Track & Field
- Title:
- Assistant Coach (Sprints/Hurdles/Relays)
Davian Clarke begins 2011-12 in his second season at Carolina in charge of the men's and women's sprinters, relays and hurdlers. During his first year at Carolina, Clarke coached the UNC women's' 4x400m team to break the 20-year old school record and a sixth-place finish at the NCAA meet. Clarke coached senior Charles Cox to All America honors after he placed sixth at the NCAA Indoor Championships, and Clayton Parros took second at the NCAA Regional meet as a sophomore. Clarke also coached 400-meter hurdlers to wins at the ACC Outdoor Championships which as Reynaldo Radlin, Roy Smith and Devon Carter claimed the first 1-2-3 finish in the men's 400mH event, and LaToya James won the women's 400mH event.
In just one year with the Tar Heels, Clarke has coached his athletes to five First Team and three Second Team All-America honors, three ACC individual titles, one ACC relay title, eight individual and two relay NCAA Regional qualifiers, four individual NCAA Outdoor qualifiers, one NCAA Outdoor relay qualifier, and 18 All-ACC performers. In addition, the men's Distance Medley Relay (DMR) and the women's 4x400 set new school records, and James broke her women's 400mH record and also placed seventh at the U.S. Outdoor Track & Field Championships. Of the 13 athletes coached by Clarke, 12 recorded personal best scores in their events in the 2011 season.
Clarke came highly decorated as the head coach of the 2010 Jamaican World Indoor Team, where he led the team to a gold medal in the women's 60m and a bronze medal in the 4x400m as well as several finalists at the meet. He is a USATF Level 1 Certified Coach and is a member of the IAAF Athletes Commission. In addition to his coaching duties, he is responsible for supporting the academic support staff in monitoring the team's academic progress. Clarke also coordinates international and national recruiting, operates the federal work study program, as well as scheduling and organizing track and field summer camps.
From 2007-2010, Clarke was coach of the Pursuit of Dreams Track Club in Austin, Texas, that produced a 50.22 bronze medalist at the Mediterranean Games in the 400-meter hurdles. He coached his wife to a 7.93 in the 60-meter hurdles in 2007 and a No. 8 world ranking indoors in the 60-meter hurdles. In the 2000-2006 seasons, Clarke served as the administrative assistant/ assistant coach for Auburn University men's and women's team and helped lead the women to their first NCAA Outdoor Championship title in 2006. Clarke's additional responsibilities in his time at Auburn included budget administration, planning student-athlete team travel and scheduling of meets and officials.
Clarke graduated from the University of Miami in 1998 with a Bachelor's degree in Business Administration and Organization from the School of Business. As a student-athlete, he compiled 13 All-Big East Conference Honors, nine Big East individual titles, six All-America honors, two NCAA titles and one All-Academic team honor. He competed in the 1996, 2000 and 2004 Olympic Games and won a bronze medal in the 4x400m. Clarke made the Olympic finals in the 400m twice and is the first man in history to make the finals with eight years between each Olympics. Clarke is a two-time World Champion, three-time silver medalist and five-time bronze medalist at the World Championships.
Clarke competed on the professional athletics circuit for 10 years for various shoe sponsors and appeared in TV commercials. Clarke ended his career with Jamaican records in the indoor and outdoor 4x400m, 300m indoor (32.94) and 400m Junior Record (45.21). Clarke was inducted into the University of Miami Sports Hall of Fame in March, 2009. Clarke and his wife, reside in Durham, NC.
