Following a decade in Ontario, Pavlina Sudrich is coming home.

After spending the last three years as the coach of the Ontario cross-country ski team, the 28-year-old Yukoner recently announced her intentions to return home to Whitehorse in June.

Here, Sudrich will continue to pursue her dream of becoming a coach for Canada's World Cup squad by serving in a volunteer coaching capacity with the Yukon Elite Squad, which currently features young ski stars Knute Johnsgaard and Colin Abbott.

"I'm really happy to come home,” she said.

At 18, Sudrich left the territory to pursue a journalism degree at Carleton University in Ottawa.

Soon, she found herself coaching part time at the Nakkertok Ski Club. Shortly thereafter, coaching became Sudrich's full-time job and her academic degree went on the backburner.

"While I was there, we became the No. 1 club in Canada, winning the nationals banner every year since then,” she said.

"That wasn't all due to me,” she chuckled. "I was assistant coaching at the time, but it was a pretty dominant club on the national ski scene – and still is.”

Three years ago, she became coach of Team Ontario, coaching them from fourth and nearly 1,300 points back of first to as high as second this season, just 57 points behind Quebec.

Sudrich called this past season her best yet, as she visited 13 countries with her athletes.

However, Sudrich said her return to the Yukon has been a long time coming.

"In some respects, it's always hard to leave a position that you like and a lot of relationships that you've developed over the years, but honestly, I've wanted to come back to the Yukon since the day I left,” she told the Star today.

"I stayed outside of the territory in order to develop my career. I think at this point for me, I'm comfortable coming home and trusting that things will fall into place with my ambitions to work at the World Cup.”

Sudrich said she is looking forward to working with Johnsgaard and Abbott next season.

She will collaborate with Yukon ski coach Alain Masson to try and help the duo get to the next level.

The daughter of longtime Whitehorse Cross Country Ski Club trail groomer Rudy Sudrich was a member of the late Father Jean-Marie Mouchet's Territorial Experimental Ski Training (TEST) program.

She was also a member of the competitive Yukon ski team.