New NIU track and field coach Connie Teaberry has been there and done that when it comes to her sport.

When NIU Athletics Director Jim Phillips announced Nov. 23 that the former Olympian Teaberry would be the new coach, he knew he was getting a coach that has done a little bit of everything.

“You can’t do much better than an Olympian,” Phillips said. “Connie has some awesome credentials. She has competed at the top level on a national and international basis.”

Teaberry replaces Gretchen Folck and Dave Jennings, who served as interim coaches after former coach Shantel Twiggs followed former NIU athletics director Cary Groth to the University of Nevada-Reno.

“I had been out of coaching for four years and really missed the competitions and all the other stuff,” Teaberry said. “I had just taken the Ohio job as an assistant two weeks before, but they understood that this was an opportunity that I couldn’t miss.”

The St. Louis native began her coaching career at Kentucky in 1992 as an assistant. She then started her first MAC job as an assistant at Toledo for three years.

Teaberry also served two years at Arizona State before returning to the MAC in 2004 with Ohio for a two-week stint as an assistant.

In eight years of assistant coaching as a specialist in jumpers and sprinters, Teaberry has developed eight NCAA qualifiers and two individual conference champions.

“I would really like to get NIU higher in the MAC conference standings,” Teaberry said. “I want to continue what Shantel Twiggs started here.”

As an athlete at Kansas State, Teaberry captured three Big Eight outdoor high jump titles and as a senior was named the NCAA athlete of the year.

In 1996, Teaberry ranked No. 2 nationally in the high jump and qualified for the U.S. Olympic team in Atlanta, where she tied for 15th place.

Teaberry will be the fifth coach in NIU track and field history. The program was cut for budget reasons but was brought back for the 2000-01 season.