Brandon Blanton enters his eleventh season as an assistant coach at Charleston Southern. Blanton joined the Charleston Southern track and field program in October 2015 and specializes with the Bucs' throwers. The team has made significant progress under Blanton's tutelage and his recruiting ability has also benefited the Bucs' program as a whole. One of his top seasons of his time with CSU came in the outdoor 2024 season as all four women's throwing events had their school records broken.
In all, Blanton has presided over 63 new program top-10 marks including school records in ten of the 12 events that he oversees. Entering the 2025 season, Buccaneer throwers have set new school bests in all six women's events including the weight throw, javelin, hammer throw, discus and outdoor and indoor shotput along with four men's events including the javelin, weight throw and indoor and outdoor shot put. There has also been at least one CSU athlete to be in the top five in program history in every event that he coaches.
During the 2025 season, he coached Michael Calhoun to break the school records yet again in the indoor and outdoor shot put along with placing on the Big South's all-time top ten rankings. He earned Big South's Male Scholar-Athlete of the Year award at the end of the academic year. During the outdoor season, a pair of Bucs advanced to the NCAA Regionals with Calhoun advancing for the shotput and Aaron Pierce for the javelin where he placed in 14th overall in the field, nearly advancing to the Eugene, Oregon for the finals of the event. There were 11 new top ten program marks set during the year as well as three new school records. There were six total podium finishes for events under his watch at the Big South Championships including 20 total scoring finishes.
Across the 2024 season, he had three student-athletes advance to the NCAA Regionals in Chloe Greene (javelin), Layla Senter (shotput) and Aaron Pierce (javelin). Additionally, all four of the women's outdoor throwing events had their school records broken. Between the indoor and outdoor Big South Championships, he coached eight student-athletes to All-Conference status earning podium finishes as well as 18 performances which scored at conference championship meets.
During the 2023 season, six records were either broken for the first time under Blanton or improved upon during the year. Michael Calhoun took the men’s school records in shotput for indoor and outdoor. On the women’s side, Zemaya Carson broke three CSU records with them being both shotput throws and the discus. Chloe Greene rounded out the group by improving on her CSU program best javelin mark that she set last season. Greene won the event at the Outdoor championships with five podium performances from the Bucs at the event. At the indoor championship, Carson won the women’s shotput competition with Calhoun finishing third in the men’s.
In the 2022 season, two school records fell as Blanton helped Layla Senter and Chloe Greene etch their names in CSU history. Senter set the new program mark of 14.87m in the shot put while Greene took home the Big South title in the javelin with her school-best throw of 42.94m.
The 2020-21 season saw a combined 17 new Charleston Southern top-10 marks between the men's and women's throwers across the Indoor and Outdoor seasons (9 men, 8 women) headlined by Amy Yarborough's Big South Shot Put title and Seth Wolfe's second-place finish in the Discus event. Kaitlyn Migneault also placed on the podium as a freshman taking third in the shot put event.
Seven of the Bucs' 18 new top-10 marks came at the 2021 Big South Outdoor Championships while 7 came as top-5 marks in program history (Michael Calhoun & Seth Wolfe indoor shot put; Seth Wolfe & Nathan Myers indoor weight throw; Calhoun outdoor shot put; Wolfe discus and hammer).
In 2018-19, the Buccaneers' throwers were highlighted by conference champions Ryan Spiecha (outdoor shot put) and JP Caglione (indoor weight throw). At the outdoor championships, the Bucs recorded All-Conference performances in both the hammer throw and shot put. Spiecha (shot put), JP Caglione (hammer throw), and Seth Wolfe (hammer throw) all earned All-Conference recognition at the event, while Milan Williams added a third-place result to earn All-Conference recognition in the women's hammer throw. Williams added All-Conference recognition at the Indoor Championships in the women's weight throw. On the men's side, Spiecha earned All-Conference recognition in the indoors with a second-place result in shot put, while Caglione and Wolfe finished 1-2 in the men's weight throw at the Big South Indoor Championships.
In 2017-18, the Buccaneers had a successful conference postseason once again as JP Caglione earned All-Conference recognition in both the hammer and shot put, while Clarence Moss finished second in the discus throw on his way to earning All-Conference honors at the Big South Outdoor Championships. At the Indoor Championships, Ryan Spiecha and JP Caglione finished 2-3 in the shot put with Spiecha eclipsing the CSU record with a 16.64m throw to earn All-Conference honors. Caglione's mark of 18.16m set a new CSU record at the Indoor Championships in the weight throw. Milan Williams paced the Bucs on the women's side at the Indoor Championships by tying the CSU record in the weight throw with a distance of 17.90m to finish second in the field in earning All-Conference recognition.
In 2016-17, Ryan Spiecha enjoyed a terrific freshman campaign with Blanton's help. Spiecha highlighted his year by placing second in the shot put at the Big South Conference Outdoor Championship. During the indoor season, Spiecha shattered the program's shot put record with a throw of 15.54 meters at February's Tiger Tune-Up. That effort broke the record he had established just a month prior.
Senior Jacob Moore enjoyed a strong end to his college career thanks in part to Blanton. Moore was a Big South All-Academic Team selection and entered the Big South Outdoor Championship as the top seed in the hammer throw, where he reached the podium with a second-place finish.
A young group of throwers on the women's side also showed promise in 2016-17. Freshmen Milan Williams, Alexus Foreman, Briana Sims and Madison McCoy placed third through sixth at the Big South Outdoor Championship. In the javelin, freshman Megan Newton also made progress throughout the year.
Before coming to CSU, Blanton spent the previous five seasons at Methodist University in Fayetteville, N.C. While at Methodist, Blanton coached 12 individual conference champions and one NCAA qualifier. He also oversaw athletes that broke seven school records. In 2014-15, freshman Koffia Lipscomb set a new school record in the 35 lb. weight throw (14.04 meters), and freshman Brad Smith set a new mark in the discus (46.48 meters).
Blanton threw shot, discus and hammer at Gardner-Webb University, and graduated in 2008 with a B.S. degree in Health and Wellness. He was a part of the Runnin' Bulldogs Big South championship team in 2006.
Blanton holds a USATF Level 1 certification.
