MOBILE, Ala. – University of South Alabama head track and field coach Paul Brueske announced Wednesday the hiring of Mike Barbee as the program’s head cross country and distance coach.
Barbee comes to USA from McNeese State, where he served as assistant cross country and track & field coach this fall. His responsibilities at MSU included aiding with the day-to-day operations of the program, coaching the school’s cross country student-athletes, designing and implementing the training of intermediate hurdlers and recruiting.
In his only season with the program, the Cowboys won two regular-season titles before coming in second place at the Southland Conference Championships, while the Cowgirls claimed a pair of championships and finished third at the league meet.
“Coach Barbee comes highly recommended,” said Brueske. “He is very knowledgeable and has good experience. We feel like he is a great fit for our program.”
Prior to his stint at McNeese State, Barbee was the women’s cross country and track and field coach at Riverside (Calif.) Community College for seven seasons. Hired in 2003 as head coach/adjunct instructor, he became the first full-time women’s coach in the program’s history in 2005.
In his first season, Barbee’s efforts helped produce the state champion in the 100 and 200 meters. The next two falls, the Tigers would finish as runners-up at the state cross country championships while Barbee led RCC to the 2007 Orange Empire Conference title — it was the first time the school accomplished the feat in nine years. The Tigers would duplicate the feat in 2009, also finishing third that spring at the state championships for the school’s third-best performance at the meet.
For that effort, Barbee was named the California Community College Women’s Track and Field Coach of the Year.
Barbee is a 1999 graduate of Western Michigan with a degree in education, and he competed for the Broncos in both cross country and track and field.
He entered the coaching field in 2000 after being hired by Corona (Calif.) High School as the head boys’ and girls’ track and field coach. Barbee helped lead the boys’ squad to the 2001 Mountain View League title, and afterwards was also named the school’s head cross country coach. He would go on to lead the girls’ team to three straight conference championships — earning coach-of-the-year honors each fall — and the boys to two titles during that span, and when he left for RCC Barbee’s runners had set 12 school and two county records.
“I wanted to be a coach on the Division I level, and my seven years at a California community college was a stepping stone from being a high school coach,” Barbee commented. “For me it was a golden opportunity. This job appeals to a lot of people; the climate and the campus will be attractive to a lot of potential student-athletes from all over the country. And a lot of the people who work here are great as well.
“I wasn’t in a position to where I would take any job, it had to be somewhere that my wife and I both liked,” he continued. “At the community college level, working with student-athletes for two years was too quick; I could see strides but after two years they would leave and be somebody else’s fast athletes. Here I expect to be working with student-athletes four or five years, and at USA we are not only recruiting good athletes but good people in the community and good students as well. South Alabama has a good tradition, and we just hope to keep building on that.”
USA, which recorded top-five finishes on both the men’s and women’s side at the Sun Belt Conference Championships this fall, will begin the indoor track and field season in January.
For more information about South Alabama athletics, check back with www.usajaguars.com. Season tickets for all Jaguar athletic events can be purchased by calling (251) 461-1USA (1872).
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