{"id":1625,"date":"2017-01-06T21:28:04","date_gmt":"2017-01-06T21:28:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/?p=1625"},"modified":"2019-06-12T10:23:57","modified_gmt":"2019-06-12T15:23:57","slug":"coach-hired-for-universitys-new-sports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/2017\/01\/06\/coach-hired-for-universitys-new-sports\/","title":{"rendered":"Coach Hired for University&#8217;s New Sports"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Missouri Western\u2019s first-ever head coach for the men\u2019s and women\u2019s cross country and track and field teams was hired in August 2016. The teams will begin competing in fall 2017.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_1616\" style=\"width: 210px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/133\/2017\/01\/Bierbaum-Mug.jpg\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1616\" src=\"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/133\/2017\/01\/Bierbaum-Mug-243x300.jpg\" alt=\"Coach Marc Bierbaum\" width=\"200\" height=\"247\" class=\" wp-image-1616\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-1616\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Coach Marc Bierbaum<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Marc Bierbaum, who was an assistant women\u2019s cross country and track coach at the University of Nebraska Omaha, was selected from a pool of more than 100 candidates. Prior to UNO, he had served as the head men\u2019s and women\u2019s cross country coach and assistant track coach at Dana College, in Blair, Nebraska.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We\u2019re very excited to have Marc lead our new programs,\u201d said Kurt McGuffin, director of athletics. \u201cMarc\u2019s enthusiasm really stood out and I think that will be a great attribute as he starts these programs.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>At UNO, Bierbaum coached 36 all-conference performers and helped the Mavericks break 13 school records. At Dana, he coached a national champion in outdoor track and field, three national qualifiers in cross country, 17 national qualifiers in indoor track and field, 20 national qualifiers in outdoor track and field, two All-Americans in indoor track and field, and 43 all-conference selections. He also saw eight school records fall.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEveryone that was involved in the process, everyone I\u2019ve met, the campus, it\u2019s all amazing. I can\u2019t think of a better place to start a program,\u201d Bierbaum said when he was hired.<\/p>\n<p>Bierbaum, a 2001 Dana College graduate, was a two-time national qualifier as a marathoner for the Dana track team and a 1999 national qualifier in cross country.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMarc has a proven record of success at this level and knows the Midwest. We were really impressed by his knowledge of the area and the MIAA, along with his strategies for building a program that Missouri Western can be proud of,\u201d McGuffin said.<\/p>\n<div class=\"video-shortcode\"><iframe width=\"1778\" height=\"1000\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/zV5h66psc_A?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Missouri Western\u2019s first-ever head coach for the men\u2019s and women\u2019s cross country and track and field teams was hired in August 2016. The teams will begin competing in fall 2017. Marc Bierbaum, who was an assistant women\u2019s cross country and track coach at the University of Nebraska Omaha, was selected [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[21],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1625"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1625"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1625\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4380,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1625\/revisions\/4380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}