Barry Brown was named the Shorter University Head Cross Country and Assistant Track and Field Coach in the spring 2023 after an extremely successful career at Young Harris College. Barry started the program at Young Harris College in 2006.
Coach Brown was recognized as one of the most successful coaches in the NCAA DII Peach belt Conference.  A few significant accomplishments include having had three runners qualify for the NCAA Division II National Championship. All three runners also won a Peach Belt Conference individual championship for the Mountain Lions. Brown led the Mountain Lions to appearances in the NCAA Division II Southeast Regionals for three consecutive years. He has had multiple runners named Runner of the Year in the Peach Belt. YHC also has had eight runners named to the United States Track & Field and Cross-Country Coaches Association named to the NCAA Division II All-Southeast Region team. The program was ranked in the top 10 NCAA Southeast Region.
Prior to competing in the NCAA DII PBC conference, Brown led each of his first four teams to a NJCAA regional championship and twice won the region’s Coach of the Year award.
He wasted little time building the team into one of the top teams in the region, as both Mountain Lions teams claimed second place in the regional championships in that inaugural season in 2006.  That same year, Young Harris claimed the women’s individual regional champion and the individual runner-up in the men’s regional meet, and both runners participated in the NJCAA National Championship. That was just an appetizer for the men’s team, which went on to claim the regional championship and a top-20 national ranking, netting Brown the region’s Coach of the Year award.  The women were the regional runners-up for the second consecutive season.
The women’s squad then went on to claim the regional crown and a top-20 national ranking, with the men finishing second at the regional championships.  Again, Brown was named the region’s Coach of the Year, this time on the women’s side.
He is currently a director for Run Free Training Camps. Coaching elite runners to include HS state champions as well as world class professional runners. Prior to this he was the director of Warrior Running Camps.
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A long-time competitive marathon runner himself, Brown has competed in major races across the country including the Chicago and Boston Marathons along with many other major races. He continues to train while enjoying helping his runners develop both individually and as a team.
Coaching at Shorter University brings Coach Brown back to Rome, Georgia. The town in which he was born and raised. He is married to Kathy Insel Brown who is a Head Women’s Collegiate Soccer Coach, and they have four children: Jensen, Brayden, Leyton and Breckyn.
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