“Coaches are teachers; We serve to educate our athletes so that they understand everything about the sport. It is our job to help them to understand ‘Why?’ Once you do that they’ll buy in and subsequently their performances improve.”

This simple coaching mantra from Paint Branch Cross Country and Track and Field Coach Dessalyn Dillard, otherwise known as Coach D, is the foundation for the Panther Track and Field team’s excellence. Coach Dillard is the person most responsible for the consistent excellence of the team that she has coached at Paint Branch for over 11 years.

Track has been a part of Coach D’s life ever since her freshman year at Trenton Central High School in her hometown of Trenton, New Jersey. During gym class, she says, the track and field coach recruited her after she performed well during a shuttle run. This was a change for Coach Dillard, who thought she would focus strictly on being a cheerleader. However, after some initial reluctance, she stuck with track and became a four year varsity sprinter, a state champion, and an All-American.
These accolades in high school drew the attention of the University of Maryland, College Park which offered her a scholarship to run track. At UMD, Coach D’s primary focus was the 400-meter hurdles and the heptathlon. In fact, she earned All-ACC honors in these events as well as in the distance medley relay, and 4×400 meter relay.

In addition to her All-ACC honors, she holds the distinction of having one of the top ten all time 400-meter hurdle times at UMD. However, as Coach D often points out to her current athletes, achievement on the track is no more important than achievement in the classroom – a belief that she held true to at UMD where she was a scholar-athlete for four years. “Champions conduct themselves as champions at all times – on the track, in the classroom, and in the community,” says Coach D.

Coach D’s experiences with coaches at UMD also helped her grow into the person she is today, her first foray into coaching came while practicing at the UMD track with a friend. While practicing, Coach D noticed a club track team in need of a helping hand, and decided to give just that. She stopped practicing and began instructing members on track techniques. After this makeshift coaching experience, she made the decision to volunteer with the same club.

Following her graduation from UMD with a Bachelor’s of Science in Kinesiology, Coach D found herself at Silver Spring International Middle School where she also worked as a volunteer coach before she becoming an assistant coach for PB Track.

Coach Dillard worked as an assistant coach for five years before taking on the role of head coach for PB Track in 2009. As head coach, her focus has been to establish a well-rounded team and improve on areas of weakness such as field events and distance events.
This focus on developing a strong team instead of just one or two strong areas has paid off with the track team regularly winning division championships and performing well in regional, county, and state championship competitions.

Just this year at the Maryland 4A Indoor Track and Field Championships, eleven PB athletes competed in individual events where four of them placed in the top three and two relays placed in the top three as well. The cross-country team has also excelled under her leadership with both girls and boys qualifying for the state championship race, and enjoying a streak of at least one athlete in the top twenty five in the past four years.

Besides the numerous accolades Coach D has received for her coaching, her most rewarding moment is when “athletes come back and give back.” Former athletes who have gone on to college always make sure to come to practices and meets to share their experiences, showing how much the track and field program impacted them.

Being a coach means sharing your passion for the sport with your athletes, which is something Coach D does proudly each and every season.