Maria Stuber finished her seventh and final season as the St. Scholastica Men’s and Women’s Nordic Ski Coach in 2022-23.
In 2022-23 the program is coming off a record-breaking season. The team obtained multiple Central Collegiate Ski Association team wins, Victoria Dybwad and Zachary Jayne skied to individual NCAA Central Region Champions, the men's team won the NCAA Central Region Championship, and, for the first in program history, the maximum number of men qualified for the NCAA championships. Stuber also coached Max Nelson who qualified for the Para World Cup and earned a spot on the National Team and she coached Emma Stertz to the top finish for an American, 17th place at the Biathlon World Junior Championship. In 2023, Stuber was named the Central Collegiate Ski Association Women's Team Coach of the Year and the Tucker Center Women Coaches Symposium College Coach of the Year.
In 2021, Stuber and the team had a school record five Saints qualified for the NCAA Skiing Championships, including three women for the first time in program history. At those championships, Stuber coached Emil Book Bratbak to All-America honors in the 10km classic, to become the program’s second NCAA All-American.
In 2020, Stuber had both Book Bratbak and Tamer Mische-Richter qualify for the NCAA Championships, marking the first time since 2012 the program has multiple men’s qualifiers in the same season.
In 2019, she coached Book Bratbak to a National appearance, becoming the first freshman skier to qualify for the NCAA Championships.
In 2018, she coached Kelsey Dickinson to another NCAA Championship appearance. She also coached Mia Zutter, who competed at the 2018 PyeongChang Paralympic Games.
Stuber was hired in August of 2016 as the school’s second-ever nordic ski head coach. In her first season she coached Reitler Hodgert and Dickinson to NCAA Championship appearances.
Stuber arrived in Duluth from Aspen, Colorado where she has been the Nordic Program Director of Aspen Valley Ski & Snowboard Club from 2013-16. During her tenure she grew the program's enrollment by 60 skiers to around 200 athletes in 2016.
She has had 10 different athletes from the club qualify for the Junior National Championships, including eight podium finishes. Her club has been represented at the World Junior Championships or the Scandinavian Cup every year during her tenure.
Stuber, a Waukesha, Wisconsin native, is familiar with skiing in the Midwest. She attended Northern Michigan University where she skied and ran cross country from 2002-08. While at NMU, she was a four-time NCAA Division II Cross Country national qualifier and also qualified for the NCAA Ski Championships in 2008, where she placed 13th in the 5km freestyle.
She was a two-time First Team All-CCSA (Central Collegiate Ski Association) selection and was a three-year team captain, including the 2007 season where she captained the only nordic ski team in NCAA history to sweep the podium in both events at the NCAA Championships, a moment she is most proud of. That 2007 team was inducted into the Northern Michigan University Sports Hall of Fame in the fall of 2019.
Stuber went on to earn her Bachelor's Degree from Northern Michigan in Biology/Physiology in 2007 and then went on to get her Master's in Exercise Science from NMU in 2010.
Following her collegiate career, Stuber continued to ski competitively, while also building her coaching resume. She was a five-time USSA SuperTour Champion from 2008-12 and was a U.S. Championship silver medalist in 2009. She finished fourth in the 2010 American Birkebeiner and was ranked as high as ninth nationally in 2012.
Stuber has had previous stops in coaching NCAA Division III athletes being the head women's cross country coach at Alverno College (Wis.) in 2010 and then the head men's and women's cross country coach for Southern Vermont College from 2011-13. While coaching at SVC, she guided the men's team to a program-best runner-up conference finish in 2012 and led the women's squad to the program's best finish of fourth since joining the New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) that same year.
"I am really excited to be a part of this truly special time in a student-athletes development," said Stuber. "College athletes are learning course material, taking athletics seriously, and making life-long friends all to disguise and instigate self-discovery. With quality leadership, athletics can be the best platform for teaching young adults how to overcome adversity, resolve conflicts and deal with difficult situations."
