It's now 40 days until the kickoff of Catamount football on Thursday, September 3th, 2020 at 7 pm, against the Eastern Kentucky Colonels, in Roy Kid Stadium, Richmond, KY.
To help pass those long summer days, and hopefully get the Catamount faithful more excited about the upcoming season, and knowledgeable of the team members, we'll continue the football countdown each day until kickoff day.
No one is assigned to the #40, so we'll highlight another assistant coach
Imarjaye Albury
POSITION Asst, Coach/Defensive Ends
In January 2020, Western Carolina head football coach Mark Speir announced the addition of Imarjaye Albury Sr. (pronounced e-MAR-jay AL-berry) to his defensive coaching staff.
Albury spent the past season working as a defensive graduate assistant in the Southeastern Conference (SEC) at Arkansas, and will coach the Catamount defensive ends. Veteran assistant coach Reuben Wright, who coached the defensive line a season ago, will lead the defensive tackles while Albury will work primarily with the defensive ends.
"We are extremely happy to have such an energetic rising star in the coaching profession join our staff," said Speir. "Imarjaye has been a winner at every level of football. He's a coach who has a reputation of demanding excellence while developing great relationships with his players. He will be a phenomenal recruiter for our program. I am excited about having Imarjaye along with his wife, Brittany, and son, Imarjae Jr. join our football family."
Albury makes the move to Cullowhee after nearly two full years in Fayetteville, Ark., as the defensive graduate assistant with Razorback football working primarily with the defensive line. In addition to assisting the DL coach and defensive staff in all game planning and practice management, he aided in recruiting for the SEC program. While at Arkansas, he coached and tutored Razorback DL Armon Watts who was a sixth-round draft pick of the Minnesota Vikings following a seven-sack season in 2018.
Albury earned his start in the coaching profession at NCAA Division III Cortland State University in Cortland, N.Y., in 2017 working as the defensive line and special teams coach. Under his tutelage, the Red Dragons recorded 31 sacks as a team in 2017, second in the Empire 8 Conference. He mentored defensive tackle, Dan Appley, to 2017 first-team All-Empire 8 Conference honors as well as NCAA Division III first-team All-America recognition. His special teams unit led the conference with six field goal blocks.
While at SUNY Cortland, he recruited parts of New York, New Jersey, and back to his roots in Florida.
After two seasons in the Empire State, Albury returned south to the Sunshine State at NAIA-member, Ave Maria University in Ave Maria, Fla. During the spring of 2018, he coached the defensive line through both winter and spring conditioning and in the weight room, while also aiding in recruiting. That experience landed him the defensive graduate assistant position at Arkansas where he remained until joining the Catamount football coaching staff.
In addition to his collegiate coaching stops, Albury also spent 2019 training camp working with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada in the Canadian Football League as a guest coach. He worked as an assistant to the defensive line coach on the defensive staff in every aspect of the game including planning, film study, and on-field drills. He also spent time working with the Tiger-Cats special teams in on-field practice drills during the preseason camp.
Originally a three-star recruit out of high school, Albury was signed by West Virginia out of Miami Northwestern High in Florida. After a season in Morgantown, he returned to his home state of Florida, transferring to Florida International where he was a three-year starter along the defensive front for the Panthers. Albury, who finished with 76 career tackles over 36 games at FIU with 5.5 TFLs and 2.5 sacks, was voted a team captain his senior season and earned the team's 2016 Defensive MVP award.
Selected to play in the stringent NFLPA Collegiate Bowl, Albury had brief stints in the National Football league before jumping into the coaching ranks, spending time in NFL camp with both the Green Bay Packers and the Los Angeles Chargers.
Albury is married to the former Ms. Brittany Foster; the couple has a three-year-old son, Imarjaye Albury, Jr., who goes by "Junior."
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