One of the greatest coaches in Lincoln history, Victor "Poppy" Thomas enters his 22nd season as the head coach of the Blue Tigers' men's and women's track & field teams in 2023-24. A 14-time NCAA Division II national champion coach, Thomas has been inducted into the Drake Relays Hall of Fame (2012), the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame (2021) and the United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association's National Coaches Hall of Fame.
Thomas continues to lead both LU track & field programs to unprecedented success, with the Lincoln women finishing in fifth at the 2022 NCAA Division II Outdoor Championships and eighth at that meet in 2023. The Lincoln men's track & field team finished in the national top-10 in both the indoor and the outdoor seasons in 2021-22. In 2022-23, meanwhile, the LU men finished in third at the MIAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships and fifth at the NCAA Division II Outdoor Track & Field Championships. Over those two seasons, the two LU programs combined to received 76 USTFCCCA All-American Awards and 114 MIAA Academic Honor Roll Awards.
In 2020-21, Thomas guided both programs through indoor and outdoor seasons that were clouded by COVID-19 restrictions. Despite the weekly uncertainty, both LU programs ended up ranked among the top-25 teams in the country, with Kizan David winning the national championship in the long jump and finish as the runner-up in the triple jump at the NCAA Division II indoor championships. David ultimately was named the MIAA Winter Male Student-Athlete of the Year, becoming the first-ever Lincoln student-athlete to win this prestigious award. David later was additionally selected as the USTFCCCA Indoor Track & Field National Scholar Field Athlete of the Year.
The Blue Tigers were in position for a memorable 2020 until COVID-19 hit, as the Lincoln men's indoor track & field team was ranked No. 1 in the country heading into the NCAA Division II Championships before the virus caused a premature end to the season. Led by eventual Academic All-American Kizan David and defending NCAA DII triple jump champion Ryan Brown, the Blue Tigers had 11 total entries for the national title meet. The LU women also had an outstanding year, ranking No. 2 in the nation heading into the NCAA Division II championships while Rene Medley was named the USTFCCCA Division II Women's Track Athlete of the Year. At the MIAA Championships in 2020, Thomas coached Kelly-Ann Beckford to the meet's High Point Scorer award, and during the season, Brown and Medley each earned USTFCCCA National Athlete of the Week recognition.
Thomas won his 14th national title at Lincoln in 2019, as he led the Blue Tiger women to a second-straight NCAA Division II Outdoor Track & Field championship. The Blue Tigers won five events at the national championships, with Rene Medley winning titles in both the 100m and the 200m as well as the 4x100m and 4x400m relays. Thomas, who also led the Lincoln women to a third place finish at the indoor championships and the LU men to fifth- and seventh-place finishes in the NCAA Division II Indoor and Outdoor Track & Field Championships, respectively, was named the USTFCCCA Women's Outdoor Coach of the Year for the second-straight season. Medley, meanwhile, was the USTFCCCA Indoor and Outdoor Regional Track Athlete of the Year.
In 2018, Thomas led the Lincoln women's outdoor track & field team to the NCAA Division II national championship, earning USTFCCCA Coach of the Year accolades in the process. Lincoln won two individual championships and one relay title at the NCAA championship meet, and Rene Medley was named the USTFCCCA Central Region Track Athlete of the Year while Diana Cauldwell was selected as the USTFCCCA NCAA Division II Field Athlete of the Year.
Thomas enjoyed a stellar 2015-16 season in which he earned five coach of the year awards, including being named the USTFCCCA NCAA Division II Indoor Women's Track & Field Coach of the Year after leading the Blue Tigers to their 12th national championship. In 2016-17, Thomas led the Blue Tiger men to the MIAA Outdoor Championship and a second-place finish at the NCAA Division II Outdoor Championship.
Since Thomas took over as head coach, the LU women have won nine outdoor national titles, five indoor national championships, five MIAA indoor titles and four league outdoor championships. The LU men have also excelled under Thomas' guidance, culminating in the Blue Tigers' 2012 outdoor season in which both of Lincoln's track & field teams finished No. 2 in the country. In 2016, Thomas led the Lincoln men to their first MIAA Indoor Track & Field championship since 1981 while, in 2017, the Blue Tiger men captured the MIAA Outdoor Track & Field Championship. In 2019, Thomas coached Raymone Campbell, the USTFCCCA Men's Outdoor Track Regional Athlete of the Year.
While at Lincoln, Thomas has coached the women’s team to 14 NCAA Division II National Championships. His first title came in 2003 at the outdoor national championships where his athletes won seven events, one short of the record for first place finishes at the Division II level. He went on to coach his team to both the 2004 indoor and outdoor national championships. Thanks to the success the program has enjoyed under Thomas' leadership, Lincoln's track & field teams were inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame in 2013.
