HOUGHTON, Mich. - Michigan Tech Nordic ski coach Joe Haggenmiller was named men’s coach of the year for both the Central Collegiate Ski Association and the NCAA Central Region. This is the first time that Haggenmiller has won the award.
Haggenmiller had three male skiers earn All-CCSA honors and seven male performances earn All-NCAA Central Region honors this season. The team also sent the maximum of three male skiers to the 2009 NCAA Skiing Championships, including junior Jesse Lang who became the first male skier to earn NCAA All-American honors with his eighth place finish in the 20-kilometer freestyle.
“It is an honor to be awarded Men’s CCSA and NCAA Coach of the Year. It was a really fun year to coach,” said Haggenmiller. “Our men’s team had a very good crop of new athletes come in to mix with our veterans and our group, which is very big by NCAA skiing standards, really worked well together to help each other be successful. It also helped to have a great support staff, with new assistant coach Jason Cork, GA technician Ryan Tervo, and a few other volunteer technicians all working hard through out the season. This allowed our athletes to really step up the level of skiing for our program. We were very competitive with our rivals from NMU through out the year, which is a big accomplishment since they have consistently worked to raise the bar for the CCSA/NCAA Central Region. And, it was great for us to break through with our first male NCAA All American performance. I hope we can continue this upward trend in the future, because even though I think this is the first time in the modern (three region) NCAA era where the Michigan Tech men’s team had an NCAA result where we were the best team from the Central Region at the championships, we have room for improvement.”
Photo Credit: Michigan Tech
