New England Nordic Ski Association

Amie Smith

Donation Gift Challenge ~ we need 100 NENSA members to donate to our April Annual Fund Drive!

by

NENSA has been given a wonderful opportunity!  We have a member who has offered us a Donation Challenge!!

If 100 more people donate to our April Fund Drive, NENSA will receive $5000!  If 150 more people donate, we will receive $7500!

Please DONATE today ~ (minimum donations of $25 and above will count toward this challenge)

So far, 29 folks have donated to NENSA this month for a total of $8575.  We still have a long way to go to meet our annual $50k goal.

With 2263 NENSA members ~ I know we can do this! Please take a moment out of your day today to make a donation to our Annual Fund and keep all the great NENSA programs you love and count on around for next season too!

So tell your friends, and be a part of making these additional funds in our Donation Challenge happen for NENSA!  All it takes is $25 (feel free to give more if you can!)

Looking for the latest issue of KickZone?? It’s here!

by

Check out all the latest news HERE with the April 17th edition of KickZone eNews ~

You can DONATE to our April Annual Fund, see photos and read all about the Cochran’s Nordic Cross Race, buy one of the NENSA/SKIDA women’s day hats, place a BID for hosting an Eastern Cup, Zak Cup or Marathon next season, find out some important updates as of 4/15/19 to SafeSport Code and program, and check out all the upcoming events and camps on our calendar listings.

 

Annual April Fund Drive is ON! Please give as generously as you can and THANK YOU!

by

Greetings NENSA Community!

What another successful year this has been for our beloved sport of cross country skiing! Our NENSA programming is thriving and growing! Our competitive pipeline is alive and well with New England skiers garnering podiums from Junior Nationals, SuperTours and World Championships, and our Youth, Introductory, Masters and Roller Ski Race programs are expanding. Your financial support is critical to the continued success of all our NENSA programs!

April is the month of NENSA’s Annual Fund Drive and its success depends on every member giving what they can – such as YOU! NENSA’s goal is to have every NENSA members give something – give what you can – to raise $50,000 by April 30th.

Click HERE to Give to NENSA

Not sure what NENSA does??? Here is some of what we do:
Coaches & TD education and symposiums
Bill Koch League
Eastern Cup racing
Zak Cup Masters & Club Championships
Marathons Series
New England BKL Festival
U16 Championships
Eastern High School Championships
NENSA Elite & Development Teams
New England Junior National Team
Eastern REG Camp
Nordic Rocks programing
Event Organizers trainings
Women’s Day
Roller ski race series
Supporting Clubs
www.NENSA.net as a resource for all things New England Nordic

All of these wonderful programs are run by NENSA, and the NENSA staff. Without NENSA, these programs for all ages, and top notch racing in New England would not exist.

But NENSA is much more than great results ~ it is a family enjoying the Bill Koch Festival together, and it is a group of friends attending Woman’s Day. It’s juniors spending time with their friends at ski practice, and BKL’ers playing games and learning a sport that will stay with them for life. It’s coaches & TD’s learning new skills at our NENSA trainings, and it is masters having fun with their friends and teammates racing at Zak Cups, Club Championships and Marathons all winter long. It’s having the challenge and opportunity to roller ski race to the top of the APP Gap in August, or against all the top athletes at Jericho in October, getting ready to start yet another great season.

To keep NENSA running, and all these great events you know and love running, Please give as generously as you can ~ every single donation counts!

As a special incentive, any donations of $250 or more received this April Fund Drive will receive this special custom NENSA Skida fleece neck warmer pictured at the top of this email! A special thank you to SKIDA for these donation gifts!

From the NENSA staff team, our Board of Directors, and on behalf of the entire New England Nordic community, we thank you for taking the time to make a donation to NENSA today.

Best,
Amie W. Smith, Executive Director
Carol Van Dyke, President, Board of Directors

NENSA’s Team New England wins the Alaska Cup for the 6th year in a row!

by

NENSA could not be more proud of Team New England. The depth and team work displayed last week at U.S. Junior Nationals, both with the athletes and the coaching and wax tech staff were nothing short of amazing. Winning the the overall national divisional title at JN’s is such a privilege and and honor. We assume nothing (but certainly hope), and arrive each year to these Junior National Championships and just do our very best. I believe this 6th consecutive win for team New England (and 10th win out of the last 11 years) shows we are doing something right here at NENSA and in our New England region. This win is the sum of many smaller steps ~ that starts at our BKL youth level, and grows into Eastern Cup racing, U16 Championships, EHS Championships ~ they are the stepping stones of development and long range success. Thank you to all the coaches back home, at every age level, as well as the clubs, teams and supportive families. I am always impressed too with the way athletes, coaches, clubs, and teams from four different states that make up our NENSA region come together as colleagues and friends to make NENSA’s Team New England thrive!
NENSA would also like to thank the Nordic Ski Association of Anchorage, for putting on an amazing week of JN racing and fun in Alaska, and to all the race officials and volunteers who worked so hard all week to make it such a success.
We look forward to sharing the Alaska Cup with our NENSA members at different events this coming year, and to defending it again in Truckee CA next March 2020!

