By Darren Steinke
Gordie Howe Sports Complex
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| Jason Reindl is one of Canada’s best track and field coaches. |
The
40-year-old has served as the head coach of the University of Saskatchewan Huskies Track and Field and Cross-Country Teams since the start of the 2017-18
campaign. Reindl can coach athletes as young as eight years old all the way to
90-years-old. No matter who he coaches, Reindl is driven by optimism of what
could possibly be.
“I’d say one of the biggest things
is the future isn’t written,” said Reindl, who basically lives at the Track and
Field Track on the Gordie Howe Sports Complex grounds during the spring and
summer months coaching athletes. “I’ve learned that no matter how much success
or lack of success someone had today, the unknowns of the future are kind of
what drive me to kind of push to help these individuals.”
Reindl
began coaching in his teenage years while attending high school at Evan Hardy
Collegiate and still competing in track and field as an athlete. He began
coaching one day a week on Thursdays with the Saskatoon Track Club working with
athletes around the age of 10. Reindl attended various coaching courses on
weekends during his high school days leading to his graduation from Evan Hardy
in 2002.
Since the
start of January 1, 2024, his life schedule has been a whirlwind.
He coached
his Huskies team through that time and saw the Women’s Track and Field Team win
Canada West Conference Championships in February of 2024 and this past February
for a run of seven straight conference title victories.
The Huskies Women’s 4 X 800-metre relay team won a Canada West title in February 2024 and a U Sports Championship in March of 2024 and was named Sask Sport’s Team of the Year for 2024 this past January. On Saturday, the Huskies Women’s Track and Field Team captured the bronze medal at the U Sports Track and Field Championships in Windsor, Ontario.
Reindl has been heavily involved with the Running Wild
Athletic Club in Saskatoon and Saskatchewan Aboriginal Track and Field. He
holds assistant coach roles with Saskatoon Track Club and supports Huskies
athletes with Riversdale Athletics Club.
With Saskatchewan Athletics, Reindl is the master coach
developer for the province, which is a fairly large role when to comes to
coaching education helping future coaches. He was the personal coach for
Michelle Harrison at the Summer Olympics in Paris that ran from July 26, 2024
to August 11, 2024.
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| Jason Reindl has coached track and field since high school. |
On the national front when it comes to education for track and field, Reindl
was the lead combined events presenter for Athletics Canada in Winnipeg in
October and sits on the national coach education committee. He is also a board
member for the Coaching Association of Canada and Saskatchewan Athletics.
Again, those were all the roles Reindl has fulfilled for
about the last 14-and-a-half months. He jokes he has to thank “caffeine” for
allowing him to do all those roles.
On the serious side, Reindl said it helped that his parents in mother, Caren, and father, Bob, were great role models.
During their lives,
Caren (Rathie) and Bob were star track and field athletes and have served in
numerous coaching and administrative capacities for the sport.
“I’ve been able to see a lot of amazing people through their
network,” said Jason Reindl. “I would kind of say in my teenage years where you
start to realize who you can kind of call upon for advice.
“Having the last name Reindl within the track and field and
kind of the sport coaching community was a significant blessing, because I was
able to inquire, ask questions and get a lot of support, but also see people in
action. At the same time, I’ll say I know I’m blessed, and you know, the opportunities
have come with hard work. It has been an interesting last couple of years we’ll
say.”
When it
comes to the highlight over the 14-and-a-half months, Reindl backs up the
calendar to October 7, 2023 and said the highlight was marrying his longtime partner
Rebecca Goldie, who competes in triathlons. For his coaching career, Reindl
said getting to coach at the Olympics was the highlight.
He said the Olympics had a unique aura, but when it came to coaching and the execution of the track and field part of the games, it was normal to most other international events. While he was Harrison’s personal coach, Reindl said it was special to have two other athletes he worked with at the Olympics.
