Boys Track & Field Coach of the Year: Alex Russeau, Erie Mason

Russeau hopes summer trip will help him grow as a coach

Alex Russeau's summer vacation was a little chillier this year.

The Erie Mason boys track and field coach and his wife whisked away this month to Iceland where the average July temperatures resemble more of a mild winter in Michigan.

The getaway was part pleasure, part business.

He ran this past weekend in an ultra marathon through Iceland's southern highlands near the city of Laugavegur. The 55-kilometer race is a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

"I'm a little terrified. It's my first time running over marathon distance," Russeau said. "It's one of those weird bucket list things where you play around on Google Earth long enough and find a place that looks amazing and you just go for it."

Russeau, a former top distance runner at Mason who graduated in 2007, said that there's a lot of benefit both personally and professionally in these types of endeavors. He is excited to bring this experience back to his team as they prepare for next season.

"It certainly helps me connect with them," Russeau said. "They know that I’ve felt everything I’m asking them to do. They know I’m not going to give them anything I haven’t done personally. They see a lot of confidence in that and can stand behind that in training knowing I’m here to help in the same way I help myself."

Mason's team has thrived on that relationship between coach and athlete.

This season, the Eagles finished a perfect 8-0 in dual meets on its way to a repeat championship in the high-competitive Tri-County Conference. Mason went on to place third at the MITCA Team State Meet and won a Division 3 Regional title while qualifying athletes for state in 10 different events.

For all of his team's success this season, Russeau was selected as the Monroe County Region Boys Track and Field Coach of the Year by The Monroe News.

Mason's success is built on depth.

And that depth is built on culture.

There were 41 guys on this season's team.

"It's my largest team in the five years I've coached," Russeau said. "At the end of the season last year, I sat there and said we need to recruit. We need to bring in guys to fulfill our dream of winning and the guys did incredible things to recruit."

Seniors Jacob Ansel, Cooper Kinsey, and Gavin Larrow took the lead. They got the word out with morning announcements and wrangled commitments with a faux petition that encouraged students to turn out for track.

"It worked," Russeau said. "They ended up getting 8-9 extra people this year that were not on the team last year. It was important because they ended up being major players for us."

The added depth helped in two ways.

"Our depth is what won the whole year. We scored in every event at Regionals and same at league. It wasn't first place every time, but we were always scoring points and racking up big totals that were hard to catch," Russeau said.

"And it really came into play for training, as well, because the guys continually pushed each other knowing that nobody's spot was really safe."

Mason had top-end talent, too.

Jackson Ansel and Bryce Gardiner were All-State, as was the 400-relay team of Aiden McMullen, Grant Shadler, Shane Pauwles and Landen Nastale. Two other individuals – Louden Murbach and Alex Langenderfer – just missed the cut.

Jackson Ansel broke the school record in the 800 with a time of 1:57.20 and was just :0.03 seconds off that time at state. The 400 relay was just over a tenth of the second away from another school record.

The Eagles needed every weapon at its disposal to win the TCC. Both Whiteford and Summerfield provided tough competition with elite athletes. Summerfield also won a Regional title and was fourth at the Division 4 MITCA championship.

"The league just grew this year," Russeau said. "The competition went completely up. Whiteford has outstanding distance runners and good throwers and made it tough for us to score in those events. Summerfield has good sprinters and jumpers, making it tough for us to score there."

Mason's first two league duals of the season were up against its top rivals for the league crown. The tri-meet saw the Eagles come away with a 92-44 win over Whiteford and 81-56 victory against Summerfield.

"That just showed us how good our depth was," Russeau said. "Our guys knew it would be our toughest one, so they knew they could believe and have more confidence from then on. They just continued to get better."

Mason captured its second straight league title in late May with a dominant performance at the championship meet. The Eagles scored 140.5 points to pace well ahead of runner-up Summerfield with 117. Whiteford was third with 86.

"It was a bit more of a surprise to win it last year, ... but this year we were able to win all our dual meets and it was our first time beating Adrian Madison is like 10 years," Russeau said. "Just winning the league solidified that we're a championship-caliber team."

That mindset carried over throughout the end of the season as Mason captured the Regional championship with multiple state qualifiers and then put on a tough performance at the hotly contested MITCA Team State meet. The Eagles were third place with 1,278.5 points, behind Clare (1,384.5) and Traverse City St. Francis (1,232).

"Clare had won five in a row, so I knew they would be tough, and St. Francis looked like the team to beat all year," Russeau said. "But as the season went on we started inching closer and closer. Going into it, I thought if everything went perfect, we'd have a shot. We were close."

Mason will look to reload for another strong run next year. The team loses 15 seniors.

"I feel confident we'll have guys step up," Russeau said. "We have a lot of young talent that will fill the void. We'll continue to recruit for next year and exceed this year, if at all possible."

This article originally appeared on The Monroe News: Running off to Iceland