Valerie Brown enters her fourth season as Austin Peay State University head men's and women's cross country and track and field coach in 2022-23. She has been on staff since 2011 and served as associate head coach for five seasons (2014-19) before being elevated to head coach.
During the 2022 cross country season, the Austin Peay men's team posted two top-5 finishes in the Belmont Opener and Evansville Invitational. Connor Duncan won the Evansville Invitational. The women's team recorded a pair of second-place finishes in the Brescia Invitational and Evansville Invitational.Â
In the 2022 outdoor track season, Austin Peay finished third in the Margaret Simmons Invitational. At the OVC Championships. Kenisha Phillips defended her titles in the 200 and 400-meter dash. Denia Hill-Tate claimed her second-straight championship in the high jump. The Governors, who finished fifth, tallied eight podium finishes with four event titles.
In the 2022 indoor track season, Austin Peay finished third in the OVC Championships and had six athletes win championships in four events. Kenisha Phillips won the title in the 400 meter dash with a school-record time of 53.83 seconds. Phillips is one of just two athletes in program history to run a time under 54 seconds in the indoor event. Phillips won the 200 meter dash in consecutive seasons, the last in a school-record time of 23.65 seconds. Karlijn Schouten won her second-straight championship in the pole vault after clearing 4.15 meters. Schouten broke the pole vault school record twice during the season. The 4x400 meter relay team of Phillips, Kyra Wilder, Lauren Lewis, and Mikaela Smith captured the title with a school-record time of 3:44.98.Â
Since Brown's arrival in 2011, Austin Peay sprint and hurdle athletes have set six school indoor records (55m dash, 60m dash, 200m dash, 400m dash, 1600m relay, pole vault) and five outdoor records (100m dash, 200m dash, 400m dash, 100m hurdles, 4x100m relay).
Brown coached one athlete who qualified for the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England, and two who qualified for the Caribbean Games in Le Gosier, Guadeloupe.
Brown was instrumental in the development of Breigh Jones, a three-time NCAA East Preliminary qualifier who represented Austin Peay in the 400m dash at the 2014 NCAA Championships in Eugene, Oregon. Jones smashed the school indoor 400m record by nearly two seconds (to 53.96) and the outdoor by more than two seconds (to 52.65) in her training with Brown, and she remains the only athlete in program history to break 54 seconds in the event. Â
In OVCÂ Championship competition, Brown's sprinters have been responsible for a large portion of the hardware brought home by Austin Peay student-athletes during her tenure. In all, Austin Peay's sprints/relays/hurdles group has accounted for 51 medals, including 11 gold medals, during Brown's time on staff, including eight at the 2019 OVC Outdoor Championships.
Brown's track and field success came at Western Kentucky where she capped an impressive career with a third-place finish at the 2009 NCAA Indoor Championships. In doing so, she became only the second indoor All-American in Hilltopper history and set the program's indoor 400-meter record.
Her determination is evident in Brown's climb to the top of the NCAA track and field ranks. She began her collegiate career at Bevill State Community College, where she was sprinter and also ran the relays. Bevill State would finish fifth at the 2006 NJCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships and Brown parlayed her performance into a scholarship at WKU.
While she developed her 400-meter dash, Brown made her way early on in the 1600- and 400-meter relays, where she was twice a Sun Belt Conference Champion in 2007 and 2008.
In fact, in 2008 the Lady Toppers 1600-meter relay team ranked 16th nationally after earning a fourth-place finish at the Mideast Regional. Her individual prowess became more apparent that season as well, when she won the 400-meter dash and was runner up in the 200-meter dash.
The climb to the 2009 NCAA Indoor Championships was prefaced by Brown being named the Sun Belt's 2009 Most Outstanding Female Track Athlete after winning the 200- and 400-meter dash at the Sun Belt Indoor Track and Field Championships. Then at the NCAA tournament - prior to her monumental third-place finish - Brown ran a school-record 52.74 400-meter dash in the semifinals.
Brown earned an Associate's degree in Liberal Arts from Bevill State in 2005. From Western Kentucky, she garnered a Bachelor's degree in Visual Studies in 2009 and a Master's degree in Recreation and Sport Administration in 2011.
