Bio

The 2024-2025 year is Quinn White’s sixth season at the helm of the men’s cross country program, his 15th season as head coach of the women’s cross country program and his 15th on staff with the track and field team.

In his previous five seasons coaching the Taylor men’s cross country team, White has logged an all-time record of 488-141. White led the Purple and Grey to Taylor’s first-ever Crossroads League Championship in 2021 and the program’s first NAIA National Championship in 2020, following a runner-up finish in 2019. Under White’s guidance, the program has also racked up 19 All-Crossroads League awards and 12 NAIA All-American honors.

During the 2023 season, the TU men’s cross country team finished second at the Crossroads League Championships and posted their third consecutive top-10 finish at the NAIA National Championships, placing ninth. In addition to producing three members on the All-Crossroads League Team and an NAIA All-American, the Trojans finished second nationally with 12 NAIA Scholar-Athletes.

The Trojan men entered the 2021 season ranked No. 1 in the NAIA Top-25 Preseason Poll and subsequently posted the third and seventh-fastest team time in program history. Furthermore, White led the Trojans in winning the Ray Bullock Invitational and the program’s first Crossroads League championship since 1999. In the classroom, White’s student-athletes boasted an NAIA-leading four CoSIDA Academic All-District awards and two Academic All-American nods. Meanwhile, White led the Trojans to an 11th-place finish at the NAIA National Tournament. For all this and more, White was named the Crossroads League Men’s Cross Country Coach of the Year, along with being dubbed the USTFCCCA NAIA Great Lakes Region Men’s Cross Country Coach of the Year.

White led the Taylor men to a historic finish in the 2020 season, claiming the NAIA Cross Country National Championship, Taylor’s first national championship in school history. Boasting a record of 91-5, the team clinched a program-record team time of 2:04:29 and received the No. 1 ranking in the NAIA for the highest ranking in program history. White’s impressive team posted the program’s first, fourth, seventh and eighth-fastest team times in its history. The Trojans gathered five All-American awards and three All-Crossroads League honors. White was also named the NAIA Men’s Cross Country Coach of the Year and the USTFCCCA NAIA Men's Coach of the Year. The 2020 squad was excellent in the classroom as it was named the USTFCCCA Scholar-Team of the Year.

In his first year with the men’s program, White led the men’s cross country team to a dominant finish in the 2019 season. The Trojans recorded a second-place finish at the NAIA National Championships, claiming the highest finish at nationals in Taylor history with the previous best at sixth-place in 1996 and 1967. The Purple and Gold had three runners finish with All-American honors. The team ended with an impressive record of 115-19 overall, going 80-18 through the regular season. White also helped the Trojans finish second-place at the Crossroads League Championship, with six athletes earning All-CL honors. The team also took first place at the Great Lakes Challenge in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

In his 14 seasons leading the Taylor women’s cross country program, White has helped the Trojans to a record-setting 11-straight Crossroads League Championships and 11 top-20 finishes at the NAIA National Championships, including seven consecutive top-six showings from 2017-2023. Beginning with the 2013 season, the program has also racked up 66 All-Crossroads League awards and 20 NAIA All-American honors.

White, who has been named the women’s Crossroads League Coach of the Year for 11 consecutive seasons between 2013 and 2023, as well as the NAIA National Coach of the Year in 2023, ranks first in Taylor history with an all-time record of 1,430-217 as the head coach of the women’s cross country program and is TU’s all-time winning percentage leader with a career clip of .868 entering the 2024 campaign. During White’s tenure, the Trojans have posted the 15-fastest team times in program history.

White led the TU women to the program’s first NAIA National Championship in 2022, posting a perfect record of 133-0 throughout an unforgettable season. At the NAIA National Championships, White’s seven-member team pulled off the second-most dominant win in NAIA National Championship history, as the Trojans recorded a program-best time of 88:13, scoring 50 points and winning by a margin of 127 points over the second-place team. Furthermore, all seven of the TU runners finished within the top-40 athletes, earning seven All-American awards for the season in program history.

In addition to his role as head coach of the men’s and women’s cross country teams, White is entering his 15th season on staff with the Taylor track and field teams.

In his first two years specializing with the men’s distance squad, White coached an NAIA Indoor National Champion in the 3,000-meters. Throughout his tenure, White also helped his male indoor student-athletes to five school-record performances, 30 NAIA Indoor National Qualifiers, four NAIA Indoor All-Americans, five Crossroads League Individual Champions, 17 NAIA Outdoor National Qualifiers and four NAIA Outdoor All-Americans.

During his time specializing with the women’s distance and javelin events over the last 14 seasons, White’s student-athletes have piled up 31 indoor school-record performances, 16 Crossroads League Individual Championships, 141 NAIA Indoor National Qualifiers and 46 NAIA Indoor All-Americans.

The success has carried over into the women’s outdoor seasons as well, where White has helped his student-athletes to 24 school-record performances, 101 NAIA Outdoor National Qualifiers, 125 All-Crossroads League selections, 34 Crossroads League Individual Championships and 37 NAIA All-Americans.

White coached high school cross country and track for 14 years prior to taking over the TU program. During his time as a high school coach, White guided his teams to four conference championships, six district titles, and had 22 All-State athletes earn a total of 47 All-State honors.

An accomplished runner in his own right, White ran four seasons of cross country and track at Taylor, earning five varsity letters with the Purple and Gold.

After graduating from TU, White went on to earn a master’s degree in language, literature and reading in 1996 from Ohio State University and a Ph. D. in language, literacy and culture in 2005 from OSU.

White returned to Taylor’s Upland campus as a professor of education in the fall of 2006 and was the recipient of the Teaching Excellence and Campus Leadership Award, as well as the Excellent Educator Award in 2008.

White is actively involved in his Team Victory ministry, having taken trips to the Dominican Republic in 2009 and 2010 during which his teams delivered shoes, shirts, and Bibles to impoverished youth while sharing the Gospel through running. White has also led Team Victory trips to Guatemala (2011), Nicaragua (2013) and Belize (2016).

White lives in Upland with his wife, Julie ('89) and continues to serve as a professor within TU’s Education Department. The couple has three children, Haley ('16), Keanan ('20) and Connor (’22).