Bio

Coach Matthew Dougherty continues to build on his remarkable list of coaching accolades, adding multiple national champions and numerous All-Americans in a coaching career that spans nearly twenty years. 

A 2001 Houghton graduate, Dougherty returned to coach at his alma mater in 2005 and, after one gap year of coaching away, came back in 2010 to resume with the Highlanders.

Prior to Houghton, Coach Dougherty was the head coach of men’s and women’s cross country and track and field at Eastern Mennonite University. During his time at EMU, he was able to effect change in the teams by focusing on team culture. This focus resulted in tripling the roster size from previous years, while also achieving success on the field of play to include all-conference awards, all-region awards, an Academic All-American award and qualifying a runner to the NCAA Cross Country National Championships, and NCAA Track and Field Championships for the first time in over a decade for the school.

Dougherty received his graduate degree in education from Saint Lawrence University in Canton, N.Y. Following graduation from Houghton, Dougherty took on the head men's and women's cross country position at Paul Smiths College. During his second year at Paul Smiths, Dougherty led the Bobcats to the USCAA National Meet where they finished third, and had nine runners place within the top-30 overall. Dougherty then returned to Houghton in the summer of 2005 where he has served as the director of service learning and a professor of recreation and physical education in addition to his duties as assistant coach.

Under Dougherty's tutelage, over 100 athletes have reached the national qualifying level with, 8 National Champions, 5 National Runners-ups, and numerous All- Americans. Dougherty has also guided more than 100 athletes to qualify for the NAIA National Championships over the past six seasons with three athletes being recognized as a conference Most Valuable Player, several individual conference champions, and two national champions. With only one year in the NCCAA behind him, Dougherty has coached three national champions and one Most Outstanding Performer at the national meet. His athletes have set over 30 school records.

In addition to a 2012 national champion, a recent highlight of Dougherty’s career came at the 2011 NAIA Cross Country National Championships where his women’s team was recognized as the first-ever recipients of the Buffalo Fund Five Star Team of Character Award. 

Dougherty is excited to set his sights and rebuilding the Paul Smiths Nordic Ski team into a National Powerhouse as well as continue the strong tradition of excellence on the marathon canoe team.