TCU Names Two Assistant Track and Field Coaches
10/4/2001 12:00:00 AM
Oct. 4, 2001
Brad Bowman and Derek Koonts have been named Assistant Track & Field coaches, according to TCU Head Track & Field Coach Monte Stratton. Bowman and Koonts fill the positions vacated by Dan Waters and Cinnamon Sheffield.
"We're excited to add Brad and Derek to our staff," said Stratton. "Brad has been a head coach at a Division I university and understands what that encompasses, which will be a great advantage for me. He's very experienced and enthusiastic and has had a great deal of success throughout his coaching career. His primary emphasis will be on the women sprinters and on recruiting.
"Derek has a great background in distance running and will work with both the men's and women's distance runners and handle our travel arrangements," continued Stratton. "He is very organized with a great work ethic."
Bowman comes to TCU after serving for four years as the head track & field coach at South Alabama. Under his direction, the Jaguars combined to set a total of 18 new school records and they earned a total of 31 all-conference awards in 2001. He became the school's first full-time women's head coach prior to the 1998 season before taking over both the men's and women's programs the following year. His teams have produced six NCAA Indoor and Outdoor championship participants including the 2000 national champion in the indoor 3,000 and 5,000-meter runs. In 1999 he guided the Jaguars to the school's first ever Sun Belt Conference Track Championship as the women's squad won both the indoor and outdoor titles. During Bowman's tenure, the Jaguars accounted for 29 individual conference championships, 104 all-conference awards and established 50 school records.
Koonts, a 1999 graduate from Sam Houston State, served as the Assistant Men's and Women's Track & Field Coach at his alma mater last year. His responsibilities included designing practice schedules for the distance runners, pole vaulters and hurdlers. Under his guidance, his athletes produced school records in the women's 60-meter hurdles and the 400-intermediate hurdles. His women's cross country team finished second in the Southland Conference and sixth at the 2000 Region VI cross country meet.
"The new coaches will be very active in recruiting locally, regionally, nationally and internationally, with a focus on building our women's program to the level of our men's program. Overall, I'm very happy with the makeup of our staff," continued Stratton. "With the sum of the parts greater, I believe this is the best staff we've assembled at TCU."
