Bio

Al enters his seond season as an assistant coach with the Fitchburg State Men's and Women's Cross Country and Track & Field teams.

Coach Al Halper has been a successful college coach for 43 years. He has been responsible for building outstanding programs at Holy Cross College and Worcester State University before taking a step away from head coach duties in June 2018 and moving on to join the staff at Fitchburg State University as an assistant coach.

Halper’s squads have long been recognized and respected among their competitors. Halper’s experience and knowledge brings to Fitchburg State, an additional quality coach whose passion for the sport and expertise is expected to help further the many achievements of the program to even greater heights and successes over the next few years. In recent years, Coach Halper’s squads have regularly been among the top ten D3 New England teams as well as gaining several high rankings both regionally and nationally. He has helped produce a number of individual national qualifiers and MASCAC champions.

Prior to that, his women’s team at Holy Cross helped to make the Crusader cross country and track programs among the strongest and most successful in the East. His cross-country teams there made four national championship appearances, finishing second on two occasions. His track and field program produced several nationally ranked relays and All-Americans as well as a number of top ten All New England Championship finishes both indoor and outdoor including a second place team outdoor track & field championship finish.

While coaching fifteen All-Americans, from both Division 1 and Division 3, and having his teams accumulate a long list of titles, Halper, over the years, has earned several individual honors as well. While at Holy Cross, in 1982 and 1983, he was named the NCAA Division II Northeast Region Coach of the Year. More recently, at Worcester State, he was given MASCAC Cross Country Coach of the Year accolades in 2007.  He was also one of the founders and has served as the first commissioner of the New England Women’s Intercollegiate Cross-Country and Track and Field Association. In addition, he has served as a member of NCAA, ECAC and EAIAW cross country and track committees and has been a member the Massachusetts Track Officials Association.

A former trackman at Rutgers University and a native of Middletown, NY, Al resides in Northborough, MA.