Sam Martin

Sam Martin has 10 years of coaching experience; the last 8 of which have come at the NCAA Division III level. His athletic involvement with cross country and track & field has stretched over 25 years since its beginning at age 7, where his coach taught him a foundational lesson: Make the sport fun! Pursuing fun and joy through sport has been a guiding principle for him ever since, opening doors to success as an athlete and providing avenues to inspire and instruct the people he now coaches.

Martin is a USATF Level 1 certified coach with experience across multiple event groups. His athletes have earned 1 National Qualifier, 5 All-Region, and 15 All-Conference honors across sprints, distance, horizontal jumps, and pole vault. Currently an assistant coach at Shenandoah University in Winchester, VA, Martin oversees the sprints, horizontal jumps, and pole vault training while assisting with cross country in the fall. His athletes have rewritten the program record books and earned honors at the conference, regional, and national level, including the program's first freshman individual national qualifier at the most recent NCAA DIII Outdoor National Championships.

Previously, at Coe College in Cedar Rapids, IA, his athletes peppered the program's record books and earned multiple All-Conference honors in one of the most competitive conferences in Division III, including the program's first in the women's pole vault. His coaching career began at DeMatha Catholic High School, where he worked with the distance runners, contributing to DeMatha's victory at the 2018 WCAC Track & Field Championship.

Martin competed collegiately at Christopher Newport University from 2011-2015 where he won multiple conference titles in the 800m, Mile, 1500m, and Distance Medley Relay.