Seward coach to be inducted into hall of fame
Published 12:30 pm Friday, April 3, 2026
When Dan Marshall first arrived in Alaska, he didn’t plan on becoming a cross country coach. After a 26-year career coaching at Seward High School, being inducted into the Alaska High School Hall of Fame wasn’t something he’d anticipated either. But, thanks to a successful nomination by other Seward coaches and former athletes, inducted he will be, alongside 13 other honorees in a ceremony to be held in Anchorage on April 26.
Ronn Hemstock, current teacher and athletic director and former wrestling coach at Seward High, worked with Marshall for 25 years and is largely responsible for his upcoming induction. When Hemstock organized and submitted the nomination to the Alaska School Activities Association, he also included letters of support from former Seward athletes including Matt Adams, Aubrey Smith and semiprofessional mountain runner Denali FoldagerStrabel, as well as Patti Foldager, Marshall’s former assistant coach of 16 years, and former head track coach Lori Krier.
“When Ronn dropped the file of letters in my lap, I looked at him and said, ‘So, am I being served?’” Marshall wrote in an email to Homer News on March 20. “Then he told me what he had initiated and organized.
“It was a joyful humbling, and the honor of the induction is wonderful, but the words written by athletes and coaches touched me deeply.”
Marshall was first hired as an assistant coach at Seward High School in 1992 by then-principal Jim Frederickson, who introduced him to then-athletic director Roger Steinbrecher and then-cross country head coach Nate Davis.
“I served as the assistant coach for Nate (for) two years, and then he and Roger approached me with the idea of taking the program over, which at the time I was not in favor of doing,” Marshall wrote. “But God has a way of placing people in your life at the right time for the right reason, and then, just like that, 26 years had gone by in a breath of time.”
Marshall served as head coach from 1995 until 2018. During that time, according to information provided by ASAA, he guided his teams to seven state cross country championships, one team state track and field title and six relay championships. Athletes under his leadership also earned nine individual state cross country championships and 12 individual state track and field titles. Marshall was also voted Region Coach of the Year four times.
“Yet those who know his program best insist that his impact cannot be measured solely by trophies,” a nomination profile provided by ASAA reads.
The profile, which contains testimony and quotes from former Seward athletes, further describes Marshall as “transformational” and “one of the most influential and successful cross country coaches in Alaska high school history” for not only the accomplishments that he led his teams to, but also the culture of excellence and the community that he fostered during his tenure.
Many of the athletes who trained under Marshall continued on after high school to compete in college, secure scholarships and carry forward his lessons of perseverance and teamwork. Others simply carried with them a lifelong love of running and fitness — something, the ASAA statement says, that Marshall valued “just as deeply as any medal.”
“Coach Marshall was more than a coach. He was a mentor, a leader and a builder of community,” one former runner, unnamed, said in the ASAA profile. “His legacy isn’t in the records or the trophies but in the people he shaped.”
Marshall, for his part, said he was fortunate to have “tremendous” coaching mentors he had at Seward High School in the 90s.
“I gleaned my coaching philosophy from, at that time, head basketball coach Chuck Boerger. I applied technique, attitude and vision gathered from my time with Nate Davis. Roger Steinbrecher was, without a doubt, my anchor as a young coach,” he wrote.
In his approach to coaching, Marshall aimed to have large teams, “since that creates momentum as well as inspiration,” and recruited heavily from both the Seward high school and middle school.
“Our goal was that each and every one that comes through the running program at Seward High will look back and agree that it was the best thing that they could have done for themselves at that time of their lives,” he wrote.
According to Marshall, training had to have a balance of difficulty and fun, as well as variety — goals which the teams met using the Seward trail systems. Structure and clear expectations were also vital.
“Good coaching is just good teaching, and every athlete must have an individual running plan. That works within the framework of the team’s goals,” he wrote. “Every athlete must find a way to success.
“As in all interpersonal interaction, conflict is sometimes unavoidable. When making difficult decisions as a coach, a glance at the heart seldom failed me.”
The induction ceremony will take place on Sunday, April 26 at 2 p.m. at the Special Olympics Alaska building, 3200 Mountain View Drive, in Anchorage.
“I have been blessed to have had the opportunity to have played a role in the lives of so many during those 26 years of coaching at Seward High School,” Marshall wrote. “I am grateful.”
