Steve Thiessen begins his new role as Director of Game Operations in the fall of 2024 after 32 years as a coach at Northwestern. He was the head coach of the Men's and Women's Cross Country programs for 32 years and the Men's and Women's Track & Field programs for 23 years. As Director of Game Operations, Thiessen will oversee game management, game day facility preparation, maintenance requests and inspections, as well as assisting with field and equipment needs and other miscellaneous duties.
Under Coach Thiessen’s leadership, the Men’s Track and Field and Cross Country programs won a combined 8 Upper Midwest Athletic Conference Championships. Coach Thiessen’s women’s programs had a similar amount of success at the conference level, winning 7 UMAC Championships between Cross Country and Track and Field. The women’s programs were also successful on the national level, reaching the NCCAA National Championship Invitational on 10 occasions, finishing as high as 7th in the nation.
Coach Thiessen coached and gave guidance to many talented and highly decorated athletes during his tenure at UNW. Thiessen coached three NCCAA individual event champions, 21 NCCAA All-Americans, 60 NCCAA Academic All-Americans, 10 NAIA All-Americans, and 19 individual conference champions.
Coach Thiessen currently resides in New Brighton with his wife, Dale, and has two adult children, Jeremiah and Jonathan.
