Since coming to Texas Wesleyan University in the spring of 2022, Coach Dalzell has made a dramatic impact on both the growth and success of the men’s and women’s track & field and cross country programs. In his first full outdoor track season, his men won the SAC Conference meet and went on to finish 13th at the NAIA national meet. His women’s team nearly repeated the feat, but came up just short in finishing second at their first SAC women’s track and field championships. At nationals, the teams produced TXWES’s first individual national champion, Tajean Houston in the 110 hurdles, and three other All-Americans in high jumper Jamarrion Reed (3rd), Aljani Bridgewater in the 400 hurdles (4th), and women’s sprinter Jaelynn Williams (7th). Dalzell was named SAC men track and field coach of the year for 2023. In addition, his track teams have produced three indoor All-Americans with Rianna Vidales finishing 4th in the indoor 800m in 2022, Jamarrion Reed finishing 5th in the indoor high jump in 2023 and Walid Jarfani finishing 6th in the indoor mile in 2023. In cross country, the women’s team finished second at the SAC championships in 2023, their highest finish since 2015, and had four ladies take home SAC All-conference honors. Senior Veronica Moreno qualified for the NAIA national championships and was also named an NAIA Scholar Athlete for 2023. In addition to Moreno, Rianna Vidales, Sarays Flores and Jamon Smith have also been names NAIA Scholar-Athletes.
Dalzell is an award-winning coach in previous stops at Warner Pacific University, George Fox University, Concordia University-Portland, Northwest Nazarene University, Bend High School, and Cascade College. He comes to Texas Wesleyan after leading or assisting three programs to national championships – Northwest Nazarene men's cross country in 2001, Concordia's women's track & field in 2011, and George Fox's women's track & field in 2018. In all, Dalzell has been named conference, regional, or national Coach of the Year 28 times; two at George Fox University, eighteen at Concordia University-Portland, two at Bend High School, five times while at Northwest Nazarene University and last spring at Texas Wesleyan University when the men won their first SAC Outdoor Track and Field Championship. He has coached over 200 All-Americans, 28 national champions and over 50 NAIA Scholar Athletes.
Dalzell was the Director of Track & Field and Cross Country as well as the Assistant Athletic Director for Compliance at Warner Pacific University in Portland, Oregon. At Warner Pacific, he coached a number of All-American athletes, including two-time All-American triple jumper Brittany Coleman and their first ever women’s cross country All-American, Amelia Pullen (10th at nationals in 2019). Prior to that, he was the Head Cross Country and Associate Head Track & Field coach at George Fox, where he was named west region assistant coach of the year in 2014 and 2015 while rebuilding the distance programs and assisting in building the overall track and field programs. He coached a number of all region cross country runners and a host of conference champions in the middle and long distance events in track, including six men's 800m titles in a row. The last two years, the GFU teams won both the men's and women's Northwest Conference titles in track & field as well as the women's national championship in track & field in 2018.
A large number of Dalzell's accolades occurred at Concordia University, where he directed the cross country and track & field programs for seven years (2005-12). In that time, he led the Cavaliers to 15 Cascade Collegiate Conference titles, winning seven in a row in men's track & field, six in women's track & field, one in women's cross country, and one in men's cross country, as well as the NAIA regional title in men's cross country in 2006. In 2011, the women's outdoor track & field team won the NAIA National Championship while the men finished fifth. In his final year at Concordia, women's outdoor track finished second in the nation, men's outdoor track finished fourth, men's indoor track finished third, women's indoor track placed seventh, women's cross country finished eighth, and men's cross country finished 19th. This accounted for over 70% of the NAIA National Director's Cup points for the university. Overall, the programs produced 27 NAIA individual national champions, 165 All-Americans, and 23 NAIA Scholar-Athletes. He was named the NAIA Women's Track & Field National Coach of the Year in 2011, and was named regional or conference Coach of the Year 17 other times.
Concordia was the third collegiate program Dalzell started, having also launched programs at Cascade College in 1996-97 and at Northwest Nazarene, where he coached from 1999-2002. At NNU, he was named the National Christian College Athletic Association Men's Cross Country National Coach of the Year in 2001 after his men's team at NNU won the NCCAA National Championship with all seven runners finishing in the top 14, making the entire team All-Americans. He produced 19 NCCAA and NAIA All-Americans at NNU and 16 NAIA or NCCAA Scholar-Athletes. He also had three NAIA All-Americans at Cascade College during two years there.
Also a successful high school coach with 10 years of track & field experience at that level in the Portland (Ore.) and Bend (Ore.) areas, Dalzell was twice named Intermountain Conference Coach of the Year while at Bend High School.
In addition to his coaching duties he also owns Dalzell Enterprises and Dalzell Sports Management, two athletic facilities and events management companies.
Dalzell received a bachelor's degree with honors in secondary education/mathematics from Columbia Christian College in 1987, where he played basketball and soccer and was named the school's Scholar-Athlete of the Year while earning an Academic All-American Award. He did post-graduate studies at Abilene Christian University in biology, Oregon State University in exercise physiology, the University of Puget Sound in physical therapy, the United States Sports Academy in Sport Management, and Concordia University in school administration. He attained his master of education degree from Linfield College in 1995. He also completed a program in Athletic Administration at Northeastern University in Boston, MA in 2020.
