Coach Melvin Lister III began winning state championships as a high-school freshman at Leavenworth High in Kansas — and didn't stop. Across four seasons from 1993 to 1996, he took home eight Kansas state titles: triple jump every year of high school, two in the 400m, plus a long jump and a 200m crown.
By graduation he'd already added two national championships — long jump at the USA Juniors and triple jump at the National Scholastic Outdoor. He kept going. Five JUCO national titles at Butler County Community College. Five NCAA national titles at the University of Arkansas. Two U.S. Olympic Trials wins. Two Olympic Games.
Today, Coach Lister leads the Oklahoma City chapter of the Cheetah — bringing Olympic-level horizontal-jumps technique to the next generation of Oklahoma athletes.
Be better than you were yesterday.
First Olympic appearance. Won the U.S. Olympic Trials long jump to punch his ticket.
Set a U.S. Olympic Trials triple-jump record to qualify for his second Games.
Inducted for a career that began with eight state titles at Leavenworth High School and ended on two U.S. Olympic teams.
Five NCAA national titles in the long jump and triple jump across three seasons in Fayetteville.
Since retiring from competition, Coach Lister has put the same hours into coaching that he once put into jumping. Multiple programs over more than a decade. One specialty: horizontal jumps.
Leading the OKC chapter of the Cheetah. Brings Olympic-level long-jump and triple-jump technique to Oklahoma athletes — the events that built his own career.
Girls Sprint Coach & Track Team Jumps Coach. Bringing technique honed at the highest levels of the sport to the high-school athletes coming up next.
Crooked Oak High School — where he coached his son Melvin IV to 3rd place in the 200m at the state meet. Southern Nazarene University, Jumps Coach. Mayfield Middle School. Cooper Middle School. Four years and counting with Oklahoma Cheetah.
“I like helping an athlete get better, and that is with anything. The smile that I get when they do what I tell them and it works, is priceless.”
“I coach because I wanted to be part of the solution to make coaching better for my own children, and others just happen to benefit as a result.”
