by Larry Eder
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Our actions speak louder than words. Congrats to USATF on picking Amy Deem and Andrew Valmon, and their respective staffs for the 2012 London Games! Nice job, USATF! The picture is of the 1896 Olympic track in Athens!
Coaches work their entire lives to be picked to represent their profession with the best athletes in the U.S. It is, in my opinion, that important that we pick great coaching and support staffs!
The coaches association USCCTFA rightly picked that many well -respected college coaches are well represented. Again, a job well done, and a good example of the direction our teams are headed!
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Deem, Valmon selected to head 2012 Olympic Team Staff – Track & Field
INDIANAPOLIS – University of Miami women’s head coach Amy Deem and University of Maryland head coach Andrew Valmon
have been nominated to serve as the women’s and men’s head coaches,
respectively, for Team USA‘s track and field squads for the 2012 Olympic
Games in London, England, USA Track & Field announced on Thursday. Diane
Wholey and Ken Brauman are nominated as head managers. All Olympic Team
staff selections are pending final approval of the U.S. Olympic
Committee’s Chief Executive Officer.
USATF also announced the coaching staff for the 2011 Pan American Games team that will be led by men’s head coach Cliff Rovelto and women’s head coach Angie Taylor.
Assistant coaches nominated to
the Olympic women’s coaching staff are Tonja Buford Bailey, Rose Monday,
Gwen Wentland and Connie Price-Smith. Men’s staff nominees are Mike
Holloway, Jack Hazen, Edrick Floreal and Tom Pukstys. Medical and other
additional officials will be announced at a later date.
Deem, Valmon and the Team USA
staff will guide the World’s #1 Track & Field Team at the Olympic
Games in London. In Olympic competition, Team USA track and field
athletes have won 315 gold medals and 744 medals overall, by far the
most won in any sport by any country. In 2008, track athletes won seven
gold and 23 medals overall.
Deem to lead Team USA women’s squad
University of Miami head women’s
track and field coach Amy Deem has built the school’s women’s track
program from modest beginnings into one of the nation’s elite.
Before her arrival in Miami 20 years ago, the Hurricanes had never had an athlete record an NCAA qualifying mark. Deem
has guided 42 student-athletes to a combined 147 All-America honors and
12 individual National Championships, including 2009 NCAA Indoor
200-meter Champion Murielle Ahoure, 2008 NCAA Indoor 400-meter Champion
Krista Simkins, 2006 NCAA Outdoor triple jump Champion Tabia Charles,
2005 NCAA Indoor and Outdoor shot put champion Kim Barrett and 2004 NCAA
100-meter Champion Lauryn Williams. The Hurricanes have boasted at
least one All-American in each of the last 19 seasons and have claimed
seven Conference Outdoor Track and Field Championships
in two conferences.
Deem, who was the head women’s
coach for Team USA at the 2007 World Outdoor Championships in Osaka,
Japan, served three seasons (1998-2000) as the Event Coordinator for
Sprints and Hurdles for the USA Track and Field Coaches Education
Program, and in 2001 served as head coach of the USA Junior National
team that competed in England and Scotland. In the summer of 2003 Deem
served as the Explosive Events Coach (sprints and hurdles) for the
United States at the Pan American games in Santo Domingo, Dominican
Republic guiding Lauryn
Williams to the gold medal in the 100-meters. In addition, the United
States swept the gold medals in the 4×100-meter relay and 4×400-meter
relay for the first time since 1987.
Valmon to lead Team USA’s men’s squad
Andrew Valmon arrived at the
University of Maryland as the school’s head coach in 2003 after serving
on the track and field staff at Georgetown University since 1995, where
he was the men’s head coach for four seasons.
During his track career Valmon
earned gold medals as a member of the United States 4×400 relay teams at
the 1988 and 1992 Olympic Games. He was on 13 U.S. National Teams,
earning gold medals at the 1990 Goodwill Games, the 1993 World
Championships and the 1994 Goodwill Games. He owns a personal-best of
44.28 in his specialty, the 400-meter dash
Valmon has served as a Team USA
assistant coach at the 2009 World Outdoor Championships in Berlin,
Germany, and as the head coach for the 2010 World Indoor Championships
team in Doha, Qatar. Prior to coaching at the World Championship level,
Valmon was relay coach for Team USA at the 2008 NACAC Championships in
El Salvador. In 2002, Valmon was awarded the President’s Award by USATF
for his contributions to both USATF and to the sport of track and field.
He has also served as a member of USATF’s Athletes Advisory Committee.
