Coaching Achievements - overall/at WSU
•208 All-Conference Athletes • 60/43 Individual Conference Champions • 16/5 NCAA All-American Awards •
Coaching Experience
• Wichita State: Assistant Director of Track and Field/Sprints and Hurdles (2006-Present) • Eastern Brown High School (Ohio): Head Track and Field Coach (2003-06) • Kent State: Assistant Coach (1998-03) •
Athletic Achievements
• Competed for Kent State University (1994-98) • 1997-98 All-MAC Conference Team • Part of the 4x100m team that set a school record in 1998 (39.93) •
Steve Rainbolt: "Coach Wise has been a wonderful leader in our track and field operation on a number of different levels. Wichita State University track and field is a better program every year because of his innovative thinking and contributions. I am very pleased that the administration agreed with me that we should promote him to a position of greater responsibility at this time. I hope that he will remain an integral part of our team for many years to come."
John Wise will be in his 19th year with the Shockers entering the 2024-25 season. In 2011, he was promoted to Assistant Director of Track and Field to go along with his duties as Assistant Coach and Recruiting Coordinator. Wise oversees the sprints, hurdles and relays, as well as assisting with the multi-event athletes and handling the program’s recruiting. In addition to his duties as a coach and recruiting coordinator, he serves as the meet director for all home events, including the annual Shocker Pre-State/KT Woodman Classic, one of the largest track and field meets held in the Midwest each year.
Since joining the Shockers in the fall of 2006, Wise has helped build the Shocker sprints/hurdles group into one of the best in the Midwest, recruiting several student-athletes at WSU who were Junior National qualifiers, including the 2012-13 class that had 14 qualifiers. He has coached Shocker student-athletes to 43 individual conference titles and 16 All-America honors. Under his tutelage, student-athletes have also earned 182 All-MVC honors.
Wise has coached five Olympic Trials qualifiers, and in 2016, he coached U.S Paralympic team member Deja Young, who won Gold Medals in the 100 meters and 200 meters at the 2016 Paralympics in Rio. Young continued her dominance on the big stage winning double gold in the 100m and 200m at the 2017 Paralympic World Championships in London.
Prior to coming to Wichita State, Wise spent three seasons as the head coach of his alma mater Eastern Brown High School and won the conference coach of the year award five times in track and twice in cross country for the Warriors. As a high school athlete, he was the 1992 400m state champion in the State of Ohio.
As a graduate of Kent State University, Wise competed for the Golden Flashes from 1994-98. While at Kent State, Wise was named to the all-Mid-American Conference team as a sprinter in 1997-98 and was also a part of the MAC Champion, NCAA provisional-qualifying and school-record 4x100m relay team.
After graduation in 1998, Wise joined the Kent State track and field staff, serving under current Shocker track and field coach Steve Rainbolt for five seasons. Wise worked specifically with the sprint and hurdle groups, coaching three NCAA qualifiers and athletes who won 12 MAC championships. During his tenure at Kent State, the Golden Flashes won three MAC championship team titles.
Wise graduated in 1998 from Kent State with a degree in business management and information systems with an emphasis in psychology.
