Green Hope Track & Field

Coach Jill Gardiner was born and raised in Cary. She graduated from Cary High School where she played several sports: soccer, tennis, swimming, cross country, and track and field. She eventually earned a full soccer scholarship to NC State University where she earned All-American status. While playing for the US Women’s National Team she sustained a career ending soccer injury. This is when her attention turned to long distance running and triathlons. After starting in mechanical engineering at NCSU, Jill earned a degree in Social Work instead (NCSU 1995). She then went on to earn dual Master degrees from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte in Mathematics and Secondary Education (1998). While earning her Master degrees she also began teaching and coaching at Garinger High School, in Charlotte. While at Garinger she taught history and coached women’s soccer, men’s tennis and men’s and women’s track and field (1996-1998). After Garinger, she taught and coached at Concord High School. While at Concord she coached cross country, track and field, soccer, tennis, swimming, volleyball and basketball.

Coach Gardiner has earned several honors while teaching and coaching. In addition to being named Teacher of the Year twice, she has also been named conference coach of the year multiple times for different sports (men’s cross country, men’s tennis, men’s soccer, men’s track and field, women’s tennis and women’s soccer). She was also honored as the County Coach of the Year a few times. She has coached numerous Conference Championship teams, Regional team winners and several individual state champions.

In 2017 Coach Gardiner returned home and has taught mathematics at Green Hope since. 2025 will be her 8th year on the Green Hope cross country and track coaching staffs.

Coach Spreitzer is in his 2nd year with the XC team in 2025.  He is a former Falcon runner who earned All-Conference 3 times and All-Region twice at Green Hope.  In 2009 he was team MVP, Conference MVP, and state runner-up on his way to becoming the first Falcon boy to earn All-State status in cross country.  Bryan earned Academic All-Conference honors 4 times in cross country, Indoor Track, and Outdoor Track and still holds the 4th-fastest 5K PR in Green Hope history (15:27).  He was All-Conference 3 times in Outdoor Track and earned 3 top-5 finishes (All-State) in the 4A Indoor State Meet (3200m).  Spreitzer is currently 3rd all-time at Green Hope in the Indoor 3200 (9:30).  He achieved All-American status in the 4x1 mile at the Nike Indoor National Championships in 2008 and again in 2010 by finishing 4th place in the nation in the Indoor 5K (15:26).  Bryan ran three years at NC State finishing 14th in the 5K ACC Championship in 2012 and setting a 5K PR of 14:58 at the Adidas Invitational in 2011.  In the fall of 2024, Coach Spreitzer was inducted into the Green Hope Athletic Hall of Fame.

Rett Summerville will be in his 8th year as the pole vault coach at Green Hope. He’s a former 16’ high school vaulter, Division I scholarship athlete with over 10 years of pole vault experience and is an NFHS certified pole vault coach.