Track and Field Coach

Head Coach

Shannon Maas enters his third year in 2010 at the helm of the Eagles. As head coach, Maas has brought a resurgence to the program reminiscent of the ‘Eagle Express’ teams of the mid-1980’s. In his first two years, Coach Maas has coached one state champion, 3 state finalists and his athletes have broken 3 school records, including the 25 year old 4x400m men’s relay record in which they lost to the University of Oregon by less than a second.

Shannon Maas is an alumnus of College of the Siskiyous and ran for the Eagles in the 1996 and 97’ seasons and was also a member of the Men’s basketball team in 1996. He was a two time Golden Valley Conference Champion in the 400m Intermediate Hurdles and set the school record in the long hurdles at the 1997 Nor-Cal Finals in Stockton, CA with a time of 52.99 (which still stands today). Coach Maas continued his sophomore success and placed 5th in Fresno at the 1997 California Community College State Championships. Academically, Maas also excelled as he made the Dean’s list, was a Ford Scholar and was 1 of 12 Pepsi Scholar Student Athletes in the entire state of California (out of over 5,000 California Junior College athletes).

After his athletic career at Siskiyous, Maas earned an athletic scholarship to compete at the University of California at Berkeley (Cal Berkeley) under legendary hurdles coach and Head Coach Erv Hunt. Coach Hunt’s career stats are impressive in All-Americans, NCAA champions, and Pac-10 Champions produced, as he also head coached the 1996 U.S.A. Olympic team in Atlanta. Under Erv Hunt’s instruction, Shannon Maas was a two year Varsity Letter Award Winner, two time Big Meet (Cal vs. Stanford) scorer, and placed 6th in 400 Hurdles at the Pac-10 Track and Field Championships held at Stanford in 1998.

Coach Maas specializes in coaching the hurdles, sprints and jumps and is USA Track and Field Level One certified. He credits his entire career and path of life to the excellent parenting by his mother, Justina Maas and father, Phil Maas (Head Track Coach of the Eagles in the 80’s).

Assistant Coach

Les Courtemanche

Les Courtemanche enters his 6th season as the Throws coach for the Siskiyous Eagles. In addition to coaching throws, Les has been the quarterbacks coach for the past 7 years for eagle football, as well as head of Strength and Conditioning for the football team. Les played at COS and was a record setting quarterback for the Eagles in the 98 and 99 seasons and also threw the javelin 196’ 2” while an Eagle before moving on to finish his career at Humboldt State. He also threw for the Humboldt State Lumberjacks 2 years and was All-Conference his two seasons there. After his collegiate career, Les played 2 professional football seasons overseas for the Graz Giants (quarterback), and also had a 3 year stint with Team USA International Football.
Coach “C” has placed himself as one of the most accomplished throws coaches in Siskiyous history as well as at the California Community College state level. His accolades include 14 GVC Champions, 3 Nor Cal Champions, 1 State Champion, 2 school record holders and 5 JUCO All-Americans. Recently (March 3rd, 2012), Josh Peck broke a 26 year old record in the discus with a mark of 175’ 0”.
Courtemanche places a strong emphasis on the development of his student-athletes and has a very strong track record in this area. In the 2011 season, Javelin thrower Ty Slater went from a 189' 7” high school personal best to a 217' 6” throw which landed him 2nd on the all-time best list for the eagles behind Olympic Qualifier Ron White (237'). Ashley Geer, an ex-Siskiyous Softball centerfielder went from never throwing the Javelin to state champion in one season (140’ 0”).
Courtemanche received his BS degree in Kinesiology from Humboldt State University in 2003. Courtemanche also has valuable throwing knowledge working close with coaches such as Phil Maas, Kirk Rammage and the late Hal Connolly at the San Diego Olympic Center (Elite Emerging Coaches Clinic – 2009). He and his girlfriend Erin are the proud parents of their son Kai Courtemanche.

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