Running with a Legacy: Kodiaks Cross-Country Success

Following in the footsteps of a legendary collegiate coach may be daunting for some people. But, like his cross-country runners, Simon Schaerz has taken it in stride.

Schaerz took over the reins of the Lethbridge Polytechnic Kodiaks cross-country team in 2018 from Bertil Johansson, and in his seven years has won a Canadian Colleges Athletic Association (CCAA) women’s team title in 2019 and has been named Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference (ACAC) coach of the year four times. His honours include twice as cross-country coach of the year, including this season, and twice as indoor track coach of the year.

Schaerz wasn’t thrown into the deep end and asked to tread water when he took over the program. He joined the Kodiaks as an assistant coach with Johansson in 2014 before assuming a co-coaching role with Johansson where he focused on the women’s team, helping them become nationally competitive, winning a national championship in 2019 after Johansson retired.

“Bertil has instilled a huge legacy and we have recognition even across the CCAA; everybody knows who Lethbridge is,” said Schaerz. “They look out for us because we want to do quite well. That was really nice to be part of that, to kind of learn what it takes to succeed at that level.”

Schaerz has amassed a quality coaching staff which has been a key contributor to the success of the Kodiaks cross-country and indoor track programs.

Dylan Brown, a faculty member at the University of Lethbridge, helps coach the women’s cross-country and indoor track teams. Aaron Hernandez, who also coaches at U of L, and Taren Hayward, who competed in NCAA, help guide the indoor track team. Ricardo Quesada is the strength and conditioning coach for both cross-country and indoor track.

“Their dedication and efforts have been instrumental in advancing the indoor track program to its current success,” said Schaerz.

Kodiaks ran into some stiff competition at the recent CCAA cross-country championships in Windsor, Ont., after qualifying with second-place finishes in the men’s and women’s team events at the ACAC championships.

“Nationals were a really good experience, especially the men,” said Schaerz. “They had really strong performances for almost all of them, getting season’s bests if not personal bests over the 8K distance. The women, similarly, they didn’t have their best showing as a team as a whole, but nonetheless it was quite good.”

“Rankings-wise, we underperformed on both the men’s and women’s side, but when you show up and have your best performance it’s just a testament to the quality of competition, especially the Quebec and Ontario schools. It was really, really strong,” Schaerz added.

“For our younger athletes it was good for them to get that experience for what it takes to succeed at the national level and we definitely achieved that.”

Schaerz and his coaches look to field a competitive cross-country team every year, something he’s been able to do consistently.

“At the conference level I think we do really, really well so we’re competitive every year,” said Schaerz.

“The situation changes every year. If you have one or two really strong runners . . . a few years ago it was Sophia (Nowicki) for us,” added Schaerz, referring to the 2018 CCAA female national champion. “Having an athlete like that makes a huge difference in the team rankings.”

Nowicki also claimed national bronze in 2019, leading the Kodiaks to the CCAA women’s team title.

Besides CCAA national team banners for men and women, new this year was a mixed banner for the top three runners from each team on the men’s and women’s sides.

“We’ve got a team that’s very balanced between the men’s and the women’s,” said Schaerz. “Many other schools are not like that, so I think moving to the future we’re going to be looking to contend for that every year. That’s another great way to get a banner.”

To keep competitive, it means a lot of recruiting. Schaerz focuses on Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, with local runners leading the way.

“Right now we have a really strong core group from southern Alberta, which is really nice,” said Schaerz. “That means with local events you have parents coming out to watch. LCI has a strong team and we’ve been in contact with a couple of the athletes and we’re hoping they’ll come and join us.”

Schaerz added the change from Lethbridge College to Polytechnic could be a positive for the program.

“We already have a number of degree programs on the environmental science side; nursing has always been really good to us in terms of bringing athletes to our program, as well as justice studies,” said Schaerz. “We already have a number of degrees. Will that exponentially increase now that we’ve reached polytechnic status? I don’t know, but if it does it’s a blessing for us.

“One of the issues we have for us, and I come from the U Sports level where we have four and most of the time five years to compete for a single institution, that allows you to grow as an athlete, it allows you to grow a really strong community. For our athletes most are here an average of two years so that’s a very, very quick turnaround so it makes it difficult to have a major impact on them training wise. Having more four-year programs means athletes stay longer, we can work with them for a longer period of time, we can build an even stronger culture and community within our teams and I think that would be a benefit.”

Cross-country is a fall sport which gives way to indoor track for the second semester. Indoor track, which features sprint, mid- and long-distance events, has also been extremely successful for Kodiak Athletics.

“The men’s team has won two conference championships in a row so they’re going for their third this year,” added Schaerz. “The women haven’t yet been able to do that, but they finished on the podium last year, so this year is a good year for them to maybe finish on top.”

The future looks promising for both the cross-country and indoor track teams at Lethbridge Polytechnic.

“The coach-to-athlete ratio is really good, maybe one-to-four, one-to-five on any given day, which, given the short amount of time we have to work with athletes, is making a big difference,” said Schaerz.

One goal for Schaerz over the past few years was getting high school students interested in post-secondary competition again after the Covid pandemic.

“When you looked at the number of athletes competing at the provincial level it was very, very low (during Covid),” said Schaerz. “Now I think we’re coming out of that. We’ve got kids who have been able to have the full high school experience and participate in all the sports without having to be online and that’s making a big difference.

“It’s really nice to see again – lots of interest, lots of potential student athletes coming in expressing interest of wanting to compete. I think we’re turning the page.”