Local ski coaching legend Mike Marciniak past away last Tuesday at the Sunnyside Health Care Center in Cloquet. Marciniak has been fighting prostate cancer for the last 12 years and had been in declining health.
Marciniak and Joe Nowak formed a dynamic duo of sorts in local skiing circles as they coached Cloquet to 11 state championships between the years of 1965 through 1976. Most of those state titles were won right here in Cloquet where the Jacks acted as host team courtesy of winning the state title the previous year. Many of those titles also were won on the last day when the jumpers and the cross country skiers accumulated enough points to pull out come-from-behind wins over much larger schools across the state. In those early days the program was not paired with Esko and Carlton.
"As much as I benefited from Mike when I was an athlete, I benefited even more when I became a coach," said longtime CEC coach Brent Smith, a 1974 Cloquet graduate. "We really benefited from his knowledge of ski preparation and waxing because he was very much a student of those types of things."
The Cloquet program was built around the knowledge of Nowak and Marciniak who were both among the elite of the elite for their disciplines - Nowak in jumping and Marciniak in cross country. They also sought out the best of the best in slalom as Cloquet became the dominating force in the state in boys skiing.
"Mike was so dedicated that you fully appreciate what he gave up to tote us around while he had a family of his own at home and a wife waiting for him," mentioned Smith. "Because of his experience he achieved national and international recognition."
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A 1956 graduate from Cloquet High School, Marciniak went on to fame at the University of Minnesota-Duluth while winning Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference individual championships in 1957 and 1958.
However, the legend of Marciniak didn't end in college as he went on to ski in the North American Championships in Colorado in 1959.
Through the years Marciniak was instrumental in the world of skiing, not only through his coaching efforts, but also in running meets and as a race official. In 1958 when Nowak started Cloquet's program, he began looking for a person to handle the cross country side of things - and the person was Marciniak, who came on board in 1964.
During his long tenure of cross country, now known as Nordic, coaching, Marciniak had stars galore including three state champions along with numerous Olympians. Dave Quinn, Patrice Jankowski and Barb Unzen all won state titles.
On any given weekend during his coaching career you could find Marciniak skiing the loop at Pine Valley making sure the track was in the best possible shape and helping any and all skiers who were seeking advice.
"Five or six years ago we were skiing in the section meet up at Giants Ridge and we knew the conditions were going to be changing by the next day," recalled Smith. "I spent all night calling and finally got a hold of Mike around 11 the night before and asked if there was any way he could possibly show up and help us out. Sure enough, the next morning as we came pulling into the lot, his car was already there. We had two or three kids make it to the state meet that year and I really give most of the credit for them making the state meet to Mike and his knowledge of the conditions."
That knack for coaching also brought Marciniak national recognition and he was justly rewarded with many awards and coaching opportunities including U.S. Junior coach from 1965-1993. Marciniak was also a technical delegate as part of the inspection crew during the 1980 Olympics Lake Placid, N.Y., among many other, and too numerous to mention, awards.
Marciniak worked at Minnesota Power and, in fact, lived right across the street from the main office in Cloquet, retiring in 1995. He is survived by his wife, Faye, to whom he has been married to for 45 years, and three sons, Kevin, Patrick and Todd.
