Tampa, Fla. July 29, 2024 – The University of South Florida track and field has hired Jatavia Wright. She enters her first season as a South Florida assistant coach for the 2024-25, season overseeing the Multis and high jumpers.
 
Wright is a decorated track and field athlete and coach, competing under USF Director of Cross Country and Track & Field Erik Jenkins back when he was at Western Kentucky University. She has seven years of coaching experience across multiple universities including Austin Peay State University, South Carolina State University, Eastern Kentucky University, and Jacksonville State University.
 
Overall, Wright has coached an Outdoor NCAA Championship Qualifier in the men's high jump, 11 NCAA Championship First Round East Qualifiers, and one Indoor All-American in the men's long jump. She has overseen four new program record holders, 10 ASUN Champions, including both the 2024 ASUN Championship MVP in both indoor and outdoor, and two MEAC Champions. She has also coached 52 All-ASUN, 25 All-MEAC, and 16 All-OVC Conference Performances including one OVC Freshman of the Year.
 
Wright came to South Florida following one season as an assistant coach at Jacksonville University where she coached the women's sprints and hurdles. The season saw Wright lead a group of women who swept all women's sprint events at both the indoor and outdoor ASUN Championships. Wright's sprinters had individual conference championships in the indoor women's 60m dash, 200m dash, 400m dash, and 4x400m relay, as well as the outdoor 100m dash, 200m dash, 400m dash, 4x100m relay, and 4x400m relay. She also had a sprinter Cassie Thompson set the women's program record in the 100m dash (11.27).
 
Prior to JU, she spent one season at Eastern Kentucky, where she coached the men's and women's sprinters and jumpers. In her one season with the Colonels, she helped several athletes achieve conference and national honors, highlighted by an Honorable Mention All-American in the high jump (Joshua Moore – 2.15m / 7' – 0.5"). Other competitors earned multiple podium finishes at the ASUN Outdoor Championships, including a runner-up in the 100m and high jump, as well as a third-place finish in the 4x100m relay.
 
Prior to that, she coached for several years as an assistant, and then the interim head coach, at South Carolina State. While in Orangeburg, she oversaw an NCAA Indoor long jump All-American (Daniel Seawright – 7.74m / 25' – 4.75"), two MEAC Champions, and 15 All-Conference performers.
 
She also spent two seasons at Austin Peay, coaching up 16 Ohio Valley Conference All-Conference performances, three NCAA East Regional qualifiers, and an OVC Freshman of the Year.
 
She has coached multiple athletes who have gone on to perform on the national and international stage. Mariandree Chacon will be competing for Guatemala in the 100m dash in August of 2024 at the Paris Olympics. Chacon also competed in the 2024 Central American National Championships, winning the 100m dash and finishing as runner-up in the 200m dash. Cassie Thompson was the 2024 Bahamas National Championship 100m dash runner-up and Cassidra Thompson was a 400m dash finalist.
 
Wright was a standout athlete on the track herself, beginning her collegiate career at Southern Illinois-Edwardsville, where she was the first female African American to earn Division I NCAA All-American status for the triple jump, in both indoor and outdoor. She still holds four school records in pentathlon, indoor and outdoor Triple jump, and indoor long jump. She transferred to Western Kentucky under coach Erik Jenkins' watch, where she continued her success, earning four Conference USA All-Conference honors, qualifying for the NCAA Championship First Round triple jump and 4x100m relay, which qualified her for the NCAA Outdoor Championships. She also played softball for the Hilltoppers as a utility player during her time there.
 
Her career accolades as an athlete include being a member of the Ohio Valley Conference 75th Anniversary women's track and field team, a three-time All-American, a five-time Regional Qualifier, a four-time C-USA All-Conference performance, and a four-time OVC Champion with 13 OVC All-Conference performances. She won the 2014 OVC Indoor Field Athlete of the Year and as a team won the CUSA outdoor team championship title. She has earned her USATF Level 1 certification and earning her USTFCCCA strength and conditioning certification.
 
Wright earned a Bachelor's Degree in Communication and a Master's Degree in Intercollegiate Administration from WKU.
 
Wright has one daughter, Chenani Wright.
 
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The USF track and field men's team won the 2024 Indoor and Outdoor AAC Championship. Romaine Beckford won the 2023 NCAA Indoor and Outdoor Championships in the men's high jump as a Bull. The team has earned 56 All-America selections and at least one All-American in 10 of the last 12 years, including a record eight athletes claiming 11 honors in 2021. Tampa native Shaniya Benjamin set a program record earning three All-American honors during the 2021 outdoor season, while triple jumper Matthew O'Neal, a 2016 graduate, became USF's first six-time NCAA All-American. Bulls have posted two NCAA runner-up finishes since 2013 - O'Neal (triple jump, 2016) and Courtney Anderson (high jump, 2013). Head coach Erik Jenkins took over the program in 2020 and in the 2021 outdoor season the Bulls posted seven program records and 40 top 10 all-time program marks. USF hosted the 2018 NCAA Track and Field East Preliminary and the 2021 AAC Outdoor Championship at the USF Track and Field Stadium located on the east end of campus.
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