Vince Bingham, the new fields event coach, is gearing up for his first scoring meet of the year.

Bingham has been in the coaching business since 1983. When offered the field events coaching position by Connie Teaberry, director of track and field and cross country, Bingham was the head coach at Neosho County Community College in Chanute, Kan.

“Connie and I go back pretty far,” Bingham said. “When she called with the opportunity to come coach beside her it was an opportunity I could not pass up.

“Also, coach [Greg] Hipp was a good friend of mine as well that I’d known for a while; both of those coaches are pretty amazing and big reasons why I decided to come to NIU.”

In Bingham’s one season with the Panthers he placed in the top 10 in the NJCAA National Championships. His team did this despite having only one sophomore between the men’s and women’s community college programs.

Prior to being at Neosho County Community College, Bingham was the head coach at Missouri Baptist University, and he also had assistant coaching stints at five schools.

Bingham had some success when he was the head coach at Missouri Baptist. The Spartans won two National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics national championships. Bingham’s 2006 team set the all-time record with eight individual champions. The team also set a record with most points scored by a team in a national championship with 172.

While he’s in charge of multiple field events, Bingham said he doesn’t have a favorite event because he believes he’s been successful in every event he’s coached.

“Vince joining us here has been great,” Teaberry said. “He brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise in all of the events on the track, and his recruiting abilities have led to two great athletes coming in mid-year. It has been very, very, very good for us in all aspects of track and field.”

Bingham will dive into his first scoring meet as a member of the NIU staff this weekend when the Huskies travel to Champaign for the 11-team Illini Classic at 9 a.m. Saturday.

“I’m looking forward to see[ing] what we can do,” Bingham said. “I feel like we have trained very hard over break, so I’m pretty anxious to watch my group. I’m ready to get back at it. This weekend will be our first true test this season.”