Wholey, Brauman to serve as head managers
Diane Wholey – Women’s Head Manager:
Now in her 12th year as a member of the Texas Tech coaching staff,
Wholey is now an assistant athletic director for the program after
transitioning from coaching the men’s and women’s high jump, javelin and
combined events. Her previous coaching stops include the University of
Texas, the University of Mississippi and at the University of
Tennessee.
Wholey was the assistant throws
coach for Team USA at the 2005 World Outdoor Track and Field
Championships, and was the women’s head coach of the 2004 World Indoor
Track and Field Championships in Budapest, Hungary. She was head coach
at the 2004 USA vs. Germany vs. France Team Challenge held in Munich,
Germany, and her vast international experience also includes being head
manager for Team USA at the 2002 NACAC Under-23 Championships, the 2007
World Outdoor Championships and the 2010 World Indoor Championships.
Ken Brauman – Men’s Head Manager: Brauman
has served as the head track coach at Seminole High School in Sanford,
Fla., since 1983. He was named Florida Track Coach of the Year 10 times,
has coached 57 High School All-Americans and was named the 1997
National High School Track and Field Coach of the Year. A member of the
Florida Track and Field Hall of Fame, he is an inductee of the Florida
Athletic Coaches Association Hall of Fame.
A USA Track & Field Certified
Level 1 Coaching Instructor, Brauman has served as the head manager on
two U.S. World Junior Championship team staffs and has been an assistant
coach on six U.S. international team staffs, including the 1997 World
Indoor Championships in Paris, France, and the 2001 World Outdoor
Championships in Edmonton, Canada. He recently served as the men’s head
manager at the 2009 World Outdoor Championships in Berlin.
Women’s staff assistant coaches
Tonja Buford-Bailey – Sprints/Hurdles: A
1993 graduate of the University of Illinois, Buford-Bailey became the
head women’s track and field coach at her alma mater in 2008 after
serving as an assistant since 2004. She was a three-time Olympian,
earning a bronze medal in the 400m hurdles at the 1996 Olympics in
Atlanta to become the first female Illini athlete to win an Olympic
medal. She also made the Olympic teams in 1992 and 2000. Buford-Bailey
was the first woman in history to break the 53-second mark in the 400m
hurdles, doing so twice. She closed out the 1995
season ranked second in the world and her mark of 52.62 seconds in the
400m hurdles still remains fourth on the all-time world list.
Buford-Bailey served as the
women’s sprints/hurdles coach at the 2009 World Outdoor Track &
Field Championships in Berlin, Germany. She coached the female
sprinters and hurdlers at the 2007 Pan American Junior meet, with her
event-group athletes winning nine of Team USA’s 23 total medals.
Rose Monday – Endurance: Monday,
who most recently coached at the University of Texas-San Antonio, is
nationally known as one of the top minds in middle distance and distance
running. In 2003 she was appointed USATF Development chair for women’s
distance events. She was an assistant coach for the U.S. team at the
2005 World University Games in Izmir, Turkey, and served as head women’s
coach for Team USA at the 2006 IAAF World Junior Championships in
Beijing, China.
A member of three national
championship relay teams at Cal State Northridge, Monday was the 1985
national indoor champion in the 800m, was ranked in the top 10 in the
U.S. in the 800 from 1983-92 and competed in four Olympic Trials. She
was also ranked in the 1,500 for four years.
Gwen Wentland – Jumps/Combined Events: A
two-time USA Indoor high jump champion, a four-time competitor at the
U.S. Olympic Trials and a four-time All-American as an athlete at Kansas
State University, Wentland later continued to compete while serving as
an Administrative Assistant and Assistant Coach at her alma mater. In
2000 she accepted a position at the University of California-Irvine as
the school’s jumps coach.
Wentland has been actively
involved with USA Track and Field since 1994, serving the organization
as the U.S. Vertical Jumps Event Leader and as a member of USATF’s
Women’s Development Committee. Most recently she served as the Assistant
Coach (jumps/multis) for the U.S. Team at the 2010 World Indoor
Championships. She has bee an athlete’s liaison officer for Team USA at
the 1997 World Outdoor Championships, and at the 2001 World Youth
Championships. Wentland also was an assistant coach for Team USA at the
2002 World Junior
Championships in Jamaica.
Connie Price-Smith – Throws: A
four-time Olympian recognized as one of America’s best combination shot
put/discus throwers in history, Connie Price-Smith is in her ninth year
as a coach at her collegiate alma mater, Southern Illinois University.
