Akil St. Louis was named head coach of the College of Staten Island’s cross country and indoor/outdoor track & field programs in August 2023. Since his arrival, both programs have continued to build momentum while reaching new heights on the conference, regional, and national stages.
During the 2025 cross country season and 2025-26 indoor and outdoor track & field seasons, St. Louis guided the Dolphins to record-breaking performances, conference medals, regional recognition, and the first NCAA Division II national qualifying mark in CSI track & field history. The programs experienced significant growth across every event group, with distance runners leading a historic cross country season, sprinters and relay teams establishing new indoor standards, jumpers producing regional and national-level marks, and throwers continuing to raise the bar. The outdoor season culminated with ECC event champions and one of the strongest championship performances of the Dolphins’ Division II era.
St. Louis also welcomed a strong recruiting class, with first-year student-athletes making immediate contributions while returning athletes continued to develop into championship-level performers.
Prior to being named head coach, St. Louis served as an assistant coach for the Dolphins’ programs under Andrew Gangemi from 2019-21.
A Staten Island native, St. Louis competed at the NCAA Division I level at Long Island University. He is a certified USA Track & Field coach and holds a Middle and Distance Certification from the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association. His extensive coaching background includes experience at the high school level, at CSI, and at Alliance University, where he worked with the program’s middle and distance runners.
St. Louis looks to carry the lessons he learned from his mentors throughout his coaching career into his role at CSI.
“Being around the sport of track and field since 1997, mentors such as Ronald ‘Bubba’ Banks, Vinny Giles, and Jeremy Alvarez have provided me with invaluable guidance and taught me the value of patience. I will carry those principles they helped instill in me into this role,” said St. Louis. “Making the decision to accept this position was an easy one. Simply put, it was the right time and the right situation to build something successful.”
Given his track expertise, St. Louis’ solution to most challenges is often simple: “run it off.”
