LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Bellarmine Athletics Hall of Famer David Sexton has joined the Bellarmine University cross country and track & field staff as an assistant coach.

Before embarking upon an illustrious career in law, Sexton was a 1979 graduate of Bellarmine and was inducted into the Athletics Hall of Fame in 1982. A program luminary in distance running, he was the Knights' top men's cross country runner and named Most Valuable Runner all four of his years at Bellarmine.

Bellarmine director of cross country and track & field Jim Vargo was a teammate of Sexton when Vargo was a freshman and Sexton was a senior with the Knights. When Vargo returned this season to lead the program, the longtime friends were eager to rejoin forces at Bellarmine.

"Dave is the fiercest competitor I had as a teammate or encountered on a cross country course or a track," Vargo said. "He will bring the toughness factor that endurance runners need to have in the middle to the latter stages of a race and will impart that to our student-athletes. Dave's excitement and enthusiasm for Bellarmine and our distance student-athletes is contagious."

Sexton's name remains prominent in the cross country record book. He ranks eighth on both the 8k and 10k performance lists. He holds the 17th-best 8k time (24:46) in program history, which had stood as the top mark until 2015, and the 14th-best 10k time (31:51.3), which he delivered at the 1977 NCAA II Championships.

Sexton was recognized as an Academic All-American in 1978. He was honored with Bellarmine's John T. Loftus Award in both 1978 and 1979 and the Fred J. Karem Scholastic Achievement Award in 1979.

"It was apparent to me after only a handful of practices with the guys that they are a really good group," Sexton said. "I am really looking forward to helping Jim and the guys any way I can to have a season we can be proud of after we run our last race in November."          

Sexton obtained his J.D. Degree from the University of Kentucky College of Law in 1982. He served as an Assistant Attorney General in the Kentucky Attorney General's Office and, during his time there, served as the Director of the Criminal Appeals Division and the Director of the Prosecutors Advisory Council. 

Additionally in his time in the attorney general's office, Sexton served as a Supreme Court Fellow with the National Association of Attorneys General in Washington, DC. He left the attorney general's office in 2003 to serve as an Assistant Jefferson County Attorney in the Jefferson County Attorney's Office. In the Jefferson County Attorney's Office, he is the Director of the Appellate Division.

Sexton was recognized by the Jefferson County Attorney with a Special Recognition Award for his advocacy in the Kentucky Supreme Court. During the course of his career in government service, he's argued numerous cases in the Kentucky Court of Appeals, the Kentucky Supreme Court, the United States Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court of the United States.

Sexton's wife, Mary Pat, is a 1982 Bellarmine graduate and the couple has two sons.

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