(Editor’s note: Carroll College media release)
HELENA — Shannon Flynn will become the Carroll College Fighting Saints cross country and track and field distance coach.
“Bringing in a coach of Shannon’s caliber, with her academic and athletic success here at Carroll, is phenomenal for our program,” Saints head track and field coach Harry Clark said. “She knows what it takes to be a Carroll College athlete, and understands the Helena and Montana communities very well.”
A native of Townsend, Flynn graduated from Carroll in 2011 with a degree in biology for secondary education with a chemistry minor. She began her athletic career at Carroll on the hardwood, playing basketball and volleyball for three years. Her fourth year, she focused solely on basketball before moving over to cross country and track in her fifth year.
The choice to run paid dividends. Flynn qualified for nationals in cross country and indoor and outdoor track, becoming an All-American in the 800-meter run during the indoor season.
A return to the place that shaped Flynn is an especially rewarding feeling for her.
“I’m incredibly excited about the opportunity to be here and work with coach Clark and be somewhere close to home, having grown up in Townsend,” Flynn said. “Having gone to Carroll, I really feel like this place shaped me and helped me become the person I am. I’m incredibly thankful to be back there. I’m looking forward to meet the student-athletes and getting to know them. I’m excited to see how we can grow together and build the distance program from where it is to something that’s even better.”
Flynn will lead the cross country program and assist Saints Head Track and Field coach Harry Clark with the distance runners during the winter and spring.
Prior to Carroll, Flynn assisted distance runners at the University of Montana. Before that, she coached and taught middle school in Missoula and coached and taught high school athletes in Bozeman. The build-up to becoming a college coach has been a rewarding journey for Flynn, working with athletes at various points in their athletic careers.
Flynn is finishing up a graduate degree in exercise science at the University of Montana. She will assume her coaching duties at Carroll College later this year.
