Mike Cunningham comes to Drake after a successful 31-year Iowa High School coaching career.
He served as the head coach at Knoxville High School from 2002-2014. After turning the program around, his teams recorded 6 district championships and placed in the top 10 at the state meet 6 different times, averaging nearly 30 points a year over a 10 year span. From 2009 to 2013, the Panthers placed in every event at the state meet, winning 4 different events. In total, his athletes won 6 different events at the state, meet and over 20 athletes were named first team all-state.
After his career in Knoxville, his family relocated to West Des Moines where he joined the Valley staff as an assistant coach in charge of sprinters, jumpers, and hurdlers. In his 7 years with the program, the Tigers won 3 state team championships setting an Iowa all-time scoring record in 2019. While at Valley, his sprinters won state titles in the 4X100, 4X200, 4X400 and the shuttle hurdle relay. Eighteen of his sprinters and hurdlers were state champions, and nearly 40 athletes were named elite all-state performers, including 3 long jumpers and high jumpers.
In 2019, two of the Tigers relay teams set Iowa all-time bests while winning state titles. The 4X200 quartet timed 1:26.17, while the shuttle hurdle relay team clocked 57.18. In addition, the Tigers 4X100 set a state meet record of 41.68, the second fastest clocking all-time in Iowa. His Tiger sprint crew also boasts 2 of the top 4 times ever recorded in the 4X400 (3:15.25, 3:16.55) a race they won in 2018, securing their second consecutive state team title.
Prior to his final two coaching jobs, Coach Cunningham served as an assistant for Keith Ellingson at his alma mater, Simpson College for one year, where he coached two relay teams to All-American status, the 4X100 and 4X400. Cunningham was a conference champion for the Storm where he competed from 1986-89.
Throughout the 1990s, he assisted his dad, Mike Cunningham Sr., at Knoxville High School, while coaching the junior high teams and working with the varsity jumpers and hurdlers.
Cunningham graduated from Simpson College in 1989 with a degree in political science and communication. He received his gifted and talented endorsement from Drake University in 2012, and a master’s degree in teacher effectiveness and professional development from Drake in 2019.
Cunningham resides in West Des Moines with his wife. They have three children: two grown daughters both of whom coach, and a son, a college freshman.
