Julio Piazza
Position: Head Coach Experience: 27th season Alma Mater: Penn '72

Contact Coach Piazza:
- Email: piazzaj@lafayette.edu
- Office: (610) 330-5481

Julio Piazza enters his 27th season as the head coach of Lafayette's cross country and track and field teams. Piazza has mentored multiple school-record holders and NCAA qualifiers in his 26 years on College Hill. His most recent accolade came in 2008, when he coached Lafayette's women's indoor track and field team to a second place Patriot League finish, while receiving Coach of the Year honors.

In 2006, he earned his third Patriot League Women's Outdoor Track and Field Coach of the Year award, after a third place finish at the Patriot League Championships. He previously won the award in 1996 and 1991. He was also recognized as Men's Outdoor Coach of the Year in 1997. In the same year, Piazza garnered his first Men's Indoor Coach of the Year honor, an award he has won three times (2002, 2003).

At the helm of the cross country program, Piazza was selected as the Women's Cross Country Coach of the Year in 1993, following the Leopards first Patriot League Title. Piazza also led Lafayettes' women's track and field team to East Coast Conference Indoor and Outdoor Championship crowns from 1986-88.

Prior to coming to College Hill, Piazza served as assistant coach for cross country and track and field at the University of Pennsylvania. He helped guide Penn to five Ivy League track and field crowns, and back-to-back Heptagonal Outdoor titles. The Quakers women's cross-country team also reached the NCAA Championships in 1981. An eight-time All-Ivy middle distance runner,

Piazza graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1972 and still holds two relay records. He and his wife, Cheryl, reside in Bethlehem, Pa. with their two children, Matt and Katie.