Eric Campbell will begin his fourth season as head coach of the Panthers in 2012 after six seasons as an assistant coach with the GSU. Campbell works primarily with the sprinters in addition to his work as head coach.
In his nine years at Georgia State Campbell has enjoyed considerable success with the Panthers as he has coached seven national qualifers, 42 conference champions, 74 regional qualifiers in 102 events and 72 all-conference performers.
In 2011 the women's track and field squad won the program's first conference championship as they scored 133 points, a new school record. Five individuals won conference titles, including senior Yolanda Berryhill, who won both the shot put and discus titles, and junior Angelia Nugent, who won the long and triple jump crowns. In all eight individuals and one relay team were named All-CAA in 11 events.
Six women's track and field student-athletes earned invitations to the NCAA East Regionals, with Nugent advancing to the National Championships in the triple jump.
His athletes have also broken 60 school records, while 18 of the 23 women's event records and nine of the 19 men's event records have been set during Campbell's coaching years.
"My ultimate goal as coach is to help all my student-athletes reach their potential as both GSU students and athletes," said Campbell.
In his ten-year tenure with the track squad the women's team has improved consistently, as evidenced by the Panthers scoring 120 points, a school record, at the CAA Championships in 2009 in finishing third. 2009 also saw nine athletes advance to NCAA Regionals in eight events, including Tamika Kinchen's appearance in the NCAA Nationals in the 800m.
Campbell also helped Kinchen sweep the 800 and 1,500m at the 2010 CAA Championship. Kinchen holds the school record in both categories. Senior Kendra LaFleur won the 100-meter dash to highlight a strong CAAs for the sprinters.
On the men's side the team had two All-CAA performers in 2009 with Mark Steeds (1,500m) and Joe DeVito (800m) earning all-conference accolades. Steeds was a three-time all-conference athlete in the 1,500m and an one-time all-conference performer in the 5,000m.
The Panthers have also performed academically in Campbell's years as head coach. His teams routinely post overall semester GPA's over 2.9, while individually Yolanda Berryhill and Brandy Swann had perfect 4.0 GPAs in the fall of 2010. Berryhill racked up the academic honors as a senior, being named CoSIDA Academic All-District III first team, Capital One Academic All-America® Women's Track & Field/Cross Country third team and CAA Scholar-Athlete of the Year for women's track and field.
Besides his duties with the Panthers, Campbell is the founder, owner and CEO of The Professional Athlete Training Academy (TPA) a company that trains track and field athletes. The company, which was founded in 2000, has helped train several Olympic athletes reach the highest level.
Along with his duties with TPA, Campbell is the National Team Coach and Director of Jr./Youth Development for Saudi Arabia. Here he oversees the program and coaches the team at various international meets throughout the year when the Panthers are not performing on the track.
The Atlanta, Ga., native is Level II certified in sprints and hurdles.
Campbell attended Atlanta's own Frederick Douglass High School. Following graduation Campbell attended Howard and Morris Brown and majored in architecture engineering while competing in track and field and cross country.
Prior to coaching at Georgia State, Campbell was a sprint coach with Quicksilver T.C., from 1995-2002, and Benjamin E. Mays High School from 1997-1999.
He is married to Tracie Campbell. The couple married in 2000 and have three children, Mariama, Olivia and Sophia.
