LAS VEGAS (UNLVRebels.com) – UNLV Track & Field/Cross Country Head Coach Dorian Scott has announced the addition of assistant coaches Ray Williams, Aniis Hopkins and Zaven O'Bryant to complete his coaching staff.
Williams and Hopkins are full-time assistant coaches and will oversee the sprinters and jumpers, respectively. O'Bryant is a volunteer assistant and will coach the cross country runners.
Williams comes to UNLV after spending the last five seasons at Texas State University where he was the men's and women's sprints, hurdles and relays coach. He helped the Bobcats to seven Sun Belt Championships during his time there and the hurdlers posted career bests in advancing to the Sun Belt Championship finals every season.
Prior to his time at Texas State, Williams was the head coach at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania for five years where he led the team to academic and athletic success, raising the team GPA each year and winning six conference titles and an All-Academic Team award.
In 2014-15, Williams assisted the women's sprints and hurdles crew at the University of Mississippi, and from 2004-10 he was the sprints, hurdles and jumps coach for Grand Valley State University, where the men's and women's teams finished in the top eight at each NCAA indoor and outdoor championship meet, including back-to-back runner-up finishes (women) in 2009 and 2010 (indoor).
Williams also had coaching stops at Marquette (2002-04), Detroit-Mercy (2001-02), Western Michigan (2000-01), University of Chicago (1997-00) and George Washington University (1995-06). The Chicago native graduated from North Central College in 1995 with a bachelor's degree in urban sociology and earned his master's degree in education leadership at Grand Valley State University in 2009.
During his undergraduate years at North Central, Williams was a NCAA Division III All-American in the 110-meter hurdles, team captain, three-time CCIW Conference Champion and held both the school and conference records in 110-meter hurdles. He has a daughter Micah, two sons, Daniel and Kamran, and is married to Danyual.
Hopkins joins the Rebels after coaching at Long Island University where she was first an assistant before being promoted to interim head coach.
During her tenure at LIU, she coached Jahsira Dunbar to a school record of 15.95m in the triple jump, while Stephanie Esogenwune leaped a new personal best of 12.47 in the triple jump.
Prior to coaching at LIU, Hopkins assisted at Florida State University from 2016-19 alongside Scott. While with the Seminoles, she helped coach 22 All-Americans (outdoor/indoor) and nine ACC champions (indoor/outdoor). The Seminole men and women's team captured six ACC team titles with Hopkins on the coaching staff.
Before her time at Florida State, she served as an assistant track & field coach at Winter Springs (Fla.) High School. A total of 20 school records fell during her time there, while the school produced nationally ranked student-athletes in the hurdles and jumps.
A 2008 graduate of Wyoming, Hopkins earned all-conference honors as a student-athlete in the long jump and 60 meter hurdles.
O'Bryant is an elite road runner and former cross country and track & field standout at Georgia State University where he achieved many accolades, including being named to the Athletic Director's Honor Roll, Colonial Athletic Association Conference (CAA) Commissioner's Academic Award, and CAA Athlete of the Week for 800m.
O'Bryant holds the Georgia State University record for the 800m and indoor mile and his personal bests on the track came during his time as a graduate student at the Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta. He was a volunteer assistant coach there from 2009-12.
O'Bryant competed for the Atlanta Track Club from 2012-16 while completing his Ph.D. in biomedical sciences (neuroscience) and dual degree masters in clinical research. He is a trained scientist researcher as a neurophysiologist and also understands the complexities of sports performance, with elite distance running as his focus.
In 2016, he completed a post-doctoral fellowship in biology and biochemistry in Houston, where he was also a volunteer assistant coach at the University of Houston.
In addition to his UNLV Track & Field/Cross Country duties, O'Bryant is also a professor at the College of Southern Nevada in its biology department.
