Lukowich Steps Down
June 24, 2009
- Article by Brad Norman
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Ed Lukowich has resigned from his coaching position with the United States Curling Association. Lukowich, who won a gold medal for Canada at the 1986 world curling championship, was slated to help the United States at the 2010 Olympic Games as the athlete development director of the U.S. Curling Association. But those plans changed as Lukowich stepped down from his post stating that it's "time for a change".
Lukowich worked with the U.S. Curling Association for nine years and was a major player in developing the competitive team training programs in the United States. Some consider his work to be one of the major reasons for the United States improving as a curling country.
During his time with the association the United States won the women's world championship, a bronze medal at the 2006 winter Olympics, two world junior curling championship gold medals, and a Winter World University Games gold medal. With such massive improvement in the American teams with Lukowich, the U.S. Curling Association is clearly upset with his decision to leave.
Rick Patzke, CEO of the U.S. Curling Association, said, "Ed brought a new level of curling expertise to the U.S.A. and made major contributions to this country's rising success since joining our team in June 2000 . . . He will certainly be missed."
Though Lukowich said his reason for leaving is simply that he "feel(s) it is time for a change both for me, and in particular, the USCA", some rumours have suggested that Lukowich may be on his way to a position with the Canadian Curling Association in hopes of winning dual gold medals at the Vancouver Olympic Games next February.
The U.S. Curling Association isn't saying who they have in mind to fill Lukowich's position. In fact, they're not even sure if the position will continue to exist following his departure. They are confident, however, that the American athletes will continue to receive top notch coaching.
"We do have a strong high performance team in place around our Vancouver-bound athletes now, and have been working very closely with U.S. Olympic Committee staff to make sure that we do everything possible to maximize our teams' potential for success in 2010", Patzke said.
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