The 2009-10 season marked her sixth as the director of track and
field/cross country, and head coach for both the men’s and women’s
combined track and field program. She spent her first three years as
head coach for the Saluki women’s team. Last season, seven SUI athletes
earned NCAA All-American honors. Jeneva McCall won
the national championship in the discus, and the women’s team finished
the 2010 NCAA Outdoor Championships in ninth place. Price-Smith was
named MVC Coach of the Year for the fourth time in her career.
A 25-time national champion in
the shot put and discus, and a member of 34 international U.S. squads as
an athlete, Price-Smith has also served on Team USA coaching staffs and
will lead the Team USA women’s squad as head coach at the 2011 World
Outdoor Championships in Daegu, Korea. She was an assistant coach for
Team USA at the 2004 World Junior Championships in Kingston, Jamaica,
and also served in that capacity at the 2005 World Indoor Championships
and with the U.S. 2006 World Cup Team in Athens, Greece. Price-Smith was
Team
USA’s head coach at the 2007 Pan Am Games and was an assistant coach at
the 2008 Olympic Games.
Men’s staff assistant coaches
Mike Holloway – Sprints/Hurdles: Holloway is in his ninth season as head track and field coach at the University of Florida and 12th
season on the Gators’ staff. In his first four seasons as head coach
he’s amassed seven individual and relay NCAA titles, four runner-up
finishes at NCAA Championships and two NCAA East Regional titles. In
2010, Holloway’s Florida men’s team won the school’s first ever NCAA
Indoor team title and he was named the 2010 U.S. Track and Field and
Cross Country Coaches Association Men’s Head Coach of the Year.
Internationally, Holloway
was head coach for Team USA at the 2004 NACAC U-23 Championships, where
American athletes won 27 of 40 events contested. Among the athletes he
coaches is two-time outdoor Visa Champion Kerron Clement. Holloway also
served as Team USA men’s sprints/hurdles coach at the 2007 World Outdoor
Championships in Osaka, Japan.
Jack Hazen – Distance Running: Jack
Hazen has been head coach of men’s cross country at Malone University
for 43 years and as women’s cross country head coach for 18 years. His
men’s program still ranks as the all-time winningest program as ranked
by the NAIA.
Hazen’s men’s squad has qualified
for the NAIA national meet every year, having never lost a
conference/district meet in the program’s history. In addition, his
men’s team has 36 top-ten NAIA national finishes. Hazen has also
coached men’s track & field for 31 years and women’s for 18 years.
He has coached over 325 NAIA All-Americans in cross country and track
& field, which represents over 80% of the All-Americans in all of
Malone athletics history. During Hazen’s time
as head coach, the Malone men’s track & field program also helped
develop 2004 Olympic gold medalist pole vaulter Tim Mack.
Hazen was head manager for the 1999 U.S. Junior Pan American team and was twice named as U.S. coach for
men’s cross country at the World Championships, in Boston and Capetown,
South Africa. He was an assistant coach for Team USA at the 2005 World
Outdoor Championships in Helsinki, Finland.
Edrick Floreal – Jumps: Floreal
was named Director of Track & Field at Stanford during the fall of
2005. This year is his 14th season overall with the Stanford program.
Since his arrival at Stanford in 1998, Flroeal has been a 4-time MPSF
coach of the year, the 2009 West Regional Indoor Coach of the Year and
the 2006 West Regional Outdoor Coach of the Year. Under his watch, 52
Stanford athletes have earned 126 All-America honors.
A two-time Olympian who competed for Canada in 1988 and 1992, Floreal served as assistant coach for Team USA at the 2002 IAAF World
Junior Track and Field Championships, which featured the world
record-setting men’s 4×100-meter relay team, the first team to run under
39 seconds.
Tom Pukstys – Throws: The
1992 Olympic Trials men’s javelin champion and a six-time USA Outdoor
champion in that event, Pukstys was an Olympic Games finalist in 1992
and 1996. A former American record holder in the javelin, Pukstys also
competed at the World Outdoor Championships on six occasions, with his
best finish coming in 1993 when he finished ninth.
A former assistant coach at
Brown University, Pukstys is a personal coach that primarily works with
athletes and their coaches on strength and conditioning as well as
throws. He served as an assistant coach for Team USA at the 2007 Pan
American Games, and was the head coach at the USA vs. Finland match in
2005. He is a former chair of USA Track & Field’s Men’s Javelin
Development.
Rovelto, Taylor to lead Team USA at 2011 Pan American Games
Kansas State University head
coach Cliff Rovelto and former George Mason University head women’s
track and cross country coach Angie Taylor have been nominated to lead
Team USA’s respective men’s and women’s coaching staffs at the 2011 Pan
American Games, October 23-29 in Guadalajara, Mexico.
