Andrew Casey doesn't want to leave his dream job as head coach of the Caledonia Nordic Ski Club.
That decision was made for him when his wife Erica, a family physician, accepted a one-year residency in emergency medicine in Winnipeg. Casey informed his skiers a couple weeks ago about his plans to move to Winnipeg at the end of June and on Thursday the club posted on its website the hunt is on to fill his position.
"It's a very bittersweet thing for me to be leaving, I've loved my time here," said the 26-year-old Casey. "I really connected well with the kids and the parents and it's always hard to leave that type of environment when you seem to have fit in so well."
In two years as a full-time salaried coach, Casey has transformed a small, volunteer-driven racing program and built it to the point where the Caledonia club is once again a player on the national scene, placing young athletes on medal podiums in cross-country skiing and biathlon.
"He's exceeded our expectations and he's become such a role model and inspiration for the kids and it was a sad day when he announced he was moving on," said Caledonia club president Kevin Pettersen. "He's brought vibrancy to the programs and the coaches and he's had a tremendous impact not only in the results that have come from it but in the number of kids we had in the programs."
When Casey came to Prince George in the summer of 2012, the club was in the process of planning a $1.7 million upgrade to Otway Nordic Centre in advance of the 2015 Canada Winter Games. As a former national-level skier from Newfoundland, his input was used to help plan a new network of trails adjacent to the new biathlon range and he also suggested widening existing trails to better suit ski racing. Casey was a strong advocate for better integration between biathlon and the junior racers program and athletes in both sports benefitted as a result.
Casey oversaw the Jackrabbit learn-to-ski program, expanded the masters ski lesson programs and provided coaching clinics, which significantly grew the club's volunteer base. Caledonia already had healthy membership numbers when Casey was hired and this year it became what's believed to be the largest cross-country ski club in Canada, with 1,870 members.
"It's been fantastic to walk into a club setting where essentially all the puzzle pieces are together, things were already moving in the direction that would provide for a good team environment," he said. "Everybody has the same goal of increasing participation and providing programs that cater to all levels of skiers, whether recreational or competitive. It's just been really welcoming and overall a very positive experience."
Casey points to Whitehorse as an example of a club that has focused its efforts on racing and is reaping the benefits in events like the Haywood ski national championships. Whitehorse, a city of 28,000, won 19 medals at the nationals in Newfoundland, more than the entire province of B.C.
"The kids here are not any more superior or inferior than anywhere else, it's really the environment you raise the skiers in," said Casey. "Whitehorse shows it's not really about the population or genetics or the ease of travel and the cost of it, it's about what you're doing at the club level and getting people involved.
"That has the potential to happen here too. The city has a perfect population in a climate that allows you to have good snow and it has a facility that is one of the top two in the province. It's inexpensive to live here and there's tons of opportunity for a coach to grow the program because of the numbers the club has."
Ideally, Pettersen said Casey's replacement will already be familiar with the Canadian Sport For Life program and its long-term athlete development philosophy The club is utilizing online job-posting sites with Cross-Country BC and Cross-Country Canada to advertise the position and if a suitable candidate can't be found the search will be expanded outside of the country.
Casey said he has already contacted Red River Nordic, one of Winnipeg's cross-country clubs, about volunteering his services as coach. He says there's always a chance he and Erica will move back to P.G.
"We both love the city, it's the ideal place to live and raise a family," he said.
"In terms of the people here and the outdoor community it's everything we would want, for sure. For her, the medicine is great and for me the skiing is fantastic. It's hard to find a parallel that is equivalent to Prince George."
