University of Central Arkansas Athletics

Former All-American Derek Jacobus enters his first season as an assistant coach and Recruiting Coordinator for the Central Arkansas track and field program, working with the jumps and multis.
 
During the spring season of 2022 with the Little Rock Trojans program, Jacobus guided Johnathan Jones to a new school record and a gold medal at the Sun Belt Outdoor Championships in the high jump as Jones cleared 2.17m, solidifying a spot at the NCAA West Preliminary Championships. Jacobus also coached true freshman Hunter Johnson to set new school records in both the indoor (4.77m) and outdoor (4.85m) pole vaults while true freshman Ethan Sorrels posted the second-best marks in the heptathlon (4,949 points) and decathlon (6,436 points). Gabby Ayiteyfio was the beneficiary of Jacobus’ guidance as she scored 3,259 points in the pentathlon to rank fourth in school history before scoring 4,537 points in the heptathlon to rank second in school history as she finished sixth at the Sun Belt Outdoor Championships.
 
In the 2020-21 season, Jacobus guided five individual conference scorers at the Sun Belt Indoor Championships as Jones claimed silver in the High Jump while Christian Matamoros placed fourth. Jones initially set a school record as he became the first Trojan to ever surpass the seven-foot mark in the high jump. He also coached Avianna Trinidad to a fourth-place finish at the Sun Belt Indoor Championships in the pole vault while guiding Cogan DeRousselle to an eighth-place finish in the 60m dash. Thanks to Jacobus’ coaching, DeRousselle would place seventh in the 100m at the Sun Belt Outdoor Championships while Jones would reset the outdoor high jump record three times.
 
Jacobus guided Tricia Pierce (women’s pole vault) and Christian Matamoros (men’s high jump) to silver medals in the Sun Belt Indoor Championships during the 2019-20 indoor season before the COVID-19 pandemic ended the remainder of the indoor season and entirety of the outdoor season.

During the 2019 outdoor season, Jacobus worked with all jumps and multis as he guided Nghia Dinh to a 7.05m performance in the long jump, placing sixth in school history. He also coached Nicole Edison to a 5.80m long jump mark, which ranks second in school history. 
 
A four-time NCAA Championship qualifier at the University of Arkansas under the coaching of Travis Geopfert (2015-2018) and Mario Sategna (2018-2019), Jacobus was a second team indoor All-American in the heptathlon in 2019 and a second team outdoor All-American in the decathlon in 2018 while earning NCAA outdoor honorable mention honors in both 2016 and 2017 outdoor seasons. He was a key member of the Razorbacks’ indoor and outdoor SEC Championship team in 2016 and the indoor title in 2017.
 
Jacobus placed fourth in the decathlon at both the 2017 and 2018 SEC Championships, capping his senior season with a seventh-place showing in the decathlon at the USATF Championships after placing 11th in 2017. Jacobus competed for Team USA on the global stage during the 2018 Thrope Cup, a scored decathlon duel of Team USA vs Team Germany. Jacobus holds personal records of 7635 in the Decathlon and 5666 in the Heptathlon.

Jacobus spent his freshman year at the University of Northern Iowa under the guidance of Dan Steel and Anthony Bertoli while developing him to be a Missouri Valley Conference Decathlon Champion as a true freshman. 
 
A native of Palo, Iowa, Jacobus earned his bachelor’s degree in Recreation and Sports Management from Arkansas in 2018 ans his master's degree in Sports Management from Little Rock in 2020. His wife, the former Lexi Weeks, is a four-time NCAA Champion and 2016 Olympian in the pole vault. The couple resides in Cabot.