Bio

Collin Nurenberg joined the Northwood coaching staff in July of 2019. Prior to coaching at Northwood, he was the assistant distance coach for Wayne State University’s men’s and women’s cross country teams as well as the women’s track and field team.

During his one season at Wayne State, the program improved by leaps and bounds. Both programs finished 4^th at the 2018 GLIAC cross country championships after finishing 10^th on the men’s side and 6^th on the women’s the year prior. At the meet, Wayne State’s top runner, Ashley Defrain, finished 5^th overall and was awarded the GLIAC Freshman of the Year award. At the Midwest Regional Championship the women improved from 13^th in 2016 to 6^th in 2018 while the men jumped from 25^th to 10^th. In addition to improving their performance on the course, both programs also did so in the classroom. The men achieved a cumulative GPA of 3.2 and the women earned a 3.7 earning them a tie for the top GPA in all of NCAA Division 2 women’s cross country.

Before beginning his collegiate coaching career, Nurenberg was a highly successful high school coach. His first coaching position was as a volunteer middle-distance coach at his alma-mater, St. Johns High School in 2015. After the 2016 season, he was promoted to head boy’s track and field coach and worked with the distance and middle-distance athletes of both genders. Upon his departure at the conclusion of the 2018 season, the boy’s team won 3 conference titles and a regional championship. The girl’s team won two conference titles and their first ever state title in 2015. Athletes under his tutelage earned a multitude of All-State Awards, and set 10 school records. In 2016, Steven Linton became the second individual state champion in program history, winning the MHSAA D2 400m dash in a time of 48.2 seconds. The fall prior, Nurenberg accepted the position of assistant boys and girls cross country coach at Saginaw Heritage High School. While already a highly successful program, they continued to improve with his guidance. The boy’s team captured the 2016 and 2017 SVL conference titles, the 2017 regional championship, and placed in the top 10 at the MHSAA D1 state finals both years (9^th in 2016 and 6^th in 2017). In 2016, the girl’s team reached the state finals for the second time in program history, and in 2017 two girls ran under the old school 5k record in the same meet.

Nurenberg is a graduate of Saginaw Valley State University where he earned a Bachelor’s of Science in Exercise Science with a minor in Coaching. During his time at SVSU, he competed on the track and cross country teams. He was named to the All-GLIAC Academic team multiple times as well as an Elite 18 award recipient for holding the highest GPA on one of the 18 varsity sports teams at SVSU. At the start of Nurenberg’s sophomore season, he was named one of the captains for both the SVSU cross country and track and field teams. In the fall of 2016, he became a student volunteer coach working under the SVSU distance coaches, Jason Hartmann and Angelina Ramos. The following two years, the team reached new heights as the men’s team placed 10^th at the NCAA D2 Cross Country National Championships, with Tom Goforth earning All-American honors. The following spring Joey Southgate replicated that All-American accomplishment by placing 6^th at the NCAA Division 2 Outdoor Track & Field Championships in 10k.

Nurenberg places great emphasis on furthering his career not only through practice and application but also through reading and classwork. He earned his USATF Level 1 certification and frequently attends clinics and other educational opportunities. He is a native of St. Johns, Michigan where he continue to be an enthusiastic member of an outstanding community.