After a couple of solidly successful years at Erie that included a bumper crop of new school records, Erik Stevens has packed has packed his bags and headed south--about 90 minutes south to Colorado Springs, that is.
In the never-ending quest to keep food on the table and a roof overhead, Vista Ridge had a teaching position open that Erie did not. It didn't hurt at all that the Vista Ridge track and field program is not a build-it-on-your-own-from-the-ground-up kind of affair. When Jay Peltier resigned that position earlier this summer, he left a program very much on its own two feet.
Stevens, then, takes over a highly-accomplished track and field program and simultaneously aims to raise the sights of a cross country program that has traditionally inhabited the lower half of the Pikes Peak Athletic Conference.
Stevens offered this about the Vista Ridge cross country program, "I see a lot of potential in the members of the cross country program. Cross country has not always been a powerhouse program at Vista Ridge, but I hope to begin the process of changing that in my first season here with the help of the athletes and the support of my athletic director. I truly believe that, if we can continue to grow the culture here at Vista Ridge, we can be a top-five program year in and year out!"
Stevens's teaching assignment is in the social studies department, where he will be teaching economics.
"I taught briefly at Arapahoe but have not been back in the classroom since my return to Colorado."
That return to Colorado came two years ago after a two-year stint as the assistant distance coach at UCLA. Prior to that, Stevens spent two years as head coach of the cross country program at Arapahoe High School, following two years of working as an assistant there. He began his Colorado coaching career under Aaron Berthold in the fall of 2008.
Stevens remains active as a competitor as well. In 2011, he won the USATF Masters 30-35 national championship at 800 meters.