By Rachel Becker

Los Altos High School Track and Field jump coach and four-time Swedish national champion Miche Hoffer is ramping up his team to succeed in the Central Coast Section championships.

The Los Altos High track and field team has landed a jumps coach with impressive credentials. Miche Hoffer, hired Jan. 25, is a four-time Swedish national decathlon champion.

“I competed up until last year,” said Hoffer, a member of Sweden’s national team for 14 years. “After that year, I felt that I had accomplished as much as I wanted to accomplish. I have other goals now.”

Those goals include helping the Eagles succeed in track. Hoffer, who hails from Stockholm, Sweden, is responsible for coaching the long jump, triple jump and high jump.

Hoffer ran his first track meet when he was 13 and began intensive training at 15. A year later, he earned a spot on the Swedish national track team. Hoffer’s athletic career includes four national championships in the decathlon (1997, 1999, 2000 and 2002) and a ninth-place finish in the European Championships (2000). He qualified for the 2000 Sydney Olympics as a member of the Swedish decathlon team, but a sprained ankle prevented him from competing. In 2004, he finished second in the decathlon at the Swedish National Championships.

Hoffer’s speciality has been the decathlon, 10 events taking place over two days. The first-day events include 100-meter dash, long jump, shot put, high jump, and 400 run. On the second day, participants compete in the discus, pole vault, javelin, 1,500 run and hurdles.

Hoffer began coaching in 2001 as an assistant at Los Gatos High School. In 2003, Hoffer was an assistant coach for the Stanford University team. Last year he founded a Bay Area branch of the Sweden-based Vasby track club, the club he competed for in Sweden. He continues to run the club in addition to his coaching duties at Los Altos.

Julia Widstrand, head coach of the Los Altos High track and field team, said of hiring Hoffer, “I have known Miche - and of Miche - for several years now and have watched him compete and train. It is obvious he is dedicated to this sport and knows the jumps well. I thought he would be a great asset to the team and I have worked on him for a year to get him to come join us.”

Hoffer said that he signed on as coach because, “I want the athletes to become as good as they can possibly get, and I know that they haven’t had very much jumping coaching before. I’m happy to help them because they have talent. … I enjoy seeing people succeed and accomplish their goals.”

Widstrand said Hoffer’s coaching has been instrumental in the development of Los Altos’ jumpers.

“The majority of our jumpers have excelled under Miche’s tutelage, and Jeff Clark has a great shot at (the state meet) because of it,” she said. “Miche’s technical skills as a coach have proved invaluable.”

Just ask Los Altos jumper Louise Goupil.

“He’s a great coach,” the sophomore said. “I’ve improved a lot thanks to his help, and he definitely knows a lot about jumping. I think all of the jumpers have improved because of the drills and exercises he has us do.”

Hoffer has set a lofty goal for Los Altos this season: to win a Central Coast Section championships.

“I would like to win CCS, which is going to be tough, but we have a pretty good team, with some talented and dedicated athletes,” he said. “I would like to see them go as far as they can go. States hopefully, and then who knows.”