Coach Jay Stephenson begins his second year as a Shorter College track assistant coach, and also serves as head coach of Shorter's cross country team.

Before coming to Shorter, Stephenson coached at Berry College for 2 years. While at Berry the men's team qualified for the NAIA Cross Country National Championship meet three times and the women's team qualified for the NAIA Cross Country National Championship meet two times. Also several individuals qualified for the NAIA Indoor and Outdoor National Championship meets. The teams also had two Cross Country All-Americans and several Academic All-Americans in Cross Country and Track. Coach Stephenson graduated from Berry College in 2003 with a B.S. in Marketing concentrating in Sports Marketing, and a minor in Coaching. As an athlete, Stephenson was a three time All-American at Berry College, twice in the 3000m Steeplechase and once in Cross Country. Coach Stephenson has pursued the scientific side of running through graduate study at Georgia State University. Stephenson will complete his Masters of Exercise Science degree in the summer of 2006.

Coach Stephenson is USATF Level I Certified and USATF Level II Coaching Certified. As an athlete, Coach Jay is still competing on the national level. He has PRs of 14:18 for 5k, 29:43 for 10k, and 8:53 for the 3k Steeplechase.