Sebek O’Jike Maat was promoted to Associate Head Coach in July 2022.
Maat is in his fourth season as a coach for the Eastern Kentucky University track and field program.
He primarily oversees sprints, jumps, hurdles, throws and multi athletes at EKU.
2021 proved to be a breakout season for Maat and several of his student-athletes. Quantasia Perry broke the EKU record in the indoor (24.27) and outdoor (23.59) 200 meters, while also running the third-fastest 100 meters in school history (11.65).
Freshman Kayla Smith broke the 38-year-old EKU record in the 100 meters (11.53), and then became the first EKU woman in more than a decade to win OVC 100 meter gold.
Perry and Smith both qualified for the NCAA East Preliminary Rounds, becoming the first EKU sprinters ever to qualify for the regional meet. Smith finished 31st in the 100 meters, while Perry took 30th in the 200 meters.
Emma Garcia-Palencia also became an OVC champion under Maat's guidance in 2021. She became the first EKU woman to win the OVC heptathlon since 1986, scoring 4,900 points to earn gold.
Four of Maat's athletes medaled at the 2020 OVC Indoor Championships. Junior Ashley Barr took silver in the women's 800 meters, while freshman Emma Garcia Palencia just missed gold in the women's pentathlon, taking silver by 13 points with a personal-best score of 3,520 points. Senior Hailey Lacy, meanwhile, claimed bronze in the women's pentathlon (3,301 points), while junior Ben Thoms captured bronze in the men's 60-meter hurdles with a personal-best time of 8.35.
In his first season, Maat helped lead the EKU men to the 2019 OVC Indoor title. Senior Yoshua Reed notably scored 23 points at the meet, including a gold medal in the heptathlon.
At the 2019 OVC Outdoor Championships, Maat helped guide young sprinters Quantasia Perry and Bryce Favors-Charleston to medals in the 100 meters. Perry - a sophomore - nearly upset three-time defending champion Tamdra Lawrence in the women's 100-meter finals with a silver-medal winning time of 11.88. She ran the fastest qualifying time in the event, a personal-best 11.82.
Favors-Charleston - a freshman - came out of nowhere to take bronze in the men's 100-meter finals (11.03). He ran a personal-best 10.82 in the prelims.
A native of Memphis, Tennessee, Maat came to EKU following three years as a sprints coach for the Memphis Mustangs Track Club. Prior to that, he served one year as a graduate assistant coach at his alma mater, the University of Memphis, working primarily with sprint, hurdle and relay techniques.
Maat began his collegiate track career at Troy University in Alabama. In 2010, he was an All-Sun Belt performer in the 400-meter hurdles, the 4x100 meter relay and the 4x400 meter relay. He was also an NCAA East Preliminary qualifier in the 4x100.
After transferring to Memphis, Maat was an All-Conference USA performer during both the 2013 indoor and outdoor seasons.
Maat graduated cum laude from Memphis in 2013 with a bachelor’s degree in sport management. He received his master’s degree in health and sport science from Memphis in 2015.
