Head Coach
Robert H. Backus

Coach Backus has been honored nine times as the National Junior College “Coach of the Year.” 

The SUNY Delhi men’s 1/2 marathon team finished 4th at the NJCAA Nationals in 2005. The Men’s marathon team has twice finished 3rd at the NJCAA Championships: (1999, 1994).  In 2001 the SUNY Delhi Men’s Indoor track team won the Northeast District Championship.   At the NJCAA Division III Cross Country and Outdoor Track & Field Championship meets, the SUNY Delhi Men’s teams have not finished lower than 4th place since November of 1998!

Coach Backus puts a strong emphasis on relays.  His men’s 4x400 relay squads have been victorious in both the prestigious Millrose Games at Madison Square Garden and the Penn Relays.  SUNY Delhi currently holds both the indoor and outdoor Region III Meet Records in the men’s 4x400 relays.  Both his men’s and women’s Distance Medley Relays squads hold the indoor Region III Meet Records; and his men’s 4x800 relay currently holds the NJCAA Division III Meet and Region III Meet Records.  At the NJCAA Indoor Track Nationals Delhi has twice finished 2nd place in the Men’s 4x800 relay earning second team All-American honors.  Since arriving at Delhi every Men’s relay school record has been broken!

SUNY Delhi has hosted the NJCAA Division III Men’s and Women’s Cross Country Championships in 1999 and 2002 at the SUNY Delhi Golf Course.  SUNY Delhi has also hosted the NJCAA Division III Outdoor Track & Field Championships three consecutive years from 2003-2005 and will also be hosting again in May 2008 on their 8 lane campus facility.  Coach Backus also puts on a local high school Summer developmental track clinic and hosts Summer Open Track Meets.

Coach Backus earned his Master’s degree in Physical Education from Eastern Kentucky University in 1991, and his Bachelor’s degree from Oneonta State in 1987 as well as an Associate’s from Mohawk Valley CC.  As a student-athlete at Mohawk Valley, Coach Backus twice competed in the NJCAA National Cross Country Championships.  He is currently serving as the President of the NJCAA Division III Track & Field Coaches Association.  His teaching duties include: Fitness for Life, Badminton, Tennis, Racquetball.

In 2007 Coach Backus was honored with The SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Professional Service.

He resides in East Meredith, with his wife Karin, daughter Hannah, age 16, and son Nathan, age 10.