Christine Eckstein, Pacific's new head cross country coach, has landed her "dream job."

"To be honest, I don't think it's actually hit me yet," Eckstein said. "I have to sit and think about it every now and then, you got your job. You got your dream job. You've worked your butt off for 11 years and you made it. That's the constant phrase I'm telling myself, 'You made it.' You finally got there."

Eckstein, a member of Mountain View's 2000 Class 4A girls cross country state championship team, comes to Pacific after a distinguished collegiate running career, where she was a five-time All-American at Clark College and Community Collges of Spokane before finishing at Eastern Oregon as a four-time NAIA National Qualifier.

"Part of the reason that I'm in coaching is my community college experience," Eckstein said. "I had a really amazing coach. And he was the reason that I decided to get into this profession."

After running one season of cross country for coach Erik Anderson, Eckstein took time off from college to work. Missing running and wanting to return to school, Eckstein followed Anderson to Spokane. 

"Running for him (Anderson) that second time really helped me understand and respect the coaching role and what they do as a coach and how much time they put into it," Eckstein said. "And I felt like everything he did for me, not giving up on me, giving me a second chance, basically being a father figure, that was the reason that I chose to get into coaching because I wanted to help the next person that needed somebody like him."

Eckstein started her coaching career in 2013 at Treasure Valley Community College in Ontario. After coaching at Mt. Hood Community College, Clark College and then Crook County High School, Eckstein spent last year as an assistant coach at Oregon State. 

"I feel like having all that experience has really helped me in a lot of ways as far as creating this vision of what I want the program to be," Eckstein said. "I want it to be fun, but I also want it to be a challenge. With these kids, this is a short part of their life and you've got to make it one of the best times of their life."

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