Assistant Coaches JIM GARNHAM Assistant Track & Field Coach (Jumpss) 4th Season Kent State ’98 Jim Garnham joined the Notre Dame track and field staff as an assistant coach for jumps in the fall of 2008. In his third year with the Fighting Irish, Garnham helped Kevin Schipper win his second-straight title in the pole vault at the BIG EAST Outdoor Championships. It was Schipper’s second title of the year, as he also won the pole vault at the Arizona State Invitational, taking home BIG EAST Male Field Athlete of the Week honors. Garnham’s efforts also helped multi-event athletes, as Justin Schneider earned all-BIG EAST honors in the men’s heptathlon, while Maddie Buttinger earned her second all-conference accolade in the women’s heptathlon. Buttinger went on to finish 12th in the same
ALAN TURNER Assistant Track & Field Coach (Sprints/Hurdles) 2nd Season Indiana University ’92 Alan Turner, who spent the last five seasons from 2005-10 as the assistant track and field coach at Southern Illinois University, is in his second year on the Notre Dame coaching staff after joining the program in September 2010. He is responsible for the training of all Irish sprint and hurdlers. Turner replaced longtime sprint coach John Millar who left the Irish program after being named director of track and field and cross country at Wake Forest University in August 2010. In his first season, Turner coached freshman Patrick Feeney to a sweep of the BIG EAST 400-meter titles at the BIG EAST Indoor & Outdoor Championships. Feeney also was part of the All-American and Notre Dame record holding Distance Medley Relay that finished 4th at the NCAA Indoor Championships in 9:30.16. Feeney finished 16th in the 400-meters at the NCAA East Regional. Also at the East Regional were sophomore Nevada Sorenson (100H) and freshmen Michelle Brown (400m) and Megan Yanik (400H). While at Southern Illinois, Turner served as the coach for the men’s and women’s sprint and hurdle squads as well as the relay teams. With the Salukis, he planned and conducted practices as well as implemented and supervised the program’s strength and conditioning program for these groups.
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event at the NCAA Championships, posting a top-10 finish in the high jump. During the 2009-10 campaign, Schipper won the indoor and outdoor BIG EAST titles in the pole vault. Eric Quick captured the title at the BIG EAST Indoor Championships and was the runner-up in both the long jump and the triple jump. Justin Schneider won the heptathlon at the indoor league meet and was runner up in the decathlon. Buttinger earned all-BIG EAST honors in the heptathlon, finishing second. Schipper went on to finish eighth place at the NCAA Outdoor track and field championships to earn his first All-American honor. Quick, who finished 16th in the triple jump, became the first-ever athlete from Notre Dame to compete at the NCAAs in the event. Buttinger also qualified in the heptathlon for her first NCAA championship appearance. She went on to finish 19th in the event. Garnham led the Irish jumpers to an outstanding season during the 2008-09 season that included two All-America honors and four BIG EAST titles. Mary Saxer earned her first All-America honor with a ninth-place pole vault finish at the 2009 NCAA Indoor Championships and then followed that with a third-place, All-American performance at the outdoor meet. Saxer also won the BIG EAST indoor and outdoor pole vault titles. Matt Schipper qualified for both the NCAA indoor and outdoor meets after taking home the BIG EAST indoor and outdoor pole vault titles in 2009. Kevin Schipper was the third Irish pole vaulter to earn all-BIG EAST honors with a second-place finish at the league’s indoor meet in the same event.
Justin Schneider qualified for the 2009 NCAA Outdoor Championships in the decathlon, where he finished in 20th place. He was also the runner up in the decathlon at the BIG EAST Conference Championships. At the 2010 Indoor BIG EAST Championships, Kevin Schipper took top honors in pole vault, Eric Quick won the triple jump for the Irish and Justin Schneider became the first Notre Dame athlete to win a heptathlon title. Maddie Buttinger took All-BIG EAST honors in the pentathlon with a 3rd place finish. In three years at Notre Dame, Garnham has coached three All-Americans, nine NCAA Qualifiers, nine NCAA Regional Qualifiers, nine BIG EAST Conference Champions, and 18 all-BIG EAST performers. Garnham joined the Irish staff after a three-year stint as the field events coach at the University of Tulsa. During his tenure, he coached an NCAA qualifier in the shot put, a USATF indoor shot put qualifier, 17 NCAA Midwest Regional qualifiers, four Conference USA champions and 20 all-C-USA athletes. His studentathletes also set 18 school records at Tulsa. Prior to Tulsa, Garnham served five years as an assistant track and field coach at the University at Buffalo, where he worked with multi-event athletes, javelin throwers and hurdlers. He coached a USATF indoor heptathlon qualifier, a Canadian Olympic trials qualifier in the women’s heptathlon, two NCAA qualifiers, four NCAA East Regional qualifiers and five MidAmerican Conference champions. Garnham earned his bachelor’s degree in history from Kent State in 1998.
