By KYRA BINNEY ’26
Updated 11:50 a.m. EDT, 6 Feb 2026
The beginning of the semester brings change in Houghton University’s (HU) staff. Coach Patrick Hager, the Head Cross Country and Track and Field coach since 2014, is the new Director of Vocation and Calling in the Center for Student Success. After over a decade of coaching for HU, he made the tough decision to pivot his career in order to spend more time with his family.
During his coaching career, Hager turned the Cross Country and Track Teams into top competitors in the conference. The team won two Empire 8 Conference titles in 2019 and 2023. Hager coached two athletes, Noelle Linenfelser ‘26 and Amos Bixler ‘26, to qualify for the NCAA Cross Country Championships in 2024 and 2025, respectively. Under him, many athletes won individual conference titles and pushed themselves to new personal bests.
When first considering the pivot in his career, Hager and his wife, Sarah Hager, knew they wanted to stay at HU. They love the community and the people around them. When the Director of Vocation and Calling position opened, Hager described it as a “light bulb moment”. He shared, “It intrigued me. It sounded like work that I had transferable skills for, and I could learn the other technical parts of it.”
In his new position, Hager will continue to help students chase academic and career goals.
Hager found it hard to leave his coaching position due to the relationships he had built with student athletes that would inevitably change when they don’t work together every day. While he found success in numerous titles and competition wins, he built countless relationships with his athletes over the years. The part Hager will miss the most is sharing in the success of his athletes, “When someone performs well, hits their goal, or wins a conference, you just share a moment together at the finish line where we’re both excited. You did this, but we did this together. You just live in that moment for a little bit. That’s the moment I’ll miss the most.”
While Hager’s departure will be hard for the current team, they are happy for his family’s future. “It is a little discouraging, since he’s such a great coach,” said Grace Bailey, a sophomore on the Cross Country team. “I’m really excited for him, and I hope he’s going to do great things.”
Hager wants his office to be a place where students feel excited to go to. He looks forward to being a resource for students in his new role; “I want to be an office or person that people are excited to come down to, [and] you do because ‘he’s knowledgeable’ and will make you feel like [he’s] taking care of you.”★
