Erica Helm enters her second season with the Golden Eagles in 2020-2021 after joining the program in August 2019. Serving under Head Coach Nick Bias, Helm serves as the Multis, Jumps, and Hurdles coach at the University of Charleston.
Assisting with the 2019-2020 Men’s and Women’s cross-country teams, the Golden Eagles had an impressive season. After the Men’s team took home the Mountain East Conference and Regional titles, the team traveled to Sacramento, California, for the National competition. Finishing in the top 20, the team hopes to return to the National stage this year to continue their growing legacy. The Women’s team had an impressive season as well, placing 4th at the Mountain East Cross-Country Championships and earned their spot at the Regional competition in Lock Haven, Pennsylvania. Helm, having a final year of eligibility to compete in the Fall, ran the cross-country season with the women and competed at the regional competition with the women’s team.
Helm also had great coaching success during Charleston’s run at the first-annual Mountain East Conference Indoor Track & Field Championships. Louise Cranston, the team’s freshman Multi-event athlete from Australia, competed for a second-place title, racking-up 3,064 points, breaking her previous Pentathlon school-record set earlier in the 2019-2020 season. Adding some gold to the list, Junior Gunnhildur Ingvadottir, from Iceland, jumped an impressive 11.05m on her final attempt, winning the event. Long and triple jumper, Joshua Saunders, took home bragging rights, earning hardware for his first-place Long Jump, at 7.01 m, and fourth in the Triple. Junior local, Haley Snodgrass, jumped a height of 3.40m in the Pole Vault, finishing in second place. And breaking his own school record, Dezmon Bradshaw, improved upon his mark with a time of 8.51sec in the 60m-hurdle finals.
The Greencastle, Pennsylvania native earned her Bachelor’s degree in Exercise Science at Shippensburg University, in Shippensburg, Pennsylvania, with Minors in Coaching and Biology. Graduating with honors from the Wood Honors College, and serving as the treasurer of Tau Kappa, the university’s athletic honor sorority, Helm and her colleagues lead several community service projects at the university such as the Special Olympics, Make-A-Wish, and food recovery for the local township.
During her time as a Red Raider, Helm was a four-year Multi-event athlete for the women’s track & field program. Helm was recognized as a three-time All-PSAC honoree and five-time Indoor/Outdoor individual point scorer for her team. In 2018, Helm was crowned the Indoor Pentathlon Champion at the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference, as well as winning an impressive five team championship titles, between 2015-2019, with the women’s squad.
Helm is currently pursuing her Master’s of Science in Strategic Leadership from the University of Charleston and is scheduled to graduate in December 2020.
