ASHEVILLE, N.C. – The UNC Asheville athletic department has announced that JP Kimbrough has been promoted to a full-time assistant coach with the track & field program. Kimbrough will enter his third season overall with the Bulldogs in 2020-21.
“I am exceptionally thrilled, honored, and thankful to be a part of the UNC Asheville family,” said Kimbrough. “The opportunity to work with the athletic department and the coaches are truly a blessing, and I am thankful for the opportunity to share my experience, philosophy, and passion with the student-athletes who have shown such promise and potential.”
Coach Kimbrough, who works with the Bulldog jumpers, holds a technical coaching certification from the USTFCCCA and Level I certifications with USA Track & Field and USA Weightlifting. He is also a certified strength and conditioning coach. He holds multiple Level II certifications from the USTFCCCA, including the Jumping event specialist certification and the Sprints, Hurdles, Relay event specialist certification.
“We are excited for what JP brings to our staff in a new full-time role,” said UNC Asheville Head Track & Field Coach Joel Williams. “He brings to UNC Asheville significant, high quality and varied experience as a head high school track and field coach as well as having coached football and trained athletes of other sports to improve their performances. JP has immersed himself in various nationally accredited coaching education/certification programs to develop the best training programs possible. He’s committed to our student-athletes being students first. JP was also a Division I athlete in track and field and football at Duke University.”
In his first year as an assistant coach through the indoor season, he helped the Bulldog jumpers explode into the record books, with multiple top-five indoor and all-time performances during the abbreviated season. Claudia Prieto set the school record in the women’s long jump with a jump of 5.78 meters, set earlier in the year by freshman Kathryn Brown with a jump of 5.71m, who also holds the fourth-place record in the high jump.
In the triple jump, Brown also claimed a second-place spot in the record books with a jump of 11.60m, and Prieto set the third-place all-time with a jump of 11.55m. Brown and freshman Bree Moore hold the top two spots in the Indoor Pentathlon as well.
On the men’s team, Isaac Teasley, a freshman sprinter, also earned second place all-time in the long jump (6.86m) and third all-time in the triple jump (13.66m). At the Big South Indoor Championships, Victor Mathuthu earned a fourth-place finish with a jump of 14.60 meters.
Before joining the UNC Asheville staff, Kimbrough coached multiple sports in western North Carolina for over a decade, helping to achieve state championship appearances in football and multiple conference, regional, and state championships in track and field. He is a graduate of Hendersonville High School, where he competed in numerous sports for the Bearcats. He is a 2005 graduate of Duke University, where he helped to end major losing streaks in Division I football and the ACC and against cross-town rival UNC-Chapel Hill in 2003. Kimbrough also participated in track and field as a sprinter and jumper. He lives in Hendersonville, NC, with his wife, Jessica.
