Former Lake Superior State distance standout Steve Eles was named LSSU's head cross country and track coach in August, 2005.
Eles graduated from LSSU in 2003 with a B.S. in electrical engineering and spent two years as a graduate assistant at Tiffin University, where he earned a master of business administration degree.
More than three dozen LSSU track and field records have been established during Eles' coaching tenure. Eles coaches all-America quarter-miler Adam Smith and all-conference distance runner Katie Scott, who are both three-time academic all-Americans. Former Laker Ashley Quick also earned academic All-America recognition in cross country in 2007.
The 2008 men's cross country team was ranked 12th nationally in team grade point average by the U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association. The Lakers had the highest team GPA among Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference schools. The 2007 Laker men's and women's track and field teams were named USTFCCCA All-Academic Indoor and Outdoor Scholar Teams, finishing 10th and 17th in team GPA, respectively. The LSSU women's track and field team also made the national all-academic list in 2006 and 2008.
The Sudbury, Ont., native offers extensive experience as an athlete and coach in Nordic skiing. As a runner, he won the GLIAC 3,000-meter steeplechase title and was a national qualifier. He placed seventh in the World Championships Trials in 2003 and 12th in the Olympic Trials in 2004. He finished sixth in the 1998 Canadian Nationals and eighth in 2002.
Eles also earned All-GLIAC honors in the steeplechase, the men's 3,000 and 5,000-meter runs, and the men's 4x800-meter relay. He still holds LSSU's steeplechase record of 9:11.71.
Eles' wife, Sarah, who is finishing her exercise science degree at LSSU, is the program's chief fund-raiser. Steve and Sarah Eles have two daughters, Autumn and Alaina.
Steve Eles is also a member of the LSSU Department of
Mathematics faculty.
Scott Carhoun was been named an assistant track and field coach at Lake Superior State in August, 2009.
Carhoun, a Stephenson, Mich., native, founded a men's track and field club program at Northern Michigan University in 2004 and ran it for 2 ½ years. The 2005 NMU graduate with a B.S. in physical education also coached the Stephenson High School track and field team for three years, was a student assistant coach for the NMU varsity women's track and field program and a part-time assistant coach at Central Michigan University.
"Scott brings coaching experience from NMU, CMU and Stephenson High School," LSSU head track and field coach Steve Eles said. "He has a coaching background in a large variety of events, which will be very helpful here at LSSU. He has a lot of recruiting connections. We've always done well recruiting in the Upper Peninsula, and he will help with that. And he has a background in lifting and strength training."
Carhoun's specialties are sprints and hurdles, and he is an
experienced weight-lifting coach, which will benefit the Laker
jumpers and throwers. He apprenticed with Olympic weight lifter
Jason Aun in 2005 and Olympic sprints coach Steve Merlau in 2003,
and was a Powerbar "Team Elite" Coach in Training from 2006-08. He
served as an instructor at Don Hood's pole vault camp in 2005.
Gregg Schmidt, a strength and conditioning and throws specialist, joined the Lake Superior State track and field coaching staff in August, 2009.
Schmidt's extensive coaching background includes stints as an assistant coach at Iowa Central Junior College, Valparaiso University and St. Lawrence University. He was a member of the Liberty League Coaching Staff of the Year while at St. Lawrence during the 2005-06 indoor track and field season.
Schmidt, of Palmyra, N.J., has a B.A. in history from Lynchburg College (Va.) and received a master's degree in education from St. Lawrence in 2007.
Last season at Iowa Central, Schmidt coached the women's indoor pentathlon and outdoor heptathlon national champion. He coached three NJCAA qualifiers in the outdoor heptathlon and decathlon, including NJCAA Outdoor Female Athlete of the Year A.G. Bradford. He coached jumps and strength and conditioning at Valparaiso in 2007-08.
He is a certified sports performance coach with USA
Weightlifting and a performance enhancement specialist with the
National Academy of Sports Medicine. Schmidt also coached throwers
for six seasons at his former high school.
