For much of the last full year of her life, Erica (Snowlake) Hagenlocher was organizing a 50th reunion for one of the great underdog sports stories in Central New York history.
She was part of the Syracuse Chargers’ 14-17 girls’ cross-country team which won the AAU National Championships in 1974 and 1975.
The reunion took place in September 2024 at Green Lakes State Park.
“It was a glorious three-day event,” her sister, Kirschen, said, “with teammates coming from around the country, many who hadn’t been in touch for decades.”
Her efforts were tireless. Besides the reunion, she set up a dinner at the Dinosaur Bar-B-Que and worked with this reporter for an article looking back at the team.
“There’s maybe a little too much of me,” she said after it published, “but I love it!”
That sounded a lot like my sister, Kirschen thought.
“This was her legacy,” she said. “Erica encouraged inclusivity for all. No one ever felt left out and there was always space for everyone, no matter what.”
“When I think of Erica,” Charger coach Al Bonney said last week, “I think of her smile and sunshine. The reunion would not have happened without her.”
Assistant coach Lawrie Robertson echoed Bonney’s thoughts.
“Everyone I chatted with felt it was an exceptionally well-organized weekend where conversations started 50 years previously seamlessly started anew as if no intervening passage of time had taken place. Erica made that experience and bonding possible.”
Erica Hagenlocher, remembered as a “beloved sister, faerie godmother, and friend” passed away peacefully on Tuesday, September 9, after a courageous, 11-month battle with ovarian cancer.
She was 66 years old.
Hangenlocher was born on March 1, 1959, in Syracuse, N.Y., to Helen Martins and Welker Hagenlocher.
She spent her childhood playing with her sisters, playing her flute, and reading books. With her photographic memory and love of learning, Hagenlocher consumed several books a week throughout her life.
“She loved spending time in a library and acquired library cards each time she would move to a new city,” her sister said.
She and her sisters joined the Syracuse Chargers Running Club.
Started in 1971, the Chargers were, The Post-Standard said at the time, “the first recreational program in the U.S. to involve large numbers of suburban and inner-city youths in year-round athletics.”
The running program blossomed in 1972 under the coaching of Alan Bonney.
Hagenlocher was an integral member of the team that won back-to-back National Cross-Country Championships. Bonney said she was “the glue” on the team.
“She had the drive,” he said. “She was always very positive.”
Teammate Amy Welch, living now in Austin, TX, said:
“We were both somewhat social misfits and became ‘partners in crime’ pulling pranks, going through crushes and normal teenage milestones together, supporting each other. We spent many weekend sleepovers when we were not on the road competing in meets.”
“We had no idea we could win,” Hagenlocher said last year. “It was not a foregone conclusion. But we were a dedicated and cohesive team.”
She also ran for Nottingham high school during its dynasty days.
She competed in cross country, the 440-yard hurdles, and the open 440, as well as anchoring both the mile and 2-mile relays. For several seasons, her teams were New York State champions.
After high school, Hagenlocher was offered full track and cross-country scholarships to Division I schools but headed instead to the University of Washington, which didn’t offer women scholarships at that time, to study journalism.
In her senior year, while studying in London, Erica got involved in the punk movement.
Eventually, she made her way back to Washington and on a holiday to Vancouver fell in love with Canada. She moved to Sechelt, British Columbia with her partner Rob Marion, where together they built an incredible life in the forest community, full of artists and creatives, farmers and healers.
Hagenlocher opened the first juice bar in Roberts Creek, B.C., and “it was a wonderful inclusive space where the community would gather and tell stories,” her sister said.
“Again, Erica was bringing folks together.”
In 1997, she and Rob, and a few friends created the Roberts Creek Mandala.
This community mandala was organized originally to cover up negative graffiti and blossomed from there. More than 2000 locals from the surrounding communities come each summer to paint and share the joy of creating this gorgeous piece of art.
Her friend Nicola Tizburi, who called herself part of Hagenlocher’s “Sunshine Coast family,” said her friend was “wise but ever so young at heart.”
“She engaged in relationships of lively play with all animals, children and willing people she came in contact with. She gave much of her beauty, in a short lifetime. Many will understand when I say, perhaps her rainbow frequency was too much for our world, at this time.”
This summer, she made her final trip to the mandala and painted her last section, which was of the Salish Sea.
“Erica was an avid adventurer and passionate about travel,” her sister said. “She moved around the planet deftly. It would not be unusual for her to pick up and travel alone to Argentina or New Zealand for a season or two, making friends along the way, taking jobs that allowed her to extend her stay, and then returning to Los Angeles or Roberts Creek to stay connected to her tribe.”
Eventually, she moved to Los Angeles and lived in the Venice neighborhood, becoming involved in the raw food movement and writing for the “Venice Beachhead.”
Hagenlocher wrote human interest stories on the creative art scene as well as political stories on the dire homeless situation, often profiling individuals and their challenging experiences.
She donated time serving food to the unhoused with the organization “Food not Bombs.” And she spent her free time writing poetry and performing spoken word.
“Guided by a strong sense of justice,” she cared deeply about social and environmental causes.
“She believed in compassion, fairness, tolerance, protecting the beauty of the natural world, and fighting for democracy and humanity,” her sister said.
“Erica is deeply missed and forever remembered. She was a beautiful soul.”
A celebration of Hagenlocher’s life is scheduled to take place in August 2026 in Roberts Creek, British Columbia.
“Again,” her sister said, “Erica was magical at bringing folks together.”
