One of the nation's top coaches for sprints, hurdles and jumps, Caryl Smith Gilbert is in her fifth season as an assistant coach on the Lady Vol staff. For the 2007 season, she returns a trio of sprinters with a combined 26 All-America honors between them and welcomes a quartet of blue chippers who should immediately fortify UT's sprints, hurdles and jumps corps.
A year ago, Tennessee's sprint group produced All-America performances in the 60m, 100m, 200m and 400m dashes and in the 4x100m and 4x400m relays. Additionally, the Lady Vols brought home their second Penn Relays sprint medley relay title in the past three seasons.
Smith Gilbert also saw her most-decorated current pupil, Cleo Tyson, uncork a meet record time to win the 100m at the NACAC U-23 Championships and aid the U.S. 4x100m relay unit that won gold at that meet as well. Tyson also toppled the school record in the 100m dash at the NCAA Mideast Regional, logging an 11.10 readout in the prelims.
Chosen as the 2005 USTCA National and Mideast Region Assistant Coach of the Year for Sprints/Hurdles, Smith Gilbert was responsible for a contingent that scored points by the bushel at that year's SEC and NCAA meets. Her pupils helped UT win the school's first-ever NCAA Indoor Championship, its first SEC Indoor trophy since 1984, as well as the team's initial NCAA Mideast Region title outdoors. Among her talented group were such notables as Tianna Madison, the 2005 IAAF World Outdoor Champion and the NCAA Indoor and Outdoor Champion in the long jump; Tyson, the 2005 U.S. Junior champ in the 100 and 200 meters and Pan Am Juniors victor in the 100 meters; Toyin Olupona, the 2005 Canadian national champ in the 100 meters and two-time NCAA runner-up in the 60 meters, and Courtney Champion, the NCAA Indoor third-place finisher and SEC Indoor runner-up in the 200 meters.
In 2005 alone, Smith Gilbert's charges combined for 24 All-America awards and seven Lady Vol records. Among the events where members of her crew have set school records are the 55m, 60m, 200m, 400m, 4x400m relay, distance medley and long jump indoors and the 100m, 400m, 4x100m relay, 4x200m relay, 4x400m relay, sprint medley relay and long jump outdoors. The 2004 sprint medley quartet she helped coach also obliterated 20-year-old collegiate, meet and stadium records at the prestigious Penn Relays.
In addition to developing members of her recent crop of athletes into SEC, NCAA, USATF and IAAF champions, Smith Gilbert also directed the rise of 400-meter ace Dee Dee Trotter, who became the first Lady Vol underclass performer to turn pro in September of 2004. The UT junior was that season's NCAA Outdoor champion in the quarter and went on to place fifth in the 400m at the Olympic Games and assist Team USA to a gold-medal performance in the 4x400m relay. Trotter also aided the victorious U.S. cause in the 4x4 at the 2003 World Championships and ascended to number four in Track & Field News' world rankings in 2004 and 2005.
Madison would follow in Trotter's footsteps a year later, leaping to the pro ranks in January 2006 after participating at the collegiate level for only two seasons.
Smith Gilbert joined the Lady Volunteer staff in July 2002 from SEC foe Alabama, where she spent three years overseeing the sprints, hurdles and jumps. While at UA, she produced seven NCAA All-Americans, four Jamaican National Team qualifiers, four U.S. Olympic Trials qualifiers and 12 SEC finalists. From that group came four school records.
Smith Gilbert previously held similar responsibilities as an assistant at Penn State from 1997 to 1999. While at PSU, her results included athletes who accumulated four NCAA All-America honors and nine school records, and made finals at the Big Ten Championships on 10 occasions. She also served as an instructor for the exercise science department.
Before making the jump to the collegiate level, Smith Gilbert was head coach from 1994-97 at her prep alma mater, George Washington High School in Denver, Colo. While there, she built a program that produced two state titles and three All-Americans. From 1995-97, five of her athletes accepted full scholarships to NCAA Division I schools.
Smith Gilbert credits much of her success and her choice of professions to her former coach Tony Wells. Her personal philosophies have also been greatly influenced by such teaching greats as Bob Kersee of UCLA and Loren Seagrave, who spent time at UT and also helped launch the run of women's NCAA titles at LSU. She considers Wells, Kersee and Seagrave to be three of the best sprint coaches in the world and attributes her ability to relate to and direct athletes to the knowledge she gleaned from them.
A former indoor national record holder in the 55- and 60-meter dashes, Smith Gilbert was additionally a two-time Colorado state champ in the 200 meters and long jump and a three-time victor in the 100 meters. She set state records in all three events and went on to become a three-time All-American at UCLA, where she was a Pac-10 champ in the 100m dash, 4x100m relay and 4x400m relay and earned runner-up honors in the 4x4 at the NCAA Championships and was an All-American in the 4x1 in 1988 and 1989.
Internationally, Smith Gilbert had a position as an assistant for the U.S. team at the 2002 NACAC U-23 Championships and was selected to coach the sprints at the 2005 Pan Am Junior Championships, which she was unable to do after her pupil, Tianna Madison, qualified for the World Championships.
A 1991 graduate of UCLA, Smith Gilbert is continuing her education at UT. She finished an M.S. in sport administration in spring 2004 and is now pursuing a master's in sport psychology. The 2006 USATF Level III Clinician's ongoing quest for knowledge also resulted in USATF Level I certification for sprints in March of 1998 and Level II status for jumps in July that same year.
On Nov. 26, 2004, the former Caryl Smith became Caryl Smith Gilbert when she wed Greg Gilbert, a former University of Alabama All-American and linebacker for the NFL's Chicago Bears and Oakland Raiders. They reside in Knoxville, where he is pursuing a professional M.B.A. degree from UT, and they enjoy spending time with Greg's two sons, Alex (13) and Ahmad (6).
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