Eastside Catholic and resides in Seattle.

Coach Teo Smith officially joined the Eastside Catholic track and field coaching staff in 2023 after four years of volunteering with the program. A decorated athlete himself, Coach Smith competed as a member of the Turkish National Team—earning national titles in the 100m, 200m and 400m, and setting the U20 national record in the 400m. He also competed for five years with the University of Washington track and field team and was a three-sport athlete with Galatasaray Club Team’s national champion track program, as well as its U20 basketball and U18 volleyball teams.

Dedicated to athlete development, Coach Smith has earned numerous certifications, including the USTFCCCA Speed Specialist certification (2023), Weight Training for the Track & Field Coach (2023), Jumps Event Specialist (2023), and Sports Science (2023). He also holds Altis certifications in horizontal jumps, high jump and sprints/hurdles, and has trained with leading coaches such as LSU’s Boo Schexnayder.

Beyond EC, Coach Smith has extensive experience coaching youth athletes ages 8–19 in sprints, hurdles and relays, preparing them for competition at Western Washington, PNW Regional and USATF Junior Olympics meets. Many of his athletes have ranked among the top 10 in the USATF Regional Association, with hurdlers and sprinters advancing to national-level prelims, semifinals and finals, including a USATF All-American in the 100m hurdles.

Coach Smith is passionate about helping athletes understand how to continue developing speed beyond high school into college and beyond. His coaching blends technical expertise with a deep commitment to guiding students to reach their potential both on and off the track.