LifeChanger of the Year Nominee Profile

Curt Kaczor was nominated by an anonymous student.

"Smaller equals faster; this was my sophomore year mantra that led me to lose tens of pounds I shouldn't have. I thought I was helping myself, and everywhere I looked, my addiction to dropping numbers was reaffirmed as discipline," said the student. "A few weeks into my first varsity cross country season, Coach Kaczor asked to speak with me after practice. On a wooden bench in the athletic wing, he said the words that propelled me into recovery, 'I'm worried about you.'"

"His telling me that my weight loss was detrimental to my well-being completely cracked the foundation upon which I had built my eating disorder. Here was someone whose job was to make me a better runner and who wanted me to gain weight," said the student. "It seemed like an oxymoron. But I took it to heart anyway."

"The following season, we both had high hopes for what I could achieve while being healthy. Coach Kaczor pushed me, assigning faster paces than I thought I could hit. Sometimes I hit them, but at others, I panicked under my fear of failing to reach the bar. Regardless of the situation, he always knew when to push and back off," said the student.

"It's challenging to train teenagers to run, but he excels at it by taking a holistic approach to coaching. He understands that to perform at our best, our mental and physical health must be a priority," said the student. "Coach Kaczor made this clear by encouraging the team to communicate anything holding us back from running our best, even though this meant a lot of pre-practice and post-practice conversations."

"Although it meant overtime for him, Coach made every chat feel important and always offered the right response. He eased my anxiety about upcoming races many afternoons with personalized advice and race strategy. Sometimes he just pulled me out of my head, saying, 'It's running. You do it every day,'" said the student.

"Before the best race of my senior year, he said my favorite line of all, 'Run the race that we both know you're capable of,'" said the student. "I didn't get an all-time personal record that day, but I ran the whole 5K smiling and managed a season PR. Coach Kaczor greeted me at the finish line like I ran an Olympic trial qualifying time. He said, 'You did it! You were amazing!' He has always been there to celebrate the wins of everyone on the team, no matter how small."

"It wouldn't be fair to talk about Coach Kaczor without mentioning his other commitments as a middle school science teacher and a Dad to two little girls. Occasionally his daughters would accompany him on our Saturday morning practices, and for the past two years, they hand-picked apples for the whole team to enjoy. Naturally, we're all their biggest fans and get almost as excited as Coach when one of them has an assist to the winning goal of their soccer game," said the student.
 
"I'm so grateful to have trained with such a thoughtful, inspiring coach for the past three years. As well as showing me what it takes to be a great runner, Coach Kaczor taught me to believe in myself. I hope everyone gets the opportunity to meet such an outstanding role model in their lifetime," said the student.