Mike Olson serves as Assistant Director of College Advising and Boys’ Basketball Coach at Kimball Union Academy.

Olson guided the Wildcats to a 17-10 overall record and a #5 seed in the New England Prep School Athletic Conference during the 2009-2010 season.

Prior to accepting his current position Olson coached at Thetford (VT) Academy, where during the 2007-2008 season he guided the Panthers to an overall 19-5 record and a semi-final berth in the State Tournament.

From 2002-2004 he was Associate Head Coach at Dartmouth College where he worked under former KUA coach Dave Faucher.

Olson came to Hanover, NH following a successful three year stint as head coach at Minnesota State University Moorhead, an NCAA II program and a member of the strong Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference. During the 2002 season the Dragons went 16-11, the highest win total in ten years. On January 20th, versus Minnesota-Crookston, Olson achieved a coaching milestone recording his 300th collegiate victory.

From 1990-1999 Olson served as head coach at Black Hills State University. During his tenure at BHSU, his teams won four South Dakota-Iowa Conference titles and advanced to the NAIA National Championships four times. The Yellow Jackets best showing at nationals came during the 1997 and 1999 seasons when the team advanced to the Elite Eight. Olson was honored as SDIC coach of the year following the ’93, ’97,’98 and ’99 seasons. Later, BHSU would name him their “coach of the century” commemorating 100 years of basketball on the Spearfish, SD campus.

Prior to accepting the BHSU position Olson coached at Gustavus Adolphus College and Mount Senario College. He compiled an overall mark of 90-56 over five consecutive winning seasons and was named Upper Midwest Collegiate Conference coach of the year after the 1988 and 1989 seasons.

Olson began his professional career at the high school level where he taught physical education and served as head baseball and basketball coach at Lake Geneva (WI) Northwestern Military Academy and Green Bay (WI) Bay Port High School.

Olson, a Tomahawk, WI native, received his bachelor’s degree from St. Norbert College, De Pere, WI (1981) and a master’s degree in education from Norwich University, Northfield, VT (1982). He also holds an advanced study certificate in educational leadership from Upper Valley Educators Institute, Lebanon, NH.

Mike and his wife Colleen, a nurse practitioner at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, reside in South Strafford, VT. They are the parents of two adult children, Katy and Erik.

A native of New Hampshire, Murray grew up in the Upper Connecticut Valley and also in the seacoast area. Since attending Amherst College, where he majored in natural sciences, he has devoted his professional life to teaching science—first at Nature’s Classroom, a nonprofit organization with a mission to raise schoolchildren’s environmental awareness and appreciation, and later at Barlow School, Kildonan School, and Cambridge School of Weston before joining Kimball Union Academy in 1988. Murray’s first role at KUA was split between serving as director of buildings and grounds and teaching mathematics. He has also been a long-standing coach of the varsity girls’ soccer squad. Currently, he teaches physics and applies his leadership skills as the Science Department chair.

When school is not in session, Murray enjoys fishing, golfing, and carpentry. He lives on campus in Frost House with his wife, Director of Studies Cynthia Howe, and their two sons, Tyler ’06 and Morgan.