UMBC

Matt Gittermann returns for his fourth year as Head Cross Country and Assistant Track and Field Coach (distance) at UMBC. During his short tenure he has quickly made a stamp on the program by producing an America East Conference Champion, three All-Conference performances in cross country, nine All-Conference Performers, 18 IC4A/ECAC individual qualifiers and five IC4A/ECAC relay qualifying teams. In addition he has guided his athletes to eleven school records, seven All-America East Academic Team nominations, and numerous UMBC All-Time Top Ten Performances.

His men’s cross country teams have been ranked in the Mid-Atlantic Region during the season in all but one year thus far and his women’s cross country team achieved a Mid-Atlantic Region ranking during the 2009 season. Gittermann currently has a USATF Level II Certification in Sprints, Hurdles, Relays and Endurance. Additionally, he was one of 20 collegiate and high school coaches selected to attend the USATF/United States Olympic Committee Emerging Elite Endurance Coaching Clinic at the Olympic Training Facility at Chula Vista, Calif.

Prior to UMBC, all four of his boys’ cross country teams at Mount Hebron High School (2A/3A) had finished among the top eight in the Maryland State Championships, peaking with a fourth-place finish in 2007. The Mount Hebron girls’ program also rose to prominence, finishing third at the State Championships in 2007.

The track programs were also extremely strong under Gittermann’s leadership. His 2005 boys’ indoor team and 2007 girls’ outdoor squad both finished as runners-up at the state championships. Overall, Mount Hebron broke more than eighty school records, produced fifteen individual state champions and one All-American during Gittermann’s tenure.

Gittermann started his coaching career as head track and field coach at neighboring Hammond High School in the fall of 2003. The January 2003 graduate of Baldwin-Wallace College in Berea, Ohio, earned four letters in cross country and three in track and field.

The Lewiston, N.Y., native earned his Bachelor’s degree in middle childhood education from Baldwin-Wallace and completed his Master’s degree in curriculum and instruction with a focus in administration from McDaniel College in May 2008.

Gittermann currently teaches science in the Howard County Public School System and resides in Columbia, Md. with his wife, Megan, and their daughter, Ryleigh.