Will Solow is honored as the recipient of the Dave Quinn Award at US Junior Nationals

by

The Dave Quinn Award is awarded each year to one Junior National athlete. Each of the 10 divisions nominates one person, and then all 10 divisional cast one vote. The winner is announced at the final awards ceremony. This year, this honor was bestowed on one of New England’s own, Will Solow, of Heinsberg VT and currently a freshman at Colby College. The Dave Quinn Award recognizes that JN athlete who best exemplifies the ideals of the cross country sport that Dave Quinn expressed thought out his life. In addition to outstanding results, nominees should have special attributes such as love of the sport, leadership, overcoming hardship, worth ethic, etc. which make them unique.

Here is the lovely nomination presentation on Will Solow from his Colby assistant coach, and JN U20 mens coach, Jackson Bloch.

Good evening! I am so grateful to be given the chance to speak about tonight’s Dave Quinn Award recipient, Will Solow. In my one year coaching Will at Colby College, I learned as much about achieving excellence through character and happiness, as I may have ever previously understood. I don’t think Will knows this, though, and that is probably because these traits start with humility. Will never assumes his place in a situation, never takes his position for granted, and from this mindset springs unending gratitude for his opportunities. A grateful person, Will taught me, invests himself completely at every turn because he yearns to make the most of each chance. He doesn’t know when the next one is coming. And when you find yourself completely involved in the present with an uncompromising dedication to seizing the moment, you realize you are both closest to excellence and at your happiest. This is when magic happens. Will’s club coach told me that Will’s dedication to training and his balanced attitude led his team to choose him as captain his senior year, despite their coach never mentioning leadership or holding elections. They initiated it on their own out of respect for him. And after years of trying to make the Junior Nationals team in New England and following a post-graduate year in Sun Valley, Will finally is wearing the blue and green as a second year U20. He has four All-American finishes this week to reward his patience. As a first year student at Colby, Will, and I don’t know if I’m really allowed to say this… and I do know he’ll be upset with me when I do, had a perfect first semester academically.
What I haven’t said yet is that Will has dealt with degenerative hearing loss his whole life. He would never tell you that it affects him, but as his coach, at least, his roller skis seem doubly dangerous and I take extra care when we speak in order to communicate clearly. Like many individuals facing adversity on any scale, the adjustments Will has needed to make have thrown his opportunities into sharper relief, and he consistently uses this awareness to better himself and those around him. His perspective has made him an astonishingly selfless teammate. He has shared his belief that it is important to appreciate the value of skiing towards personal growth first, before considering the results. His dedicated, yet balanced approach, helped steady our team culture this year, which is no small burden for a first year to shoulder, whether he understood this role or not. And for me personally, Will’s integrity and drive is a consistent reminder to be grateful for the chance to squeeze the present for all it offers, regardless, or because of, what stands in the way.

Thank you, and congratulations Will

NENSA Masters Shine at World Cup Masters in Norway!

by

A number of NENSA Masters traveled to Norway this past week to participate in the Masters World Cup happening March 8th – 17th.

NENSA received word that Trina Hosmer (Stowe Nordic) had triple GOLD podiums in her M9 Women’s age group for winning the 10k skate, 5k classic, and 15k classic races!  WOW!  Bob Gray (Putney Ski Club) got a bronze in the skate 10k race and Dave Johnston (Brattleboro VT) won a silver in the 15k skate, and gold in the 10k skate.  Also Mary Heller Osgood (Putney Ski Club) USA relay team (age 60-70) got a bronze medal and Trina Hosmer’s relay team (age 70-80) also won a bronze.

Full results can be found at WM2019.com.

On their rest day, Trina and Dave Hosmer took a fantastic tour up in the mountains.  They report it was a perfect day and they even groom way up there!   They next all leave for Lillehammer where most will participate in Birkebeinner ~ an exciting and fun schedule for those Masters this past week!