Stephen Garr heads into his second full year as the student head coach for GCU Triathlon as he begins his senior year at GCU and his fourth year as a GCU Triathlete. While he will become a solo student leader for the first time in 2025-26, Garr has been a leader for the team ever since arriving on campus from his native Flower Mound, Texas, home (a Dallas suburb) in the fall of 2022.
Garr wasted no time in making his presence known as he won the first event he entered as a collegian: the Lake Pleasant Triathlon. Several wins followed, which wasn’t a total surprise to then-Lopes’ Head Coach Nick Windauer, who knew Garr came to GCU after being invited to train at the USA Olympic Training Center during his high school days. Garr kept on rolling after that, racking up not just regional and national top-10 finishes but All-American status in 2022, 2023 and 2024.
When Windauer stepped down after the 2023-24 season, Garr wasn’t expecting to lead the team, but when circumstances pushed him towards that role, he (along with co-leader Shoshanah Stukas) attacked it head-on. Over the last year, while still maintaining his top triathlete status on the road and in the pool, Garr created workout plans for the team, and oversaw practices while tending to the business and travel aspects of the program in leading them to the prestigious Tritonman Triathlon as well as regional and national tournaments.
Along the way, Garr has prepared himself for life beyond graduating this coming spring (with a degree in Biology with an emphasis in Pre-Physical Therapy) by working the past two summers at ClearSky Rehabilitation Hospital in the Dallas area, and this past summer, Garr not only finished off 220 hours of observation under licensed physical therapists but became a therapy technician himself as well.
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