Yudehwheh “Peter” Gbaa, now an assistant track coach at RIC, sits before the numerous trophies and awards he won as high school and college athlete.

The Providence Journal / Bob Breidenbach

PROVIDENCE — A decade ago, he was a stranger in a strange land, a refugee, the 12th and youngest child of a Liberian minister on the run from political persecution in his native land.

Today, he is a decorated athlete, a college graduate, a coach. Only 23, he is bent upon helping others, his show of gratitude to those who helped him.

After eight years of listening to accomplished track mentors Kevin Jackson, Thom Spann and John Copeland, Yudehwheh “Peter” Gbaa is using those lessons in his work an assistant track and field coach at Rhode Island College.

“Teaching someone else what I know how to do is fun for me,” he said.

Fans of Rhode Island high school sports will remember Gbaa as a soccer and track star at Westerly for one year and at Hope for the next three. Fans of college track will remember him as an All-America triple jumper at Division III Lincoln University of Pennsylvania and as a versatile Atlantic 10 champion at URI.

Jackson, coordinator of cross-country and track and field at RIC and Gbaa’s coach with the Providence Cobras track club, is confident he will succeed as a coach.

“I knew what he would bring to the job. He is young. He is energetic. His story is fresh. I coached an All-American at Hope, but if I say Erik Clinton, kids say who? The kids know Peter,” Jackson said.

Gbaa was significant contributor to URI track for the last three years. He was Atlantic 10 champion in the triple jump indoors and outdoors in 2007 and 2008. He was the 110 hurdles champ in 2006. He was New England champion in the triple jump outdoors in 2006 and 2008. He won the triple jump at the NCAA Division III Outdoor Championships in 2005.

He also scored points consistently in the long jump, 55 hurdles and relays during his career and in 2007 ran a leg on the 4x100 relay that broke the URI record while competing at the Penn Relays.

Gbaa won 14 state championship events at Hope and earned all-class recognition as a freshman at Westerly High. He broke state records, won New England championships and finished fourth in the 60 hurdles and triple jump at the High School National Indoors in 2004, attaining All-America status.

During the summer, he ran and jumped for the Cobras.

He earned awards for soccer as well. He first played at a refugee camp in Guinea, but it wasn’t until his family moved to Westerly in 1999 that he played organized soccer, for his middle school team. He played for Westerly High School in 2000 and earned second-team all-division honors. At Hope High he was a All-State, All-New England and All-America. He scored 31 goals as a senior in 2003, the state record.

Gbaa was the fourth-leading scorer at Lincoln University in 2004 but struggled for playing time at forward for URI in 2005 and gave up soccer to focus on track. He had transferred to URI to be closer to home and because he had received a track scholarship.

“Track gave me more financial help than soccer. It (soccer) was a good career, but I had to focus on my grades, also,” he said.

Gbaa doesn’t dwell on the past, not his escape from Africa and certainly not his exploits as an athlete.

“I’m very humble,” he said. “People come to my house and see the trophies and go, ‘Oh, wow!’ ”

Their reaction would be the same if they knew that the Gbaa family barely escaped Liberian soldiers searching for the patriarch, Amos Gbaa, a minister whom they believed was promoting anti-government sentiment in the U.S. when he was only trying to solicit funds to rebuild his burned out radio station. Or that the family spent 18 months in the Ivory Coast before moving to a refugee camp in Guinea.

Gbaa owes much to Jackson, his Cobras coach, and Spann, his coach at Hope.

“They are the two people who brought me up in track,” he said. Now he hopes to do the same with his young athletes at RIC.

“I love coaching because other people took a chance on me,” he said. “I wouldn’t know what track is if somebody didn’t talk to me and say try it. Now I have to help somebody else who has talent.”

mszostak@projo.com