Associate head coach Scott Richardson, who joined the Auburn track and field program in 2005, is in his seventeenth season with the Tigers track and field program. A 28-year coaching veteran, Richardson coaches Auburn’s vertical jumps, multi events and assists head coach Ralph Spry with the men’s sprinters.

Since his arrival at Auburn, his athletes have earned 23 All-American honors and 30 All-SEC honors, while two athletes were named academic All-Americans, and nine athletes have captured SEC titles. During his career, Richardson-coached athletes have won 117 individual conference championships and have been a part of 21 conference championship teams. Richardson has coached nine athletes that currently hold school records in their respected events. 

Richardson is also a key cog in keeping the track and field program among the most respected in the country as he handles many off the field administrative duties. These duties include serving as the meet director for all home meets, overseeing all scheduling and serving as the recruiting coordinator where his efforts have delivered 23 athletes who have earned 60 All-American Honors. He also served as meet director for the SEC Track and Field Championships and SEC Cross Country Championships hosted by Auburn.

Under Richardson’s guidance, the 2021 season was one of his most successful on the Plains as three athletes combined to garner five All-SEC honors and four All-America honors, including Alex Spyrodonidis who was fifth nationally outdoors in the decathlon and fifth at NCAA Indoors in the heptathlon. It marked the first time in school history that a multi-athlete scored at nationals in the same season. Pole vaulter James Courson won silver at the SEC Indoor Championships clearing the highest mark at Auburn indoors in 24 years while qualifying for indoor nationals and high jumper Dontavious Hill won silver at SEC Indoors. On the women's side, Natosha Jordan was All-SEC and a NCAA Outdoors finalist in the heptathlon. Richardson had a combined seven men's and women's high jumpers compete at the national indoor and outdoor meet, the most of any school in the country. 

Richardson's athletes achieved great success during the 2019 season as three athletes earn All-SEC honors, while one earned All-America honors. Decathlete Chris Stone and freshman high jumper Dontavious Hill earned outdoor (Stone) and indoor (Hill) all-conference honors while Skyler Daniel was an NCAA Outdoor Championship finalist in the women’s high jump and outdoor All-SEC honoree. Last summer Hill was the USATF U-20 high jump national champion (Richardson’s fifth of his career) and represented Team USA at the Pan Am Championships. 

In 2017, Richardson oversaw Chris Stone break the Auburn freshman record in the decathlon with 7,300 points at the Texas Relays, and also broke the freshman record in the heptathlon. Stone finished third in the high jump at the SEC Outdoor Championships.

Under Richardson’s tutelage, freshman Michelle Atherley broke a 27-year-old school record in the pentathlon in 2016 when she scored 4,153 points at the NCAA Indoor Championships to earn second team All-American honors. Atherley earned Freshman All-SEC honors with a sixth-place finish at the SEC Indoor Championships.That season, Richardson was the architect behind the extremely successful Conference Clash in Birmingham, Ala., which paired each team in the Southeastern Conference against opponents from other power five conferences. Later that summer, former SEC Champion high jumper D.J. Smith competed in the 2016 Rio Olynmpics becoming Richardson's second Olympic athlete.

Pole vaulter Jessie Johnson earned three All-American honors between 2015 and 2016, becoming Auburn’s first female vaulter to earn such honors. She was an indoor and outdoor All-America in 2015 and received indoor honors in 2016. The school indoor and outdoor record holder in the pole vault, Johnson set both marks multiple times, setting the indoor mark of 4.40m/14-5.25 at the 2016 SEC Indoors and establishing the outdoor mark of 4.43m/16-6.25 at the Georgia Invitational that spring.

In 2014, Richardson helped lead Parker Shearer to a third-place finish in the heptathlon at the SEC Indoor Championships. Shearer scored 5309 points, the third-most in school history. At the SEC Outdoor Championships, Shearer placed sixth with 6843 points. Jessie Johnson also finished second at the SEC Championships in the pole vault with a mark of 4.10m.

Under the guidance of Richardson, three high jumpers qualified for the NCAA Championships in 2012. Additionally, Monica Carney (indoor) earned her first All-America honor and Maya Pressley became an All-American for the fourth time. Joining Carney and Pressley at the NCAA championships was men’s high jumper D.J. Smith.

