ASU T&F Asst. Coach Dumble Ranks As Nation's Elite

ASU T&F Asst. Coach Dumble Ranks As Nation's Elite
Courtesy: Sun Devil Athletics
Release: 07/11/2013
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TEMPE – David Dumble is the best throws coach in the country.

A bold statement, some might say. Some might say it’s a little biased coming from an Arizona State University publication. But don't take our word for it, just look at the numbers.

Any discussion involving the prowess of a coach revolves around results. And no school in the country can lay claim to the kind of results posted by the Arizona State University track and field assistant over the past decade.

Dumble came to the Sun Devils in 2001-02 and produced three All-Americans over his first couple seasons as he worked to recruit and develop his own student-athletes. In 2005-06, Dumble had his first class comprised entirely of his own student-athletes and a dynasty was born.

Since 2006, Dumble has worked with student-athletes who have combined to win 77 All-America honors and 24 individual national championships. No other school in the country can come even remotely close to those kind of numbers in that same time period.

Dumble has worked with six-time NCAA Champion Ryan Whiting, four-time NCAA Champion Jordan Clarke and multiple-time NCAA Champions Jessica Pressley and Sarah Stevens during that time.

These numbers also reflect Dumble’s work with multi-eventers as he takes time from his normal core of strictly throwers to help develop the overall skills of those that compete in the heptathlon and decathlon, a group that has included seven-time NCAA Champion Jacquelyn Johnson and All-Americans Keia Pinnick, Samantha Henderson and Josh Kinnaman.

So just how much better are Dumble’s numbers than any other program? According to our research (and giving the benefit of the doubt that the throws coaches at other schools work with multi-eventers), Florida is the closest program to ASU’s success with 46 All-American awards since 2006. Georgia (44), Texas (41) and Virginia Tech (37) round out the top five.

Only four schools come within 40 All-Americans of Dumble and his 9.625 All-America awards per year since 2006 are nearly four more All-Americans produced than Florida's 5.75.

Throwing/Multi-Event All-America Honors Since 2006

Arizona State
77

Florida
46

Georgia
44

Texas
41

Virginia Tech
37

Arizona
36

Kansas
36

Nebraska
35

S. Illinois
35

Oregon
34


As far as national championships (and utilizing the same concept of including multi-eventers), Oregon comes closest to Dumble’s 24 with 13 NCAA Championships since 2006 though the large majority of those belong to the multi-events. Florida has 12 in the time span while Georgia and Virginia Tech each have 11. Even removing Johnson's seven multi-event titles, Dumble would have a five champion edge over Florida.

NCAA Individual Champions (Throws or Multis) Since 2006

Arizona State
24

Oregon
13

Florida
12

Georgia
11

Virginia Tech
11

Nebraska
9

N. Carolina
7

Auburn
6

Oklahoma
6

Texas
6


Since 2006, Dumble’s student-athletes have combined for 473 points at NCAA Championships competitions and that might be the most incredible number of all.

Since 2006, approximately 200 universities have scored at least a single point at an NCAA Division I track and field championship (men’s and womens’ indoor and outdoor). As far as the entire team point scoring of all those institutions, only nine squads (emphasizing entire team: all events, men’s and women’s, indoor and outdoor) have scored more points than throwers and multi-events under Dumble in that time span.

That mean’s that Coach Dumble would have the nation’s 10th-highest scoring team over the last eight seasons as a standalone program and has outscored about 190 other Division I institutions in that time.

Team Scoring Since 2006
Points

LSU
1,219

Texas A&M
1,078

Oregon
1,043.33

Florida
921

Florida St.
863.5

Arkansas
782.5

Texas
744.5

Stanford
558

Arizona
557.5

Dumble's Pupils*
473

*ASU has 727 points as a whole during the time frame.


A Sun Devil student-athlete who has trained with Dumble has won an NCAA Championship in each of the last eight seasons and he has gained plenty of recognition for his efforts, having been named the USTFCCCA National Assistant Coach of the Year five times and the USTFCCCA West Region Assistant Coach of the Year seven times.

Whiting currently ranks as the No. 1 thrower in the world heading into next month’s IAAF World Championships in Moscow while Stevens went on to a professional career that saw her compete in the World Championships as well.

It’s not just in the field of play that Dumble’s kids have succeeded as those student-athletes have racked up 59 Pac-10/12 Academic All-Conference honors since 2002. Stevens was named the Pac-10 Scholar-Athlete of the Year for track and field in 2009 while Whiting tabbed the honor in 2010.

Whiting and Stevens along with Jason Lewis, Cj Navarro and Jennifer Kowacz have all gone on to be named Capital One CoSIDA Academic All-Americans in the past nine years as well.

With arguably the nation's top women's throwing recruit in the nation donnin the Maroon & Gold next season in Maggie Ewen, in addition to the defending NCAA discus champion Anna Jelmini and a strong group of young, talented throwers on the men's side, Dumble's dynasty appears to be well on its way to remaining intact.

Dumble’s success comes at the forefront of the many great things head coach Greg Kraft (who also gets some love for his work with the multi-eventers to give Dumble the assist with these numbers) has accomplished in his 17-year stead at the helm of the track and cross country program, a period of time that includes four NCAA Team Championships, three Pac-12 Championships, 30 NCAA Champions, over 200 All-Americans, 96 conference champions, 102 Pac-10/12 All-Academic honors and a slew of other accolades that have established the Sun Devil track and field program as one of the preeminent programs in the country with no sign of slowing down any time soon.

Arizona State Sun Devils Track and Field