Forrest Donnell - Track & Field Coach - Ball State University Athletics

Forrest Donnell

Title:
Assistant Coach (Jumps & Multi Events)
Email:
fcdonnell@bsu.edu

Forrest Donnell, a volunteer assistant at the University of Oklahoma in 2018-19, enters his second season as the jumps and multi-events coach for the Ball State track & field program in 2020-21.

“We are incredibly excited to add Forrest Donnell to our coaching staff,” head coach Brian Etelman said upon his hiring. “Coach Donnell was highly recommended by some of the NCAA’s most accomplished and respected coaches. He is a very well educated jumps and multi-events coach that shares our staff’s vision and commitment to building and developing champions. Our entire program, both staff and student-athletes, will benefit tremendously from his expertise and commitment to the jumps and multi-event areas.”

Donnell’s commitment to developing talent was immediately evident as he mentored sophomore Karlie Zumbro to a second-place finish in the pentathlon at the 2020 Mid-American Indoor Championships. Her score of 3,577 was also the fourth-best individual effort in program history, and she set personal-bests in four of the five events.

Sparked by Zumbro’s silver medal and All-MAC Second Team performance to open the meet, as well as an 11th-place effort in the pentathlon from freshman Charity Griffith, the Cardinals went on to score 77 points as a team at the meet to post the program’s best finish at the MAC Indoor Championships since the 2009 campaign with a third-place showing. In fact, Zumbro was Ball State’s best performer in the pentathlon since Thekla Lorenz placed second in the 2011 meet.

Unfortunately, the Cardinals did not get to show off their hard work in the 2020 outdoor campaign, as the season was cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

As a member of the Oklahoma staff, Donnell assisted head coach Jim VanHootegem with one of the nation’s top horizontal jumping programs. In fact, Donnell helped coach three Sooners, one female and two males, to second team All-America honors in the triple jump last season. He also worked with the men’s 4x100m relay which earned second team All-American honors at the NCAA Outdoor Championships, as well as with several Big 12 Conference Championship scorers in the horizontal jumps and men’s sprints.

“I want to thank Coach Etelman for giving me the opportunity to be part of this staff and work with this young, talented group of student-athletes,” Donnell said upon being hired. “I think this team and this group can be competitive within the MAC, so we will get to work and see where our training takes us.”

Prior to joining the Oklahoma staff, Donnell worked for ALTIS in Phoenix, Arizona, where he instructed athletes with world-class coaches in an elite coaching and athletic training environment.

Donnell began his coaching career as an assistant at his alma mater, Lyons High School in Lyons, Colorado, working with the program between 2013 and 2018. During his time on staff, the Lions claimed a total of 16 event championships or runner-up finishes.

A two-time Colorado high school state champion himself in the long jump, Donnell earned his bachelor’s degree in integrative physiology from the University of Colorado in 2017.