Cobey's Top Three Conference Finishers

    Shawn Cobey, a former six-time all-conference athlete and three-time captain at Youngstown State, enters his sixth season as throws coach and second as assistant track coach and recruiting coordinator at his alma mater.
    Through five seasons Cobey has turned YSU's throwing program into a dominating force in the Horizon League. Penguin throwers have earned 69 top-three finishes and captured 18 individual conference titles during his tenure.
    Even more impressive, 16 of those individual titles and 46 of the top-three finishes have come in the last three seasons.
    Cobey has also coached YSU throwers to four Horizon League Field Performer of the Meet honors, one Horizon League Athlete of the Year, two provisional qualifiers for nationals and 18 NCAA Mideast Regional qualifiers.
    He has also worked diligently in the recruiting process to help assemble a women's team that won five Horizon League Championships in six tries and a competitive men's squad that had three straight runner-up finishes to earn the promotion of recruiting coordinator in 2006.
    Under Cobey's tutelage, Bethany Anderson has developed into the most accomplished thrower in school history. Anderson, who Cobey recruited out of Jamestown, N.Y. in 2004, has been a Horizon League Champion 10 times, Field Performer of the Meet at the Horizon League Championships twice, the Horizon League Indoor Track and Field Athlete of the Year and the YSU Female Athlete of the Year.
    Jarrod Davis was also a provisional qualifier in the weight thrower as a senior in 2006, a two-time Outstanding Field Performer honoree and a three-time NCAA Mideast Regional qualifier.
    Aaron Merrill was also named the Field Newcomer of the Year in the 2006 outdoor season, and Joe Lahmon earned indoor Outstanding Field Performer honors in 2007.
    In addition, Cobey's throwers have set eight out of 12 possible school records, and 34 new entries have been made to the top-five all-time performers list in the last five years.
    On 22 occasions in the last five years, YSU has had at least three scorers in the same throwing event. In Cobey's first outdoor championship meet, YSU had the top five finishers in the discus. He also coached the top four women's weight throwers in 2006, the top three men's weight throwers in 2006 and the top three women's hammer throwers in 2007.
    Cobey, a four-time letterwinner and three-time team captain for the Penguins from 1997 to 2001, is a former Mid-Continent Champion in the discus and a six-time all-conference athlete in the shot put and discus. During his tenure at Youngstown State, he also led the Penguins to two Mid-Continent Championships and set school records in the shot put and discus. In 2001, Cobey graduated from YSU with a Bachelor of Science degree in education.
    Before returning to YSU as a coach, Cobey spent two years as a head coach for Canfield High School, his alma mater.  As head coach, he led Canfield to two conference championships.
    Cobey is currently employed as a physical education and health teacher for Youngstown City Schools.