Addison Painter hired as Marietta College Assistant Track & Field coach

 By Ben Anderson


    Addison Painter, the men’s indoor and outdoor long jump record holder for the Thundering Herd, has officially been hired as an assistant coach at Marietta College. Painter returns to Marietta where he spent the first four years of his career where he was a 2x NCAA Division III All-American in long jump. 

 

    Painter said that returning to Marietta is special because of how it allows him to reconnect with his former head coach Eric Putnam.  

 

    “He’s an open book,” Painter said in an interview with First and Ben. “If I ever got a question about anything I was able to go in there and just ask him and he's always going to be honest with me and tell me exactly how things are. He's also a great friend. I feel like you rarely get the chance to build a friendship with your coaches when you're an athlete, and he and I were able to do that while I was here as an athlete. Being able to lean on that friendship and know that we have trust in each other, it's great.” 

 

    Painter said that the team situation between Marietta and Marshall at the end of the day is remarkably similar to each other. 

 

    “They both live and breathe track & field,” Painter said. “At the end of the day, that's what I am and that's how I feel, so being around that type of energy and that kind of love and passion for the sport is what I want, and they just want to build the program to be successful. In a lot of ways Marietta is in parody to Marshall where in this point in the program we’re kind of the little guy in the conference and we’re trying to build and make a name for ourself and the same type of things that he (Director Roberts) for as a team at Marshall are the things that we got to push at Marietta.” 

 

    Marshall Director of Track and Field & Cross-Country Keith Roberts said that Painter is the type of assistant coach that attracts head coaches like himself.  

 

    “If I had a position, and I could hire somebody, I would hire him in a heartbeat,” Roberts said in an interview with First and Ben. “He’s motivated, he works hard, he’s energetic, he’s professional, he can relate to the athletes, he can relate to the administrators, he can relate to alumni. If you have somebody like that who’s really dynamic, when he goes out and recruits, people are going to buy in right away, and he’s honest, that's important to be honest with people and you could always trust that he was going to be honest with you.” 

 

    Painter now sets his sights on building Marietta College Track & Field to the top of the NCAA Division III Mountain and perhaps one day become the head coach of his program. 

 

 


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