Chuck Schneekloth, Director GSTC
Chuck founded the Garden State Track Club in the fall of 2010, and has since overseen its growth as one of the most prominent, diverse, and successful clubs in America. Thanks to the club's successes on the track, roads, and in cross country, Chuck has negotiated three major partnerships with adidas, New Balance, and Tracksmith to further support the club and its membership.
Under Chuck's leadership, the club has sent thirty-one GSTC athletes to the USA Championships and three to the Olympics. In addition, the GSTC has been the most dominant club in national-stage events, winning eleven Millrose Games relays and twelve Penn Relays wheels in the Olympic Development section.
Along with its thriving professional team, the club has also grown its youth, masters, and grassroots open teams under Chuck's tenure. Along with a youth XC national title in 2018, the 40s and 50s masters teams have won nine team national titles. In 2013 and 2016, the open men and open women won the now-defunct USATF Club Track and Field national team titles. This group also dominated the USATF-NJ LDR Grand Prix from 2011-2019 until club leadership decided to discontinue it as a team focus.
As a coach, he coached Eric Holt for two years before COVID, resulting in his first sub-4:00 mile, a 3:58.88 win at the Monmouth Mile in 2019. He also coached James Bias (300m USA Qualifier), Billy Hilly (1:48.53), one youth national champion (Naren Maharena), and three masters national champions: Christine Licata (800m), Elizabeth Wakeling (12k), and Jennifer Pesce (5k). In 2014, he coached the Vietnamese national 4x400 women's team as they prepared for the Asian Games, and in 2015, he spent two weeks in Nicaragua helping design their three Olympic Development training centers.
In 2020, he founded the GSTC Jr. Elite Team, a rigorous program for high school student-athletes to receive personalized, college-aligned training plans. One of the most notable alums of this program, Camryn Wennersten, became the first prep girl in NJ history to break 2:08 and 4:45. To date, thirty-four students have gone through this program and now compete in college.
As a masters athlete, he's won ten national titles and made three world finals in the 800m and 1500m. He won the 2019 USATF Masters Road Mile (Flint, MI), the 2021 and 2022 Brooklyn Mile, and the 2022 5th Ave Mile. His 4:32 win at the 2019 Midland Mile is still a USATF-NJ masters record.
As a HS coach, he was voted the 2001 OSAA Track and Field Coach of the Year after leading Seaside HS to a 3A state title at Hayward Field. As the head coach at Castlemont HS, his teams won six Oakland Athletic League crowns from 2003-2009. He also coached Kenny Sparks (03) and Jaime Lopez (09), the only two OAL cross country champions in Castlemont history. In NJ, he was voted the GMC Cross Country Coach of the Year with New Brunswick HS, and Chuck helped Highland Park HS win two state titles.
As a college coach, he was the head coach both at San Francisco State University and Middlesex College. During his tenure, the Gators broke the indoor school 4x400 record and Kavina Hall won the outdoor 400m CCAA title. With the Colts, he had thirteen All-Americans, five national champions, and broke three school records.
As a race director, he founded numerous GSTC events: Road Relays, Get the Gorilla 5k, College Ave Mile, Garden State 10 Miler, and the Empire State Half Marathon. He was also the architect of the 2020 Quarantine Games, a series of five fall track races that gave high school, college, and post-college athletes the chance to get FAT times after missing the 2020 spring track season due to COVID. He is also the meet director of the East Coast Outdoor Track and Field Championships, the East Coast Indoor Preview (Armory), and the Garden State Invitational (Ocean Breeze).
Chuck has helped write two major pieces of legislation. The first was the USATF Diversity Rule that required USATF associations to consider diversity in all local legislative committees. Second, Chuck wrote the USATF-NJ amendment to include the Road Mile in its USATF-NJ LDR Grand Prix.
Chuck worked in public education for twenty-three years as an English teacher, vice principal, and literacy coach. He lives in Somerset with his wife, Leah, and three cats.