Jeff Coover - Assistant Coach - Jumps - Track and Field Coaches

Jeff Coover

Title:
Assistant Coach - Jumps
Email:
jeffrey.coover@uni.edu
Phone:
(319) 273-5833

Jeff Coover is in his ninth season as a full-time coach at UNI in 2025-26, focusing on jumps and multi-events.

During his time, athletes under Coover's tutelage have earned multiple Missouri Valley Conference (MVC) championships and all-conference honors. Coover is a three-time MVC Men's Indoor Coach of the Year award winner (2023, 2025, 2026) and was named the conference's men's outdoor Assistant Coach of the Year in 2022.

Coover's athletes scored an astonishing 70.5 of the Panthers' 157.5 total points at the 2026 MVC Indoor Championships en route to UNI winning its 16th men's team title, with three of their four individual titles coming under his coaching. Carter Morton, who ranked fourth in Division I in the heptathlon during the year, placed sixth in the event at the NCAA Indoor Championships for his second consecutive First Team All-American honor after scoring 38 points at the conference championships with titles in the heptathlon, long jump and high jump, as well as a runner-up finish in the pole vault. Morton was also named the men's most valuable athlete and most outstanding field athlete of the meet for a second straight year.

Under Coover's coaching, Northern Iowa won the women's pentathlon, men's pole vault, men's long jump, men's triple jump, women's high jump and men's high jump at the 2025 MVC Indoor Championships as UNI won the men's team championship. Carter Morton qualified and placed fifth to earn First Team All-American honors in the heptathlon at the NCAA Indoor Championships. The Panthers also won the women's long jump, men's pole vault, men's javelin and men's decathlon under Coover at the 2025 conference outdoor championships.

During the 2019 Missouri Valley Conference Outdoor Championship, the UNI men won the title in dominating fashion. Athletes under Coover's tutelage contributed 41.25 points to the men's championship total. Austin Heitland (decathlon) and Kade Kirkpatrick (long jump) picked up first-place finishes and Cam Cantrall earned All-Conference honors in the high jump. On the women's side, Brooke Lorenz finished second in the heptathlon to earn All-Conference honors on the women's side. Owen Minshall advanced to compete at the NCAA West Region in Sacramento, California.

At the 2019 MVC indoor championship, Heitland (hep) and Kirkpatrick (LJ) earned All-Conference honors for the men while Lorenz (pent) and Maria Gonzalez (HJ) earned All-MVC marks for the Panther women.

During the 2018 season, the Panther men entered the MVC Outdoor Championship picked third, but edge second-place Illinoise State by one point for the title. Coover's athletes contributed 29 points in the championship, including All-Conference honors for Heitland (dec) and Chase Van Sant (LJ). Kassidy Sharp won the high jump and Gonzalez (HJ) and Lauren Beauchamp (PV) earned All-MVC marks for the UNI women.

In the 2018 Indoor championship, Beauchamp earned the title in the pole vault while Gonzalez (HJ), Sharp (HJ) and Lauren Frederick (pent) earned All-MVC honors.

After spending five seasons as a volunteer coach for the Panthers, Coover was elevated to a full-time assistant coach for UNI rack and field program prior to the 2017-18 season.

As a volunteer coach at UNI, Coover has coached women pole vaulters Libby Torresani and Jenna Wexter to MVC All-Conference performances in 2014-15 and 2013-14 along with seeing both athletes earn spots at the NCAA West Preliminary Round. Torresani captured both the indoor and outdoor school records in the pole vault in 2014-15 along with a conference title at the outdoor meet.

Before his time at UNI, Coover spent two years as a volunteer at his alma mater of Indiana University as he coached pole vaulters. Coover, a 2010 graduate of Indiana, was the 2009 Big Ten Champion in the vault as a Hoosier and was an All-American as well after earning fourth at the NCAA Indoor Championships.

Coover is a four-time NCAA All-American for Indiana. He is a two-time bronze medalist at the U.S. Championships and has competed at 14 U.S. Championships. His personal record in the pole vault stands at 5.68 meters (18 feet, 8 inches).

Coover, a native of La Jolla, Calif., earned a degree in environmental management from IU in 2010. Coover currently resides in Waterloo, Iowa with his wife Chelsea.

He continues to compete. Between 2010 and 2018, Coover has competed in 14 USA Indoor and Outdoor Championships, finishing in the top-10 seven times. He has been ranked in the top-10 in the United States for 8 of the last 9 years. In 2016, he qualified for the Olympic Trials, where he jumped 5.50m (18') in the preliminary round to qualify for the finals. In the final he finished 9th. In 2015, Coover vaulted a personal best 5.68m (18'7.5") in the UN-IDome, and finished third at the USA Indoor Championships.In 2013, Coover finished fourth at the USA Championships in Des Moines to secure a spot as an alternate on Team USA for the World Championships.