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Dan Lange

Position: Throws Coach Experience: 22nd Season

After 21 years of coaching the Trojan throwers, Dan Lange is one of the nation's most respected teachers, having coached his athletes to All-American honors 50 times. Last season, Lange coached Trey Henderson and Jenny Ozorai in the hammer to All-America honors, with Henderson, Marissa Minderler (hammer) and Cooper Thompson (javelin) winning Pac-10 titles.

If you want to measure his impact on the Trojan throws program, you have to go no farther than the USC top 10 lists as all but one of the top 10 male and female hammer throwers in school history have been coached by Lange and all but one of the USC record-holders in the men's and women's hammer, discus, javelin and shot put have been coached by Lange.

In 2010, Henderson in the hammer and Aaron Dan in the discus earned All-American honors with fifth-place finishes at the NCAAs. In 2008, Lange helped guide Eva Orban to the NCAA title in the women's hammer, while Corey White took second in the men's javelin. In 2009, they both were NCAA runners up and Kristine Busa place 8th in the women's javelin. For his work with the USC throwers in 2007, highlighted by Noah Bryant's indoor and outdoor NCAA shot put championship, Lange was named the West Region top assistant coach in men's throws for the second consecutive season. He also was instrumental in guiding Nia Ali to a fourth-place finish in the heptathlon at the NCAA Championships.

The 46-year-old Lange guided former Trojan and 1996 Olympic gold medalist Balazs Kiss to four consecutive NCAA hammer throw championships (and a collegiate record) and aided USC throwers across the board with his vast knowledge in the sport. In 1997, despite the departure of Kiss, Lange made it five in a row, coaching Bengt Johansson to the 1997 NCAA hammer title. Johansson was runner up in the hammer in 1998, as was Norbert Horvath in 1999 (Horvath also finished fifth in 2000 and third in 2001). At the 2000 Pac-10 Championships, USC continued its men's hammer domination, sweeping the top four spots to key the Trojans' title run. In 2001, Horvath captured his third straight Pac-10 hammer title and third straight All-American honor. In 2002, Lange guided walk ons Michael Murray and Harrison Lee into the Pac-10 finals. In 2004, Murray earned USC's 12th All-American honor in the hammer, while Noah Bryant became Troy's first shot put All-American since 1984. In 2005, Adam Midles placed sixth in the hammer at the NCAAs. In 2006, Lange guided two male Trojans to All-American honors as Noah Bryant placed seventh in the shot and Adam Midles seventh in the men's hammer.

The 2007 season could have been Lange's finest work with the men's throwers as Bryant set the school record in the shot, a record that had stood for 35 years, and won the NCAA indoor and outdoor shot titles. In addition, Adam Midles was an All-American and had the fourth-best hammer throw in school history, Bryant had the eighth best hammer mark, William Denbo the sixth best shot put and Stenn Parton the ninth farthest javelin throw by a Trojan.

In 2008, Corey White came up just short of an NCAA title in the javelin, but during the course of the season set a new school standard in the event with a throw of 267-10, more than 23 feet farther than the previous school record. In 2009, he again finished second at the NCAAs and pushed his school record in the javelin to 272-2.

On the women's side, Lange has coached 2001 NCAA javelin champ and Pac-10 record-holder Inga Stasiulionyte (who in 2004 threw 62.27 to win the Lithuanian Championship and qualify for the World Championships), 2003 NCAA runner-up and former Pac-10 hammer record-holder Julianna Tudja, 2002 hammer All-American and 2004 shot put All-American (and former school record holder) L'Orangerie Crawford, 2001 shot put All-American and former school discus record holder Cynthia Ademiluyi, two-time hammer All-American Jennifer Vail, 1996 Pac-10 heptathlon champion and NCAA runner-up Nicole Haynes and Leslie Coons (a former American record holder in the hammer). In 2006, he had a chance to work with All-American transfer Karen Freberg, who placed seventh at the NCAAs. Freberg during the season set the USC shot put record with a throw of 57-7 1/2 and placed second in the shot at both the NCAA West Regional and the Pac-10 Championships.

Lange also coached two other USC record-setters in 2006 as Eva Orban set the school record in the hammer with a Pac-10 and West Regional record-throw of 226-8 and Kate Hutchinson set the USC record in the discus with a toss of 189-5. Orban won the hammer at the Pac-10s and the NCAA West Regional and place second in the event at the NCAA Championships. Hutchinson placed second at the Pac-10 Championships and won the discus competition at the NCAA West Regional which gave Troy a share of the women's title. In 2007, he helped guide Orban to All-American honors in the hammer again (3rd place), a NCAA West hammer title and a second-place finish at the Pac-10 Championships. In addition to Orban, Julia Rozenfeld placed sixth at the Pac-10 and seventh at the NCAA West Regional in the hammer. Lange then helped Orban reach new heights in 2008, as she became the first Trojan female to win an NCAA title in the hammer and broke her own school record with a throw of 230-3.

Outside of USC, Lange coached hammer thrower Lisa Misipeka to the American Samoa record in that event and to the Oympics. He also worked with Tudja after she left USC and guided her to the Olympics three years ago. He was the coach for No. 1-ranked discus thrower Adam Setliff, three-time U.S. discus champion and two-time U.S. Olympian.

A four-year letterman at Cal State Northridge and three-time NCAA Division II championship meet qualifier, Lange also earned All-American honors in the hammer. Lange studied exercise physiology at Cal State Northridge and also works as a sports fitness consultant and as a human performance consultant for business professionals.

He and his wife Darcy (Arreola), who was one of America's finest middle distance runners and a former NCAA champion, reside in Valencia, Calif., with their two sons, Dylan, age 10, and Dalton, five.

All-Americans coached by Dan Lange at USC:

Cynthia Ademiluyi

Nia Ali

Noah Bryant*

Kristine Busa

L'Orangerie Crawford

Aaron Dan

Chad Danowsky

Nils Fearnley

Allison Franke

Karen Freberg

Nicole Haynes

Trey Henderson

Norbert Horvath

Gordon Hovey

Bengt Johansson*

Gary Kirchoff

Balazs Kiss*

Dagan Massey

Adam Midles

Michael Murray

Eva Orban*

Jenny Ozorai

Inga Stasiulionyte*

Julianna Tudja

Jennifer Vail

Corey White

*--NCAA Champion