Regarded as one of the top sprint coaches in the Missouri Valley Conference (MVC) during his five-year tenure, Turner mentored 17 MVC champions during his tenure and 25 individuals who earned runner-up finishes. In addition, Saluki student-athletes earned allMVC honors on 65 occasions. He also coached 25 NCAA regional qualifiers and one NCAA National qualifier. In 2009-10, Turner steered his sprint and hurdle corps to three school records and five Missouri Valley individual titles in 2009-10. Kandise Thompson set the new SIU standard with a 54.24 in the 400m indoors as well as part of the 4x400m relay team that broke the school record by almost 4 seconds with a 3:39.51. Kendra Deck broke the 400H record 3 times and set the new standard at 58.61 finishing 14th at the NCAA West Regional. Tredene Davis was also under the old record during the same race with Deck at the regional meet. Brandon Deloney continued to dominate the 200m in the MVC again sweeping the conference titles at the indoor and outdoor meets. Meredith Hayes also continued her reign in the short hurdles winning the MVC titles for the second straight year in the 60H indoor and 100H outdoor. Sammy Biggs won the outdoor 400m title. The women’s team won the outdoor Missouri Valley title for the 2nd straight year by 44 ½ point margin. In 2009, sprinter Meredith Hayes captured both the 60-meter hurdles (indoor) and 100-meter hurdles (outdoor) titles at the respective MVC league championship meets. In doing so, she established the MVC Indoor Championship meet 60H record at 8.40. His athletes yielded 19 all-MVC accolades in 2008 along with six MVC titles and eight NCAA Mid-East Regional invitations. Freshman Brandon Deloney won the MVC 200m titles at both the indoor and outdoor championships. In doing so he set SIU’s McAndrew Stadium record at 20.83 during the outdoor meet. Deloney finished the 2008 season with 4 MVC titles, All-Mideast Region in 4x400m and a USATF Jr. National All-American in the 200m. Sophomores Stevie Warren and Sammy Biggs Warren captured MVC titles in the 100m and 400m indoor respectivley. Warren, Deloney, Biggs along with senior Antoine Jennings swept the relays at the MVC meet in NCAA regional qualifying times and the quartet finished with All-MidEast regional honors in the 4x400m relay finishing 6th.
In Turner’s first season with the Salukis, he directed the efforts of Felix Anderson, who finished as the highpoint scorer at the 2006 MVC Indoor Championships. Anderson won the 400-meters and took runner-up in the 200-meters. Anderson also captured the outdoor 200-meters title and was a regional qualifier in the 200-meters, 400-meters and 4x100-meter events. Prior to his arrival at Southern Illinois, Turner spent two years (2004-05) at Proviso East High School (Maywood, Ill.) as an assistant coach in the sprints and horizontal jumps. While at Proviso East he coached one Junior National Champion, three Junior National qualifiers, two Illinois High School Association (IHSA) state champions, three all-state honorees and six sectional champions. Three of his athletes from the ‘04 squad received Division I track scholarships. Before taking the job Proviso East, Turner assisted triple jumper Kamau Sullivan in qualifying for the USATF Nationals in 1993 and 1994, as a member of the Nike Indiana Track Club. An accomplished student-athlete in his own right, Turner knows a few things about performing for a high-caliber program. A 1992 graduate of Indiana University, Turner was a three-time All-American for the Hoosiers. He won five Big Ten titles (two long jump, two 400-meters and one 4x400-meter relay) and was a three-time team captain while leading Indiana to five consecutive Big Ten Conference team crowns. In 1991, he captured the NCAA indoor long jump title and was runner-up at the NCAA outdoor championships that same year. He also qualified for the NCAA Championships in the 400-meters and 4x100-meter relay. More than 18 years since accomplishing that feat, Turner still holds the Indiana record in the outdoor long jump. Outside of collegiate competition, Turner finished in the top-eight in the long jump at the USA Outdoor Championships four times. He was a member of five U.S. National teams and even won the gold medal at the ‘91 World University Games in the long jump. A native of North Chicago, Ill., Turner earned a bachelor’s degree in public finance from Indiana. Professionally, Turner has worked as a trading assistant with Conseco Capital Management (Carmel, Ind.) and as a portfolio manager with First Chicago and Bank One (Chicago, Ill.).
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