The 2017 cross country season for Arizona Christian will be the first under the direction of Head Coach Bob Shisler. Coach Shisler will also serve the assistant distant track coach. Shisler joins the ACU staff after a successful coaching career at Scottsdale Preparatory Academy that included seven state championships. In August 2017, he was named the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association Boys and Girls Arizona High School Track Coach of the Year.
Since becoming the head coach at Scottsdale Prep in 2010, Coach Shisler has guided the girls cross country team to six straight sectional titles leading up to a state runner-up finish in 2014 and state championship in 2015. On the track front, the lady Spartans have won three straight state titles while the Spartan boys are on a two year state championship run. In 2016 and 2017, he was named the AZ Central and Arizona Republic High School Track Coach of the Year. In the classroom, he molds young minds as a math teacher and will continue to teach while coaching at ACU.
Prior to Scottsdale Prep, Shisler coached at Scottsdale Christian Academy where he helped two athletes win several state championships.
Before landing in Phoenix in 1996, Shisler spent time as a volunteer coach at Azusa Pacific University while coaching and teaching at the high school level. His highlight was working with Athletes in Action ministering to the Olympic athletes at the 1988 Seoul games.
As runner himself, he earned NJCCA All-American honors at Lane Community College in Eugene, OR. Upon transferring to Azusa Pacific, he set the school record at the 3,000 meter distance. After APU, he just missed qualifying for the Olympic trials in the marathon.
In 1988, he graduated from Azusa Pacific University with a bachelor’s degree in Biblical Literature and a minor in Greek.
On the family front, Coach Shisler has been married to his wife Sue for 32 years. They have two grown children- a daughter named Debbie and son named Marcus (an ACU cross country alum). The Shislers attend Scottsdale Bible Church.
