Anderson NAmes Two Assistant Coaches
12/16/2004 12:00:00 AM
Dec. 16, 2004
John Kenneson and D'Andre (Dee Dee) Hill have joined the TCU athletics department as assistant track & field coaches, head coach Darryl Anderson announced today. Kenneson will work with the field events, specifically the throws, pole vault and high jump, while Hill will be responsible for the women's sprinters and relay units.
"I'm extremely excited to get two coaches of this caliber to join our staff," said Anderson. "They both have experience in the Southeastern Conference, which will be very helpful in what we are trying to accomplish. John has over 20 years of experience and has coached at a high level. He will help us become a more balanced program. Dee Dee is one of the young, upcoming coaches in the profession," continued Anderson. "She was highly decorated as an athlete and in time will become highly decorated as a coach."
Kenneson, who is regarded as one of the most respected, experienced and successful field event coaches in collegiate track & field, has spent the bulk of his career in the highly-competitive SEC. He comes to Fort Worth from Lexington, Kentucky, where he has served as an assistant track & field coach at the University of Kentucky for 11 of the past 12 years. While at UK, Kenneson coached his athletes to 23 all-America certificates, 28 school records and logged eight national top 20 finishes.
A 1982 graduate of Southwest Missouri State University, where he was a Division II national qualifier in the discus, Kenneson began his coaching career at the University of Mississippi where he served as an assistant coach under Joe Walker from 1982-1984 while completing his master's degree. He headed the field and multi-events program for both men and women at North Carolina State University as an assistant coach from 1985-86, where he helped the men earn two ACC team titles while the women earned runner-up honors. The Wolfpack established 10 school records during his two-year tenure in Raleigh.
Kenneson rejoined Walker at the University of Florida in 1986, holding the position of head field and multi-events coach. While at Florida, he assembled one of the most competitive and productive field events programs in the history of the SEC and NCAA track & field. Kenneson's corps of field event athletes led the Gators to seven "Top Five" finishes in the NCAA Championships. With Kenneson on board, the Gators won the SEC Triple Crown (cross country, indoor and outdoor track) in both 1987 and 1988.
Kenneson joined the Kentucky staff in 1992 and began to build a nationally-regarded field events program from scratch. He spent one year at Auburn University (1997-98) before returning to Kentucky the following year. While at Auburn, he served as speed development coach for the football team and continues to serve as a conditioning coach for several professional football players during the off-season.
Away from the track, Kenneson has written numerous articles for national track & field publications on field events technique and strength training. He is often a featured speaker at track & field clinics across the southeast on the technical aspects of the field events.
Hill has spent the past three seasons as the head track & field coach at the University of Dayton. While at Dayton, she was responsible for all aspects of the track & field program, including the supervision of a three-person staff, team travel, recruiting, budget management and academics. Under her direction, she coached numerous all-Atlantic 10 performers, both on the track and in the classroom. Her team maintained a GPA of 3.0 or better in each of her three years at Dayton.
Hill was an outstanding collegiate runner at Louisiana State University. She was a 15-time all-American and a five-time NCAA champion while running the sprints and relays. She was the NCAA individual champion in the 55-meter dash and 100-meter dash in 1996 and in the 4x100 meter relay for three consecutive years from 1994-1996. She was a member of three national team championships at LSU (1994, 1995 and 1996), and participated in the 1995 World Championships and in the 1996 Olympics, where she reached the semifinals in the 100-meter dash.
Hill was honored as the 1996 Honda Award recipient, given to the NCAA Women's Track & Field Athlete of the Year. She is a member of the U.S. Women's Track Coaches Association and the USA Track Coaches Association.
