This weekend, Azusa Pacific track & field will look to capture its seventh-consecutive PacWest championship on both the men's and women's side, as the Cougars have swept the team titles at the conference championship meet every year that it has been held since 2016. This season, head coach Jack Hoyt, who has been named the PacWest Men's Coach of the Year and the PacWest Women's Coach of the Year in each of the past two seasons, has elevated the program to even greater heights with the addition of a world record holder to the Cougar coaching staff, as Mike Powell arrived at Azusa Pacific in the fall. "Mike has brought his world record experience and energy to our runways," said Coach Hoyt, "We are really lucky and blessed to have his expertise!"

Powell holds the world record for the long jump, as he leaped the furthest that any human ever has at 8.95m at the 1991 World Championships in Tokyo. In addition to his world record leap, Powell was a three-time Olympian (1988-96), winning the silver medal at the 1988 and 1992 Olympic Games, and he was a two-time gold medalist at the World Championships (1991 & 1993) and a silver medalist at the 1995 Worlds. In the United States, he was a six-time U.S. champion in the long jump (1990, '92, '93, '94, '95, '96), and he was 2005 inductee into the United State Track & Field Hall of Fame. Collegiately, Powell competed at UC Irvine and then UCLA.

Following his athletic career on the world stage, Powell quickly established himself as an elite coach. He started coaching jumps at Cal State Fullerton from 2000-2004, then moved into the baseball world in 2004 & 2005, where he served as the Speed, Agility and Quickness coach of the Los Angeles Dodgers of Major Baseball League. After his time with the Dodgers, Powell returned to UCLA, where he coached jumps from 2005-2008, and since 2008, Powell has been privately coaching. He has also served as a World Athletics Ambassador since 2001.

Powell is excited to be back coaching collegiately, "I enjoy coaching at the collegiate level because of the team aspect, coming together and growing together. I have missed that in my private coaching."

Powell has known Azusa Pacific for a long time, and he was eager to join the Cougar coaching staff. "I have many ties to this program, and it just made sense," said Powell, "Azusa Pacific has always been home to me, I grew up and went to high school in nearby West Covina, and I trained and competed here as a professional track athlete. My high school and Olympic teammate is Mike Barnett, who was the former head coach here at APU (2000-17)." 

In just a few months since his arrival to Azusa Pacific, Powell has elevated a talented group of long and triple jumpers to even greater lengths. Among those athletes is Jermel Jones II, who Powell believes has an Olympic future ahead of him. Jones II, the nation's current leader in the long jump, was the 2022 indoor long jump national champion, a three-time long jump All-American, two-time triple jump All-American, three-time PacWest champion in the long jump, and the 2021 PacWest triple jump champion. With Powell's coaching this season, Jones II set a new personal record in the long jump, as his leap of 7.85m (25' 9 ¼") at the Bryan Clay a few weekends ago set a new lifetime-best and moved him up to No. 1 on the national list. Jones II is also seventh in the country in the triple jump, with a provisional mark of 15.39m (50' 6").

Additionally, Powell and Coach Hoyt work collaboratively with the Cougars' multi jumpers, which is a group that includes Nicole Warwick and Esther Conde-Turpin, who are both ranked top-5 nationally in the long jump. Warwick sits in fourth (6.23m/20' 5 ¼") nationally, and Conde-Turpin is fifth (6.21m/20' 4 ½"). Under Powell and Hoyt's guidance in the winter, Warwick achieved All-American status in the long jump for the second time in her career at indoor Nationals, where she finished third at 6.13m (20' 1 ½"). 

As he has done at all of his previous coaching stops, Powell brings the wisdom and knowledge he has gained from his decorated athletic career to his athletes at Azusa Pacific. "Being an athlete, you learn the basics and intricacies of how to live life successfully and how to interact with the world. The lessons that you learn are invaluable, especially travel. I have seen the world many times over, and I encourage my athletes to think big and do the same."

Big things lie ahead for Cougar track & field in the coming weeks, and the first step is a seventh-straight conference title sweep at this weekend's PacWest Track & Field Championships in Azusa. For more information on the Track & Field Championships, visit the Meet Central page on the PacWest website.