| Kendra Mackey |
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 | Position:
Assistant Coach (Sprints/Relays)
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| Experience:
1st Year
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Kendra Mackey is in her third season as an assistant track coach at her alma mater. As Carolina’s sprint coach, Mackey leads a program that continues to shine.
Under Mackey, the women’s sprint program continues to be a significant part of the UNC program. Mackey has coached and recruited a number of All-Americans and All-ACC student-athletes. Current Tar Heel, Edi Ntuen, became the top 400m runner at Carolina and was named an indoor All-America last season under Mackey. Mackey also recruited and coached current Tar Heel, Anissa Gainey, who returns this season as the ACC runner-up in the indoor 60m, 200m, and outdoor 100m dash.
Mackey is one of the most triumphant women’s performers in ACC history as she claimed eight individual, five relay and seven overall team championships in her four years as a Tar Heel.
From 1988-91 she dominated the sprints and relays in the ACC. Mackey was the recipient of the Jim Tatum Award in 1991, given to the UNC senior athlete who most reflects athletic and academic excellence, leadership and courage.
A native of Catawba, S.C., Mackey graduated from UNC in 1991 with a degree in psychology. While a Tar Heel, she earned eight All-America honors and won 13 ACC championships. As a freshman, she won the 55 and 200 meters at the ACC Indoor Championships and later won the 100m and 4x400m at the outdoor meet. She won the 55 in 6.86 seconds, still a UNC record and at the time, an ACC meet record. She was the Most Outstanding Performer at the 1988 ACC Outdoor Championships.
In 1989, she won the 200m and 4x400m indoor and the 400m, 4x100m and 4x400m outdoor. As a junior in 1990, she won the indoor 200m and outdoor 400m. And as a senior, she won the indoor mile relay and the outdoor 100m.
Mackey, 32, still holds four records at Carolina, including the indoor 55m and 4x400m relay and the outdoor 100m and 4x400m relay.
She was a three-time team captain and led the Tar Heels to seven ACC team titles in four years.
As a freshman, she qualified for and competed in the 1988 U.S. Olympic Trials in the 100m, 200m and 400m. She was a Trials finalist in the 400m in 1992. Mackey won a gold medal in the 400m a the 1991 U.S. Olympic Festival in Los Angeles and was a member of the Festival’s gold medal winning 4x400 relay in 1993. She was a member of the 1995 4x400m relay on U.S. Pan American Team in Argentina.
She competed for the U.S. Junior National Team at the World Junior Championships in Sudbury, Canada in 1988. She also competed for the U.S. against Great Britain in indoor and outdoor competition in Birmingham, England in 1992.
Her personal bests include 11.34 in the 100m, 23.38 in the 200m and 50.46 in the 400m.
Mackey was an assistant coach at Emory University in Atlanta, Ga., from 1992-94. There, she coached three NCAA Divison III All-Americas and helped the women’s team to two conference titles. In 1995, she was the meet director of the Region III Junior Olympic Meet. In 1996, she left Carolina to join the Atlanta Olympic Committee with baseball. She then worked with her former sports agent, Charlie Wells, at Vector Sports Agency from 1997-98.
Mackey also started modeling in 1995. She has done work for Ralph Lauren, Nike, the WNBA, Essence magazine and Elle magazine, and has appeared in many television commercials. She has also worked with the State Bureau of Investigations as part of the Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.) program in 1993-94. Mackey is the daughter of James and Mattie Mackey and is the proud mother of a 4-year-old boy, Jazz Warren.