Since becoming the head coach at
Kansas State in November of 1992, Cliff Rovelto’s men’s and women’s
cross country, indoor and outdoor track and field programs have earned 149 All-American certificates and 111 individual conference championships.
Over his 23 seasons at K-State, Rovelto has personally directed 46
individuals to 105 NCAA All-America certificates, as well as 49
individuals to 70 conference event championships. Rovelto has served on
Team USA coaching staffs on six occasions, including at the 2005 and
2007 World Outdoor Championships.
Following a distinguished
career as a head coach and as a student-athlete, Angie Taylor enters her
third year at Coppin State as an assistant athletic director
for academics. Taylor served as the head coach of the women’s cross
country and track and field programs at George Mason University for nine
seasons. Under her guidance, the Patriots finished as the runner-up in
four of her nine seasons at the Colonial Athletic Association Track and
Field Championships. On the international coaching scene, Taylor served as Team USA’s head women’s coach at the 2003 World Outdoor Championships in Paris, France.
Men’s Staff Assistant Coaches
Manny Bautista – Head Manager: Bautista
has served as a collegiate coach at Mesa, Grossmont, Kansas State and
Cal Poly SLO, and has also served on numerous U.S. national team staffs.
Rod Staggs – Sprints/Hurdles: As
a high school coach at Berkeley High School in Missouri, Staggs won 13
state championships, including 12 boys’ titles, and has served on
numerous national junior team coaching staffs.
Troy Engel – Endurance: Formerly
an assistant coach at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, Engel
has served as the institution’s head men’s and women’s track and cross
country coach since October of 2009. He most recently coached the U.S.
track and field team at the 2008 Paralympic Games in Beijing. During his
tenure with the USOC, which began in 2006, Engle also served as the
associate director of the Paralympic Division.
Nat Page – Jumps: Now in
his 15th year as an assistant coach for the Georgia Tech track and
field program, Page is responsible for coaching field events,
including high jump, long jump and triple jump, as well as the men’s and
women’s sprint/hurdle events. Since joining the Tech staff in 1996,
Page has mentored Tech student-athletes to 37 ACC titles, 39 All-America
performances and four national titles. He has coached American
record-setting high jumpers Tisha Waller and current record-holder
Chaunte Lowe.
Rob Lasorsa – Throws: Formerly served as USA Track & Field’s Men’s Development Committee shot put chair.
Women’s Staff Assistant Coaches:
Kim Keenan-Kirkpatrick – Head Manager:
The Associate Athletic Director for Compliance at Seton Hall
University, Keenan-Kirkpatrick was an assistant women’s team coach at
the 2005 World Outdoor Championships and 2008 Olympic Games. She was
women’s head manager for Team USA at the 2006 NACAC Under-23
Championships, and was the head coach at the 1999 Yokohama Women’s
Ekiden. She also served as Team USA’s athlete liaison at the 2004 World
Indoor Championships in Budapest.
LaTanya Sheffield – Sprints/Hurdles: A
400m hurdles finalist at the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, Sheffield
posted the then American record in that event of 54.66 seconds at the
1985 NCAA Outdoor Championships in Austin, Texas. Two years later
Sheffield captured the 400m hurdles bronze medal at the 1987 Pan
American Games.
Francie Larrieu Smith – Endurance: A
1998 inductee of the National Track & Field Hall of Fame, Larrieu
Smith’s running career spanned four decades and included 13 world indoor
records and a total of 35 American records in distances ranging from
1,000 meters to two miles. Larrieu-Smith qualified to compete on five
Olympic teams.
Joy Upshaw Margerum – Combined Events: Upshaw
Margerum recently completed a seven-year stint with the University of
California Golden Bear coaching staff working with hurdlers before
beginning work in coordinating alumni and community relations. Upshaw
Margerum joined the Cal program on a volunteer basis during the 1997
season while serving as the co-head cross country coach. She has also
served as the coach of the Jackrabbit Track Club and Lady Sprinters,
based in Palo Alto.
Sandy Fowler – Throws: Now entering her 13th
season as the head coach of the University of Alabama women’s track
team, Fowler was an assistant coach at the 1990 Goodwill Games and the
1993 World Outdoor Championships. Fowler served as an assistant coach at
the 1999 World University Games, and served in that capacity at the
2000 Olympic Games. Fowler also served as Team USA’s head women’s coach
at the 2005 World Outdoor Championships in Helsinki, Finland.
For more information on USA Track & Field, visit: www.usatf.org.
About USA Track & Field
USA Track & Field (USATF) is the National Governing Body
