Lissa Olson is in her third year as head coach of the men's and women's track and field teams as she continues to build the combined program.
Olson was the obvious choice to take over the newly unified program in summer 2001. After weeks of discussion and benchmarking against successful programs across the country, Intercollegiate Athletics administrators combined the Boilermaker men?s and women?s track and field programs. Olson, a standout performer in college who went on to enjoy great success in mentoring athletes, emerged immediately as the best choice to lead the reorganized program. Her easygoing style and competitive drive make for the ideal personality to lead coaches and student-athletes.
The reasons for combining the men's and women's squads were many, but primary among them was more one-on-one contact between coaches and athletes: By eliminating a second head coaching slot and devoting that position to a specialty coach, more hours can be spent mentoring student-athletes and improving their performances.
Under Olson's leadership, six coaches now work with student-athletes compared with three coaches covering dozens of events before the program were combined.
"Contact hours matter most, and we can spend more time with individual athletes than programs that have two head coaches," Olson says. "The new approach has already begun to pay dividends."
Olson continues actively coaching male and female student-athletes as head coach in the high, long and triple jumps. She also directs the men?s sprint, hurdle and relay units, just as she did before being promoted.
The 2003 season was one of the best ever in the storied history of the men?s program. And Olson's sprinters, hurdlers and relays teams were a huge part of it. Under Olson's guidance, high jumper Shaun Guice achieved his fourth consecutive indoor All-America citation, becoming the first male Boilermaker to accomplish such an amazing feat. Guice was not alone at the All-America stand, as sprinter Kennenth Baxter earned All-America status in the 200-meter dash at both the indoor and outdoor championships.
Prior to their successful run at the NCAA outdoor championships, the Boilermaker men's sprint corps stormed over the competition at the Big Ten Championships. Baxter won the 200 title, Guice was victorious in the high jump and Prentice Stovall led a four-way Purdue sweep in the 100. Stovall also anchored the first-place 4x100 relay team, which was comprised of Baxter, Jamar Green and Jacques Reeves.
One of the best teams in the Mideast Region, the 4x100 team won gold medals at the Sea Ray Relays in Knoxville, Tenn., and placed third among a talented field at the Texas Relays in Austin.
As a team, the men placed second at the Big Ten Outdoor Championships behind host Minnesota. The 148 points scored by the Boilermakers was a school record.
The 100-meter sweep at the outdoor championships should not have come as a big surprise to the competition, since the same four Boilermakers accomplished the same feat in the 60-meter dash months earlier at the indoor championships. Again, it was Prentice Stovall who led the way, scoring a conference record breaking time of 6.71 seconds.
Stovall may have captured the Big Ten record in the 60, but the school record was claimed by Baxter at the N.Y. Armory Collegiate Invite. He finished second overall in the race, coming in at 6.70. As a team, the Boilermaker men finished atop the leaderboard at the Armory, beating out top ranked LSU, Texas, South Carolina and Tennessee.
Purdue wrapped up its indoor season with a third place finish at the Big Ten Championships and a 17th-place showing at the NCAA Championships.
During the 2002 indoor season, Olson?s troops notched men?s and women?s wins in dual-meet competition with Indiana State by wide margins. At the New York Armory Collegiate Invitational, the men?s team finished second to defending NCAA champion Tennessee and beat LSU, Stanford, Georgetown, South Carolina and Texas. At the Big Ten Championships, the women finished fourth and the men were just four points out of first place when the meet was canceled after a Penn State pole vaulter suffered a fatal injury.
Olson guided several student-athletes who excelled at conference and NCAA competition in 2002. Indoors, Prentice Stovall broke two Purdue records, in the 60m and 60m high hurdles. Stovall?s performance also was a Big Ten record in the 60m dash. Stovall was joined by Shaun Guice and Kristen Truscott in the high jump and Kenneth Baxter in the 200m as NCAA qualifiers. Guice was an NCAA All-American for the fifth straight time.
Outdoors, the Boilermakers swept men?s and women's competition at the Collegiate Series Meet at Clemson, with the men besting Clemson and Illinois and the women outshining Miami (Ohio), Syracuse and Virginia Tech. At the Indiana 5 Team Meet, the men placed first and the women second, the same finish as the head-to-head meet with Indiana. At the Big Ten meet, the women were fourth and the resurgent men's squad placed third, four spots above the 2001 seventh-place finish. The women advanced to the NCAA Championships, finishing 24th behind the record-breaking javelin tosses of senior Serene Ross.
Also during the 2002 outdoor season, Jacques Reeves won the 100m at the Big Ten Championships. Reeves joined high jumpers Guice and Ryan Fitzpatric as NCAA qualifiers. Stovall and three teammates comprised the NCAA-qualifying 4x100 relay squad that broke a record that had stood for 30 years. Fitzpatric was an NCAA All-American. In addition, Jamar Green competed at the USA Junior Championships in the long jump, earning All-America honors.
