Lopers gets its name from the meaning of the English word "lope," which means to run with a strong, natural gait, or to bound with a long, sustainable stride. It also plays off the Norwegian word "løpe," which means to run. Lopers' first official athlete was Toby Tande, a Norwegian who started training under Coach Kevin while living in Mexico.
Lopers Running exists to help aspiring athletes reach their potential. While we give advice and talk to many people who love to run and just want to get better, our time and energy is put into those "up-and-coming" athletes. The goal is to push our athletes to the next level, to make them a higher caliber competitor. We primarily work with a caliber of athlete that has a great amount of potential and push them from mediocre to sub-elite and beyond.
Kevin started running at a very young age. He has had small time success in high school, college, and post-collegiately. He has qualified multiple times across cross country and track in high school state meets and college nationals. He is a 5-time All-American on the track and is a 3-time Steeplechase Champion in the NCCAA. Kevin was also part of the 2006 NCCAA Men's Indoor Track national championship team. After college, Kevin continued to run, including on several club teams sponsored by Asics and Brooks respectively. Post-collegiately, Kevin has competed across multiple distances including 800, mile, steeplechase, 5k, 10k, 10 mile, half-marathon, 25k, and marathon.
Kevin started his coaching career as an assistant at Cornerstone University in Grand Rapids, Michigan. During his 8 seasons across cross country and indoor & outdoor track, the athletes he worked with had much success under the coaching staff in the distance program at Cornerstone. He has had the privilege of working with 78 national qualifiers on the track and 4 individual and 3 team national qualifiers in cross country.
Across country and indoor & outdoor track he has had 36 conference champions and 2 conference team champions. In those champions, he has seen three conference records set in the women's 800 and the men's 5k and 10k. In his 51 total All-American honorees across the three sports, he helped coach 2 national champions (mile and racewalk) and 3 national runner-ups (mile, steeplechase, and racewalk).
Several of the athletes he worked with have continued to train and have success after college as they've continued to be coached by Kevin's head men's distance coach at Cornerstone U., Nate "Q" Van Holten with Q Elite Track Club.