Bellarmine University Athletics

Bellarmine Athletics Hall of Famer David Sexton joined the Bellarmine University cross country and track & field staff as an assistant coach prior to the 2024-25 season.

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.

Sexton’s name remains prominent in the cross country record book. Upon his return to Bellarmine, he ranked eighth on both the 8k and 10k performance lists, held 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.
      
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.