For two decades, Paul Crews [1982-2001] was the bedrock of an Alaska Anchorage program that has been one of the most consistent winners in collegiate skiing.
Following a collegiate career at Western State, he earned a spot on the World Cup downhill tour in 1971-72, becoming the first Alaskan to qualify for the U.S. Ski Team. Crews rejoined the national team as a coach in 1980, and two years later he returned home to join the Seawolves as an Alpine assistant to fellow Seawolf Hall-of-Famer Tom Besh.
The 1990 season would be the first of Crews' 11 seasons as head coach, with the team never placing worse than 10th at NCAAs. In 1991, the Seawolves produced the first of five national champions under his watch when Stig Matsson claimed the 20K classical title. Izidor Jerman became the first UAA Alpiner to earn a national title with a slalom win in 1997 - one of three Seawolves to win individual crowns that year. Crews' team skied to a school-record fifth-place finish at the 1993 NCAA Championships and equaled that feat in 1997 and 1998.
Individually, 48 Seawolves claimed All-America honors under his tutelage. Before retiring from the program in 2001, he was instrumental in landing the 2002 NCAA Skiing Championships that UAA hosted at Kincaid Park and Alyeska Ski Resort. It was the second time Crews helped UAA earn an NCAA host role (1987), and it ended in triumph as his former recruit, Aurore de Maulmont, became the first UAA Alpine woman to win a national title.
Along with his accomplishments at UAA, Crews also worked with former Olympic gold medalist Tommy Moe during his heyday in the early 1990s. Currently the director of the Alyeska Ski Club, he has helped host the U.S. National Alpine Championships in 2005, 2007 and 2009.
He and his wife Barbara live in Girdwood and are the parents of three children, Abigail, Laura and Nicholas.
