Virgil Givens knows his task is not to rebuild East Carolina track and field.
ECU announced the hire of Givens as the new director of the track and field and cross country programs last week. On Tuesday, ECU athletic director Jon Gilbert introduced the new coach during a news conference.
Givens takes over for longtime coach Curt Kraft, who announced his retirement in July after spending the past 19 seasons with the Pirates and winning three Conference USA Championships on the women’s side (including an indoor-outdoor sweep in 2014). He coached 25 individuals and three relay teams to NCAA Championships berths and 81 conference event championships.
During Kraft’s tenure, the Pirates reset 45 indoor program records and 40 all-time outdoor records.
Enter Givens, who arrives in Greenville in the unique position of taking over a successful program. The nature of the business of sports usually means incoming coaches inherit struggling teams or are tasked with rebuilding.
But with Kraft retiring as ECU continues to rewrite records and compete at a high level, the hope is Givens can continue the strong legacy. He is excited for that chance, too.
“I think that makes it even more exciting, right?” Givens said. “The fact that I don’t have to build from the bottom, I guess you’d say. One of the things we have to do is we have to just get everyone to understand that we’re here to win, right? We’re here to compete. We’re here to compete at a high level. And so, it’s exciting to see that what we’re building from isn’t bottom of the barrel, but we can take the athletes that are here and push them up to another level.”
Givens understands he has to move fast. The first cross country meet is at home on Aug. 30. On his task list is getting to know the athletes, staff and facilities, while also implementing his goals and expectations.
“We all understand the situation we’re in, and so I’m going to work as fast as I can to get to meet with everyone and get to know them as soon as possible,” Givens said. “And then start delivering the message to the staff, to the team and then start implementing our plan to make sure that we get there.
“But I guess to me, it’s an exciting time because I’m going to be so busy. Typically during this time of the year, we’re pretty much just relaxed and just kind of waiting for things to start. Well, this kind of gives us something to be excited about and to move with haste during this time period.”
Givens comes from Campbell, where he held the same position since 2021. The Pirates have had stability at the top of those two sports as Givens is just the third program director for ECU since 1967.
In that year, legendary coach Bill Carson — the namesake of ECU’s lone home meet in track and field — landed the role and remained until his retirement in 2007 when Kraft took over.
Craft found success with the Pirates for nearly two decades before he recently announced his own retirement.
Gilbert said he received a lot of interest from across the country for the job opening, but was drawn to Givens after examining his ability to coach athletes to the NCAA Championships.
“Really, what drew me to Virgil was not only his energy and passion — like when I talked to him the first time, I could just hear the excitement and the energy in his voice — and then as I got to know him and did more research, the number of student-athletes that he would routinely develop and qualify for nationals just really intrigued me,” Gilbert said. “And so I’m excited that he has accepted the opportunity.”
Prior to Givens’ promotion to head coach in 2021 at Campbell, the Camels had never won a conference title in track and field. That changed in Year 1 as the Camels won a title in his first season at the helm, securing the 2022 Big South men’s indoor championship.
Givens was named Big South Coach of the Year five times during his tenure in Buies Creek, and he was the first Campbell coach to win the award for the outdoor season.
In 2023, the Camels women’s squad finished 31st in the nation at the NCAA outdoor championships while the men took 54th in 2022.
Givens coached 35 athletes to the NCAA East Regional, with 11 of those athletes advancing to NCAA Championships, and nine of those turned in All-American performances.
So why leave Campbell for the Pirates? For Givens, the decision was simple.
“What wouldn’t draw me to East Carolina to take this job?” he said. “The resources, this university in itself, how attractive it is, and then the opportunity to win at a high level. I don’t see any reason why this wouldn’t be a dream job for most coaches.”
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