Mohammad Nourani

Mohammad Nourani was named an assistant track coach, specializing in sprints, jumps and hurdles in August 2022. He began overseeing Cal Poly's multi-event athletes during the 2023-24 season.

During his first year with the Mustangs in 2022-23, Nourani saw his athletes record six top-10 marks in school history outdoors and six top-five marks in program history indoors on the women's side. Under his coaching, Jadyn Snaer and Shelby Daniele both had historic seasons, shattering the school records in the women's indoor 60 and 200. Daniele also ran the second-fastest indoor 60 time and the third-fastest outdoor 200 time. She posted a personal best in the 100-meter dash of 11.58 seconds — tied with Snaer for No. 2 in school history — and she went on to finish second in the 200 at the 2023 Big West Championships. Nourani also helped Melody Nwagwu break the indoor school record in the women's long jump and post two top-10 marks outdoors (No. 7 in the triple jump, No. 9 in the long jump). Across both genders, nearly every athlete in the sprints, jumps and hurdles group recorded at least one lifetime best in Nourani's first year with the program. 
Nourani came to Cal Poly after spending the 2021-22 season as a volunteer assistant coach at Texas A&M. With the Aggies, he worked with the long, triple and high jumpers, and aided the steeplechase athletes. 

During the 2022 outdoor track season, Nourani saw five of his high jumpers qualify for the NCAA West Preliminaries and three of his athletes advance to the NCAA Championships, including Aggie sophomore Lamara Distin, who swept the indoor and outdoor national titles in the women’s high jump. Distin went on to finish ninth in the event at the 2022 World Athletics Championships while representing Jamaica. 

Nourani also mentored Deborah Acquah and Carter Bajoit at Texas A&M. In 2022, Acquah placed second in the women’s long jump outdoors and third indoors, while Bajoit earned honorable mention All-American honors for his performance in the men’s high jump. 

Nourani also spent time in 2021 with the Aggies’ cross country program that finished sixth on the men’s and women’s side at the NCAA South Central Regional. 

In January 2021, Nourani joined the staff at his alma mater, University of Texas at Dallas, to serve as a volunteer assistant coach for the track and cross country programs. Due to COVID-19, the 2020 cross country season and the Comets’ inaugural 2021 track season were held back-to-back in 2021. Nourani oversaw the sprinters, hurdles and jumpers at UT-Dallas, and assisted with the Comets’ middle distance and cross country runners. In 2021, UT-Dallas produced American Southwest Conference champions in the 800, 1,500 and 10,000 meters, while the men’s cross country team captured the ASC title and the women finished runner-up. 

Prior to coaching at UT-Dallas, Nourani served a one-year apprenticeship at ALTIS in Phoenix, Arizona, where he helped train multiple professional athletes, including Paul Dedewo, Courtney Okolo, Anaso Jobodwana and Aries Merritt. 

Nourani, a native of Plano, Texas, was a two-time regional cross country qualifier at UT-Dallas from 2012-16 and a three-time academic all-conference member. In track, Nourani competed in a wide range of events during his collegiate career, including sprints, the 110 hurdles, long jump, triple jump, the 3,000-meter and relays. 

Nourani earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from UT-Dallas in 2016, and obtained a master’s degree in business administration in 2019. He’s worked in operations at NASA’s Ames Research Center since 2017.