Bob Graf - Track and Field Coach - Air Force Academy Athletics

Bob Graf

Title:
Volunteer Coach | High Jump

Bob Graf is in his 17th season as a volunteer coach with the Air Force track and field program. He currently oversees the Falcons’ successful high jump squad – an event he has coached for the majority of his time at the Academy, although he also spent a five-year stint coaching the team’s horizontal jumpers to several record-setting seasons.

Graf returned to the high jump team in 2020 and saw his young athletes make an immediate impact during the shortened season. Addison Brown (second) and Jake Hall (third) accounted for a pair of podium finishes at the Mountain West Indoor Championships, while routinely improving their career-best marks throughout the season, and Ari Martinez made two improvements to the program’s all-time standings, finishing the year with the fourth-best women’s clearance in Academy history (5’8½”). The squad’s success continued into 2021, as Hall debuted on the Top 10 during both the indoor (6’11”) and outdoor (6’10¾”) seasons and qualified to the NCAA Outdoor Championships. On the women’s side, Kathleen Medill equaled the fifth-best clearance with a jump of 5’8” during the indoor season, while both she and Martinez scored for the Falcons at the MW Outdoor Championships.

During his first turn as the coach of the Falcons’ high jump unit, 2012 was a banner year for Graf and his athletes. Air Force claimed the program’s first-ever indoor and outdoor conference titles in the high jump, as well as five of the event’s six all-conference selections. Kobi Rex won the MW title and paced the Falcons to a sweep of the medals at the indoor meet, while Zach Wood claimed the league’s outdoor title, and led Air Force to three of the top-four finishes. In addition, Rex became the first Falcon since 1997 to surpass the seven-foot mark, while recording the second-highest clearance in MW Indoor Championship Meet history.

The men added three more all-conference selections during the 2013 season and four members of the women’s team debuted on the program’s top-10 list during Graf's tenure, including Regan Rogers, who set a (then) Freshman Class Record and cleared the (then) second-best jump in Academy history (5'8") in 2010.

Graf coached the long jump and triple jump athletes from 2014-19, guiding his athletes to four Academy records (Blue Kearney, outdoor long jump; Kassie Gurnell, indoor triple jump; John Reynolds, indoor triple jump and outdoor triple jump), seven additional incursions to the program’s all-time standings, two conference titles, 13 all-conference selections, 31 scoring finishes at the conference championships and five appearances in the opening rounds of the NCAA Outdoor Championships. In 2018, Graf coached Reynolds to Academy records and conference titles in both the indoor and outdoor triple jump, while a trio of all-MW awards helped Reynolds claim Outstanding Performer award of the MW Indoor Championships.

Graf joined the Academy staff after spending six years as the assistant track coach at the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs. Prior to his hiring at UCCS, Graf spent 25 years coaching at the high school level, including 18 years at Wasson High School in Colorado Springs. He has also coached several athletes in the Army's World Class Athlete program and at the 2008 Olympic Trials.

During his career as a prep coach, Graf coached a state championship boys' team and a state champion or place-finisher in 17 of 18 track events. He has been honored as the Coach of the Year four times, was named the Junior Achievement "Economics Teacher of the Year" for the state of Colorado and the Colorado High School Coaches Association Teacher/Coach of the Year. Graf has also served as the president and executive secretary of the Colorado High School Coaches Association.

Graf was inducted into the Colorado High School Coaches Hall of Fame in March 2012.

He is a retired Master USA Track and Field official and spent 20 years as the head starter for Air Force track meets. Graf, who has served as the head starter at the Colorado high school state championship meets, has also worked two at Olympic Games, four Olympic Trials, and numerous other national meets.

Graf received his bachelor's degree from the University of Northern Colorado and went on to obtain a master's degree from Adams State College, where he worked as a graduate assistant for the cross country and track programs.

A retired activities director from the Woodland Park School District, Graf and his wife, Suzie, live at Blue Mountain Ranch, an activities and sports camp that was founded by Suzie's parents in 1946. They have two sons, David and Tim.