Colin and Allison Boevers Join Michigan Track and Field Coaching Staff
10/15/2021 12:00:00 PM | Men's Track & Field, Women's Track & Field
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- University of Michigan director of track and field / cross country Kevin Sullivan announced Friday (Oct. 15) the completion of his coaching staff for the upcoming 2021-22 track and field seasons with the additions of Colin Boevers and Allison Boevers.
Colin Boevers will join the program as the full-time assistant coach overseeing the throws events for the Wolverines, to be assisted in a volunteer capacity by Allison (nee Liske) Boevers, who competed for the Wolverines from 2008-12.
"The staff and I are extremely excited that Colin and Allison are going to be joining the staff, joining the team, and joining the track and field family," said Sullivan. "I think that they've got a great resume of experience behind them and they have the personal qualities that we were really looking for to round out our staff."
The husband-and-wife duo both come to Ann Arbor via the University of Oklahoma, where they coached or assisted in coaching 12 Sooner student-athletes to All-America honors and seven individual Big 12 titles between 2017 and 2021.
"The University of Michigan is a great place to have a real student-athlete experience with world-class academics, the world-class facilities and the high-level athletes in the track and field program," said Colin Boevers. "Thank you to Kevin Sullivan, Brian Townsend and Warde Manuel for giving us the opportunity. We're excited to get to work, to start coaching these student-athletes, and to start recruiting."
"The University of Michigan is a place of endless resources that pairs world-class education with world-class athletics. You can't really get better than that," said Allison Boevers. "It feels surreal to be coming back to a place that did so many great things for me to propel me into my life post-college. There's a lot of potential in the group that's here, and we're looking forward to continuing to build the program."
Under the Boevers' direction, Oklahoma was a near-constant presence on the national stage in the throws. Sooner student-athletes who they coached earned All-America honors at eight of the 10 NCAA Championship meets held since their debut campaign in Norman in 2017, combining for 12 honors along the way.
Chief among their pupils was Jess Woodard, who earned four top-eight shot put finishes at the NCAA Championships -- including a silver medal outdoors in 2018 and a bronze earlier that winter indoors -- to go along with a pair of NCAA Championships appearances in the discus and two Big 12 shot put titles.
They also coached Meia Gordon (shot put) and Ashley Bryant (weight throw/hammer) to multiple All-America honors at Oklahoma.
Before Oklahoma, the Boevers coached at Miami (Ohio) for two seasons in 2014-15 and 2015-16, with Colin as an assistant coach both years and Allison serving as a volunteer for the first and a full-time assistant for the second. While in Oxford, they oversaw two shot put All-America performances for Amelia Stricker.
Colin Boevers also served as a volunteer assistant for Oklahoma during the 2013-14 campaign, when he helped the talented Sooner javelin corps to a combined three All-America honors between women's runner-up Avione Allgood and second-teamers Elizabeth Herrs and Garrett Snow.
Colin was a two-time NCAA Championships qualifier and two-time Southeastern Conference champion in the discus during his undergraduate career at Kentucky from 2008-11. He was fourth at the 2011 NCAA Championships and ninth in 2010 after winning SEC titles both seasons.
"I think the exciting thing about Colin is that he has, both as an athlete and a coach, performed at the highest level of our sport," said Sullivan. "He was a great athlete at Kentucky at the SEC and NCAA level, and he's brought that experience to the teams he's worked with at Miami and Oklahoma. I think he's going to continue to bring that intensity and fire and team culture, and really help mold our throws group moving forward."
Allison Boevers ranks among the best throwers in Michigan program history, still at No. 2 in the indoor shot put all-time list and No. 3 outdoors nearly a decade after her Wolverine career came to a close. She qualified for the NCAA East Preliminary Rounds in both the shot put and discus in 2010, 2011 and 2012.
She is the sixth U-M alum to join Sullivan's nine-person coaching staff, including Sullivan himself, Mike McGuire and James Henry, as well as volunteers Kiley Bastien and Arnett Chisholm.
"It's always exciting to have Michigan alums come back and work here," said Sullivan. "I know for myself and definitely for Allison, you have this love and appreciation for your alma mater and it's extremely exciting that we can welcome her back. But she's not just here because she's an alum or because she's married to Colin. She brings a wealth of her own personal coaching experience into our team, as well, and it is going to be exciting to watch her and Colin work together with the group of throwers we have in here now."
