Delethea Quarles Position: Assistant Head Coach (Jumps/Multi) Experience: 12th Season Alma Mater: Liberty, 1989

Delethea Quarles is in her 12th year with the South Carolina program and her 20th year as a collegiate coach entering the 2009 season. Promoted to assistant head coach in 2005, her primary responsibilities include coaching the multi-event performers and jumps. Quarles also oversees eligibility and is the team's academic liaison.

Quarles has extensive international experience and worked with USA international teams for two consecutive summers. In 2007 Quarles was the head coach of the USA Pan American Junior Championship women's team that competed in Brazil in July. While the head coach she was responsible for all jumps and multi events. The men's and women's teams combined to win 48 medals at the meet. Quarles worked as an assistant coach on the all-star squad of coaches for the 2006 USA World Cup team in Athens, Greece, with the responsibility of coaching all the jumps. Quarles ended the 2005 season as an assistant coach for Team USA at the Pan American Championships held in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. With her assistance, the USA team earned 57 medals, the second-highest of all time.

Academically, Quarles has guided three student-athletes to national Scholar Athlete of the Year honors. Jason Richardson became the first Gamecock to sweep indoor and outdoor honors as he was awarded by the USTFCCCA for both seasons in 2008 as the male Scholar Athlete of the Year. Shalonda Solomon was named 2006 Indoor Scholar Athlete of the Year, and Otukile Lekote picked up the accolade in 2002. The South Carolina women's team was honored by the organization as the 2006 Academic National Champion. In addition, Natasha Hastings was named the SEC Scholar-Athlete of the Year.

Quarles has coached her student-athletes to 19 All-America honors and four SEC championships. In addition, former Gamecock Chelsea Hammond became the first multi-event student-athlete in South Carolina history to qualify for the Olympic Games. Coached by Quarles from 2002 to 2005, Hammond competed for Jamaica at the 2008 Olympic Games in the long jump.

Quarles has coached 10 of the 14 school record holders in the events for which she is responsible at South Carolina. Most recently, Greig Cryer finished a career-high third in the long jump at the 2006 NCAA Indoor Championships after setting the indoor school record in the triple jump, crossing the board at 52-5 ¼. The mark was a foot longer than the record that had stood for 12 years. Derek Pressley, a 2008 graduate, jumped a career-best 51-10 ½ as runner-up in the triple jump at the 2007 SEC Outdoor Championships, a mark that was less than four inches off the oldest field record in Carolina track history (Ron Adams, 52-2 in 1975).

Leading the women's team, Quarles coached Kemesha Whitmire, Tacita Bass and Erin Narzinski to SEC titles. Whitmire jumped a 43-7 in 2005 to take the long jump title while Bass and Narzinski combined for three heptathlon titles. In her first year, Quarles saw Narzinski shatter the school record in the heptathlon, finishing fifth at the NCAA Championships, second at the SEC Championships and eighth at the USATF Junior Nationals. Narzinski earned her second heptathlon title in 1999.

Prior to coming to South Carolina, Quarles was an assistant coach at her alma mater, Liberty, for eight years. A three-time All-American, Quarles has a bachelor's degree in psychology and is a native of Covington, Va.