Eastern Michigan Athletics
Men's Track & Field
- Title:
- Assistant Coach/Throws
Gary Bastien is in his second consecutive season at Eastern Michigan University as the throwing coach, teaching the shot put, javelin, discus, hammer and indoor weight events. He also helps the heptathletes and decathletes with their throwing technique.
In 2006-07 he was asked to return to the EMU program as an assistant coach responsible for the throwing events. Though away from the national collegiate coaching scene for years, last year he was one of only two coaches at the NCAA Midwest Regionals to have two throwers in the shot put finals. (Matt Pinter and Dave Adamek) By season’s end, Adamek, Pinter and freshman Gerald Gersham scored close to 50 points in the indoor and outdoor MAC championships. Adamek won both the indoor and outdoor MAC shot put titles, totalling six for his career. Pinter finished second indoors in the shot and third outdoors. Further, Adamek was ranked 11th in the country when he qualified for the NCAA National Championships, breaking the EMU shot put record with a toss of 62-04.00. Bastien also coached the women’s hammer thrower to a new school record as well.
Bastien is a 1981 EMU graduate. While an athlete at EMU, he won four consecutive MAC titles in the decathlon event, the U.S. junior national championship, USA versus USSR junior games, was a four-time NCAA Division I qualifier, where he twice earned All-American honors in 79 and 80. After college, he defeated two NCAA champions and three future Olympians at the 1983 TAC National Championships (now the USATF) winning a bronze medal that earned him a spot on the 1983 Pan American Games team, qualified him for the 1984 Olympic trials and put him on the All-Time U.S. Decathlon Performance list. During that time, Bastien also coached under legendary Olympic team coach Mel Rosen, at Auburn University, coaching the throwing and multi-events.
After retiring from running in 1986, he spent 23 years in the advertising industry, but continued to coach at EMU in 1986 and off and on into the late 80s and early 90s. He has also coached the Saline Hershey youth track teams for ten years, the Ann Arbor Track Club Youth teams and volunteered with other youth programs on an as-needed basis as well.
Bastien was inducted into the EMU Hall of Fame in 1989. He has been married for 26 years to his wife Kathy, an EMU graduate and a women’s track member in 1976, 77 and 78. They reside in Saline, Mich., and have two children, Steven (13) and Sarah (19).
