Shelia Burrell
Position: Head Coach Seasons at SDSU: Third Season

Shelia Burrell, a two-time Olympian in the heptathlon, enters her third season as the head cross country/track and field coach at San Diego State.

Over her two years, Burrell has coached three All-Americans, seven Mountain West Conference individual champions and 25 all-MWC performers. Additionally, 11 school records have been set under her watch.

Last season (2010-11), Burrell coached the Aztecs to four individual titles, led by freshman sensation Allison Reaser. Reaser won the MWC indoor pentathlon title, the MWC outdoor heptathlon title, the U.S. Junior Nationals heptathlon title and took fourth at the Pan Am Junior Championships.

Kelsy Hintz (outdoor pole vault) and Whitney Ashley (outdoor discus throw) also won individual conference titles, while Ashley went onto earn All-American honors in the discus.

Burrell coached four SDSU athletes to school records, including Ashley in the hammer, shot put (indoor) and weight throw, Reaser in the pentathlon, Shanae Roach in the 200 (indoor) and Marianne Hogan in the 5,000 (indoor).

San Diego State improved from seventh in 2010 to fourth in 2011 in the outdoor conference championships after taking fourth in the indoor meet. In addition, Burrell led the cross country team to a seventh-place showing, its best since the 2005 season.

Eight athletes qualified for the NCAA West Prelims in 2011, including Lawreta Ozoh (100, 200), Reaser (400-hurdles, long jump) and Ashley (shot put, discus) in multiple events.

Burrell made an immediate impact in her first season with the Aztecs, leading Karoline Koehler to a pair of indoor All-America selections and MWC titles in the long jump and triple jump. Koehler ended up finishing fourth in both events at the NCAA Championship meet.

Koehler set an indoor school record in each event, as did Rachel Williams (5,000) and Stephanie James (pole vault). James also won the MWC indoor championship.

Burrell led SDSU to a third-place finish at the MWC indoor meet, its best finish since 2004. San Diego State ended up finishing in a tie for 21st at the NCAA Indoor Championships. The Aztecs had seven all-conference performers.

Five SDSU athletes garnered outdoor all-MWC accolades in Burrell's first season as a head coach. Maria Rodriguez set a school record in the hammer throw.

Burrell brought an impressive pedigree of success as an educator, coach and athlete to the Montezuma Mesa. A graduate of the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) and member of the UCLA track and field team during the successful Bob Kersee era, Burrell returns to Southern California after spending the previous two years at Georgetown University.

USA Track and Field Level One and Level Two certified in the sprints, hurdles and multi-events, Burrell has been an athlete and a coach throughout her competitive career. A student of the sport, Burrell has served as a sprint and hurdle clinician for various clinics and has coached at every level of the sport throughout her career, coaching youth, high school and junior college track and field. Throughout her career, Burrell has had the fortune of working with and coaching alongside some of the top coaches in the sport of track and field.

At Georgetown, Burrell coached the men's and women's sprints, hurdles, jumps and throws. The Hoyas, historically known for their outstanding distance program, developed a national presence in the sprints and hurdles during her years there. As a result of her passion and dedication to her athletes, Burrell was named the 2009 Mid-Atlantic Region Men's Assistant Coach of the Year by the U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCA) in only her second year at Georgetown.

Burrell's impact was immediate at Georgetown. Her efforts helped produce two Big East indoor runner-up team titles, two indoor NCAA All-Americans (heptathlon, DMR), two Outdoor Big East Conference champions in both the long and short hurdles and qualified the most sprinters and hurdlers to the NCAA Regional and NCAA National Championships in recent school history.

Under her guidance in 2009, sophomore Chris Kinney became the first Georgetown hurdler to go to the NCAA championships in the 110 hurdles (13.77). In addition, London Finley became the third-fastest freshman in the country in the 400-meter hurdles (58.17), Buky Bamigboye competed in the 2008 Olympic trials in the heptathlon and Toby Ulm qualified and competed in the European U-23 Championships in the 400-meter hurdles (50.23).

In 2000-2003, while coaching in the Big 12 Conference as the assistant sprints, jumps and multi-events coach at Kansas State University, she was a part of two Big 12 Conference Championship teams in 2001 and 2002.

From 1998-2000, Burrell worked as an assistant sprints, hurdles and jumps coach at Cal State University Northridge.

While at Mesa College in San Diego, Burrell coached conference champions and junior college All-Americans in the 100 meters, 400-meter hurdles and 200 meters.

Burrell also coached at San Diego High School and ran a successful youth speed and conditioning business while living in San Diego from 2004-2007.

Of Burrell's hire, SDSU Director of Athletics Jeff Schemmel said, "Burrell's passion for the students, her knowledge and expertise, and her national presence in track and field made her an obvious choice for San Diego State. She brings world class competitive experience as well as exceptional coaching experience."

Burrell is known as one of our nation's best athletes competing in the heptathlon at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia and the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece (fourth-place finish). In addition, she was a five-time U.S. National Champion in the heptathlon (1999, 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2004). Burrell also won a bronze medal at the 2001 Edmonton World Championships, becoming the first American to medal at an international championship since the great Jackie Joyner-Kersee.

A consummate motivator, coach Burrell's personal approach to coaching has had an immediate impact on the San Diego State Track and Field program.