| Career Highlights |
| • 25 PSAC Team Championships |
| • 21-time PSAC Coach of the Year |
| • 16-time regional coach of the year |
| • 123 All-Americans coached |
| • 12 National Champions coached |
John Papa enters his 35th year as the head coach of The Slippery Rock University cross country and track & field programs in 2021-22.
Since 1987, Papa has guided Slippery Rock to 25 Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference team titles – 18 women’s track and field, five men’s track and field, one women’s cross country and one men’s cross country – a pair of East Regional cross country titles and 28 PSAC runner-up finishes.
Papa-coached student-athletes have claimed 12 NCAA Division II national championships, five national runner-up honors and an eye-popping total of 123 All-America awards. Papa’s track and field teams have also featured 336 PSAC individual champions.
Academically, Papa has overseen 40 CoSIDA Academic All-Americans, 28 PSAC Top 10 award winners and five PSAC Scholar-Athlete of the Year award winners in addition to well over 500 PSAC Scholar-Athletes.
The 2020-21 season included a shortened cross country season that took place in March of 2021 after the fall season was canceled by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Rock finished with three All-PSAC runners, including a first team honoree on the women's side, before going right into the spring outdoor season. SRU took runner-up honors on the women's side at the PSAC meet and placed third on the men's side. The highlight of the season came at the national championships, where SRU javelin thrower Danielle Collier won the title and both her and Trinity Clark earned All-America honors in the event. Collier went on to represent Slippery Rock at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials in August at the University of Oregon's Hayward Field.
The 2019-20 season saw Papa lead the Slippery Rock women's indoor track and field team to a PSAC championship and the men's team to a third-place finish at the league meet. For his efforts, Papa was recognized as the PSAC Women's Indoor Track & Field Coach of the Year. The award marked the 21st time in his illustrious career that he was honored by the PSAC as a Coach of the Year.
While the 2019-20 campaign was cut short following the conclusion of the indoor season due to the COVID-19 outbreak, Papa still coached 24 All-PSAC honorees over the span of the men's and women's cross country and indoor seasons as well as 13 all-region selections and four individual PSAC champions.
His most recent PSAC outdoor title came on the women's side when The Rock captured the 2019 league championship. The title was The Rock’s first women’s outdoor championship since 2009. After leading The Rock to the conference championship, Papa was once again rewarded by being named the PSAC Women’s Outdoor Track and Field Coach of the Yea.
Prior to the 2019-20 indoor and 2019 outdoor championships, Papa’s most recent title came when Slippery Rock won the 2015-16 indoor title. It marked the second title in a three-year span for the indoor team and the fifth since 2007. SRU also claimed the 2013-14 indoor title. For his efforts after the 2013-14 championship, he was named the PSAC Women's Coach of the Year, an incredible 19th career PSAC Coach of the Year honor on his resume.
Papa has been named the PSAC Coach of the Year 10 times in women's outdoor track, four times in women's indoor track and twice in women's cross country. He has earned the men's honor three times for outdoor track and once each for cross country and indoor track.
In addition to his 21 PSAC Coach of the Year awards, Papa has been recognized by his peers as the Regional Coach of the Year on 16 occasions, including both 2014 and 2016 for the indoor seasons.
Over the last five seasons, 16 athletes training under Papa have become All-Americans including Courtney McQuaide, who won a national championship in the pole vault during the 2018 outdoor season in addition to earning All-America accolades during both the 2017-18 and 2018-19 indoor campaigns, and Danielle Collier, who won the javelin national title in 2021.
Other recent All-Americans from The Rock include Maddy Marshall (2018 outdoor pole vault), Ryan Thompson (2016-17 indoor mile), Dave Reinhardt (2017 javelin), Jordan Pacheco (2017 outdoor pole vault), Sabrina Anderson (2015-16 pentathlon and 2016 heptathlon), Paige Kassib (2015-16 indoor high jump), Ashley West (2015-16 indoor high jump and 2015 outdoor high jump), Sam Taylor (2016 javelin and 2015 javelin) and Kaitlyn Clark (2015 outdoor pole vault).
