If performance is measured by the results of his athletes, Dave Wood set the gold star standard as head coach of the Canadian cross-country ski team.
Wood resigned last month as Canada's team leader and left the national team program with a record of success unmatched by his predecessors.
The 55-year-old Wood has taken on a new job, replacing Chris Manhard as head coach of the Black Jack Cross Country Club program in Rossland. He already had plans to move to Rossland to be with his girlfriend, Allison Brown, when the club position became available.
"Allison lives here and I've been commuting back and forth all the time (from Canmore) so it was an opportunity, because I still have to work and I wanted to be here," said Wood. "This is going to be fun for me."
Wood became head coach following the 1998 Nagano Olympics, and inherited what was then an underfunded, barebones operation. He and wax technician Yves Bilodeau were the only members of the coaching staff.
"We were nowhere when I started in '98, the program couldn't have been much lower," Wood said. "We fought back up and every year it got better and and better. Vancouver was quite a successful Games for cross-country."
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