AUS names men’s cross country coach of the year award after storied StFX coach Bernie Chisholm

(HALIFAX, N.S.) Atlantic University Sport is pleased to announce the AUS men's cross country coach of the year award has been named in honour of storied StFX head coach Bernie Chisholm.

Chisholm also serves as the head coach for the StFX men's and women's track and field teams. The announcement was made at yesterday's Subway AUS Track and Field Championship awards banquet.

In July 2017, Chisholm announced that he would retire following the 2017-18 season.

The recommendation to name this award in his honour was brought forward by the AUS cross country coaches at their year-end meeting this past fall and was approved unanimously by the membership of AUS during January's meeting of management council in Halifax.

"We're very happy to be able to recognize Bernie Chisholm's contributions to Atlantic University Sport in this way," said AUS executive director Phil Currie. "It's very fitting, after everything he has done for the sport of AUS cross country, that his coaching legacy continue on in this way."

For the past 32 seasons, Chisholm has been the head coach of the X-Women and X-Men cross country teams elevating the program from club to varsity status.

Under his leadership, the StFX cross country program won 17 AUS banners including eight titles for the women's team and nine for the men. Eleven individual runners won 14 AUS titles, including three-time Olympian and 2003 CIS (now U SPORTS) individual champion Eric Gillis, who will be his successor as head coach of the StFX cross country and track and field programs.

Chisholm guided the X-Women cross country team to a 2007 CIS bronze medal, a men's CIS silver medal in 2008 and bronze for the men in 2010.

He has also coached the StFX track and field team for more than 15 years, building the X-Women and X-Men programs into AUS contenders, as evidenced by the first X-Men's AUS championship banner in 2014.

Since 2004, StFX track athletes accumulated over 70 AUS gold medals, along with numerous silver and bronze medals and six national individual medals.

A member of the Nova Scotia and StFX Sport Hall of Fame, Chisholm was recognized as the AUS cross country coach of the year on 18 occasions—eight times with the women's team and 10 times with the men's.

He received the AUS track and field coach of the year award three times.

"We are incredibly grateful to Bernie Chisholm for all he has done for the sports of cross country and track and field in Atlantic Canada," said StFX director of athletics Leo MacPherson. "It is wonderful to hear the AUS men's cross country coach of the year award will be named in his honour.  It's a fitting tribute to an outstanding coach and an even better person." 

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