Tabitha Bemis joined the coaching staff at SRU as a full-time assistant in September of 2021 after previously serving as a graduate assistant at The Rock from 2015-17.
CAREER AT A GLANCE
• Selected as a member of the NCAA Division II Men's and Women's Track & Field Committee in 2023. Will serve on that committee through 2027.
• Helped The Rock women's program to the 2023 and 2025 outdoor PSAC titles and PSAC indoor titles in 2024 and 2025.
• SRU teams have never finished lower than third at a PSAC Championship with Bemis on the staff.
• While at The Rock as a graduate assistant, Bemis helped lead the women's team to the 2016 PSAC indoor title and she was involved with coaching eight All-Americans, 16 national qualifiers and 18 conference champions.
• She returned to SRU after spending four years as an assistant coach at Susquehanna University, where she was also a full-time career counselor in the SU Career Development Center and served as an advisor to the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC).
• At Susquehanna, Bemis helped coach the men's team to the 2021 Landmark Conference title and she coached more than 30 conference champions.
COACHING TIMELINE
2021-Present: Slippery Rock (Horizontal Jumps, Multis, Sprints/Hurdles)
2018-21: Susquehanna (assistant coach)
2015-17: Slippery Rock (graduate assistant)
CAREER PATH
• In her first year back at SRU as a full-time assistant in 2021-22, Bemis helped SRU to runner-up finishes for both the men and women at the PSAC indoor and outdoor championship meets. She coached Cecily Greggs to an indoor All-America honor with a 12th place finish in the high jump and a trip to the outdoor national meet in the high jump. Greggs earned All-Region honors indoor and outdoor in the high jump and SRU also picked up seven All-Region honors on the men's side with Bemis' multi-event and jumping athletes, led by mutli-event specialist Jason Goodman, who was named the PSAC Most Outstanding Field Athlete at the indoor meet.
• Helped coach sprinter and jumper Samantha Gilbert to PSAC titles in the 60-meter dash and 200-meter dash at the 2025 indoor meet, where Gilbert set two SRU records and was named the Track MVP of the meet.
• Throughout her seven years as a collegiate coach, Bemis has coached 12 All-Americans, 24 national qualifiers, more than 70 provisional national qualifiers, 94 All-Region honorees and 64 conference champions. She has also seen more than 30 student-athletes honored nationally for academic excellence either as U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) All-Academic performers or as College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) Academic All-Americans.
ATHLETICS CAREER
• Bemis embarked on her coaching career after one of the most decorated athletic careers in Edinboro University history. A standout multi-event athlete for the Fighting Scots, she earned All-America honors a total of six times in her career, including a runner-up finish in the long-jump at the indoor National Championships in 2014.
• Bemis was a 14-time national qualifier, 18-time All-Region honoree, 15-time PSAC Champion and 26-time All-Conference honoree.
• She was named the Atlantic Region and PSAC Field Athlete of the Year on five occasions for her excellence in the long jump, triple jump and hurdle competitions.
• In addition to her athletic achievements, Bemis also excelled in the classroom, where she was a three-time CoSIDA Academic All-American, a six-time PSAC Top 10 honoree and was named the 2014 PSAC Pete Nevins Scholar Athlete of the Year.
• Her efforts were recognized on the national level when she was awarded the prestigious NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship and was selected as a nominee for the NCAA Woman of the Year Award.
PERSONAL
• Bemis earned her master’s degree in student affairs in higher education from Slippery Rock in 2017 after serving as a graduate assistant on the coaching staff for two years.
• Bemis graduated from Edinboro with a bachelor’s degree in health and physical education with a concentration in sport and recreation administration in 2014.
• She holds a U.S.A. Track and Field Level One Certification and a USTFCCCA Strength and Conditioning Certification.
