Bio

In his first season as assistant head coach, Young guided the Tech men’s cross country team to its third-straight NCAA appearance where the team had a program-best finish, placing 10th as a team. Individually, senior Clayton Sayen had the best finish of any runner in Tech history with his 16th-place finish. Along with him was Drew Kolodge earning All-America honors, placing 28th. The duo marked the second time in school history the Huskies’ earned two All-American finishers. Young also led the women’s cross country team to an eighth-place finish at the Midwest Regional meet, up five spots from last season's finish.

Michigan Tech announced the promotion of Robert Young after one season as assistant coach for both cross country and track & field in July 2022. Young started as an assistant track and field and cross country coach in June, 2021. Young helped Tech men's track and field place sixth at the 2021-22 GLIAC outdoor championships while the women came in seventh. 

Young brought nine seasons of high school coaching experience to the Huskies from Rampart High School in Colorado Springs, Colorado, where he also taught a myriad of high school science courses. Young served as head boys and girls cross country coach from 2012-21 and was also head track and field coach for six years.

Mentoring and teaching between 70 and 90 student-athletes on the roster in a given year, Young's teams won nine team conference championships and achieved six team state top-10 finishes. He has also coached one individual state champion, two state runners-up, multiple all-state performers, seven individual cross country conference champions, and 41 track and field individual conference champions.

Young holds a master's of education from the University of Missouri with an emphasis in positive coaching. He earned his bachelor of science and teaching certificate from Grand Valley State University in 2008 and graduated with honors. Young taught high school science, physics, chemistry, and practical science and engineering for 12 years.

As a student-athlete at Grand Valley State, Young competed for the Lakers cross country and track and field teams from 2003-08. Among his accolades includes being named NCAA Division II All-American for both cross country and track and field. He set the school record in 3000 meter steeplechase and was a conference champion in the event. After college, he continued to train and compete, garnering Boulder Running Company and Adidas sponsorships.

Coach Owen on Young's hiring, "I am incredibly excited to welcome Robert to our coaching staff. He comes to us from a large and incredibly successful team at Rampart High School. He brings coaching experience in all event groups and large-scale athlete management Tech and I believe his abilities as a teacher, focusing on physics, chemistry, and engineering classes will help him relate to our athletes studying in STEM fields as well. Robert brings a wealth of actionable knowledge about how to develop strong mental skills to boost athletic performance. We have big goals for our team and I am confident that Robert is going to be a key component in how we reach them."