Kyle Lillie - Track and Field Coach - Air Force Academy Athletics

Photo by: Luke Lu, KL6Photo

Kyle Lillie

Title:
Assistant Coach | Throws
Email:
kyle.lillie@afacademy.af.edu
Phone:
719-333-3602

USTFCCCA Assistant Coach of the Year, Mountain Region (2025)

Kyle Lillie, the 2025 USTFCCCA Mountain Region Outdoor Assistant Coach of the Year, is in his fourth season as an assistant coach with the Air Force track and field program, after joining the team in November 2022. A former collegiate thrower at Arizona State University, Lillie has revitalized the Falcons’ throwing program over his first three seasons.

His impact was immediately felt in 2023, as his athletes swept the throwing titles at the Mountain West Indoor Championships, added another at the outdoor meet, and combined for nine podium finishes to help the men sweep the team titles. His athletes represented the Academy in all four throwing events at the NCAA Outdoor Championships, while rewriting the program’s record book. Backed by Academy Records in the weight throw, hammer throw and discus throw, the men made 14 improvements to the program’s all-time Top 10 and set seven Air Force Class Records, while Hayden Bullock recorded the best discus distance (194’9”) of any service academy thrower.

“The Lillie Effect” continued in 2024, as the men’s throwers had a dominant campaign, highlighted by three MW Outdoor titles and 61 total points toward the Falcons’ third-straight team title. Under Lillie’s watch, Texas Tanner had a stellar sophomore season that included two conference titles, four MW medals, three Air Force Records, the Mountain West and Service Academy Record in the hammer throw, appearances in two events at the NCAA Outdoor Championships, the USTFCCCA Mountain Region Field Athlete of the Year award, and a bid to the U.S. Olympic Trials. Lillie coached Tanner, along with Gerrit Tamminga and Cooper Stroka, to three of the program’s top-four marks in the hammer throw – and three of the top-five in the weight throw – in 2024, while the throwers posted at least one top-five all-time mark in every event. He also started to rebuild the women’s squad, as freshmen debuted on the program’s all-time standings in multiple events and Paige Birch broke a long-stranding Freshman Class Record in the hammer throw.

The 2025 season was another banner season for the Air Force program that culminated with Lillie being named the USTFCCCA Mountain Region’s Assistant Coach of the Year. He guided Tanner to a fourth-place finish in the hammer throw at the NCAA Outdoor Championships – the highest finish ever by a member of the Air Force men’s throwing program – and an All-American finish in the shot put at the NCAA Indoor Championships. His group had at least one NCAA Qualifier in every throwing event, while Tanner competed in the finals of two outdoor events and both indoor throws. Lillie-coached athletes accounted for three of the four throwing titles at the MW Outdoor Championships, while the Falcons went 1-3 in the hammer, set two MW Championship Meet Records and recorded the best hammer distance in conference history. Lillie also guided Tanner to a fifth-place finish in the discus throw at the USATF Championships, where the (then) junior was the only collegian to make the final. Closer to home, he saw Tanner post Air Force Records in the discus, hammer, weight and (indoor) shot put, while Stroka recorded Air Force’s No. 2 distances in two events (weight, hammer) and Joe Nizich capped his career with the second-best javelin distance in program history. Under Lillie’s watch, Tanner was named the Mountain West Outdoor Athlete of the Year and repeated as the Outstanding Performer of the MW Outdoor Championships and the USTFCCCA Mountain Regional Field Athlete of the Year. On the women’s side, he saw Birch move up to No. 2 in the hammer throw and debut on the Air Force Top 10 in the weight throw.

Lillie came to the Academy from Sacramento State, where he spent four years overseeing the throwing program. During his time with the Hornets, he coached Big Sky champions in four different throwing events and saw his athletes account for three school records and multiple qualifying bids to the NCAA West Preliminary. He helped the women to the indoor and outdoor conference titles during his first season and, in his final season at Sac State, Lillie’s throwers accounted for 50-percent of the Hornets’ team points at the Big Sky Outdoor Championships. In 2022, he also coached Evan Stork to his second Big Sky title in the hammer throw and the school’s first appearance in the NCAA hammer finals since 2005.

Prior to his time in Sacramento, Lillie coached six NJCAA All-Americans and 10 NJCAA national qualifiers at Mesa Community College. He began his coaching career in 2015 at Husson University in Bangor, Maine, and made an immediate impact with the Eagles’ program, guiding one of his throwers to a third-place finish at the DIII New England Championships, a ninth-place finish at the NEICAAA Championships and a spot at the ECAC Championships.

Lillie graduated from Arizona State in 2015 with a degree in criminal justice/criminology. As a thrower on the Sun Devils’ track and field team, he qualified for the NCAA Outdoor Championships in the hammer throw and scored for ASU at the Pac-12 Championships. He ended his Sun Devils career ranked among the school’s top five in the hammer throw, while holding top 10 all-time marks in the weight throw and indoor shot put.

He also spent time as a student-athlete at Glendale Community College, where he was a two-time NJCAA All-American in the shot put after winning the outdoor title and placing second indoors in 2012. He also qualified to the NJCAA National Championships in the hammer and discus throws.

Lillie and his wife, Kadie, live in Colorado Springs with their dog, Daisy.