ITHACA, N.Y. — Allen Simms, a six-time All-American and NCAA Division I National Champion, will bring a wealth of coaching experience and a successful field career of his own to the Cornell track and field team as he begins as an assistant coach specializing in jumps in 2015-16.

"It is a great honor to join such a prestigious university and dominant track and field program," said Simms. "The track program is well established and the coaching staff is great, I look forward to working with them and maintaining the winning tradition of Cornell men's and women's jumpers." 

Simms comes to Cornell from Cal State L.A., 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-America honors after finishing sixth at the NCAA Division I Championships in the pole vault with a leap of 18'0. 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 in 2011.  

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 (4.51m).  In 2015, he coached Skype Morrison to a personal best performance of 6.54m 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 national 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.