The University of Akron Athletics
Track & Field
- Title:
- Associate Head Coach
- Email:
- bcf3@uakron.edu
- Phone:
- (330) 972-7964
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Since joining the Zips' staff in the fall 2001, Brian Forrester, the 2009 USTFCCCA Great Lakes Region Women's Assistant Coach of the Year, has established his group as a force on the conference, regional and national levels.
During that time, his athletes have garnered: a national championship, 16 First-Team All-America awards and seven Second-Team All-American awards. His athletes have also won 35 individual Mid-American Conference championships in the throwing events
He has also sent 11 athletes to the NCAA Championships, while six have gone on to compete at the USA Track and Field Indoor/Outdoor Championships and/or U.S. Olympic Trials. Further, seven have qualified for the USATF Junior Nationals.
His brightest star to date, Stevi Large was a four-time All-American who captured the 2009 NCAA Championship in the hammer while smashing school, conference and regional records along the way. Large, who also finished as the national runner-up in the weight throw in 2009, blossomed into the program's most dominant thrower, capturing nine MAC Championships during her time – including four consecutive hammer titles from 2006-'09.
In all, Akron student-athletes have set seven MAC records and 11 of the school's 12 throws standards under Forrester's direction. Moreover, Akron throwers have won nine Most Outstanding Field Event Performer awards and 1 MVP at conference meets since 2002 and 79 have qualified for the first round of the NCAA Regionals in 114 events. Equally important, the individual accomplishments have contributed greatly to the program's success as the Zips have captured ten MAC Indoor team championships and eleven MAC Outdoor team titles during that time.
Prior to arriving on campus at Akron, Forrester spent the 2001 season as the throwing events coach at Wittenburg University.
While at Wittenburg, the throwers under his tutelage established school records in the men's and women's weight throw, men's and women's javelin, and the men's hammer. He coached athletes to 4 NCAC Championships and three freshmen throwers to NCAA provisional qualifying marks. In 2000, Forrester worked as a volunteer assistant coach at Kent State under the guidance of coach Kent Pagel.
Forrester, who earned his Master of Sports Science and Coaching degree from UA in 2008, is a USATF Level II throws coach, a USTFCCCA Throws Specialist, a USA Weightlifting Club coach and a Jump-Stretch Instructor. He was a member and contributing author of the Long and Strong Throwers Journal/Club. Forrester is the director of the UA track and field camps and has coached at throwing camps throughout Western Pennsylvania and Ohio.
A 1999 graduate of Slippery Rock University with a degree in sport management, Forrester was an all-conference performer in the shot put, as well as the SRU Indoor Athlete of the Year in 1996 and 1997.
