Dorian Williams originally turned down the offer to be the head coach of Centennial’s track and field program.
The former Air Force colonel had spent the previous two seasons as an assistant at Arbor View, was set on retiring from coaching and planning on heading to be an athletic director at another school.
Once the Centennial positioned opened up after legendary coach Roy Session left to start up Nevada State University’s men’s track program, several people reached out to Williams saying he should apply.
Williams first accepted a job at Centennial to teach physics. And after discussions with his wife and a lot of prayer, Williams accepted the head coaching job.
It turned out to be the right decision to maintain Centennial’s track dominance.
The Bulldog boys and girls swept the Class 5A track and field team state titles at Hug High in Sparks on May 16. It was the 14th overall girls team title and 13th in the last 14 seasons. The boys won their fifth overall team title and first since 2017.
For his leadership as a first-time head coach to leading the Bulldogs to both titles, Williams was named the Nevada Preps coach of the year.
“He was the perfect fit,” assistant coach Regal Minyard said. “When you have a coaching staff that’s been together for many years, you are a little hesitant to change, but change was forced upon us. He came in the most perfect way with being understanding and wanting to only elevate this program and that was all genuine.”
‘Improved our program’
Session built Centennial into the state’s top track program, leading the Bulldogs to 16 titles between the two programs since 2011 prior to leaving for Nevada State at the end of the 2025 season.
Williams coached sprints and relays at Arbor View, and his son was a 2014 4A state champion in the 110-meter hurdles, which is how the coach became familiar with Centennial’s track dominance.
When Williams took over after the end of last school year, lessons from his Air Force days proved pivotal in transitioning to the new role.
“One of the things we were taught as an officer in the Air Force was when you take over a position or command, you don’t come in and start making changes,” Williams said. “You observe what’s broken and what works. I took my time.”
Williams kept most of the assistants who had been at Centennial for more than a decade, such as assistant head coach Eric Thomas and Minyard. Thomas said Williams make a good first impression with his authenticity and focus on wanting to build relationships with coaches and athletes beyond track.
“Once Coach (Williams) came around, he made it very clear that he knows what he’s here to do,” rising junior Nohla Jones said. “He understands that Centennial is a family. He’s coming in narrowed at the goal (of winning state), but he brought in some amazing culture and expectations.”
The Centennial girls just edged Liberty by three points to win the 2025 title, but had most of their team returning for 2026. The Centennial boys finished eighth at the state meet, but Williams and his staff built upon the potential the boys showed at the end of 2025 and into offseason training.
“He came in and one of the first things that he said was that he wants to win on both sides (boys and girls teams titles),” said Thomas, who has been with the program since 2011. “He knew the history of our girls winning, but knew that it’s been almost 10 years since our boys won state and he said that was one of his primary goals was to help our boys win state.
“Everything that he did on the track and off the track, he helped build that.”
‘Keep this going’
At state, the Centennial girls won the 4×100, 4×200 and 4×400-meter relays to win the title by 30 points over Galena. The boys won the 4×200 and 4×800-meter relays, and won the title by 23 points over Galena.
Wearing the championship white uniforms Williams had saved up for the state meet, the Bulldogs celebrated while exhaling from a busy year. And Williams shed some tears for all the long nights.
“It was exhausting because it was a lot of change this year,” Williams said. “That was a really hard task to manage. This entire year, I would love to say we were all jumping for joy. We just took a big exhale and to me, it was just like ‘We did it.’ I did not want to be the coach that followed Roy and we lost.
“I thought about all of that when I took this job. I want to keep this going, so the fact that we were able to do that, it was more of a relief.”
The Bulldogs will return most of their 2026 state qualifiers for next year, which could continue the program’s dominance for the foreseeable future.
“(He’s) a very intentional coach,” said graduating senior Heaven Deloney. “He’s very supportive and he honestly is like a dad to all of us. He creates this family, he creates this very safe atmosphere for the team. It’s been such a blessing for me and this whole team and the way he’s impacted the team.”
Said Jones: “I feel like he improved our program. The ladies were always great, but he just took what we had on the guys’ side and made us so much better. Now, we’re so strong on both sides.”
Contact Alex Wright at awright@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AlexWright1028 on X.
