Champaign, Illinois – University of Illinois Athletics Head Coach Petros Cyprianou Announcing the hiring of assistant coaches Denise Mitchell. Mitchell comes to Illinois from Akron to become a pole vault coach.
“Dennis brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to our team. He will match the energy and brains of the rest of the staff in the NCAA’s quest & the success of the Big Ten.”
Mitchell has been the head coach of Akron’s men’s and women’s track and field teams since 1995. He has grown the program from the bottom of the conference to the top overall of the Mid-His American His Conference (MAC). Four years after he was hired in 1999, the women’s team won his outdoor championship, earning the school’s first full MAC title. Since then, the school has enjoyed many successes.
Mitchell has led the team to 35 MAC team titles and produced nine NCAA National Champions with six athletes. Akron is one of his five programs to win the national outdoor title four years in a row (2014 to him 2017). From 2011 to 2019 he finished in the top 25 ten times. His teams have also placed in the top 10 of the NCAA Championship twice.
“I am thrilled to have the opportunity to come to Illini Country and work under such a great coach. Petros Cyprianousaid Mitchell. From doing an entire program to just focusing on the pole vault, it can be a fun challenge. I hope that the expectations for this tournament will greatly contribute to the goals of Coach Cyprianou. You can see the “I” pointing to the sky. ”
He is a 33-time MAC and 7-time Great Lakes Region USTFCCCA Head Coach of the Year. He is the only coach in MAC history to win all four of his track and field titles in one year (2017). During the 2005-06 season, Akron won the triple crown (indoor, outdoor and cross-country titles) as the first women’s program in her MAC history.
On the Olympic front, three of his athletes participated in 2016 and three more in 2020. Most notably Clayton his Murphy, his 800 m bronze medalist in 2016. He also produced 2015 Pole Vault World Champion Sean Barber.
Prior to joining Akron Mitchell, she spent four years at the University of North Carolina (UNC) serving as the men’s and women’s field event coordinator. Here he helped the men’s team win his ACC team title, his first since 1955. He directly coached his 11 US tours and his 20 ACC individual titles.
Before UNC Mitchell started his career at the University of Texas. Here he was the men’s assistant his coach on the field, primarily coaching the pole vaulters, while also assisting in the hurdles. He helped Texas win his conference title in the Southwest in 1986 and 1987.
A native of Rialto, California, Mitchell graduated from Abilene Christian University (ACU) with a BA in Political Science. While at ACU, he was a national qualifier in the pole vault for the 1985 NCAA Division II championship team. He began his college career at the University of Utah, where he was a two-time runner-up in the Western Athletic Conference in his championship pole vault.
Mitchell is moving to Champaign with his wife, Cindy. Cindy is a graduate of the Leadership Akron program and a graduate of the University of Akron. The couple have two sons. Matt and Chad (Akron graduates) and his three grandchildren.