Entering the 2023-24 campaign, Thomas has coached athletes to 981 All-American performances. Since 2011, Thomas has coached 588 USTFCCCA All-Region performers, 347 athletes who have earned a spot on the MIAA Academic Honor Roll and 89 recipients of the MIAA Scholar Athlete Award. In 2019, Ryan Brown was named the USTFCCCA Men's Indoor Field Scholar Athlete of the Year, and the Lincoln women were named the USTFCCCA Women's Outdoor Scholar Team of the Year. It was the second-straight season that Blue Tiger women earned that distinction. Sedeekie Edie, meanwhile, was named the USTFCCCA Men's Indoor Field Scholar Athlete of the Year in 2016.
Thomas has also coached eight Google Cloud/CoSIDA Academic All-Americans in Michelle Cumberbatch, Yanique Ellington, Sedeekie Edie, Jonelle Campbell, Diana Cauldwell, Renea Ambersley and Kizan David (twice), and 10 CoSIDA/Capital One Academic All-District first team selections in Ambersley, Cauldwell, Cumberbatch, David (three times), Ellington, Edie, Campbell, Jeromia Riley and Anna-Kay James. In 2016, Ellington became the first Lincoln athlete to be selected as a finalist for the Ken B. Jones Award as the top female student-athlete in the MIAA. The Blue Tigers had two more finalists coached by Thomas in 2018 in Edie and Cauldwell, while Ambersley was a finalist in 2019. In 2020, David was named one of the finalists for the MIAA Men's Winter Sports Athlete of the Year Award, while in 2021, he was a finalist for the MIAA Men's Spring Sports Athlete of the Year Award. David was selected as the USTFCCCA Indoor Field Scholar Athlete of the Year in 2022.
Lincoln athletes have claimed 95 individual national championships under his watch, and he has coached the Blue Tigers to 41 relay championships. His work has not gone unnoticed, as Thomas is a four-time MIAA Indoor and four-time MIAA Outdoor Coach of the Year honoree. He has also been named one of the USTFCCCA's Regional Indoor Coaches of the Year six times and was the USTFCCCA Women's Outdoor Track & Field National Coach of the Year in 2014, 2018 and 2019. Entering the 2023-24 season, Thomas has coached the Blue Tigers to 139 MIAA Athlete of the Week honors.
In addition to bringing LU's track & field program national recognition, Thomas has also had success coaching Lincoln's women's cross country team. In 2013, he helped Twishana Williams become the only female cross country runner in the MIAA to earn All-American honors. Thomas coached Williams to three total USTFCCCA All-Region awards. Williams, the 2011 MIAA Freshman of the Year, earned three all-league honors, and one MIAA Athlete of the Week accolade, during her time at Lincoln. In 2004, Thomas coached the Lincoln cross country team to the Heartland Conference championship and was named the league coach of the year.
He has also been the head coach of the Jamaican Junior Pan American Games National Team, the C.A.C Games National Team and has been on the senior Pan American Games team coaching staff as a hurdles coach. Among the prominent athletes he has coached to titles are Shandria Brown (Bahamas World Championship), Kevin Bartlett (Barbados, C.A.C Games), Moya Thompson (Jamaica, World Indoors and World Outdoors Championships), Lerone Clark (Jamaica National Indoors Championship), Davita Prendergast (Jamaica, World Indoors and World Outdoors Championships) and Wilbert Walker (Jamaica, C.A.C. and Pan-American Games).
Several Lincoln athletes have also enjoyed success at the international level under Thomas' direction. Among the former LU athletes Thomas has coached to national prominence are Semoy Hackett (Trinidad & Tobago, Olympic and World Games) and Roxroy Cato (Jamaica, Olympic and World Games). Thomas also helped Yanique Haye and Ladonna Richards qualify for the NACTA Under-23 games in Jamaica. In 2016, Chrisdale McCarthy, who won national championships for the Blue Tigers in the indoor 60m hurdles and outdoor 100m hurdles, qualified for the finals in the latter event at the NACAC U-23 Championships in El Salvador.
Thomas came to Lincoln after two years at Gardner-Webb University in Boiling Springs, N.C. as an assistant coach. While there, he coached Nicola McClain and David Lloyd to NCAA Division II National Championships in the 400-meter hurdles. Following Thomas' first season at the school, the university moved up into NCAA Division I, where it competed in the IC4A conference. During Thomas' second season at Gardner-Webb, he coached a combined 10 all-conference selections in the 2001 indoor and outdoor seasons.
He is a native of Kingston, Jamaica in the West Indies. He got his first Tertiary Education at Mico Teachers College where he earned his diploma in teacher education. Thomas got his bachelor’s degree in Physical Education from G.C. Foster College in St. Catherine, Jamaica and his master’s degree from Gardner-Webb in Boiling Spring, North Carolina. He is an IAAAF level-3 coach who specializes in sprints, jumps and hurdles. He has been coaching both junior and senior athletes for over 20 years.
