Armory Realignment

After five tremendously successful years as Director of Track & Field and as founder of the new Armory College Prep program here at The Armory, Derrick Adkins has asked to pass the baton while he pursues a degree in higher education.

Adkins will remain in a salaried position within the Armory Foundation as a counselor to Armory Prep and consultant to track & field, especially for the Millrose Games.

Aliann Pompey

Aliann Pompey — now an assistant within Armory Prep — will be the new Program Director and will oversee a very successful program now reaching more than 200 high school students annually. With a success rate greater than 95 percent acceptance to college, the Armory Prep program is drawing increasingly favorable attention from foundations, sponsors and media throughout the New York area.

Pompey — an international athlete of considerable fame in her own right — holds a bachelor of science from Manhattan College, where she additionally achieved an MBA in 2004.

The head track and field position will be filled by well-known PSAL official Bassett Thompson, who has been on the Armory staff these past years. Born in Kingston, Jamaica, he has a lifelong involvement in track and field as a competitor, a master-level track and field official, head coach and meet director for various organizations.

Janine Davis and Bassett Thompson

Thompson holds a bachelor of arts degree from Baruch College in 1980 and a bachelor of professional science in computer information systems from DeVry University in 2005.

To assist Thompson the Armory is also most pleased to announce the appointment of Janine Davis. Currently a track and field graduate intern at Rutgers-Newark and a candidate for a master’s of public administration, Davis will assist Pompey as a counselor in the Armory College Prep program.

Davis — still the national high school 600m record holder at 1:29:27 — has had an extraordinary career in track and field as an All-American at both the University of Texas, where she won at the Penn Relays, and at the University of Arkansas, where she received her bachelor of science degree in 2009.

photos by Tim Fulton/Armory Track