A former coach and competitor at the NCAA Division I level, Octavious Gillespie-Bennett returns for his second season with the Cal State L.A. program as the assistant coach in charge of jumps, throws and multi-events for the men’s outdoor track and field, women’s indoor track and field and women’s outdoor track and field team.
Gillespie-Bennett had a tremendous impact in his first season with the program and was named the NCAA Division II West Region Assistant Coach of the Year for women’s track and field in 2011 by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association. He helped Tuekeha Huntley to All-America honors in the indoor pentathlon and outdoor heptathlon and he helped Na’i Leni to a third-place national finish in the discus. Leni was also the West Region Field Athlete of the Year in 2011. Gillespie-Bennett also helped men’s jumpers Josh Como and Giorgio Bryant to national championships in the long jump and triple jump.
Gillespie-Bennett comes to Cal State L.A. from the University of Tulsa, where he was the field event/hurdles/multi-event coach since 2008. During his time with the program, his student-athletes set 10 new Tulsa records, earned 21 All-Conference USA honors and won two Conference USA championships. He also coached three NCAA Division I regional qualifiers and one national qualifier. Gillespie-Bennett was the meet director for the 2009 Conference USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships.
Before he coached at Tulsa, Gillespie-Bennett was the decathlon coach and jumps assistant at UCLA from 2006-2008. Several of the student-athletes he coached placed in the Pacific-10 Conference Championships.
He was also the field event coach at the Brentwood Schools in 2004-05 and coached league champions in the boys long jump, high jump, shot put and girls long jump. He also assisted in meet operations and coached all field events.
Gillespie-Bennett competed for Lane Community College, UC Santa Barbara and UCLA. He was the Guatemalan national record holder in the javelin (65.87 meters) and decathlon (7,448 points) and was a Pan-American competitor in 2003 and 2007. He was the Central American Champion in the high jump in 2004 and in the pole vault in 2007. He was also second in the long jump and third in the javelin in 2007.
He earned his bachelor’s degree from UCLA in 2003 and was a UCLA Student-Athlete Academic mentor from 2003-05. He was also a study hall monitor for the men’s track and field team at UCLA from 2003-05 and was the Assistant Athletic Tutorial Director for UCLA in 2005-06.
