Paige Mills was named the Assistant Men’s and Women’s Cross Country Coach in July of 2015. She will also work with the Men’s and Women’s Track & Field teams.
Mills is in charge of recruiting, assisting with training regimens and a variety of administrative duties. She focuses on the CSUSM long distance runners.
In her first season as an assistant on Steve Scott's staff, Mills helped guide the Cougars in their first season of CCAA and NCAA Division II competition. The men's and women's cross country teams each won a race, and she mentored All-CCAA runner Natalie Rodriguez.
In Mills’ first season with CSUSM track & field, Cougar distance runners established two school records, four student-athletes achieved NCAA Division II provisional qualifiers and Rodriguez earned All-CCAA in the 5000m. Mills guided 25 Cougar distance runners to CCAA Championships qualifiers and 25 established personal-bests.
Mills was as an assistant coach for both the cross country and track & field teams at University of Redlands for two years between 2012 and 2014. In that role, Mills spearheaded the recruiting effort while leading the distance and middle distance runners alongside head coach Mike Schmidt.
She also coached horizontal jumps, helping numerous jumpers to personal-bests. She tutored Darron Usher, who was named 2014 SCIAC Men's Field Athlete of the Year and NCAA DIII West Region Field Athlete of the Year, to the furthest long jump in DIII (7.33m) heading into nationals.
Since September 2014, Mills had served as the Lead Teacher/Assistant Sports Director at Beach Cities YMCA in Orange County where she was responsible for planning and implementing regular education and physical education curriculum for an accredited kindergarten through 6th grade afterschool program.
Mills earned her bachelor's degree in health science from Keene State College in 2012 where she was a three-time All-American in cross country and indoor track & field.
The three-time Little East Conference Runner of the Year and a three-time NCAA Division III All-American at Keene State (2008-12), Mills won the individual titles at the LEC Cross Country Championships in 2009, 2010 and 2011. She punched her ticket to five NCAA Division III National Championships and placed fifth at the cross country national championships in 2010 (6k; 21:26) and 17
th in 2011.
As a part of the indoor track & field squad at Keene State, Mills anchored the distance medley relay team to a third place finish at the 2011 national championships and a 4x800 school record in the same season.
In 2014, she completed a master's degree in education with a counseling credential for grades K-12 from the University of Redlands.
