From: Jeff Febus (jfebus@calvin.edu)
Date: Thu May 22 2003 - 00:17:42 EDT
CALVIN SPORTS REPORT FOR May 22, 2003
GRAND RAPIDS * Calvin track and field coach Jong-Il Kim walked off the awards stand at the USTCA (United States Coaches Track and Field Association) banquet with his hands full. Kim was honored as NCAA Division III national men's and women's track and field Coach of the Year at the awards ceremony. He is the first coach in Division III history to be named both men's and women's outdoor track and field Coach of the Year in the same season. In addition he was named both men's and women's Great Lakes Region Coach of the Year. It marks the second consecutive year that Kim has been named women's national Coach of the Year and the the second straight year he has won both regional Coach of the Year awards.
Kim has been at Calvin since the 1997-98 academic year and has served as the head coach of the Calvin men's track and field team as well as a professor in the Calvin Health, Physical Education, Recreation, Dance and Sport department over the last six years. Kim then added the duties of head women's track and field coach at Calvin in 2002, taking over the reins from retired Calvin professor and coach Dr. Ralph Honderd. In his second year as head women's track and field coach, Kim led Calvin to its 14th consecutive MIAA title as the Knights posted a 5-0 MIAA dual meet record and a first place total of 302 points at the MIAA Championships. Heading into the NCAA III Championship meet this weekend at St. Lawrence University in Canton, New York, the Calvin women are ranked third in the Division III power rankings sponsored by the M-F Athletic Company. Calvin has 10 women's track and field athletes competing at this week's national meet.
On the men's side, Kim led Calvin to its 10th consecutive MIAA title this spring as the Knights recorded a 5-0 MIAA dual meet record and then posted a first place total of 233 points at the MIAA Championships. Heading into the NCAA III Championship meet this weekend at St. Lawrence University in Canton, New York, the Calvin men are ranked 17th in the Division III power rankings sponsored by the M-F Athletic Company. Calvin has six men's track and field athletes competing at this week's national meet.
A native of Cheong-Ju, South Korea, Kim was a member of the South Korean national track and field team between 1979-1990 where he competed in the sprints and the long jump. A 27-foot long jumper and the South Korean national record holder in the event, Kim won gold medals in the long jump at the 1982 Asian Games in New Delhi, India, and the 1986 Asian Games in Seoul, South Korea. He added a fourth place finish in the long jump at the 1990 Asian Games in Beijing, China and ran a leg on South Korea's 400 meter relay team that placed third at the 1986 Asian Games. Kim also competed in the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles where he placed eighth in the long jump, becoming the first athlete in South Korean track and field history to reach the finals of an Olympic event. He then competed at the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul where he took 14th in the long jump.
In 1986 and 1987, Kim trained at the University of Houston, under the coaching of Tom Tellez, where he also competed with U.S. Olympian Carl Lewis, a four-time Olympic gold medalist in the long jump. In 1990, he trained at the Korean National Athletic Training Village with Viktor Saneyev, a three-time Olympic Champion in the triple jump. Kim earned his undergraduate degree in Physical Education at Dong-A University in Pusan, South Korea in 1986. He then earned a master's in Physical Education in 1993 at Washington State University, where he also completed his doctorate in Education with a concentration in Sports Management in 1996.
Kim is the seventh individual in Calvin athletic history to receive national coach of the year honors and the second * along with women's cross country coach Nancy Meyer (1998 & 1999) to receive the award in back-to-back years.
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