Nike Cross Country Camp at Sewanee: The University of the South

Camp Coaches

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  Michael Curcio

  Camp Director

  Mike Curcio enters his first season with the cross country and track and field programs at the University of the South. Curcio spent the last 28 seasons as head coach of the cross country teams at Division I Appalachian State University and assisted with the distance athletes on the track and field squads. Over his tenure, he has won 13 men's titles and four women's championships. Additionally, he was named the Coach of the Year 14 times between the Southern (SoCon) Conference and the Sun Belt Conference. His men's distance team from 2000-12 won ten SoCon Men's Cross Country titles, including three straight from 2000-02 and six in a row from 2005-10.

  View Michael's Bio
  

  Michael Curcio

  Camp Director

  Individually, he has coached 12 Freshmen of the Year winners and four individual champions. Posting 167 All-Conference standouts in his career, he has seen 38 All-Region selections between cross country, indoor track and field and outdoor track and field. Along with a USATF Junior National Champion in Sean Soderman in the 3,000 steeplechase in 2009, he has coached four All-Americans.
  
  As a part of his coaching career, six athletes have gone on to represent their native countries at the World Championships, while three participated in the Olympic Games.
  
  With the track and field squads at App State, Curcio coached 70 individual conference champions and 273 All-Conference selections between the indoor and outdoor seasons. In 2003, the U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) named him the Division I Men's National Assistant Coach of the Year.
  
  He was a part of a staff that won 21 indoor conference championships and 22 during the outdoor season.
  
  In the classroom, he has seen 20 named Academic All-Americans by the USTFCCCA and two NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship recipients.
  
  Along with his work in directing the App State Distance Camp, he has served as Meet Director for a number of events, notably the ACC Outdoor Championships, the USATF Five Nations Junior International Track Meet and the USATF World Cross Country Championship Trials.
  
  Prior to his time in Boone, N.C., he served as an assistant with the cross country and track and field programs at the University of South Florida from 1993-95 and an assistant cross country coach at Eastern Kentucky University in 1992.
  
  Along with working as a graduate assistant with the cross country and track programs at Florida State, he began his career as a high school track and field coach at St. John the Baptist High School.
  
  In the spring of 1988, he published an article entitled "Carbohydrate Loading for the High School Coach" in Scholastic Coach.
  
  Earning a Bachelor of Science in Physical Education with a Psychology minor from Appalachian State in 1987, he completed a Master of Science in Administration and Physical Education in 1992 from Florida State University.
  
  Curcio is married to JoLynn and have three children, Christopher, Coeburn and Marcie, a daughter-in-law, Tina, and one grandson, Max.

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  Ben Yocum

  Assistant Cross Country Coach - Sewanee: The University of the South

  Ben Yocum begins his first year as an assistant coach with the Sewanee track and field programs during the 2023-24 academic year.Yocum enters his 19th year in coaching, almost all of that time spent in the state of South Carolina at both the high school and collegiate level. He served last season at the University of Northern Colorado, working primarily with multi-events and jumps, tutoring all-conference performers in the long jump both indoors and outdoors, including conference long jump champion Kiana Van Haaren. Steven Cross also placed sixth in the decathlon and he coached the men’s 4x100-meter relay to a fourth-place showing at the conference championships.

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  Ben Yocum

  Assistant Cross Country Coach - Sewanee: The University of the South

  Yocum worked five years at Coastal Carolina University, mostly with multi-events and pole vault, including individuals who finished in the Top 10 in the men’s indoor heptathlon, men’s pole vault (twice), men’s high jump (twice), men’s outdoor decathlon (four times), women’s pentathlon and heptathlon (twice each) and women’s pole vault (three times).
  
  He also helped with distance and middle distance events – women’s indoor 300-meters, 400-meter hurdles, women’s mile and 3,000-meters as well as cross country events in women’s 6K and men’s 8K and 10K. Connor Langdon qualified for the East Regional in the high jump and Hesmari Coetze made it in the 400-meter hurdles for the Chanticleers.
  
  He spent seven seasons at College of Charleston, primarily with multi-events, throws and hurdles, tutoring athletes to 122 Top 10 performances during his time with the Cougars, including numerous all-conference performances and one athlete who qualified for the NCAA East Regional, Tiffany Sisk.
  
  The Huntersville, N.C., native attended the University of South Carolina as an undergraduate, earning his bachelor’s in Experimental Psychology with a minor in Statistics in 2003. He later received a master’s in Exercise Science specializing in Motor Control and Rehabilitation in 2010.
  
  Yocum started his coaching career at Hammond School in Columbia, S.C., working with numerous state championship qualifiers in middle distance and throws, before spending two years at Benedict College, also in Columbia, primarily coaching the pole vault and throws. He coached a pair of conference champions and three all-conference athletes and the Tigers broke six school records during his tenure. He served as a graduate assistant at South Carolina for two years in 2009-10.
  
  Yocum has earned a Level II Jumps Certification from USA Track & Field (USATF) and a Throws Certification from US Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA).