In his role as director of USA Triathlon's Project Podium, Parker Spencer ('12, fourth from left) develops the next generation of Summer Olympians for Team USA . (Photos by Trevor Witt/Project Podium)
Spencer led three Club Sports programs to successful seasons simultaneously before landing dream job with USA Triathlon
Now in his sixth year as head coach of USA Triathlon's Project Podium, Parker Spencer will be inducted into the 10th class of the Club Sports Hall of Fam on Friday.
Former Liberty University triathlon, cycling, and men's swimming Head Coach Parker Spencer ('12), who has thrived in his role as head coach of Project Podium, USA Triathlon's men's elite development program, will be inducted as part of the 10th class of Liberty's Club Sports Hall of Fame on Feb. 16 at 1 p.m. in the Montview Alumni Ballroom.
Spencer, who graduated with a B.S. in Exercise Science, started coaching Liberty's men's and women's triathlon teams in 2014 before taking the reins of the men's and women's cycling teams when those became Club Sports programs in 2015 and the men's swimming & diving team when it was added in 2017.
Prior to that, the Liberty Christian Academy graduate competed on the Flames' NCAA Division I track & field team from 2008-10 after being recruited by then-Assistant Coach and current Head Coach Lance Bingham, who will serve as Spencer's presenter at Friday's induction ceremony.
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Spencer monitors his triathletes times in transition from the bike to the run.
"He's an awesome young man," said Bingham, who has known Spencer since he was in second grade at LCA. "He was a hard-working kid and when he set his mind to do something, he would do it. It's been cool to see how God directed his path into coaching. He was just an observer, very strong in his faith, wanting to do stuff for the Lord and use his talents."
Bingham said Spencer excelled as an exercise science student and later as Liberty's endurance coach — when he integrated his Club Sports student-athletes into human performance and exercise science testing — and he has taken his training on and off the track to new levels with Project Podium.
"He had competed in the sport of triathlon, so he knew it experientially, and he really learned a lot of the science behind it," Bingham said. "There's an art of coaching and a science of coaching. He really dove into how the body works and the factors that go into training for triathlons. As he has advanced in his career, he's just doing a phenomenal job."
Spencer was named the 2022 USA Triathlon Olympic Coach of the Year and led Project Podium to its most successful year in 2023, with his triathletes sweeping the podium at the USA Triathlon Junior National Championships in Milwaukee and placing three in the top eight at the Junior World Championships in Hamburg, Germany.
Bingham is most proud of the way Spencer has incorporated his faith into the training of the next generation of U.S. Olympic triathletes.
"He is very driven to be excellent and he wants to do it in a way that impacts the Kingdom," he said. "He has gone into a world where his faith has been an encouragement, and he is making an impact wherever God has sent him."
Heath Grishaw, who served as Spencer's assistant coach for the inaugural 2017-18 men's swimming season before taking the helm of that team for the past six seasons, said Spencer was an inspirational mentor to both the high-level student-athletes on the team and himself.
"You could see the passion that Parker has; he put everything into whatever he did," Grishaw said. "He played a big role in helping me have confidence when he left and I took over the swim program."
Spencer challenged Grishaw to continue to raise the standards of the program and to stay in pursuit of guiding Liberty to its first College Club Swimming national championship.
"Parker told me when he left, it was my time to create a culture and a program that we talked about having," Grishaw said. "I am not shying away from that vision, but always trying to remember whatever we set out to do, to do it with excellence."
During his five years serving as a Club Sports head coach at Liberty, Spencer fostered family-oriented team cultures, carrying on the tradition of Beth Frackleton, a 2021 Club Sports Hall of Fame inductee who he assisted before taking the reins as triathlon head coach.
Since joining USA Triathlon's Project Podium — based in Tempe, Ariz., from October through May and the Olympic Training Center in Park City, Utah, from June through September — Spencer has instilled a positive vibe within that program that launched with his hiring in 2018.
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Parker Spencer and his wife Kristina, shown in Venice, Italy, have traveled the world.
"We've done really well at creating a very elite environment between all three sports," Spencer said. "One of things we focus on the most is our culture, and we have fine-tuned a lot of things to get to where we are now. Triathlon is known as an individual sport, but what we've created here is an atmosphere where triathletes truly support each other and work together as a team."
He has ambitious goals for his triathletes, as he trains them to compete on international stages and ultimately in the Summer Olympics in Paris this year and Los Angeles in 2028. Â Spencer's recruiting philosophy was recently highlighted in an article in Triathlete magazine, which also featured him on the cover of an issue in 2019.
"I want to recruit and develop the best athletes in the world," Spencer said, noting that two of his original recruits, Darr Smith and Chase McQueen, are in the running for Team USA's Olympic bids and he is currently training two triathletes, Owen Cravens and Chris Hammer, who have already qualified for the Paralympic Games in Paris. "My job is to find the athletes, recruit them, and train them for the first five years of their career, and then pass them off to USA Triathlon's high-performance director, Ryan Bolton, who coaches them from there. I want Project Podium to be a key aspect in changing the sport, and we're absolutely doing that."
Spencer is excited for the future of the program as he guides an elite group of triathletes with a work ethic and balanced training approach that he developed while simultaneously coaching approximately 100 athletes in three different Club Sports programs at Liberty.
 In 2023, Spencer was on the road with his Project Podium team for 33 weeks competing in more than 20 countries.  In order to attend Friday's induction ceremony, Parker will miss coaching his team in the time trial for a premier cycling event, but will fly back to Arizona in time for Saturday's Valley of the Sun stage race and Sunday's criterium.
In addition to a host of local family and friends, Spencer will be accompanied by his wife, Kristina, and their two daughters, Alayna, 4, and Lilyana, who will turn 2 in March.
By Ted Allen/Staff WriterSpencer trains his Project Podium triathletes in Tempe, Arizona, during the winter months and in Park City, Utah, over the summer.
