New faculty member Kira Shaikh will be the head coach of the girls cross country program.

Recently joining the history and social sciences department, Shaikh takes over from interim coach Claudia McGuigan.

In addition to running cross country, Shaikh enjoyed a standout college career at Bates in softball. She led the team in batting average and most stolen bases in a season, and also earned a NESCAC Sportsmanship Award.

After college, Shaikh ran straight back into her love for running by competing in eight marathons within three years, three of which she ran within five weeks of each other. While running the Boston Marathon in 2019, she raised over $10,000 for Dream Big, a non-profit organization that empowers young females through athletics. 

Throughout her time, Shaikh has coached successful cross country and softball teams in both public and private boarding schools in New England. Her boys’ varsity cross-country team earned fourth place in the 2019 NEPSTA DIII Cross Country Championships.

“With strong backgrounds in two extremely different sports, Coach Shaikh brings a well-rounded perspective to what it means to be a student-athlete and competitive, team player. She hopes to share this balance with Hotchkiss students as well as continue to challenge them to achieve more than what they may initially believe,” said co-athletic director Robin Chandler.