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AUBURN — It’s not uncommon for two people to whip their heads around when an athlete calls out “Coach Jalbert” at an Edward Little track and field practice.

That’s because two coaches share that name.

This is Angie Jalbert’s first season as co-head coach after nine years as an assistant, but that isn’t the only reason this spring is different. She also has a familiar partner in crime on the sidelines: her daughter, co-head coach Olivia Jalbert. 

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The mother-daughter duo is running it back this spring after Olivia helped out with indoor track this past winter.

“It’s always been a little complicated with us having the same last name, so we’ll be at a meet and they’ll be like, ‘Coach Jalbert to the tent,’ and I’m like, ‘Which one?’” said Olivia.

Angie, a 1996 graduate of Edward Little, is at the helm of the program she’s been involved in coaching for a decade, either as an assistant or as one of the indoor head coaches. For Olivia, a 2020 graduate, this is a formal homecoming to the program for which she last competed six years ago.

“Edward Little is a special place, and any time that we can have an alumni come back and coach, we certainly welcome that,” Edward Little athletic director Todd Sampson said. “Olivia, she’s mature beyond her years, so to bring her back, to be lucky enough to have her back … the worry with her is how long we’re going to be able to keep her. I mean, she is probably overqualified to be a high school track coach. She’s phenomenal.”

Olivia wrapped up a five-year college track and field career at USM last spring. There, she competed in jumps and the javelin, garnering several honors along the way, including the Little East Conference Field Athlete of the Year award three times (outdoors in 2022, and indoors in ’23 and ’24), as well as numerous titles. She reached the NCAA Division III indoor championships in the high jump in 2022.

Olivia is also an assistant coach at UMaine-Farmington and works at PRIME360 Performance and Lifestyle Coaching in Auburn.

Angie noted that while she may have the upper-hand in coaching experience, Olivia brings in a technology, science and education perspective. 

“We have our different roles,” Angie said. “I mean, at this point, with (Olivia’s) knowledge, her kind of role is she makes the workouts, she makes the lifts, because it’s different than it was five years ago. And I do a lot of the clerical stuff and attendance and messaging all of the kids. I mean, we do a lot of that together and we discuss stuff … but we each kind of have those areas.”

Being able to spearhead those different areas, whether it’s organization or practice plans, is a large part of what makes their co-coaching work.  They also have different approaches as coaches, which creates a strong balance.

“I think the biggest difference I notice between the two of us is (Angie) has the very motherly experience, right?” Olivia said. “So, I think I tend to sometimes want to be really hard on them. …It’s a good balance, because I’m like, ‘You need to do this, you need to be on time,’ and she’s giving them those chances to really grow. So I think we actually meet in the middle there very well.”

Those nuances have worked well so far this spring for the Jalberts, who, alongside several assistant coaches, manage a team of more than 100 athletes.

It helps that the two continue to keep a boundary similar to when Angie coached Olivia at Edward Little.

“We just have a really good dynamic,” Olivia said. “Even when (Angie) was coaching me, I never walked into practice and I was like, ‘That’s my mom.’ I was like everybody else on the team and I did what I needed to do and I listened to directions, whether it was from her or anyone else. I didn’t treat her differently because I was her daughter, she didn’t treat me any differently because I was her daughter. We always had that really good boundary. And I don’t feel like it’s any different now.”

The Red Eddies hope to improve on last year’s postseason results. Edward Little’s boys team placed third at the KVAC Large School championships, while the girls finished seventh at KVACs.

But perhaps the most significant takeaway from this season will be their partnership, which Angie knows will last well beyond this spring and whenever Olivia decides she’s finished with her current coaching stint at Edward Little.

“It chokes me up because it’s just this really cool thing that we’ll have forever even when (Olivia’s) gone,” Angie said.