Justin Beckwith to Join NENSA as Competitive Program Director

The New England Nordic Ski Association Board of Directors and Staff are pleased to announce Justin Beckwith of Warren, VT to the team as the new Competitive Program Director. “I believe in a holistic model of athlete development that encourages lifelong participation in the sport” said Justin on his new position with NENSA. “In this position, I will share my passion for adventure and competition with the entire NENSA community from the youngest BKL skier to the most veteran Master.”

A New York native and lifelong skier (and avid kayaker), Justin grew up skiing for the Holland Patent School and competed at Junior Nationals for both Mid-Atlantic and New England.  He graduated from the Stratton Mountain School and went on to attend Middlebury College, earning a BA in Environmental Studies and Nonfiction Writing. Justin has a strong competitive background as a world class athlete, skiing for the Middlebury College Ski Team and represented the US Team at the 1999 World Juniors held in Saalfelden, Austria, and competed at the 2001 Pre-Olympic World Cup in Salt Lake City.

With a successful career from 2006-2015 as Program Director and Head Nordic Coach at Green Mountain Valley School, Justin has a diverse background as an athlete, coach and trip leader. Justin has a long list of experience with competitive trips from the J1 Scando trip leader in 2009, World Junior Coach in 2012 and the New England Team Wax Tech 2009-2012 and most recently, the Leader of wax staff for the World Juniors and OPA Cup Finals in 2016 and 2017. Justin is known for his calmness through the inevitable storms of wax testing and making the right calls, consistently putting out the competitive skis on the best skiers day in and day out during a busy week.  During his tenure at GMVS, Justin has also ran NENSA’s Eastern REG Camp, so stepping back into that role will be a natural for him.

In keeping with the NENSA mission, the Competitive Program Director is tasked with positioning NENSA as a central resource for our community and as a national leader in coach, athlete, and club development. Beckwith will be guiding and creating resources to support NENSA’s athletes and coaches and will work closely with community stakeholders including USSA, EISA, local clubs, and the NENSA staff team. As CPD, Beckwith will also support NENSA’s Eastern Cup race series, the New England Junior National team, Eastern REG Camp, our Elite & Development teams, Coaches Education, Masters programing, and manage scoring and competitive rankings.

Amie Smith, Executive Director of NENSA, says of this new hire “We are thrilled Justin will be joining the NENSA staff, and our organization.  Justin will bring a wealth of knowledge and a breadth of experience – regionally, nationally and internationally, as well as his love and enthusiasm for the sport, to NENSA and to our New England skiing community.”  Justin takes over this position from Amie (former High Performance Director, 2015-17) who will remain at NENSA as the Executive Director.

Justin resides in the Mad River Valley with his wife Brie and their new pup, Mr. Benham.