Allen Simms begins his second year as an assistant coach specializing in the Big Red jumps in 2016-17.
His first year at Cornell saw remarkable success from both the men’s and women’s jumpers. Simms’ group helped the men win the 2016 Outdoor Heptagonal title in record-setting fashion, and the women played an integral part in winning the outdoor ECAC title in 2016.
Triple jumper Bobby Plummer headlined the Heps-clinching group, winning the indoor IC4A title to go along with the outdoor Heps crown (15.99m) in route to advancing to the NCAA Championships, where he earned honorable mention All-American honors. Alex Rodriguez in the lC4A long jump (7.57m) and Myles Lazarou in the Heps high jump (2.14m) were also titleists. Kate Gulbrandsen led the women, earning All-Ivy and All-East honors in the high jump (1.79m). In all, Simms coached two Heps champions, two IC4A champions and had four athletes reach the NCAA First Round in just his first year at Cornell.
Simms brings an impressive resume to his coaching duties with the Big Red. A six-time All-American, NCAA Division I National Champion, and USATF National Champion, he also has a wealth of coaching experience. Simms comes to Cornell from California State University Los Angeles, where he was an assistant coach for jumps and multi-events. At Cal State L.A., he coached three jumpers to Division II National Championships and All-West Region honors. Seven of his athletes were named to All-California Collegiate Athletic Association teams.
As an assistant coach at the University of Idaho in 2013, Simms saw one of his jumpers earn All-American honors after finishing sixth at the NCAA Division I Championships in the pole vault with a leap of 18 feet. He also led the team’s jumpers to two NCAA regional qualifiers, a Western Athletic Conference championship, two school records and six All-WAC honors.
Simms was also an assistant coach at Davidson College, where he worked with sprinters, hurdlers and jumpers from 2008-11, and at Utica College, where he coached the program’s jumpers to five school records and two conference titles, during the 2011 season.
Simms has worked with numerous Olympic level athletes, he assisted Shakeema Wlesch in her 2008 Olympic run where she finished runner-up at the 2008 USA Olympic trials in the triple jump (46’10”). In 2014, he worked with Cuban Olympic pole vaulter Daylis Cabellero (14 feet, 9 inches). In 2015, he coached Skype Morrison to a personal best performance (21 feet, 5 inches) in the long jump and a top-15 ranking in the nation.
In his own collegiate days at the University of Southern California, Simms was the 2003 NCAA Indoor Champion in the triple jump, breaking the school and Pacific-10 Conference records with a mark of 56 feet, 7.5 inches. He earned All-America honors six times at USC and was the 2005 West Region Field Athlete of the Year. In 2004, he earned a Pac-10 triple jump title and won the long and triple jumps at the NCAA West Region Championships.
In addition to his accomplishments at USC, Simms saw success on the national and international scale. He was the 2004 United States champion in the indoor triple jump, and at USA Junior Nationals in 2001, he swept the long and triple jump titles, becoming the first athlete in meet history to complete such a feat. He also represented the United States at the 2003 and 2005 World Outdoor Track & Field Championships and at the 2004 and 2006 World Indoor Championships. He finished sixth in the triple jump at the 2008 U.S. Olympic trials and third at the 2010 USA Indoor Championship.
Simms is an International Association of Athletics Federations Level 4 Jumps coach and holds a USA Track & Field Level I Coaching Certificate.
He graduated from USC in 2005 with a bachelor’s degree in multimedia technology and earned a Master of Art in liberal studies and a graduate certificate in global studies from the University of North Carolina-Greensboro in 2014.
Updated 8/16/16