In 2008, Richardson coached Raevan Harris to All-American honors and an Auburn school record with a clearance of 6’ 2- ¼”. In 2010, another Richardson-coached athlete, Pressley, made history by becoming the first woman in Auburn school history to win an SEC championship as a true freshman. Pressley also successfully defended her title during the 2011 campaign. Richardson has mentored three athletes to U.S. Junior Championship titles and several of his athletes have gone on to compete at the U.S. Championships, Olympic Trials, and World Championships. The 2007 campaign saw Mark Johnson finish with All-SEC honors and All-American Honors in the Pole Vault.

During each of his years at Auburn, Richardson has also spearheaded the recruiting efforts that have brought several highly-touted newcomers to The Plains, including the 2010 recruiting class ranked in the top five nationally by Track & Field News. Richardson played an integral role in the recruiting of four sprinters (Keenan Brock, Michael Dehaven, Jeremy Hardy and Marcus Rowland) that set the Auburn record and recorded the fastest 4x100-meter relay mark in the NCAA with a time of 38.30 seconds in 2012.

Prior to his move to Auburn, Richardson spent the previous seven years as associate head coach at the United States Military Academy at West Point, where his teams won 16 indoor and outdoor conference championships. He coached 24 men to 50 Patriot League individual titles and mentored 18 women to 37 conference crowns. Richardson also helped athletes responsible for establishing conference records in the men’s indoor and outdoor 4x400m relay, the men’s and women’s 4x100m relay, the women’s 60m, indoor and outdoor 200m and the indoor and outdoor long jump.

On four occasions, the Army coaching staff was voted tops in the league. While at West Point, Richardson also coached one of his post-collegiate athletes, Joe Mendel, to a spot on the U.S. World Championship team in the men’s 400m where he made the finals, finishing sixth in the 400m and also running a leg on the US 4x400m Relay in Budapest, Hungary.

His pole vaulters at Army won 11 conference championships, and three earned All-East honors. Richardson helped lead the West Point vault crew to three straight Patriot League titles (2003, 2004 and 2005) and three successive trips to the NCAA Preliminaries and coached 18 sprinters to All-East accolades. All totaled, his sprinters and jumpers set fifteen school records and eight conference records, many of which still stand today. All the while, his men’s and women’s teams averaged over a 3.0 GPA in an incredibly challenging academic environment.

Richardson, who graduated from the University of Indianapolis in 1994 with a bachelor’s of science in education and criminal justice/pre-law, served as an assistant coach at Indianapolis in 1994, before moving up to the Division I level when he accepted an assistant coaching position while working on his Master’s degree in physical education at Eastern Kentucky University.

During his two years at EKU (1995-96), Richardson assisted with four Ohio Valley Conference championship teams and coached Arnold Payne to All-American honors and a fifth-place finish at the 1995 NCAA Outdoor Championships (45.51). Later that year under Richardson’s tutelage, Payne set a Zimbabwe national record and earned a spot on the Zimbabwe national team, competing in the 1995 World Championships in Gotenberg, Sweden.

In 1996, at the age of 25, Richardson took over as head coach at the University of Texas-Pan American, becoming the youngest Division I head coach in the country. There, he guided the women’s and men’s cross country programs to unprecedented heights, garnering first and third place finishes in the Sun Belt Conference. For his efforts, Richardson was voted by his coaching colleagues as the 1997 Sun Belt Conference Coach of the Year.

He then returned to his home state to serve as an assistant coach at Indiana University under U.S. Olympic Coach, Sam Bell, before taking his post at Army to work with another U.S. Olympic Coach, Jerry Quiller. Richardson credits his coaching successes to his coaching mentors over the years and also his leadership experiences during his seven plus years at West Point.

Richardson is married to the former Carmen Mann, herself a former four-time All-American track athlete, who works in the Auburn athletics department as a liaison for international student-athletes. The couple has two children, 13-year-old daughter, Olivia, and 11-year-old son, Triston. The Richardson’s are also actively involved as foster/adoptive parents in Lee County.

He then returned to his home state to serve as an assistant coach at Indiana University under U.S. Olympic Coach, Sam Bell, before taking his post at Army to work with another U.S. Olympic Coach, Jerry Quiller. Richardson credits his coaching successes to his coaching mentors over the years and also his leadership experiences during his seven plus years at West Point.

Richardson is married to the former Carmen Mann, herself a former four-time All-American track athlete, who works in the Auburn athletics department as a liaison for international student-athletes. The couple has two children, 12-year-old daughter, Olivia, and 10-year-old son, Triston. The Richardson’s are also actively involved as foster/adoptive parents in Lee County.