Coaching Staff

Stolley enters his first year as the head coach for the cross country program. Stolley, comes to North Park with a rich track and field background. In addition to serving as the vice president at the Southern California USATF since 2004, he served as the head track and field coach at Indiana State University for four years. From there, he became the Executive Director of the Los Angeles-based Puma Energizer Track Club, which produced 14 members of the 1984 U.S. Olympic team. He is also the founder of Track West, a USATF club dedicated to developing promising post-collegiate distance runners, which has produced 34 athletes who competed in the 1992, 1996, 2000 and 2004 Olympic Trials, and more than 60 qualifiers for the USA Championships. A native of Illinois, Stolley was just recently inducted in to the Mt. SAC Coaches Hall of Fame. He joined a short list of coaches who have made a tremendous impact on the sport and the Mt. SAC Relays. “We are delighted to announce the hiring of the legendary Skip Stolley as our new head track and field coach,” North Park Athletic Director Dr. Jack Surridge said. “He has built powerful programs at every level from high school to the United States Men’s Junior National Team that competed in the Pan American Games this past summer. Our commitments to excellence seem to have coalesced at the same time and place. We are honored to welcome him to the North Park University coaching staff.”

Wagner was a member of cross country and track & field teams at Thornridge High School coached by Skip Stolley that placed in the top-3 at the Illinois H.S. State Championships. After graduation, he was member of nationally-ranked teams at Eastern Illinois University, including the 1977 NCAA Division-II National Cross Country Champions. As an accounting major, he graduated with a degree in Business in 1981, then accumulated 14-hours of post-graduate work in Athletic Administration. As a post-collegiate athlete, Jeff was one of the Midwest’s top-ranked distance runners until age 31, running 2:24:46 at the 1981 Detroit Marathon and 2:25:25 at the 1982 Grandma’s Marathon in Duluth, MN. During an 8-year career, he won more than 35 road races throughout the Chicago metropolitan area. Jeff then went on to found and serve as race director for Nick’s Dolton Festival 10K which, for 6 years, was recognized as Chicago’s premier 10K road race. Throughout its 6-year history, Nick’s 10K showcased numerous NCAA All-Americans, U.S. road race champions and Olympians. Its course records of 29:02 by Dan Henderson and 33:25 by Patty Murray still stand as Illinois all-time 10K road bests. Jeff’s planning, organizing, and execution of Nick’s 10K earned awards that included designation as one of “America’s Top 100 Races” by Running Times magazine, and recognition as Illinois Race-Of-The-Year, and Chicago Area Race-Of-The-Year.As a coach, Jeff served as head track & field and cross country coach at Trinity Christian College in Palos Heights, IL, before founding a prominent Chicago area post-collegiate running club that, over a six-year period, grew to more than 70 members. Jeff’s club produced men and women who became perennial contenders for overall and age group titles in Chicago’s highest profile road races and two qualifiers for the 2000 U.S. Olympic Trials for the Women’s Marathon. “Jeff is very well-connected to the Illinois high school cross country and track & field coaching community and attends the area’s top meets in both sports on a regular basis, says Skip Stolley. He will make an immediate impact on our program at North Park as my administrative assistant, as a recruiter, and as an exceptional assistant coach in all areas.”

Romanoski enters his first season as the graduate assistant for the Vikings. Being a graduate of Loyola University and a resident of Lake Zurich, Ill., will help Romanoski to connect to the running community in northern Illinois. Romanoski helped lead Loyola to its first-ever NCAA national championship appearance in track and field. He also continues to run professionally and serves as the Dick Pond Running Team captain.