SANTIAGO, CHILE—Not only will Northwestern State thrower Djimon Gumbs be traveling to South America to participate in the Juegos PanAm, but he'll have a familiar face coaching him.

Gumbs, who is competing in both the shot put and discus, and his British Virgin Islands team are being coached by NSU head coach Mike Heimerman at the PanAm.

The discus takes place Monday at 3:30 p.m. and shot put is Friday at 1:27 p.m.

Fans can watch via the PanAm Sports Channel app.

"This is definitely a nice warm-up before indoor season begins in a few months," Gumbs said. "We're kind of doing it in a way where we're doing offseason work-outs and see how far I was going to throw.

"Things have been going pretty well so far. Everything has been on par for me to get some good throws in. So this will be a nice meet warming up for indoors. I am excited because this something new for me."

Heimerman, the women's indoor coach of the year after leading them to their first team title, is eager to coach Gumbs on the international stage, as well as Gumbs' countryman Eldred Henry.

"It will be fun to coach Djimon," Heimerman said. "Of course, I know him pretty well, so it will be just like every day at practice. I also have experience coaching the other young man in the shot put.

"I got to coach them both up at the Caribbean championships in San Salvador in July. This will be the second international meet I am lucky enough to coach the BVI and getting to coach these young men."

Gumbs is coming off a season in which he made a second consecutive trip to the NCAA East prelims in the discus and shot put in the outdoor season.

He found the podium three times at the Southland Conference championships, earning one of each medal. He captured the gold in the shot put, silver in the discus and bronze in the javelin.

Gumbs also set a personal record, school record, Southland Conference record and British Virgin Islands record when he tossed a 205-11 in the discus at the Cowboy Relays.

It is a highly competitive meet with some of the best in the world and Heimerman knows this is good preparation for him as he moved toward the season with the top competition he will see if he makes nationals.

"One of the biggest things we'll have Djimon work on is the level of competition that he's going to see at this meet," Heimerman said. "This will be one of the hardest meets he has been to.

"The level of competition is going to be very good and he is going to have to get used to the throwing levels of that if he wants to be at the NCAA championships again or at the Olympics. All these meets are warm-ups or test interviews for meets down the road."

But Gumbs is excited to gain more experience competing against some of the best throwers in the world and he gets to try to prove himself in front of some of those athletes.

"This is good experience, competing against some of the older players and more seasoned in this sport," Gumbs said. "Those athletes make it look easy. I made this far, so I am obviously at least somewhat seasoned as well. Watching those guys compete will give me a lot of motivation."