Lon Badeaux joined the South Alabama Track and Field coaching staff in August 2024. Badeaux arrives in Mobile, Ala. after spending the last 13 seasons as the Head Coach at the University of Louisiana.
A 1996 Louisiana graduate and indoor All-American, Badeaux took charge of the Cajuns program in 2011 and put together 13 outstanding years before retiring from coaching at the end of the 2023 season. Before his time in Louisiana, he spent the previous 12 years at Arkansas State, serving as head coach for his last four seasons.
During his tenure as Ragin' Cajuns head coach, he coached 11 All-Americans, including three-time All-American Albert Fournette, two-time All-American Jasmine Manuel, and Morgann Leleux - the 2016 NCAA DI runner-up in the women's pole vault and alternate on the 2016 U.S. Olympic Team.
Badeaux coached 75 Sun Belt Conference champions and 279 All-Sun Belt Conference selections at his alma mater. During the 2016 season, Louisiana produced six champions in the 2022-23 season.
The New Iberia, La., native also helped make Arkansas State a formidable force in the Sun Belt Conference. The Red Wolves women finished second and the men third at the 2011 Sun Belt Conference Outdoor Track & Field Championships.
Badeaux coached 69 Sun Belt Conference champions, 53 regional and 19 national qualifiers. Seven student-athletes reached All-American status under his watch, while another competed in the Olympics.
He was part of ASU's 2006 Men's Indoor Sun Belt Conference Championship. He was serving as interim head coach when student-athlete James Jenkins was named an All-American after a fourth-place finish in the triple jump at the NCAA Track and Field Championships. Badeaux was named runner-up for the 2004 Mondo National Assistant Coach of the Year for jumps and multi-events by the USA Track and Field Coaches for Division I-A. He was also named to the U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association National Committee for scheduling.
A certified USA Track and Field Level II coach, Badeaux received his bachelor's degree in health and physical education from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette in 1996. He received his master's degree in exercise science from Arkansas State in 1999.
As a student-athlete at Louisiana, he set the indoor and outdoor records in the pole vault at 17-7 and 17-5, respectively, which stood for 14 years. In 1996, he was awarded All-America status with a third-place finish in the NCAA Indoor Championships.
Badeaux is married to the former Mary Godeaux and has one son, Eli. Ama.
