The Margaret Klann Coach of the Year award is named for the founder of  college archery in 1966. She coached the Arizona State University Team from 1946 to 1976.  Recipients of this award exemplify those special qualities of the highest caliber that are found in every coach who establishes a "winning tradition" like Margaret Klann.

Criteria is based upon contributions to the sport of archery, the performances of the coach's archery team and service to college archery.  The candidates for 2010 were

Chad Karstetter, Penn College

Mike Burnham, Cal State Long Beach

Lorinda Cohen, Texas A&M

Jonathan Miller, Purdue University

All of the candidates have a number of successes including developing top archers within US Collegiate Archery.  Coach of the Year is voted on by each club in the USCA.  The 2010 Coach of the Year is Mike Burnham, Cal State Long Beach.  Mike was also elected as the West Region Director and was seated to the USCA Board of Directors.

Mike Burnham is the coach at California State University Long Beach.  He has been working with the Long Beach Club and team since 2002 and was asked by the club in 2008 to be the coach.  He also coaches the lone club member at Occidental College and intermediate and advanced archers through a very popular and successful instruction program sponsored by Pasadena Roving Archers, a 501(c)(3) and NFAA/USAA-member club in Pasadena, California, where he has served two three-year terms as president.  He also competes in a variety of USAA and NFAA sanctioned tournaments at the national, state and local levels with medals and awards at all levels.

He was first certified as an instructor in 1997, then Level 3 Coach in 2003 and Level 4 Coach certification in August 2005.  He is a Regional Coach, having attended Coaching Seminars at Colorado Springs in March 2007 and November 2008.  Since assuming the coaching role at Long Beach they have had a full 12-member team for the last two years, with the team winning more than their fair share of the medals.  Some have said that they would not still be in the program if it weren’t for his coaching.

In his coaching and the development of the archer’s skills, he is always positive, always looking for the good part of everything the archer does, then correcting where necessary.  He can often be seen with an arm around a team or club member’s shoulders.  He also prepares summaries of a variety of documents to help the club members understand the sport better, some of which are posted on the club’s website.  And he is always willing to use his truck to haul the team’s equipment to and from out of town tournaments in including the 2010 USIAC.

He has been in archery since the mid-50’s and still has his bow from 1959, the year he graduated from High School. 

His success is attributed to much more than his knowledge of archery, however.  He says he really enjoys working with the college students and seeing the successes of his coaching.  He has a true desire for the success of others that both long-time students and casual archery shop patrons can recognize.

Mike was also actress Zoe Saldana’s coach for her archery training for the movie Avatar.

This is the second year in a row that Mike has been elected to receive the honor of West Region Coach of the Year.  Congratulations Mike!