Kate Hall, a national champion long jumper at both the high school and NCAA Division I levels, has been named an assistant track and field coach at Saint Joseph’s College of Standish.
The Casco native announced in June that she would forego her senior year at the University of Georgia and return to Maine to focus on her training in preparation for the 2019 IAAF World Championships in Doha, Qatar, and her bid for the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan.
“Being home in Maine I wanted to find something to do besides training all the time and coaching is something I love to do,” she said. “I thought this would be a good opportunity to do something I love and also do it while I’m training.”
Hall spent one year at Iowa State and the last two years at Georgia where she won NCAA Division I long jump championships both indoors (2018) and outdoors (2017) and also placed sixth at the 2018 NCAA indoor championships in the 60-meter dash.
The five-time All-American established new UGA records in the indoor long jump (22 feet, 1 inch), indoor 60-meter dash (7.17 seconds) and outdoor long jump (22-1).
“I’ve worked with athletes on and off,” said Hall. “I haven’t officially been a coach before but it’s something I’ve always been interested in so I think it’s going to be fun.”
Hall first became known nationally when she capped off her senior year of track at Lake Region High School in Naples by breaking the girls’ national high school long jump record with a leap of 22-5.
That effort not only broke the oldest high school field record remaining — 39 years — but also surpassed the U.S. junior (under age 20) mark and placed her in a tie for ninth in the 2015 world rankings.
While competing for Lake Region, Hall was an eight-time high school All-American who won 26 individual state championships in indoor and outdoor track and six individual New England championships. She also was a three-time Maine Gatorade Track and Field Athlete of the Year.
“It is very exciting to have someone with Kate’s elite level of experience as an athlete now on our coaching staff,” said Saint Joseph’s head cross country and track and field coach
Tom Dann. “Couple that with her outstanding personality and you have a recipe for her having a tremendous impact on our athletes and the program as a whole.”
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