Papa hit a grand slam in the 2007-08 academic year as his teams won PSAC team championships in women’s indoor, men’s indoor, women’s outdoor and men’s outdoor competitions, which provided the boost SRU needed to claim its first and only Dixon Trophy as the top athletic department in the entire conference.
Papa added to his ever-growing list of All-Americans in the early twenty-tens with the highlights being Whitney Hendershot’s win in the high jump at the 2011 outdoor national championships and Cameron Daugherty's win in the pole vault at the 2012 national meet. Kevin Jewel nearly added to the list of national champions with a runner-up finish in the 800-meter run at the 2013 outdoor meet, where he shattered the SRU record with a sub 1:49.00 performance.
Hans Lubich earned All-America honors in the heptathlon at the 2013-14 indoor meet and Lexi Arnold (javelin) and Julia Cain (pole vault) both earned All-America honors at the 2013 outdoor meet. Allison Smith and Arnold also earned All-America honors during the 2010-11 outdoor season in the 400-meter hurdles and the javelin respectively. Cameron Daugherty represented the men’s program by earning All-America accolades in the pole vault during both the indoor and outdoor seasons.
2010 featured All-America finishes from Jen Hansen during both the indoor and outdoor seasons, Amanda Seigworth during the outdoor season and Jen Harpp in cross country.
Harpp added to that list during the 2009 fall cross country season, when she earned the highest finish by a Slippery Rock runner at the national championships, placing 11th. Hendershot and Harpp both earned All-America finishes at the 2009 indoor national championships. Jeff Weiss followed that with his seventh total All-America honor during the outdoor season. The 4x400-meter relay team of Smith, Seigworth, Tiffany Tedesco and Lacey Cochran joined Weiss as outdoor All-America honorees.
Papa’s coaching success is merely a continuation of his career as a student-athlete.
As a Rock sophomore in 1976, the Pittsburgh Gateway High School graduate earned All-America honors by finishing sixth in the decathlon event at the NCAA Division III national meet.
Two years later, he finished second in the decathlon and helped lead The Rock, under the guidance of Bill Lennox, to the Division III national championship.
After graduating from SRU with a degree in elementary education in 1979, Papa accepted a teaching position in Leesburg, Virginia, where he guided Loudoun County High School to second- and third-place state finishes and produced several individual state champions.
Papa returned to The Rock in the summer of 1984 to serve as graduate assistant to Lennox and earned his master’s degree in athletic administration. The following year, Papa served as assistant track and field coach and then was named head men’s track and field coach in the spring of 1986.
In the fall of 1987, Papa was named head coach of the men’s and women’s cross country and track and field programs.
Seven years later (1994), Papa was inducted into the SRU Athletic Hall of Fame based upon his accomplishments as a student-athlete; Hall of Fame rules do not allow active Rock coaches to be inducted for their coaching success.
Papa’s approach to coaching is not focused on winning alone.
"Our goal is always to have everybody on the team reach his or her potential," he says. "Not everyone can be a PSAC champion, but everyone can set a goal and be excited about hitting it. That’s what we’re all about – no one’s left out – and it’s been working so far."
Hand-in-hand with his teams’ athletic achievements has been a stellar record in the classroom.
Slippery Rock is annually among the best-represented Division II programs in the nation in terms of All-Academic selections and Academic All-America honorees. All of Papa's teams annually carry well above a 3.0 collective GPA.
| PSAC Championships Under John Papa |
| Cross Country |
| 1991 Men |
| 1995 Women |
| Indoor Track and Field |
| 2007 Women |
| 2008 Women (Tied with Shippensburg) |
| 2008 Men |
| 2009 Women |
| 2014 Women |
| 2016 Women |
| 2020 Women |
| Outdoor Track and Field |
| 1987 Men |
| 1987 Women |
| 1989 Women |
| 1994 Men |
| 1995 Women |
| 1999 Women |
| 2000 Men |
| 2001 Women |
| 2003 Women |
| 2004 Women |
| 2006 Women |
| 2007 Women |
| 2008 Men |
| 2008 Women |
| 2009 Women |
| 2019 Women |