Other top performers and performances from the 2002 outdoor season: Ross, Ryan Fitzpatric and Ebbie Metzinger earned Big Ten Athlete of the Week honors. Eight school records fell, as did Big Ten records in the pole vault (Ebbie Metzinger) and the javelin (Ross). Boilermakers were Big Ten champions in five events. Seven male athletes, as well as three additional runners who were members of the 4x100 relay, qualified for the NCAA meet, as did five females. Ross emerged as NCAA Champion and holder of the NCAA javelin record. She and Ryan Fitzpatric (high jump) were honored as All-Americans. Six athletes qualified for USA Junior, USA and World Junior championships.
In 2001, Olson coached Guice to two NCAA All-America honors, notably a second-place finish at the indoor championships with a school-record 2.26m/7-5.00 in the high jump. In addition, Guice won a Big Ten Championship in the high jump and earned a World University Games appearance. Rookie Daniel Harris also became an All-American and USA Junior National Team member under Olson?s guidance. Reeves, the Big Ten Indoor Freshman of the Year, set a new school record in the 200m dash. High jumper Fitzpatric was an NCAA qualifier, and was runner-up to Guice in the conference championships. For the second consecutive year, Stovall shattered the school 60m hurdle record.
Olson has coached former Purdue athlete Carri Long to fourth-place finishes in the USA Track and Field Indoor and Outdoor Championships in 2001 and 2002, as well as a spot on the World University Games Team. Long is now in her second year coaching the Boilermakers.
In 1999, Olson coached triple jumpers Ike Olekaibe and Mike Turner to All-America status at the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships. In 2000, Olson guided Olekaibe and Guice to All-America honors, with both setting school records in the outdoor triple jump and indoor high jump along the way. Guice, the Big Ten Indoor Freshman of the Year, won the indoor and outdoor conference high jump titles. Fitzpatric finished runner-up behind Guice at both conference championships and qualified for NCAA's. Triple and long jumper Amukela Gwebu finished fifth and eighth in those respective events at both the indoor and outdoor Big Ten meets and qualified for the NCAA Outdoor Championships. Stovall set the school record in the indoor 60-meter hurdles, and was a Big Ten point-scorer indoors (60m dash, 60m hurdles and 4x400m relay) and outdoors (110m hurdles and 4x100 and 4x400m relays). All told, Olson?s athletes garnered three All-America honors, two Big Ten titles and seven NCAA qualifying marks.
Before joining the Purdue staff in 1998, Olson was associate head coach for the men's and women's teams at Washington State from 1995 to 1998. She coached jumps, assisted with sprints and hurdles, and worked in recruiting.
From 1992 to 1994, Olson was an assistant coach at Washington, where she coached men?s and women?s jumps, women?s throws, and the heptathlon.
Before coaching at Washington, Olson was assistant track and field coach at Central Washington. She coached men?s and women?s jumps and multi-events and guided several Wildcat athletes to top NAIA finishes.
A sprinter, hurdler and high jumper at Washington State from 1987 to 1991, Olson, as Lissa Gray, ranks third on the Cougars' all-time high jump list. She competed at both the indoor and outdoor NCAA Championships, as well as the USA indoor and outdoor championships.
In six years with the Boilermakers, Olson has coached 14 All-Americans, ten school record holders, including two relay teams, as well as two Big Ten Freshmen of the Year.
Olson?s coaching renown extends well beyond the West Lafayette Campus. In summer 2002, she was head coach for the USA Under 25 Team, which earned more medals than any other team in American track and field history. She resumed her duties as Team USA head coach this past summer, taking the USA Pan-Am Junior Team to Barbados.
Olson became USA Track and Field Level I certified in 1998 and Level II certified in 1999. She also completed Level III education in jumps. A member of the USA Track and Field Development Committee, she worked at the 2000 Olympic Trials in Sacramento and coached the nation?s elite jumpers at the Junior Elite camp held at the Olympic Training Center in San Diego in the summers of 2000 and 2001. For the past three years, she has served as a guest clinician at some of the biggest clinics in the country including, the USA All Star Track and Field Clinic in Atlantic City, N.J., and the Ohio State High School Athletic Association in Columbus.
Olson earned a B.A. in education and a master?s in education/athletic administration from Washington State. In addition, she has completed coursework for a Ph.D. in athletic administration from Washington State.
Olson?s husband, Greg, is the quarterbacks coach for the Chicago Bears. He had previously been quarterbacks coach for the Boilermakers from 1997 to 2000.
Lissa and Greg are expecting twins in April.