Rani Ban/The Falcon Erika Daligcon was recently appointed to the head coaching position for the SPU cross country team, following the recent retirement of Doris Heritage.

If Erika Daligcon's life were a tapestry, running would be the brightest colored thread.

From her athletic endeavors and blossoming coaching career to her Christian walk and classroom presence, new cross country head coach Daligcon looks to running for words of wisdom.

"The things I've learned as an athlete have helped me in life off the trails and the track," she said. Daligcon believes that running is a microcosm of life, she said.

Daligcon was recently appointed to the top coaching position upon the retirement of former head coach and running legend Doris Heritage.

From now to the end of the academic year, Heritage said, she and Daligcon are essentially co-assistant coaches. In fall quarter 2008, when the cross country season begins anew, Daligcon will take over in a full head coaching capacity.

"She'll have a chance to show off her creativity and take the program a step further," Heritage said.

Because of the friendship and understanding that she and Heritage have, Daligcon said, the pair can work off each other's strengths as the balance of responsibility shifts.

"I will appreciate the wisdom brought [by Doris] through 30 years of coaching and competition," Daligcon said. "At the same time, I'm excited to apply the knowledge I have gained to the team and to the sport."

Heritage emphasized Daligcon's experience as a high school coach, an assistant coach for six years at SPU and a heavy involvement with the Seattle Running Club.

photo by Glen Tachiyama Erika Daligcon maintains her status as a competitive athlete and is a recent winner of the Courgar Mountain trail race series.

"She [Daligcon] relates to the athletes, and is very knowledgeable," Heritage said. "She has experience with arrangements, training and summer camps--just so many dimensions of working with people."

Heritage said that Daligcon embodies what the university looks for in a student-athlete, and as an alumna, she has a lot to give back and is willing to share it.

Daligcon is excited for the upcoming cross country season, as she believes that the Falcons will be highly competitive next year.

"We have some business we want to take care of, and we're eager to do that," she said.

The men's team in particular, she went on to explain, is young but has some racing experience under its belt and is already scheduling meetings and setting goals.

"The season starts now," she said.

As for the women's team, which finished second at the national level last season, she expects them "to continue in the same positive direction."

Daligcon is still a strong athlete in her own right, Heritage said.

"She is a top notch runner," the former head coach said. A recent winner of the Cougar Mountain trail race series, Daligcon is "right in the thick of things."

Lane Seeley, the cross country assistant coach, said that Daligcon is still an accomplished competitor. In the past, he said, she has run for the company Footzone's official team.

"Lifelong runners like her--they never really stop," he said.

This is true of Daligcon, except when she is pausing to chow down on Thai food from Tawon Thai in Fremont or get a sip of Peet's Coffee, where Daligcon said she sits in the upper level and watches the people in the street below.

Daligcon dabbles in trail running, something she has been able to pursue in greater capacity now than in her hometown of San Francisco.

She recently ran her first 50k trail race, a distance she never thought she would run. She said that she had fun and did OK, but that she enjoys shorter distances better. Still, she plans on doing more 50k races, perhaps even next month.

"From a coaching standpoint, it's great to put yourself in situations like the athletes experience," she said. "Then you're feeling what it's like to go through the warm-ups, the run, everything. It helps with creating workouts catered towards racing those types of distances."

Communication professor Todd Rendleman described Daligcon as a practical joker with a lot of spunk and real energy.

"She also has a crush on Johnny Depp," Rendleman said with a chuckle. "It is out of control."

Daligcon and Rendleman bonded over their shared love for the show "Law and Order," Daligcon said. She also described herself as "an ardent 'Law and Order' fan."

She recalled the moment she realized she might be taking her obsession too far: while working at the Seattle Running Club, she witnessed someone walk in and steal a watch. Instantly, she jumped up and started running after the thief, tracking them down to a store two doors down.

"She is someone who is very courageous as well as lovely," Rendleman said.

He also said that, during her time in the Humanities Department at SPU, Daligcon served as a motivation for the other faculty members to stay healthy.

"Faculty would go to her and feel inspired to exercise more," he said.

Asked to describe Daligcon, Seeley said, "She has a very under-spoken demeanor that hides a fierce determination. Just in talking with her, you don't realize how focused and competitive she can be."

Hand-in-hand with that competitive spirit is what Kathryn Bartholomew, associate professor of foreign languages and literature, called "a sense of welcome."

Bartholomew, who worked closely with Daligcon on the masters program Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (MA-TESOL), said that hospitality is one of Daligcon's major characteristics.

Daligcon's post-graduate degree, which she is in the process of pursuing, is in English as a second language (ESL). After graduating, she moved to Japan and taught ESL there for three years.

She said that she has been blessed by her ability to take running with her to all parts of the world. In Japan, she explained, she made many friends through the sport and experienced both the rural, traditional Japanese life while running in the country and an insight into modern Japan when she lived and ran in the city.

"My races in other places have always been eye-opening," she said.

Once, in Japan, she entered a United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) race. Upon arriving, she found that the officials lined up all of the men in front of the women.

"I was outraged," she said, and expressed her displeasure to the judges, but "they wouldn't budge."

So, she wove through the ranks of men to the front of the pack, to prove that "women could run up front too." The experience made her realize how different American culture is.

Daligcon's first love was for ESL and teaching, and she is intrigued by the idea of bringing English outside of the classroom.

While in Japan, she and one of her running partners would swap languages on their route, with Daligcon teaching English words and learning some Japanese words in exchange.

"It was exercising my brain as well," she said. "I was learning new things about cross-cultural ties."

Now, she is excited to be back at SPU, preparing others to take running with them on their life journeys. "I hope running for them is a lifestyle," she said.

Daligcon hopes to bring her passions for teaching ESL and running together in a way that will bless the community. She is considering putting together a program that will allow athletes who want to do volunteer work to use their running to open doors and start connections with immigrants and refugees.

"I look at running as a way to reach out and break barriers," she said. "Teaching and coaching go hand-in-hand."

Bartholomew noted another concurrent duo in Daligcon's life: kindness and empathy.

"She would see Christ in others, and others would see Christ in her," Bartholomew said.

Heritage recalled the morning before her hip surgery, when she called together several of her closest friends, including Daligcon, to do one last run together at 4:30 a.m. Daligcon was there without hesitation.

She selflessly lives out her faith, Heritage said. "If you ask her to pray for you, she will," she said. "She is as beautiful inside as outside."