Chelsea France will join the Terps in the 2019 fall season as an Assistant Coach for distance and cross country.
Head Coach, Andrew Valmon, welcomed his new hire stating, “Coach France has all of the tools to help guide our distance program in a direction for success. Her knowledge and experience will be a great asset to our current student-athletes and I look forward to seeing her hit the ground running this season.”
Most recently, France helped guide the University of Pennsylvania to some of their best years on the cross-country course and on the track. While at Penn (2017-19), the squad had three NCAA cross country qualifiers (Madeline Villalba, Sam Webb, and Anthony Russo). On the track, Abby Hong was a two-time 10,000m and 5,000m Ivy League Champion with Danielle Orie finishing as the runner up in these events twice in her career. Nia Akins was one of the most decorated athletes at Penn in recent years earning All-American honors as a two-time runner up in the 800m at the 2019 indoor and outdoor championships.
France’s previous coaching role was at George Washington University (2014-17), where she mentored and developed distance student-athletes under a newly established track program. This led to numerous conference, regional, and national-level academic and athletic recognitions for the program. The George Washington program has its first men’s and women’s NCAA Division I Mid-Atlantic Regional ranking in 2016. Miranda DiBiasio was a two-time Atlantic 10 Champion in the 10,000m run. Hailey Brown was the Atlantic 10 Champion in the 1500m. During her tenure, France oversaw thirteen All-Atlantic 10 Conference Honorees between cross country, indoor, and outdoor track.
From 2013-14 France assisted in operations for the Cross Country/Track & Field program at the University of South Carolina. Her duties included assisting with travel logistics, recruiting events, and hosting meets.
France received her Bachelors degree in Sociology from the University of Virginia in 2012 where she was a member of the track and field/ cross country team. She went on to earn a Master of Science in Sport and Entertainment Management from the University of South Carolina in 2014.
