Rinehart Named Cross Country Coach Assistant to take over program
Mar. 3, 2009
Milwaukee, Wis. – Cardinal Stritch University Athletics announced that Karen Rinehart will be the newest head cross country coach at Stritch.
Rinehart, who served as the assistant coach for the program last season, will take the place of John Pfaffl. Pfaffl was promoted earlier this year to be the Director of Intramurals and Recreation.
“We are extremely excited to have Karen take over this role,” Director of Athletics Pat Clemens said. “She’s out-going, organized, and will be a solid mentor for a growing program.”
The St. Louis, Mo. native takes over the program with a great deal of experience with her. A graduate of Northwestern, Rinehart was a four-year member of the Wildcats’ cross county program and co-captain her junior and senior seasons. The Wolves head coach was also named All-Academic Big Ten three times and was a part of Northwestern University’s first ever appearance in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Cross Country Championships in 2002.
Rinehart is looking forward to the challenges of building upon the program’s current foundation.
“Cross country is a special sport in which you can have individual and team success,” Rinehart said. “There’s already a strong sense of ‘team’ in our existing group of runners and now we have to build upon that foundation to create an atmosphere that will allow our runners to compete in team scoring. With that in mind, it’s a big goal of mine to grow this program to the point where runners are both improving individually and contributing to team success for Stritch Athletics.”
Rinehart currently holds a degree in Political and Environmental Science from Northwestern and a Masters of Educational Leadership from Marquette University. She and her husband, Bill, currently reside in Glendale.