Azalea City Track & Field Camps
Head Coach Paul Brueske
Coach Paul Brueske enters his 15th season with South Alabama’s track & field program, and his 14th season as head coach for both programs.
Coach Paul Brueske enters his 15th season with South Alabama’s track & field program, and his 14th season as head coach for both programs.Under his direction, the USA cross country and track & field teams have produced 125 all-SBC performers and 86 student-athletes who have participated in the NCAA East Region Preliminary Round. Since the spring of 2011, 11 individuals have advanced to the NCAA Indoor and Outdoor Track and Field Championships on 13 occasions, with Renaldo Frechou, Lindsay Schwartz, Sean Collins and Emilie Berge earning first- or second-team All-American honors multiple times. Jan-Lou Kotze earned first-team All-American honors in 2016, while Kaitlyn Beans received second-team All-American accolades that same season. Autavia Fluker and Francois Prinsloo earned second-team All-American honors in 2021 with record-breaking performances at the NCAA East Preliminary Round.
Brueske was honored in 2016 as the Sun Belt Conference Women’s Coach of the Year – the first of his career – after leading the Jaguars to their first ever outright conference championship as the South Alabama women’s track and field team took home the team title at the outdoor championship.
Since Brueske’s arrival, Jaguar student-athletes have set 55 school records, while breaking four league standards and two NCAA records.
In throwing events, South has claimed 25 individual titles at Sun Belt Championships with USA student-athletes collecting all-league honors on 80 occasions. Every school record in the throwing events, except the men’s javelin has been broken during Brueske’s tenure.
The Jaguars had an all-conference performer in the men’s discus for 10 consecutive years (2008-2017), and seven of those seasons included a Sun Belt champion in the event
A highlight of one of Brueske’s more recent recruiting classes, Fluker was named to the NCAA All-American team in 2021. She won three Sun Belt Conference Championships in two events – shot put and hammer throw – over a three-year span while with the program. The seven-time all-Sun Belt selection and two-time Sun Belt Most Outstanding Field Performer broke multiple program records, including her own, in the hammer throw (70.02m/229-08) and shot put (16.22m/53-02.75) events. Fluker set a NCAA record with her 70.02m hammer throw which qualified her for the 2021 US Olympic Trials. She went on to finish 11th in the Olympic Trials Finals in Eugene, Ore., in the summer of 2021.
A remnant of Brueske’s first recruiting class at the university, Schwartz was a three-time NCAA All-American, a USTFCCCA Division I Academic All-American, a three-time SBC outdoor heptathlon and two-time indoor pentathlon champion, the 2011 SBC Most Outstanding Female Field Performer and the 2011-12 USA Female Student-Athlete of the Year. After posting a then-school-record 5,606 points in the heptathlon at the Texas Relays, Schwartz qualified to compete at the 2012 United States Olympic Trials in Eugene, Ore., where she set a new school record with 5,614 points through seven total events for 14th overall.
11 Sun Belt individual champions in throwing events under Brueske include: Prinsloo (discus, 2021), Rickssen Opont (indoor shot put, 2020, outdoor shot put 2021), Michaela Preachuck (weight throw, 2018; hammer, 2018-19), Fluker (indoor shot put, 2019-20; outdoor shot put 2019, hammer throw 2021), Hanna-Mai Vaikla (javelin, 2018), Frechou (hammer, 2014-15), Leah Hixon (javelin, 2014), Kotze (discus 2013-15), Angela McCord (javelin, 2010), Joey Torres (discus, 2010-12; hammer, 2011; weight throw, 2011), and Bobbie Williamson (hammer, 2013).
In all, 35 Jaguars have qualified for the NCAA regional round, in the throws events, with six advancing to the national championships. Fluker earned a Second-Team All-American accolades in her first postseason appearance, which was followed by a US Olympic Trials Finals appearance. Prinsloo received second-team All-American honors in his first NCAA Championship appearance. Frechou would pick up first-team All-American accolades after finishing seventh in his first trip to the NCAA Outdoor Championships, then improving the following season finishing fifth, while Torres – a native of Bayamon, Puerto Rico – set a national record in the discus with a mark of 56.23m that also broke the Sun Belt record. Kotze was a first-team All-American in 2016 placing fifth in the discus at the NCAA Outdoor Championships.
The Jaguars have experienced academic success under Brueske’s watch as well. USA has been named a USTFCCCA All-Academic Team on eight occasions, while the Jags have received the team award for the highest grade-point average in the Sun Belt including sweeping honors for both women and men during the 2014-15 academic year. A total of 16 individuals have received all-academic recognition from the USTFCCCA, and Kotze became the first member of the men’s program to be named Academic All-American by the College Sports Information Directors of America and was awarded the Elite 90 Award as the top student-athlete GPA at the 2016 NCAA Outdoor Championships. The men’s team has earned the Sun Belt Academic Team Champion award for the best men’s track & field team GPA for six consecutive years (2015-21).
Formerly the head coach of the boys' track program at St. Paul's Episcopal High School in Mobile, Ala., Brueske led the team to back-to-back Alabama High School Athletic Association Class 5A outdoor state championships in 2006 and 2007. The Saints were also the 2007 indoor champions. Additionally, 15 student-athletes earned individual state titles during his tenure.
Prior to his arrival at St. Paul's High, Brueske worked with the UMS-Wright Preparatory track & field program in Mobile, helping the Bulldogs to three consecutive state high school championships in both the girls and boys divisions. At UMS-Wright, he primarily coached the field events and worked with 15 individual 4A state champions in the throws, high jump and pole vault. He helped UMS-Wright athletes establish new school records in the pole vault, javelin and shot put. Brueske was also an assistant with the UMS-Wright varsity football team that compiled a 38-4 winning record and won the 2002 4A state championship.
Brueske spent two seasons (2000-02) as the field events coach at Ferris State University in Big Rapids, Mich. At Ferris State, he produced 14 NCAA qualifiers, three All-Americans and 22 all-conference performers. As an assistant coach, Brueske was in charge of recruiting and coaching all field event athletes. He also helped design strength training programs for the Ferris State golf, hockey and volleyball programs.
A native of Gulf Breeze, Fla., Brueske began coaching at McGill-Toolen Catholic High School in Mobile, where he spent three seasons. As the assistant head coach, Brueske helped build McGill-Toolen into a 6A county and sectional champion.
A 1998 graduate of South Alabama where he was a member of the track team, Brueske holds USA Track & Field Level II certification in the throwing, jumping and combined events. He is a certified specialist in Sports Conditioning by the International Sports Science Association, a USA (Olympic) weightlifting certified club coach, and a USA Track & Field Level I Instructor. He worked for five years as strength coach for the tennis program at the University of South Alabama. He is a member of the Optimist Club of Mobile and the National Throws Coaches Association. Brueske is also the USA Track & Field Coaching Education Chairman in Alabama. He has been named a Certified Throws Specialist by the United States Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association. He is also a USAW Certified Sports Performance Coach, USTFCCCA Certified Track and Field Technical Coach, USTFCCCA Certified Strength and Conditioning Coach and he formerly served as Coaches Education Chairman for the state of Alabama.