Alaska Winter Stars
A year-round physical fitness program with an emphasis in cross country skiing
Meet The Coaches
907-360-2510
Jan Buron
Founder & Head Coach
Jan has over 30 years of experience in competitive cross country skiing beginning with his time as a member of the Polish National Team. He was a World Cup Competitor, Polish National Champion, Medalist in U.S Masters Cross-Country Championships (1997,2007,2014) and was voted "Coach of the Year" by the US Cross Country Ski Association in the 1998-1999 and 2009-2010, and International Coach the year in 2018-2019 and 2019-2020 seasons. He is a lifelong athlete with a passion for cross country skiing and has dedicated the past 3 decades to coaching future generations of athletes.
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Karina Packer
Assistant Coach
Karina started skiing with Alaska Winter Stars as an athlete in 2005, training with Jan all the way through college. She began coaching for AWS after graduating from Dartmouth College in 2015 and is passionate about following developing research on endurance sports and female athletes. On the side, Karina is a registered professional engineer and trains for triathlon, skiing, and running.
Seiji Takagi
Assistant Coach
Seiji joined AWS in 2008 and trained and competed for the club all the way through college. He attended the University of Alaska Fairbanks from 2014-2018 on athletic scholarship as part of the UAF cross country running and ski teams. During the summer between school years while training with the AWS Elite team, Seiji joined the coaching staff as an assistant coach for the Younger Junior program. Upon graduating from UAF, Seiji returned to Anchorage and joined the club as a full time coach. Seiji’s coaching resume thus far includes serving on the coaching staff for AWS at U.S. Senior Nationals, serving on the coaching staff for Team Alaska at U.S. Junior Nationals, and serving as a coach at both U.S. National U16 Camp and Alaska REG camps. Seiji is also a USSS L100 certified coach. Outside of skiing, Seiji has earned undergraduate degrees in Biology and Psychology, a Masters degree in Public Health, and is currently working toward acceptance into Medical School. When Seiji is not coaching, he can most likely be found running around the mountains with his golden retriever Oakley or working part time at Alaska Mountaineering and Hiking.