Benaud Shirley

Biography

Benaud Shirley was named the Kansas City Track and Field and Cross Country head coach on Aug. 1, 2019. He is in his 19th year on the KC coaching staff heading into the 2025-26 academic year and his seventh overall as head coach. Shirley has been on the KC Roo staff since April 2008, serving as an assistant coach and eventually moving up to associate head coach until December 2018, with a specialty in mentoring jumpers. He was part of five Western Athletic Conference team championships: two in men's cross country (2016 & 2017), two in women's outdoor track and field (2015 & 2017), and one in men's outdoor track and field (2017). In 2019-20, Shirley mentored Christopher Bryan, who became the first-ever male athlete in WAC history to three-peat as Men's High Point Athlete, and Sommer Herner, who made school history as the first female athlete to win both the WAC Outstanding Track Athlete and High Point award at the same time in indoor championships. A 2004 graduate of Kansas, Shirley was a nine-time all-Big 12 Conference jumper, conference champion in outdoor triple jump in 2002 and 2003, and an NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field National Championships participant. He was a four-time Jayhawk Scholar and the 2003 Jamaica senior national triple jump champion. A native of Portland, Jamaica, Shirley earned his Bachelor of Science degree in economics from the University of Kansas. He and his wife Carmen have four daughters.

Career Path