Karger-Gatzow is in his fourth season as the Johnnies' head track and field coach in 2019. He was named the MIAC Outdoor Track & Field Men's Coach of the Year in 2016 following his first season as the Johnnies finished second at both the indoor and outdoor conference meets. Ryan Bugler '17 won SJU's fifth individual national championship outdoors in the steeplechase in 2016 and finished fourth in the event in 2017.
He replaced Tim Miles, who announced his retirement as head track and field coach following the 2015 season after 36 seasons at SJU. Karger-Gatzow served as head track and field coach, for both the men and women’s programs, at the University of Minnesota-Morris for 11 seasons from 2005-15. He also served as head coach of the women’s cross country team from 2004-15 and founded the men’s cross country program at Morris in 2007.
A 2000 graduate of Hamline, Karger-Gatzow was a four-year sprinter on the Pipers’ track and field team. He was a seven-time Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC) coach of the year at Minnesota-Morris and sent 13 student-athletes to the national meet during his tenure, in which six earned NCAA Division III All-America honors. Over 200 Cougars received Academic All-UMAC honors and over 250 earned All-UMAC distinction. Karger-Gatzow built Morris’ co-ed track and field roster from 12 in his first season to over 50 in 2015. In addition to coaching duties, Karger-Gatzow taught various courses in the sport studies and athletic departments.
Karger-Gatzow served as an assistant track and field coach at Bryant University in Rhode Island for two seasons from 2000-02 before leaving to enroll in graduate school at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He was a teaching assistant in various anatomy and kinesiology courses there and completed his master’s degree in movement sciences in 2005.
A native of Glenwood, Minn., Karger-Gatzow was a 1996 graduate of Minnewaska Area High School. He and his wife, Erica, have two children.