Jacky Mendes begins her third season as head coach of the men's and women's track & field team in 2016-17.

Mendes has led both program's to unpreceented succes in just two seasons as head coach. Last season, she delivered the program's first-ever and Merrimack's first-ever inidvidual National Champion, with Carly Muscaro winning in both the indoor and outdoor seasons. She brought two individuals and a relay team to Indoor Nationals in 2016, including the first relay team and first male for the program in John Braga, both of whom earned All-American status. She led the teams to program-best finishes at the Northeast-10 Conference Championships, and has nearly rewritten the program's record book.

In 2016, she also coached the women's program to its first-ever national ranking, getting up to #14 in the nation. She has also reinvigorated the program's reputation and recruiting, increasing the size of both rosters each year while bringing in recruits that have performed as some of the best rookies in the region, including the NE10 Indoor Track Rookie of the Year in Michaela Pernell. She also coached a program-high 12 Warriors to All-Region distincition.

Her first full season at the helm of the program saw the Warriors post marked improvements at the Northeast-10 Conference Championships during the indoor and outdoor campaigns and a slew of school records fall week after week over the course of the season. 

Also in 2014-15, Mendes helped guide rising junior Carly Muscaro to back-to-back runner-up finishes and All-America recognition in the 400-meter dash at the NCAA Indoor and Outdoor Championship. Muscaro also ran the second-fastest 400-meter time in New England outdoor history in May of 2015, as Mendes and the coaching staff helped her train and compete at the 2015 USATF Indoor and Outdoor Championships. 

The 2014-15 season also saw six Warriors earn USTFCCCA All-East Region recognition during the indoor season and nine more honorees in the outdoor campaign. Mendes also coached Muscaro to USTFCCCA East Region and Northeast-10 Conference Outdoor Track Athlete of the Year honors, while freshman Kenny Clarke was named the Indoor Field Rookie of the Year, as well. 

Mendes, a 2012 University of New Hampshire graduate and former captain of the Wildcats' indoor and outdoor track & field teams, will help oversee both the five-year-old men's and women's track & field programs. 

In addition to her coaching duties, Mendes will assist and oversee budget management, recruiting, scheduling and administrative responsibilities. She also will be responsible for coaching jumps, hurdles and multi-event student-athletes.

A 2012 graduate from UNH and four-year letterwinner on both the indoor and outdoor women's track & field program, Mendes most recently served as a graduate student women's track & field coach at Ithaca College while completing her Master's Degree in Exercise and Sports Sciences with a concentration in Sport Psychology in 2014. She assisted in recruiting, scheduling, compliance, and more, and she was the lead coach for javelin throwers, strength and conditioning and pole vault.

Previously, Mendes enjoyed stints as a volunteer indoor coach at Thornton Academy in Saco, Maine, from 2008-12, and a volunteer speed and agility clinic coach at UNH in 2012. She also spent nearly six years as a Volunteer Youth Coach in Saco, Maine, instructing athletes on the fundamentals of high jumping, hurdles and starts.

A Dayton, Maine, native, Mendes currently resides in Methuen, Massachusetts.