Track and Field
- Title:
- Assistant Coach (Distance)
- Email:
- guemmerb@umkc.edu
- Phone:
- 816-235-1048
In 2019-20, Guemmer serves in his fifth season as an assistant coach on the Kansas City track & field and cross country staff as the distance coach. He arrived at Kansas City, his alma mater, prior to the 2015 season.
KC Roo collegiate bio
In his five-year KC coaching career, Guemmer has mentored a total of 23 different athletes to earn status on either the All-WAC First or Second Teams. He has seen nine different athletes win 16 individual Western Athletic Conference (WAC) championships. He was part of the 2016 and 2017 WAC Men's Cross Country Team Championships. Being the primary distance coach, he was named the 2017 WAC Men's Cross Country Coach of the Year. On the school's top-five all-time performance list, Guemmer has coached athletes that hold 57 spots on that list. He has been a part of coaching three Roo alumni who have competed in the USATF Olympic Trials.
During the 2019-20 track season, Guemmer tutored sophomore distance runner Sommer Herner. Behind two gold medals and a silver at the 2020 indoor conference championship, Herner made school history as the first-ever female athlete to win both the WAC Outstanding Track Athlete and the WAC High Point award at the same time in the indoor championships.
Perhaps one of the biggest success points of Guemmer’s coaching career is mentoring All-America stand-out Bryce Miller (2014-19). Miller won the 2016 and 2017 individual conference cross country titles, also claiming the Athlete of the Year both times. Miller was all-region in cross country and qualified for nationals. For the track season, Miller won gold medal at the 2016 conference championships in the steeplechase and 5,000-meters, was a 2016 NCAA All-American in the steeplechase and later ran at the 2016 Olympic Trials. Eventually, Miller finished in 10th-place in the steeple, an amazing feat for a junior in college. Miller capped his 2016 campaign by competing in the NACAC U-23 Championships in El Salvador, representing the U.S. as one of the best athletes under the age of 23 in the nation.
Prior to joining the KC coaching staff, he served on the coaching staff at Jackson High School from 2013-2014 and Potosi High School from 2014-2015.
Guemmer was a student-athlete as a Roo and earned his bachelor’s degree in secondary education in biology in 2013. In the four years he ran track and cross country for the Roos, he was a three-time team captain. Guemmer also served on the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee and was the president of SAAC in 2011-12.
Guemmer is a native of DeSoto, Mo., where most of his family still lives, including two of his three brothers.
