Carl Hicks just completed his 25^th season as head coach of the Coppin State cross country and track & field programs during the 2024-25 season. Hicks began his career at CSU as a volunteer assistant coach in 1993 and was promoted to assistant coach in 1995 before taking the helm for the 1999-00 season.
 
During the 2001-02 season, his focus shifted primarily to the men’s teams before retaking over the women’s programs once in 2017.
 
In over 30 years at the West Baltimore campus, he has helped the men’s and women’s cross country programs win seven Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference crowns while the women’s program claimed both the indoor and outdoor league titles in 1996.
 
Under his leadership, Coppin has produced 31 NCAA and USTFCCCA All-Americans in 11 different events, 123 MEAC track & field champions and seven MEAC cross country individual champions. He also guided the Eagles’ 4 x 800 relay team to the College Division Championship at the 2001 Penn Relays.
 
Since he took over the reigns as head coach, the men’s squad has set 40 school records with the women’s team breaking another 34 on the track. 
 
Six of his student-athletes have gone on to represent their country in the Olympics Games: Joseph Amoah (Ghana), Christina Epps (United States), Hafsatu Kamara (Sierra Leone), Joseph Manu (Ghana), Nickie Peters (St. Vincent and the Grenadines) and Ian Roberts (Guyana).
 
This past season, five school-records were broken with Halutie Hor (100m) and Nackera Allen (200m) advancing to the NCAA East Prelims after record-breaking performances at the 2024 MEAC Outdoor Championships. On the men’s side, Andrew Betton (decathlon), the men’s indoor 4x400m relay of Daniel Cunningham, Carl Drakes, Jarrett Gentles and Asa Francis, and Gentles (600m) also broke school-records. 
 
Indoors, Hammond (200m), Francis (800m), Jeff Hammond (long jump) and the 4x400m relay took gold at the MEAC Championships.  Francis successfully defended his 800m title outdoors while James Bell (high jump) and the 4x100m relay were also victorious. Solomon Hammond (100m), Cunningham (400m) and the 4x100m Relay (Drakes, Hammond, Noxroy Wright, Cole Schlotterbeck) all qualified for the NCAA East Prelims with Hammond advancing to the Quarterfinal Round.
 
From 2018-22, Coppin produced at least one All-American each year, 21 in total, with Amoah receiving the honor seven times across the 100m, 200m and 4x100 relay.  Manu was also a five-time All-American in those events while also helping the 4x400m relay to All-America status.  The duo are arguably the most-decorated student athletes in CSU athletics history.
 
Amoah doubled up at the 2019 and 2021 National Championships in both the 100m and 200m events while also leading the 4x100m relay to Nationals in both seasons. In 2019, he took sixth in the 200m and eighth in the 100m before taking ninth and tenth, respectively, in those events in 2021.  His sixth-place effort in the 200m in 2019 matched Roberts for the best finish by a CSU male athlete at the National Championships.
 
In 2016, Shane Green was a Second Team All-American in the triple jump after taking 14^th at Nationals. Jibri Victorian (2012 outdoor – 400m hurdles), Steve Delice (2007 outdoor – 400m hurdles) and Roberts (1998 indoor – 800m) also earned All-America honors under Hicks’ tutelage.  On the women’s side, Diana Pitts (1993-94 outdoors – 800m), Coppin’s first All-American in any sport, and Epps (2014 indoor/outdoor – triple jump) were two-time All-Americans. Twana Allen also earned the honor in the 800m during the 1996 indoor season.
 
In 2015, Deandra Daniel took third in the high jump at the NCAA Indoor Championship, the first time a CSU athlete medaled at Nationals.
 
Prior to becoming a full-time coach, Hicks worked several years as a program analyst for the Maryland Department of Human Resources.

He received his bachelor’s degree in business administration in 1993 from the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, where he set school records in the 800 and 1000 and as a member of the 4 x 400 relay team.

During his career with the Hawks, he claimed two Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference 800-meter titles and qualified for the NCAA Championships three times.

A former standout at Northwestern High School in Baltimore, he was a qualifier for the United States Indoor Championships in the half mile in 1994 while competing for the New York Pioneer Track Club from 1993-96.