Meghan Orgeman loves learning. Whether in the classroom or on the track, she is constantly trying new events and theories, studying new things, and finding ways to help her students and athletes learn and compete. That love of learning helped her through a successful competitive career as a track and field athlete, and now it helps Orgeman coach a new generation of young women and help them be successful in sports and in life.

Orgeman grew up in River Falls, Wis., and participated in volleyball, basketball, and track and field. After graduating high school in 2001, she joined the track and field team at the College of Saint Benedict and used her love of learning to help the team score points wherever she could. Orgeman competed in the hurdles, sprints, mid-distance races, jumps, throws, relays, and heptathlon. She held the school’s heptathlon record for 12 years, and is still in the top 10 in program history in the 400-meter hurdles, heptathlon, pentathlon, 55-meter hurdles, and 4x400-meter relay.

After graduating in 2005, Orgeman spent a year working in the CSB psychology department and coaching her former team. She went on to get a master’s in school counseling from St. Cloud State University and a second in Positive Coaching from the University of Missouri. In 2008-09 she was a teacher and track and field coach in the Federated States of Micronesia through WorldTeach, and she worked with an athlete who went on to compete in the 2012 Olympics.

In 2009, Orgeman took a position as a school counselor at Alexandria Area High School, and in 2013 she returned to coaching and added the title head girls’ track and field coach to her resume. She found immediate success with the Cardinals as her love of learning spilled over into her athletes. Alexandria has won 10 straight conference championships with Orgeman at the helm, along with 11 straight Section 8AA titles. Her team won the 2016 Class AA state title at the Minnesota State High School League Track and Field Championships, and they won again in 2024.

Orgeman, who has coached eight state champions in 12 different events, has been named the Section 8AA Coach of the Year six times, Minnesota State Coach of the Year in 2016 and 2024, and those same years was named Coach of the Year in Minnesota by the United States Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association.

While Orgeman was busy passing her love of all things track and field - and learning - on to her athletes, she was also working to build the sport that she loved at a professional level.  She is an MSHSL Track and Field Advisory Council Board Member, and a member of the Minnesota Track and Field Coaches Association, and in 2022 was selected as the organization’s first female president. In 2022, she organized a 50th-year celebration of the girls’ state track and field meet where coaches and athletes from the first girls’ teams in the 1970s were honored.

In order to help other women learn and feel connected as a track/field coach in the Midwest, in 2019 Orgeman co-founded Women4Women. Women4Women is a group of track and field coaches in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and North Dakota who are developing ongoing networking for female coaches through the Minnesota State Track and Field Association. The group’s objective is to empower female coaches through networking and training so that they can in turn help their female athletes develop a better sense of self-worth, respect, and leadership.

In 2023, Orgeman put together the first Minnesota Women4Women Coaches Symposium for all sport organizations at all levels to engage in networking and professional growth.

Orgeman’s life-long love of learning has helped her excel as a track and field coach, as well as professionally as a high school counselor. Through her leadership, she has opened doors for female coaches around the region, and built a network of coaches who support women coaches. Orgeman built a powerhouse Class AA track and field program at Alexandria, and her coaching and leadership will inspire her female athletes as they head out into the world after graduation.