Quarles Selected as Head Coach for Team USA

May 4, 2015

South Carolina assistant head coach Delethea Quarles has been selected as the head coach for the Team USA women’s track and field team that will compete this August in Beijing, China, at the IAAF World Championships. With approximately 90 athletes on the women’s Team USA squad, Quarles will lead the largest track and field team in the world.

“To be selected as the head coach is an honor,” Quarles said. “I will oversee our whole staff, which will include our managers and assistant coaches for all of the disciplines, and the team of course. It’s a lot of people to manage.”

South Carolina head coach Curtis Frye added that it is extremely rare for a college assistant coach to be selected as a head coach for Team USA for competitions such as the World Championships.

“This is a big deal,” Frye said. “It’s almost always a head coach from an elite program. Team USA almost never selects an assistant coach from college to be a head coach at this level. That’s an incredible statement about who she is. You have to be the real deal. The rewards that she received are because of her competence, credibility and faith. That’s the way life is supposed to be.”

In addition to her 18 years at South Carolina, Quarles has enjoyed extensive experience in various roles for Team USA. A former heptathlete herself, she started this process for Team USA by coaching the country’s heptathletes in the Netherlands in 2002. More recently, Quarles served on the Team USA staff for the previous two IAAF World Championships, serving as the jumps and multi-events coach for the 2013 event in Moscow where Team USA claimed a gold and two silvers to win medals in three of its five events. At the 2011 championships in Daegu, South Korea, she served as assistant coach where all three USA Long Jumpers Brittany Reese, Janay Deloatch, and Fumi Jimoh were finalists and Reese won a gold medal.

“This never gets old,” Quarles said of working with Team USA again. “When I first got it, I think I was here by myself, and I ran up and down the hallway like I was at a track meet and we had just won nationals. There is so much joy that comes with representing not only our Gamecock nation, but every time you wear the USA flag, it just adds so much meaning to your life when you hear that national anthem.”

Overall this is Quarles’ seventh time being selected for the Team USA staff, and she noted that the experience just keeps getting better. In addition to her experience at the IAAF World Championships, Quarles was the head coach of the USA Pan American Junior Championship women’s team in 2007 that competed in Brazil where the men’s and women’s teams combined to win 48 medals at the meet. Quarles worked as an assistant coach on the all-star squad of coaches for the 2006 USA World Cup team in Athens, Greece, with the responsibility of coaching all of the jumps. She was an assistant coach for Team USA at the 2005 Pan American Championships held in Canada where the USA team earned 57 medals, the second-highest of all time.

There is so much joy that comes with representing not only our Gamecock nation, but every time you wear the USA flag, it just adds so much meaning to your life when you hear that national anthem.

Delethea Quarles

Along with overseeing the Team USA staff, she will be responsible for interactions with the individual athlete’s personal coaches as well as families.

“The elite athletes are programmed to do what they do, and we’re programmed to what we do, so we have to be flexible to handle different attitudes and their personal coaches,” Quarles said. “We try to be as accommodating as we can. It can be a juggling act.”

Wherever it travels, Team USA is equipped with personnel who can speak the language of the country where the competition is held. There are other off-the-field challenges as well.

“Most of the time the American embassy greets us and tells us places to go and also gives us safety tips,” Quarles said. “Team USA puts us through training to prepare us for our own safety as well.”

While being in charge of a large group of athletes representing the country may sound overwhelming, Quarles said her experience with the Gamecocks helps to make it a smooth transition.

“My time at South Carolina has prepared me to be on Team USA,” Quarles said. “Anytime that I’ve been selected and have gone on these trips with all of the responsibilities that go along with it, I feel like South Carolina gave me the training. There are lot of logistics in getting your team to the contests, and your coach/athlete relationships are a big part of it. The level that we have competed here and the level of student-athletes we have recruited here is a privilege and has directly impacted my ability to be successful with Team USA.”

In her time with the Gamecocks, she has helped develop some of the top athletes in the world who have performed well internationally. Former multis standout Chelsea Hammond represented Jamaica at the 2008 Olympic games and current student-athlete Jeannelle Scheper is already a veteran of the World Championships after representing her home country of St. Lucia at the 2013 games in Moscow. Looking at the Carolina record book, the top marks in 13 different events are held by athletes coached by Quarles. Her time with Coach Frye has also been a great resource that has vaulted her to success coaching internationally.

“Coach Frye is a lot of the reason I’m prepared to take on these responsibilities and be successful at it,” Quarles added. “He’s done a lot of things that I aspire to do. I get the privilege of having him here all the time to learn from.”

The staff of people that I’ve been around here are the very best. We have people who care and are passionate about what they do. There’s nothing more enjoyable than being around people who have that same passion. It allows us to do things at a very high level. There are other places I could be, but no other place I’d rather be than here.

Delethea Quarles

For as much as her time with the Gamecocks has developed her professionally, the international experience has returned the favor to maker her a better college coach.

“To experience the best athletes in the world competing at the highest level can only help you grow as a coach,” Quarles said. “It can make you creative in how you motivate and make your team knowledgeable. It better prepares you to take your team to the next level because you’ve experienced the highest level. It makes you a better coach in working with all of those dynamics associated with being part of Team USA.”

The experience with Team USA certainly doesn’t hurt in her efforts to recruit top student-athletes to South Carolina.

“To the people that are sincere about attaining excellence, it does help,” Quarles said. “Everybody wants the best facilities and the best coaches. The parents want the best environment. The staff of people that I’ve been around here are the very best. We have people who care and are passionate about what they do. There’s nothing more enjoyable than being around people who have that same passion. It allows us to do things at a very high level. There are other places I could be, but no other place I’d rather be than here.”

Quarles has enjoyed some overlap in her career with former Gamecocks competing for Team USA or other national teams. In most recent years, she has coached on national teams featuring alumni such as Jason Richardson, Lashinda Demus and Natasha Hastings.

“You always bleed garnet,” Quarles said. “You feel like a proud parent to see one of your own achieve at that level. It’s certainly a privilege to have so many people come out of your collegiate system who represent their country.”