Mike De Witt

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Seasons

• 2010-11 - Men's Cross Country Head Coach
• 2010-11 - Men's Indoor Track Head Coach
• 2010-11 - Men's Track & Field Head Coach
• 2010-11 - Women's Cross Country Head Coach
• 2010-11 - Women's Indoor Track Head Coach
• 2010-11 - Women's Track & Field Head Coach

Mike De Witt enters a new step in his career as he begins the Ave Maria University Cross Country and Track & Field Programs. De Witt comes to AMU with 35 years of coaching experience, 31 at the college level.

De Witt began his career in Phoenix, Arizona at the high school level where he coached at Phoenix Union and West Division High Schools, guiding individual state champions in Cross Country and the High Jump as well as a 4 x 400m relay team. He moved back to his home state of Wisconsin and coached at Gateway Technical Junior College where he was able to guide an Individual National Champion at 3000m and an All American in Cross Country in two years. In 1981, De Witt returned to his collegiate home, University of Wisconsin-Parkside.

During his 29 year career at UWP, Mike guided the Women’s Cross Country Program to the 1986 NAIA National Championship, as well as 11 Top 5 Team Finishes at the NAIA and NCAA II Level. His teams also earned 20 Top 10 finishes in Cross Country. De Witt coached teams that qualified for a Collegiate Cross Country National Championship in 25 of his 29 years for a total of 28 National Meets. During that tenure, he led over 125 All Americans in Cross Country and Track at the NAIA and NCAA II Level for UW Parkside. The Runnin’ Ranger Women added 8 Great Lakes Valley Conference Titles in 16 years of GLVC membership.

Additionally, his UW Parkside Race Walkers won 30 NAIA National Championships. De Witt has mentored and directly coached 6 United States Olympians in the Race Walk for a total of 14 berths; he has also coached over 25 athletes to World Championships, World Cups, and/or World Junior Championships. Coach has guided dozens of Master Athletes (40 to over 80 years old) to the National and International Level with his Parkside Athletic Club. Athletes under his guidance have earned over 30 American, Junior, Senior, and Masters records.

Mike De Witt was selected as US National Coach for the Pan Am Cup of Race Walking in 2002 well as being named a US National Associate Coach on several occasions. His training programs have been noted as a model for success by the USATF Elite Athlete Testing Program. In 2000, he was elected to the NAIA Hall of Fame for Coaching.

Athletically, De Witt represented the United States in International competition on seven different occasions around the world. His most noted team was the 1989 World Cup of Race Walking. He competed in 6 different US Olympic Trials races as well as medaling twice at US National Olympic Festivals in the 1980’s. He was an NAIA All American in the Race Walk as an athlete at UW Parkside. He still competes at the US Master’s National Level and in local events as well.

His career in education includes being a full time elementary classroom teacher for over 30 years in Wisconsin and Arizona where he earned is Master of Arts in Elementary Education from Arizona State University.

Coach De Witt has been married for nearly 38 years; he and his wife Pam, who is a teacher at the Donohue Academy at Ave Maria, have four children and six grandchildren.