Courtesy of UMBC Athletics Communications
UMBC Director of Athletics Dr. Charles Brown announced today that Matt Gittermann has been named head men’s and women’s cross country coach.
Gittermann has served as head cross country and track and field coach at Mount Hebron High School in Ellicott City, Md., since August 2004.
All four of his boys’ teams (2A/3A) have finished among the top eight in the state championships, peaking with a fourth-place finish last fall.
The Mount Hebron girls’ program also rose to prominence, finishing third at the state championships in 2007.
The track programs have also been extremely strong under Gittermann’s leadership. His boys’ indoor team and girls’ outdoor team both finished as runners-up at the 2008 state championships. All four squads won Howard County titles last season.
Mount Hebron broke more than 80 school records and produced 15 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 and was the 1999 Ohio Athletic Conference freshman cross country Runner of the Year.
The Youngstown, N.Y., native earned his bachelor’s degree in middle childhood education from Baldwin-Wallace and just completed his master’s degree in curriculum and instruction with administrative focus from McDaniel College (Md.) in May 2008.
Gittermann has taught in both the Baltimore and Howard county school systems. He has a USATF Level I Certification and 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.