TEMPE – Five-time NCAA individual national champion thrower Turner Washington shares something in common with several other Sun Devil coaches like Kenny Dillingham, Missy Farr-Kaye and Petra Pradi, just to name a few.
He's an Arizona State alum and has no plans of going anywhere anytime soon. ASU's new director of Track and Field, Ryan Vanhoy, recently announced that Washington will return to the Track and Field staff for the 2026-27 season.
“I really don’t want to do it anywhere else,” Washington said. “There's a dream of what ASU throws can be and what ASU Track and Field can be."
"We've really brought in the right pieces and the right people who are really excited to be here,” Washington said.
Coach Turner Washington and Ines Lopez at the Mt. SAC Relays in 2026.
Believing in what comes next
Washington sees coaches and student-athletes arriving in Tempe with different experiences, but as long as there's a shared growth mindset, he believes the Sun Devils can compete nationally.
For him, that mentality is familiar. It is the same approach he carried throughout his career.
“We don’t have everything other schools may have, like a new facility,” Washington said. “But I think if it comes down to it, there's a belief that this place can be great, and it’s being around like-minded people.”
Washington compares this approach to a “Rocky mentality.” It's akin to the belief that having the best of the best isn't everything. What matters most is what the team does with what it has.
“I don’t need the best facility,” Washington said. “We’re going to go kick your butt. We don’t have it all, but we have a net, we have some influence, and we’re going to get the job done.”
More importantly for Washington, he sees that attitude extending beyond his throws group.
“I think that’s the same energy of all the other coaches on staff,” Washington said. “It’s nice to have nice things, but we don’t need them. We’re going to get the job done without them.”
Instead of lamenting limitations, Washington sees a staff focused on the possibilities ahead.
“It’s really exciting to just have a new perspective and a new energy and people who are excited to be here rather than, I think, kind of looking at all the things that we don’t have and seeing those as reasons why we can’t succeed.”
Turner Washington is a five-time NCAA individual national champion thrower.
From student-athlete …
Turner Washington knows a few things about being successful within Sun Devil Track and Field. He is one of the most decorated and successful student-athletes in the school's history.
But one of the greatest Sun Devils of all time began his collegiate career with ASU’s biggest rival, the University of Arizona.
The Tucson native chose to stay close to home to begin his career despite being recruited by Arizona State. After a difficult first season, however, he began to question whether he had made the right choice.
“I remember I wasn’t having the best season, and I was sitting on this little grass turf hill at Stanford watching ASU,” Washington said.
As he watched the Sun Devil throwers interact with their coach, something stood out. They were smiling. They were enjoying themselves. Seeing that group brought the possibility of becoming a Sun Devil back to the front of his mind.
“I was like, ‘Oh, I think that’s where I need to be,’” Washington recalled.
Ines Lopez and Preston Beery listen to Coach Turner Washington during Day 3 of the Big 12 Outdoor Track and Field Championships in 2026.
… to coach
Following his illustrious collegiate career, which included five national individual titles, a bicep injury derailed his Olympic plans. ASU became the place where he found what came next.
A few months later, in spring 2024, a new opportunity landed in his lap: Sun Devil track and field needed his help.
He volunteered with the Track and Field program for the remainder of the season, helping to qualify two student-athletes for nationals. After the season, he was officially brought onto the staff to coach the women’s throws before eventually taking responsibility for both the men’s and women’s throws groups.
What began as an unexpected opportunity became a career and reignited a spark for the sport that had nearly burned out.
"It was at the time when I was kind of on the fence with my own throwing, and the way I see it, being in college as a track and field athlete is the closest you're going to get to experiencing being a professional athlete in this sport," he said.
"I was seeing athletes hit pause and do things that I didn't think were in the realm of possibilities to give me that same excitement that I had once felt in my throwing career."
Then coaching changed everything.
He began experiencing the excitement of accomplishment again. Watching an athlete achieve their dreams brought back that inspiration.
“I was actually feeling that spark,” Washington said. “I was like, ‘OK, I can see why people can get into this.’ Man, I never felt these heart palpitations when I was an athlete.”
He also remembered why he started competing in the first place. Before scholarships, championships or Olympic dreams entered the picture.
“You didn’t start doing the sport because of the Olympics or because of a scholarship,” Washington said. “You did because it was fun.”
If his student-athletes can rediscover that feeling in practice every day, Washington believes everything else has a better chance of following.
“If we can get to that feeling every single day of practice, then we’re winning, and we’re going to get somewhere,” Washington said.
“If you are able to go in every single day, enjoy the day, smile and enjoy the process, that’s where I think the good things come from.”
Turner Washington joined the Sun Devil staff as an assistant coach (Women's throws) prior to the start of the 2024-25 season.
Giving back to the place that gave him so much
Washington’s decision to return for another season is about more than continuing his coaching career.
It's also about loyalty to the place that became home.
Arizona State is where he became a five-time national champion, earned his graduate degree and eventually discovered a career in coaching. It is also where he met his wife, Kira, a hurdler on the Sun Devil Track and Field team.
Those experiences have given Washington a connection to ASU that extends well beyond what happens inside the throwing ring.
“It’s just trying to continue to give back to a place that’s given so much to me.”
That loyalty has gone both ways.
“I think if I had stayed, transferred, gone somewhere else, I might not have been able to get into coaching,” Washington said. “But it’s because I stayed loyal to this place, and this place stayed loyal to me.”
Now, signing on for another season gives Washington another opportunity to return that investment.
He wants the student-athletes he coaches to leave Tempe with their own version of the opportunities ASU gave him.
“It’s the desire to give back and help provide and create that experience for someone else, where they can come here, make some of the best friends of their life and enjoy the four years, five years that they have doing it,” Washington said.