The June 2015 retirement of long-time Head Coach Craig Hougen left a hole in the Bemidji State track and field and cross country programs, but new Head Coach Kevin Kean has jumped in with a desire to lead his teams to conference and national prominence.
“This is a great opportunity for me,” Kean said. “With a great indoor training facility and the outstanding backdrop of Bemidji’s cross country trails, Bemidji State possesses everything we need to be successful within the conference and at the national level.”
He was hired in prior to the 2015 cross country season and led the Beavers to a seventh-place finish at the NSIC Championships. The team also traveled to the North Central Regional meet, where BSU trimmed one minute, six seconds off its average 6,000-meter time to place 25th.
Keen came to BSU after a three-year stint as assistant track and field coach at NCAA Division II Tiffin University, where he has was one of the program’s primary recruiters and had direct responsibility for multi-event athletes and jumpers. In addition, he developed strength-training programs for the multi-event athletes, sprinters, hurdlers and jumpers and played a significant role in facility and meet management.
Prior to his time at Tiffin, Kean spent four seasons as an assistant coach at his alma mater, Northern Michigan University. At NMU he was responsible for an overhaul of the Wildcats’ Olympic weightlifting programs, helped create and implement the training programs for multi-event athletes, sprinters, hurdlers and jumpers, provided oversight of the team’s stretching and pre-habilitation regiments, and provided the team with nutritional education. In addition, he served as a member of the NMU faculty in the fall of 2011 and spring of 2012.
As a collegiate assistant coach, Kean has already worked with 50 Division II national championship qualifiers, 15 All-Americans, 16 Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference champions and multiple GLIAC record-holders, while his teams have finished among the nation’s best, most recently placing sixth at the 2015 NCAA Division II Indoor Track and Field Championships.
Kean carries multiple USA Track and Field and U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association certifications.
A 2009 graduate of Northern Michigan with a bachelor’s degree in health education and physical education, Kean also earned a master’s degree from NMU in exercise science.
– By Brad Folkestad