Joanna Hayes - Track & Field Coach

Joanna Hayes

Title:
Assistant Coach, Sprints and Hurdles
Email:
hayesjoa@usc.edu
Phone:
(213) 706-5864

2004 Olympic 100m hurdles gold medalist Joanna Hayes was named assistant coach, sprints and hurdles by Director of Track & Field Quincy Watts on July 12, 2021. She transitioned into a full-time coach for the 2020-21 season. This year will be Hayes’ eighth season of working with the USC track and field program, the first two as an assistant coach, then three as a volunteer assistant coach before moving back into a full-time assistant coach for the 2021-22 season.

In addition to her work with the Trojans, Hayes has worked closely with the post-collegiate development of 400m hurdlers Rai Benjamin, No. 2 on the world men’s all-time list and current American record-holder, as well as women’s world record-holder Sydney McLaughlin.

Hayes earned 2023 USTFCCCA West Region Men’s Indoor Assistant Coach of the Year as she coached Tade Ojora and Johnny Brackins Jr. to the NCAA Indoor Championships in the 60m hurdles, with Ojora ranking No.1 and Brackins Jr. No. 3 during the regular season. Ojora set the USC 60m hurdles record with an NCAA-leading time of 7.53 and Brackins Jr.'s 7.60 time was third in the country and tied for second on USC's all-time list. Ojora earned indoor All-America honors in the 60m hurdles, then took fourth place at the NCAA Outdoor Championships in the 110m hurdles to garner outdoor All-America honors with a PR of 13.29, second on USC’s all-time list. Ojora and Brackins Jr. went 1-2 in the 110m hurdles at the Pac-12 Championships. Hayes also guided Jalaysiya Smith and Allie Jones to Trojan all-time top 10 times in the 100m hurdles and Jasmine Jones to the USC top 10 in the 400m hurdles. During the indoor season, Allie Jones cracked the USC all-time top 10 in the 60m hurdles and her development in the hurdles was integral in her breaking the USC heptathlon record and posting the second-best pentathlon score ever by a Trojan.

During the 2022 season, Hayes’ athletes were some of the most successful on the team. Sophomore Jasmine Jones ran the fourth-fastest women’s 100m hurdles time by a Trojan of 12.66 to take second at the NCAA Championships. Freshman Jalaysiya Smith also moved to ninth on USC’s all-time 100m hurdles list by finishing 12th in the NCAA semifinals with a PR of 13.05. Jones won the 2022 Pac-12 100m hurdles title, while Smith finished sixth. Freshman Maci Simmons placed sixth in the 400m hurdles at the Pac-12 Championships and senior Breanna Bernard-Joseph took seventh. Hayes also guided Smith to the University/College Open 100m hurdles title and Simmons to the University/College Open 400m hurdles title at the Texas Relays. Both Simmons and Bernard-Joseph advanced to the NCAA West Prelims. During the indoor season Jones advanced to the NCAA 60m hurdles final, but hit a hurdle in the final, while grad student Mecca McGlaston placed fifth. She also guided Tade Ojora to the USC-UCLA Dual Meet 110m hurdles title, a second-place finish at the Pac-12 Championships and an eighth-place finish at the NCAA Championships. During the summer, he went on to capture his second consecutive British Athletics Championships 110m hurdles title with a wind-aided time of 13.27.

During the 2021 season Hayes was instrumental in working with the USC 400m hurdlers on their workouts and race patterns. Anna Cockrell won both the NCAA 100m hurdles and 400m hurdles titles and Cameron Samuel earned All-America honors by placing third at the NCAA Championships. They both also won 2021 Pac-12 titles in their events.

Hayes was named the 2018 West Region Women’s Track Assistant Coach of the Year by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA). Hayes guided USC’s short hurdlers to first, second, third, fifth and seventh at the Pac-12 Championships to score 30 points in the event and help lead the Trojans to the team title. Four of the hurdlers advanced to the NCAA Championships in the 100m hurdles, with all four ranking inside the USC all-time top seven in the event. She also guided Anna Cockrell to the Pac-12 title in the 400m hurdles, and Cockrell and Shante Robinson advanced to the NCAA Championships in the event. Cockrell earned 18.5 points at the Pac-12 meet and went on to place second in the 400m hurdles at the NCAA Championships. She also worked with the men’s 400m hurdlers on technique and Rai Benjamin won the NCAA title with a time of 47.02, tying for the then second-fastest ever recorded, setting the USC and collegiate records. Cameron Samuel also rapidly improved and ran a PR of 50.29 to take second at the Pac-12 Championships, behind Benjamin. She also helped guide the Trojan sprinters, with the women’s 4x100m relay team setting the school record with a time of 42.57 to win at the Mt. SAC Relays. Hayes also guided Cockrell to a second-place finish in the 60m hurdles with a time of 7.93 at the NCAA Indoor Championships. That time ranks third on USC’s all-time indoor list.

2017 was her first season at USC and Hayes helped guide Trojan athletes to five All-America honors during the outdoor season and one during the indoor season. Her work with Cockrell helped lead her to indoor 60m hurdles and outdoor 100m hurdles and 400m hurdles All-America status. Cockrell also set the USC freshman records in the 60m hurdles and 400m hurdles. Cockrell and Amalie Iuel took second and third at the 2017 NCAA Championships in the 400m hurdles. At the 2017 Pac-12 Championships, USC had four women in the 100m hurdles final and three in the 400m hurdles final. USC athletes also posted four school top 10 marks during her first season of working with the hurdlers.

She also works closely with the sprinters and relay teams which posted 10 USC all-time top 10 marks during the 2017 season.

Hayes served as an assistant coach in the sprints and hurdles at UCLA from 2014-16, helping the Bruins earn several All-America honors in the hurdles and 4x100m relays.

Hayes won a gold medal in the 100m hurdles at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, setting an Olympic record with a time of 12.37, which still ranks her as the eighth-fastest U.S. performer all-time in the event. She finished the 2004 season ranked No. 1 in the world and earned USA Track & Field's Jesse Owens Award that year. She was also a gold medalist in the 400m hurdles at the 2003 Pan American Games.

While a collegian at UCLA, Hayes captured the NCAA 400m hurdles title as a senior in 1999 and won a total of seven Pac-10 titles in the hurdles and relays. She was a six-time All-American and helped lead UCLA to three consecutive Pac-10 team titles from 1997-99 and two consecutive runner-up finishes at the NCAA Outdoor Championships from 1998-99.

Hayes, who graduated from UCLA in 2001 with a degree in Sociology, previously had been a track and field coach at Harvard-Westlake School in Los Angeles for six seasons and was a coach at the Brentwood Middle School in 2003.

She is active in the community and started the Joanna Hayes Foundation, which provides support for programs and services that work to develop the whole child with healthy minds, bodies and spirits.

Hayes and her husband Eric Thomas, have two daughters, Zoe and Aly.