Good coaches build good teams—but great coaches build dynasties.
That’s exactly what coaches Neil Nelson and Shannon Fisher have built with the Wilson track and field program over the past few decades. This season, the duo added both a CIF-SS championship and a CIF State championship to their impressive resume, continuing their remarkable run at the helm of one of the state’s premier programs.
Nelson and Fisher have helped lead a Wilson track and field program that now boasts seven total state championships. The pair have also coached more than 30 athletes who have gone on to earn college scholarships during their time at Wilson, and they just guided the Bruins to their first-ever three-peat at the CIF State Track Finals.
That accomplishment made Wilson just the third school to win three consecutive girls’ CIF State championships, and the first to do so since Long Beach Poly claimed four in a row through 2011. The Bruins also set a new school record with 46 points at the CIF State Finals in Clovis.
The championship is the seventh for Wilson and the sixth for the Bruin girls, moving the girls’ program into second place in state history for the most championships. It also marks the third consecutive championship for Wilson—only five schools have ever won three state titles, let alone done so consecutively.
Nelson has been coaching at Wilson for nearly four decades, with Fisher alongside him for more than two. Fisher spent the first 19 years of his coaching career at Wilson as an assistant before officially being named head coach of the boys’ team in 2022. The pair are widely regarded as co-coaches of the Wilson track and field program as a whole.
