With the departure of hometown Olympian Stefan Kuhn, the Alberta World Cup Academy has tapped Pavlina Sudrich of Whitehorse to join the elite cross-country ski team’s coaching staff.
Sudrich will work alongside Chris Jeffries.
“It was an honour to be selected and I’m flattered they wanted to bring me on board. I’ve wanted to work with this level of athlete for a longtime,” Sudrich said.
Although she holds a journalism degree from Carleton University, coaching has always been a part of Sudrich’s life. Her father was a member of Cross Country Canada’s support staff at the Lillehammer Olympics, and her mother was a coach with the Whitehorse TEST program.
Sudrich coached with Nakkertok while in Ottawa, heading a group of 80 development skiers, before taking head coach duties with Cross Country Ontario. She joined a handful of ‘B’ tour athletes overseas, where she worked with Mike Cavaliere and got to know several of the athletes professionally.
“I love helping athletes achieve their potential, and helping to facilitate that achievement. I feel I have a good rapport with the athletes, and understand their mindset,” Sudrich said.
“My approach is very athlete-centric. They have to set the goal and do the work. It has to come from a place where they’re driving the car. I have respect for the athletes for what they do, but I feel strongly the athlete has to be really happy to race well.”
She’s worked closely with several Whitehorse athletes as well, and is well-liked in the ski community, but said her first order of business is to learn from the experienced coaches at AWCA. She shares many of the same viewpoints as the senior coaches, but feels she can approach problems differently.
The academy could have a smaller group of athletes this year, as it is expecting the group to have between 14 and 16 athletes. However, new partnerships with the Capital Region Training Group in Edmonton, as well as clubs in Calgary and Red Deer are expanding the reach of the Academy.
“We can only grow the direction in the team sport is going. We have less and less athletes looking at high performance. That is unfortunate, but whenever we have an athlete that wants to make a go of it, we’ll help them realize their potential,” said Sudrich.
For the past two seasons, AWCA has had separate coaches for the men’s and women’s team, however, that will change this year as Sudrich and Jeffries will work with both groups.
“(Jeffries) has worked hard over the past several years on how to better facilitate excellence with women athletes. But at the end of the day, a team is a team. We will look for critical mass with the group and it will be in the best interest to combine the teams,” Sudrich said.
She thanks the academy for giving her a shot with the team, and said the experience thus far has been welcoming. She plans to move to Canmore in mid-April.
“It’s a gamble when you take someone who needs development, but I’m excited to join a team that’s always looking into the future,” Sudrich said.
