Danny Bowman recently completed his sixth year as the head track and field and cross country coach in the 2023-24 academic year.
Over his six years, Bowman has coached three NCAA DII All-Americans, one Indoor West Region Field Athlete of the Year, 86 All-Region selections, 12 GNAC indoor individual champions, and 21 GNAC outdoor individual champions.
In 2023-24, NNU had two more national qualifiers at the Outdoor meet with Laurenz Waldbauer and Maddie Gebers both making it in the javelin. The Nighthawks had seven All-Region honorees and four GNAC individual champions, including Destany Herbert winning the indoor shot put and outdoor hammer. The men placed sixth at GNAC Indoors and fifth at GNAC Outdoors, while the women finished seventh at GNAC Indoors and sixth at GNAC Outdoors.
In 2022-23, Bowman and his staff led NNU to another fantastic year with 283 personal records broken, 128 NNU Top Ten marks recorded, 24 GNAC Top Ten marks registered, 24 NNU records broken (some multiple times), 15 USTFCCCA All-Region performances, 12 GNAC individual champions, and one NCAA DII Indoor All-American with Steven Schmidt in the heptathlon. The NNU men placed third at both the indoor and outdoor GNAC Championships, while the women registered a fourth-place finish at GNAC Outdoors.
In 2021-22, the Nighthawks had a banner year with over 200 personal records broken, five NNU records broken or tied, eight GNAC individual champions, nine All-Region selections, and one national qualifier that held the top mark in the javelin in all of Division II entering the national championships. As a team, the men's outdoor effort at the GNAC Championships was the program's highest-ever finish, placing second out of the nine teams.
Bowman, a 2005 Northwest Nazarene graduate, was the head track and field and cross country coach at Concordia-Irvine from 2014-2018. Prior to that he was an assistant track coach at Olivet Nazarene, a teacher at a high school in Idaho Falls, and an assistant coach at NNU from 2004-07.
Bowman coached four Pacific West champions in the three years Concordia was in the conference. He coached more than 80 track and field school records, and had two NAIA national champions and 34 NAIA All-Americans.
He has been a member of the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association since 2012 when he got his sprints/hurdles/relays specialist certification. He became USA Track & Field Level II sprints/hurdles/relays certified in 2009.
Bowman earned his undergraduate degree from NNU in psychology with an interdisciplinary emphasis. He received his master's in organizational leadership from Olivet in 2012.
