Each fall for the last several years, as soccer heads for hibernation and indoor sports begin to stir, 
Lethbridge College athletes of a different stripe head into the fields of Alberta for what is fast becoming their traditional harvest of gold.
These Kodiaks do not hear the cheers of fans, and their endeavours largely occur away from spectators and in isolation from each other. Yet, as every race during the autumn cross-country season comes to the finish line, it is usually a Lethbridge College runner at the fore. Kodiaks have won team and individual honours at provincial and national levels, and as the string of success unwinds each year, it seems almost unbreakable.
The architect for this plan of national domination is a quiet, fifty something Swede, the kind the federal government once warned were as fit as the average 30-year-old Canadian, and while Bertil Johansson has lived in Canada for more than two decades, the residuals of his Scandinavian military training are still evident.
Johansson has been the Kodiaks’ cross-country coach since 1987, but it was just eight years ago the team began collecting medals. It’s little surprise the bump in success coincided with Johansson’s first recruiting efforts in Kenya’s Great Rift Valley, a crucible for world-class runners.
“I figured if Augustana University in Camrose could import Vikings, I could bring in some Kenyans,” says Johansson, with a trace of Nordic wit. “We had no big stars in those first years and we got lucky if we had anyone fast.”
Johansson was contacted by, and subsequently became friends with, Kip Keino, Kenya’s legendary Olympic champion and now chairman of the country’s Olympic committee, and Henry Rono, another Kenyan sports hero, about the possibility of young Kenyan athlete/scholars attending Lethbridge College. With their help and connections with two Kenyan families, Johansson established a pipeline of running talent that not only puts national banners on the college’s walls, but sends young people back to Kenya with training they can put to use at home.
By now the names are familiar to those who follow the sport: Kip Kangogo and his brother Ed, Willie Kimosop, Mary Kamau and Gladys Kochei, who was recently named, along with volleyball star Sarah Luscher, as a 2007-08 Academic All-Canadian.
If athletes speak a global language, the Kenyans are its orators. And they represent just one of some 30 nations from which students came to Lethbridge College this past year. They are a direct reflection of the growing cultural diversity on campus.
Johanssons’s athletes score well academically, which fits in well with Lethbridge College’s determination to ensure education comes ahead of sports.
“Our focus is on strong academics, which we’ve tracked with the Kenyans because we don’t want to bring someone that distance and have to send them home,” says Johansson.
The college is considering establishing a transition program, in which the Kenyan students would take general studies for a year before coming to Lethbridge and into a full college program.
“The standard is higher here for academics,” says Johansson. “The Kenyan students know English, but the cultural routine is a bit different. They see the wealth of Canada in terms of food and luxury items, where every student has a cellphone and access to a computer. They need a bit of lifestyle coaching.”
Johansson arrived in Lethbridge after four years with Calgary parks and recreation to teach fitness and self defence to law enforcement students, although his name has become inextricably linked to cross-country coaching. (“I’m not really known around here for my handcuffing technique.”)
He has been coach of the year in the Alberta Colleges Athletic Association (2003) and Alberta amateur sports coach of the year (2005). Now, this year, Johansson takes his place in the Lethbridge Sports Hall of Fame.
A champion decathlete in Sweden, Johansson has since nurtured several academic initiatives, among which are a two-year fitness leadership program and an exercise science diploma, the latter attracting 40 students for this fall, the highest enrolment since it began. It’s a program wired to the growing desire of Canadians to get fit, an industry whose time has arrived amid an aging baby boom generation.
A finalist for the 2008 Lethbridge Citizen of the Year, Johansson served as organizer of the annual April 10-mile road race for 21 years and has coached in the Canadian track and field community.
“Life is a learning process,” says Johansson. “What I seek out, I stick with and do the best I can. I believe if you’ve got a talent, you should do something with it, go as far as you can, and have some fun along the way.”
