New faces lead Kirtland’s cross country teams

ROSCOMMON – There will be some new faces on the Kirtland Community College mens and womens cross country teams when they suit up for the upcoming 2009-10 season this fall. That includes the coaching staff.

Kirtland officials have announced the hiring of two new coaches to lead the college’s cross country programs, both with ties to local K-12 school districts. Samara Sabin of Grayling will be taking over the womens program, while Don Haskin of Fairview will be taking over the mens team.

This will be the first time the school has had separate coaches for the mens and womens teams, according to KCC athletic director Doug Ryckman.

“The demands of coaching are great, so KCC is very fortunate to have two quality cross country coaches in Samara and Don to take KCC to the next level in the highly competitive Michigan Community College Athletic Association,” Ryckman said. “Having a quality coach for each cross country team should be an advantage for the program.”

Sabin has coached basketball, volleyball, softball and track while teaching at Crawford-AuSable Schools for parts of the last nine years. An avid runner herself, she has competed in marathons and half-marathons in recent years.

“It's my lifestyle,” Sabin said about running. “Grayling doesn't offer cross country, so when this came up, I jumped on it.”

Sabin takes over a program that finished seventh in the MCCAA last season, but she hopes to get the program to a level where opposing teams dread competing against the Firebirds.

“I want every meet for them to run faster and for them to do something that they didn't think they were able to do at the beginning of the season,” she said. “I don't want to see Lansing Community College every single year winning the state championship. I want Kirtland to appear there once in awhile.”

Haskin, a teacher at Fairview Area Schools, takes over the mens program, after coaching cross country and track for the last 25 years. He was an assistant cross country and track coach at Saginaw Valley State University from 1984-1991, after winning two national championships as a student-athlete in SVSU's track program.

Haskin then won a regional championship as the track coach at Ogemaw Heights in 1991. He has coached cross country at Fairview since 1991, where he won eight regional championships, 15 league titles and a state championship in 2003. He has also coached track at Fairview since 1998, and helped guide them to 11 straight North Star League Championships.

Haskin, who was runner up in voting for MHSAA coach of the year in cross country on two separate occasions, also completed a rare feet, as during the 1994-98 season he coached cross country at Mio, making him the head coach of two separate programs at the same time.

Needless to say, success has followed Haskin in all his stops as a coach.

“I feel like with my knowledge of the sport and my high level of ambition we should slowly start to be successful,” Haskin said. “I've always been a firm believer that success breeds success.”

Haskin also hopes to improve on the mens team’s seventh-place finish in the MCCAA last season.

“My goal is to make the team a little larger and through hard work more competitive,” Haskin said. “The key thing for me is to get a year under my belt and see what's out there as far as the league, what is out there nationally and see where I've got to build.

“There's a school or two that’s really good in every conference, so you have to find out which ones those are and try and measure up,” he added.

Haskin and Sabin take over for Steve Seager, who coached the Firebirds the previous three seasons before stepping down after to meet the demands of his full-time job with the State of Michigan.

Both coaches are now in the process of recruiting runners for the upcoming 2009-10 season, which is currently slated to get underway Friday, Sept. 18, at Saginaw Valley State University.

Current or future Kirtland students who might be interested in the joining either cross country team may complete a prospective student-athlete form at firebirds.kirtland.edu/form.asp. They may also contact Sabin via e-mail at sabins@kirtland.edu or Haskin at haskind@kirtland.edu.

Currently, about 3,200 students attend a variety of certificate and two-year degree programs on an annual basis at Kirtland’s two campuses – at Roscommon, and the Michigan Technical Education Center (M-TEC) in Gaylord – with the college’s service area including all or parts of Crawford, Oscoda, Ogemaw, Roscommon, Otsego, Kalkaska, Missaukee, Gladwin and Alcona counties, and the surrounding areas.

For more information on Kirtland athletics, visit online at firebirds.kirtland.edu or call 989-275-5000, extension 385.