When Reindl lived in Fredericton, New Brunswick, and coached the University of New Brunswick Varsity Reds before joining the Huskies, he coached 110-metre hurdler Craig Thorne. Thorne is based out of Guelph, Ontario, now.
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| Michelle Harrison, left, and Jason Reindl chat at a practice last May. |
The veteran coach also
worked with Sutherland for short periods of time when she returned home to
visit family in her hometown of Borden, which is located 53 kilometres
northwest of Saskatoon.
“It was pretty, pretty special that I was able to kind of
give high-fives to three different athletes that I had an impact on at various
stages of their career,” said Reindl. “It was very special and definitely the
highlight at present.”
Reindl said
getting to coach Harrison racing in the 100-metre hurdles was emotional and
meaningful as the culmination of a big journey.
“It is hard to even put into words how remarkable and
impactful it was,” said Reindl. “I actually can go back and say that when I was
coaching the Saskatoon Track Club one day a week Michelle was one of those
first athletes in the group.
“Not only was I one of her first coaches in her career when
she was 10-years-old, the fact that we got back together in 2017 and had the
next seven years from her and I both moving back to Saskatoon all the way to
three national titles, university accolades, six national teams and culminating
with the Olympic Games was pretty special. It is a journey that not a lot of
coaches get to have.”
Harrison
returned to Saskatoon in 2017 after training at the high-performance hub in
Toronto from 2015 to 2017. She was injured most of the time she was at the hub
and became disillusioned with track and field.
Upon returning to Saskatoon, Harrison got back in touch Reindl and rejoined the Huskies after being part of the program previously winning gold at the U Sports Championships in the 60-metre hurdles in 2014. After rejoining Huskies with Reindl as head coach, things took off for Harrison at that point.
“Jason (Reindl) was a major turning point in my career as an athlete, changing things for the better,” said Harrison, who turned 32-years-old in December. “He has been a constant source of guidance, belief and support throughout my journey.
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| Jason Reindl loves being at the Track and Field Track. |
“I wouldn’t be where I am without him.”
Now,
Harrison is expecting her first child with husband, Graeme Harrison. Reindl
said it is always special to see his athletes embark on their paths outside of
the sport.
“I think it is just that full circle where one journey ends
and another begins,” said Reindl. “The number of athletes that I’ve been a part
of their journeys that are married, have kids, have successful careers, MDs,
PhDs, you name it.
“It is never lost on me the important of all of that. I
guess the recency effect the time that Michelle and I spent together and seeing
her grow and develop as a young woman to now her soon to be a mom is just a
pretty cool thing. We just have a special relationship, and I am extremely
proud of her.”
During the spring and summer and the month of September,
Reindl enjoys coaching athletes of all ages at the Track and Field Track since
it opened in the spring of 2019. He said the facility has developed a great
upbeat vibe.
“It is just a fun place to be,”
said Reindl. “I say a lot of coaches get the opportunity to kind of have a
home.
“To get the chance to go to Gordie and know that I can execute my tasks to help these athletes achieve their goals with the equipment on hand and all the space, it is a blessing. It is something that I do not take for granted, because traveling the world and going to areas where you might have a track or you might have rubber, might not mean you have grass or it might not mean you have space to do medicine ball throws. There are a lot of intangibles that come around the whole facility.
“This year we’re actually going to have our first Huskies track and field sport camps there in the first two weeks of July. Getting the opportunity to kind of make that connection even stronger between our Huskie development side of things into that facility is something we’re really looking forward to.”
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| Jason Reindl, centre, enjoys coaching the Huskies. |
“I guess bringing that back to the Huskie side of things,
the last couple of years we’ve brought in some athletes who were OK coming out
of high school that have turned into all-Canadians national medalists,” said
Reindl, who was a Huskies track athlete from 2002 to 2006 and a member of the U
Sports men’s and women’s double title win in 2005. “I can’t promise that everyone will
be an Olympian, but I can promise you will get better.”
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