John Cerminara is entering his fifth season as Assistant Track and Field Coach for the Panthers, coaching Virginia Union’s throwers.
Over the past 4 years, Union throwers have brought home multiple medals and All-Conference placing at the CIAA Indoor and Outdoor Conference Championships and have broken 6 different school records in the throws.
Cerminara brings over 10 years of experience competing and coaching in the sport of track and field.
Most recently as the throwing coach for Maggie Walker High School and Glen Allen High School where he coached their girls throwers to a VA 5A Team State Championship.
Prior to arriving at Virginia Union University, Cerminara spent 10 seasons coaching with the Hershey Blaze Track Club. During his time with the youth track club out of Hershey, Pennsylvania, he coached 10+ All-Americans and 15 National Qualifiers in the USATF and AAU youth divisions. He also spent two years at Camp Hill High School in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania. While there he coached his athletes to multiple district qualifying marks in the javelin.
Born in Richmond, Virginia, Cerminara grew up in Williamsburg, Virginia and attended Jamestown High School where he competed all 4 years in indoor and outdoor track, primarily in sprinting and jumping events, only excelling at discus and shot put his senior year. Cerminara finished his final high school season with a Bay Rivers District Championship in the discus and a 12th place finish in the State AA Championship Meet in the shot put.
Looking to extend his throwing career, Cerminara attended school at Penn State Erie, The Behrend College where he majored in Management Information Systems. In Behrend’s NCAA Division III program, Cerminara had multiple seasons of success in all of the throwing events (shot put, discus, javelin, weight throw and hammer). By his junior season he was named team captain and by the end of his career he was a 3-time Team Most Valuable Player, 5-time Mason Dixon Conference Champion, 2-time ECAC DIII All-Conference finisher, and 2-time NCAA DIII National Qualifier for discus.
While competing and coaching with the Commonwealth Throws Club here in Richmond, Virginia, as a Post-Collegiate/Masters Athlete, Coach Cerminara reached his highest rank of 58th in the United States and 264th in the World Athletics World Rankings for Men’s Discus Throw. He is also the reigning and 2-time USATF Masters National Champion in the Discus for the Men's 30-34 Age Group.
