1. Anthony Sparks
Media Writing (#344 words)
Professor M.E. Yancosek Gamble
September 22, 2011
New Faces At Bethany College
Bethany College has invited some new faces to their, already impressive, athletics
program. One of the newest members to the Bison coaching staff is Michael Guinn. Guinn, a
former assistant coach at Division II institutions West Virginia Wesleyan College and Seton Hill
University, was named the new head men's and women's cross country coach at Bethany in
August.
Guinn was most recently an assistant at Seton Hill from 2008-2010. In his two seasons,
he helped take the Griffins men’s cross country team from fourth place in the WVIAC, West
Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, to a conference championship. Prior to his time at
Seton Hill, Guinn was the associate head coach for the track and field and cross country
programs at West Virginia Wesleyan from 2004-08. He had a hand in the Bobcats’ women
claiming four WVIAC cross country and outdoor track team titles, as well as one men’s cross
country and two outdoor track and field championships.
Before his coaching career began, Guinn was just as accomplished as a runner. At
Alderson-Broaddus, he was a three-time All-Conference performer in cross country, which
included winning the 2001 WVIAC Individual Cross Country championship. Guinn’s victory
helped propel A-B to the conference team title and he also qualified for the NCAA Division II

2. National Championships. After transferring to the University of Charleston, Guinn won back-to-
back WVIAC crowns in the 10,000 in 2002 and 2003 while provisionally qualifying for NCAA
Championships in the event both years. He is the only WVIAC runner in history to be named
All-Regional four times.
Although he had a short time until the cross country team’s first meet, that was held on
Sept. 3 at Westminster, where Guinn had two of his runners among the top 20 out of 186
runners, so with that, he is excited to take the reins to the program and is looking forward to
strengthen the program back to where it was when the men’s team earned the regional
championship in 1980.