General | 12/01/2021

National Girls & Women in Sport Day - Minnesota Website

ST. JOSEPH, Minn. – The College of Saint Benedict athletic department has had many visionary female leaders and coaches since the beginning of CSB athletics in the 1970s. This February, two of those leaders will be honored for their work not only in building the department, but for ensuring that women at Saint Benedict will have the opportunity to compete for years to come.
 
CSB's cross country and track and field coach Robin Balder-Lanoue is a Breaking Barriers Award winner and former physical education department chair and longtime CSB athletics supporter Margy Retica Hughes will receive the Marie Berg Education Award, it was announced Wednesday afternoon.
 
The duo will be honored, along with 13 other influential individuals in girls' and women's sports, at the National Girls & Women in Sports Day – Minnesota celebration on Wednesday, Feb. 2, 2022.
 
Balder-Lanoue has spent her entire professional career creating opportunities for women and helping them compete to the best of their ability. She is in her 25^th season as Saint Benedict's cross country coach, and her 24^th year as the school's head track and field coach. Balder-Lanoue, who ran for CSB in college and was part of the school's first track and field team, said the most gratifying part of her work in the confidence she helps instill in her athletes.
 
Along with coaching, Balder-Lanoue is still an active runner, and in 1995 she co-founded Baba Yaga – an all-women's relay team. They started out running the 12-woman Hood to Coast Relay every year, and won the event eight times and set Masters and Submasters records. They were the first all-women's team by almost two hours at the Ragnar Relay Northwest Passage in 2015, and in 2021 they were the first all-women's team to cross the finish line at the Ragnar Minnesota Relay – by more than four hours. While winning is always their goal, Balder-Lanoue still points to the confidence that she and her teammates gain by running these 24-hour relays is the best part.
 
While Balder-Lanoue has helped grow the cross country and track and field teams at CSB, Hughes helped build them – and the athletic department. When Hughes started at Saint Benedict in the physical education department in 1966, women's athletics were considered 'recreation.' Opportunities and finances were limited. But Hughes – a Professor Emerita at CSB/SJU – used her position in the physical education department to work with athletics to create full-time positions.
 
Coaches taught phy ed classes, and also coached an athletic team. As budgets grew, Hughes pushed to hire coaches whose sole job was to coach a team. She was heavily involved in the building of CSB's swimming pool and Claire Lynch Hall, and she played a key role in advancing Saint Benedict's application for acceptance into the MIAC starting in 1985-86.
 
Hughes also helped students at CSB and SJU build skills for a lifetime of spot. In 1982 she moved into the role of Physical Education Chair, and when the departments combined, she became the joint chair until she retired in 2003. She was a charter member of the CSB Athletics Hall of Fame, and the department hands out the Margy Hughes Inspirational Award each year to an individual or team that has been an inspiration throughout the year – much like Hughes was and is to her colleagues and the hundreds of CSB student-athletes served through the programs she helped build.
 
The 2022 National Girls & Women in Sport Day – Minnesota celebration is at noon on Feb. 2 at the Minnesota History Center in St. Paul. The event is free and open to the public. For more information about the event or NGWSD, visit www.ngwsd-mn.com.