Harvard University

Matt Chisam returns for his fifth season with the Harvard Trackand Field program in 2010-11. Chisam works primarily with thesprinters and serves as the primary hurdles, pole vault anddecathlon coach.

Chisam coached two Heptagonal Champions in 2009 in Dara Wilson’09 and Justin Grinstead ’10. Wilson won the 60 meterhurdles at the Indoor Heps, while Grinstead was victorious in the400 meter hurdles at the Outdoor Heps. Wilson moved into thirdall-time at Harvard in the 60 hurdles and fifth all-time in the 100meter hurdles, while Grinstead's winning time of 52.16 secondsmoved him into fifth on the all-time 400 meter list. Grinsteaddefended his title at the 2010 Outdoor Heps, running a time of52.19.

In 2008, both hurdlers had breakthrough season’s runningpersonal bests in their hurdle events working with Chisam. Wilsonadded her name to the Crimson top-10 list in both the 60 and 100meters, while Grinstead entered his name in the Harvard record bookin the 110 hurdles with his time of 52.49 that placed him third atthe Outdoor Heptagonal Championships.

Chisam came to Harvard from the San Francisco Bay Area where forthe last year he was training as a full-time decathlete and hadserved as an assistant coach with the Alhambra High School trackand field team.

While a student-athlete at the University of California, Davis,Chisam won multiple California Collegiate Athletic Associationconference championships in both the 110m high hurdles and thedecathlon. In 2003, Chisam was the NCAA Division-II runner-up inthe decathlon earning All-America status. Chisam resides on thetop-10 lists at UC Davis in four events including on the top of thechart in the heptathlon. He won conference championships in boththe hurdles and multis. After UC Davis began its transition toDivision-I in 2004, Chisam, a team captain, won the high hurdlesand scored a total of 34 points in UCD's inaugural entry at theIndependent National Championships.

Other coaching experience includes two years running the SaintFrancis High School Strength and Conditioning camp in Mt. View,Calif. and a years worth of experience as a coach at the NewEngland Pole Vault Summer Camp. Chisam comes from a legacy ofcollegiate track coaches through parents Scott and Roberta who, ascoaches, lead the UCLA women's track team to both 1982 and 1983outdoor track and field championships. Scott later went on to coachat Stanford University, but both parents have retired from thecollegiate level and now coach at SF Bay Area high schools.

Chisam graduated from the University of California, Davis, with aB.S. in optical science and engineering. He continues to compete inthe multi events. He finished 15th in the decathlon at the U.S.Olympic Trials in July 2008.