Back on her home track: Brittney Reese named GHS girls track, cross country coach

GULFPORT, Miss. (WLOX) - Three-time Olympic medalist Brittney Reese is back in Gulfport to lead the track program she was a part of almost 20 years ago, with a chance to compete again on her old stomping grounds from a different perspective.

“This is a new experience for me. I’ve been on the track training for the last 10-plus years,” Reese said. “This is a different approach for me, I’m really excited to get started and see what happens for the future.”

She’ll be the head coach of the girls track and cross country programs, while also helping develop the school’s new indoor track team. It’s a vision she’s had for a couple years, sending this tweet 13 months before she would win her third and final Olympic medal:

“Back in California, I was an assistant coach at a community college and was able to train kids privately, so I already knew what my end goal would be, and that was always to be a track coach,” she said. “I think I was put on Earth not only to win medals and compete but to inspire, and the best way for me to inspire these kids is be out there with them, and guide them in the right direction on and off the track.”

That track will be a new track, named after the man who coached her during her high school days, but knew she was special years before that: Gulfport legend, Prince Jones.

“As a seventh grader at Bayou View, I started watching her play basketball,” Jones said. “I watched her run and said to myself, when she gets to eighth grade, she’s going to be running track at Gulfport High.”

Even though it’s her first stint as a head coach, her vision is clear: get back to the top.

“When I was in school, everybody would fear Gulfport High,” Reese said. “When we came into town, everybody was all nervous. We want to bring that back, especially on the track. They’ve had a great track program the last couple of years, but we could step it up a notch and be back to where everybody understands that Gulfport High is here, and we’re here to win.”

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