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The NENSA Board of Directors is pleased to announce that Amie Smith will be taking the reins as Executive Director as we head into the 2016-17 ski season.  After serving as NENSA’s High Performance Director for the past 18 months, Amie is also now taking on staff management and organizational oversight, and will also continue to run NENSA’s competitive racing programs.

Peter Graves, who had filled the Director position on an interim basis, is stepping down as his freelance broadcasting role is becoming increasingly busy and he was unable to continue the job on a part-time basis. We thank Peter for his dedicated efforts for NENSA over the past few months. We are especially appreciative that he was willing to pitch in and help NENSA at a challenging time of transition.

Board President Carol Van Dyke commented that Amie is a powerhouse worker and enthusiastically communicates with staff and the general public on behalf of NENSA’s mission. Before Amie’s role as High Performance Director, she coached and volunteered for Cambridge Sports Union, an affiliated NENSA club, and volunteered as NENSA’s JN Trip Leader. In addition she has experienced the range of NENSA programming as her daughters came up through the NENSA system and Amie has participated in a number of Masters races herself.

Amie will lead NENSA’s strong staff team, which includes Amber Freeman, who is our Community Program Director, and Laura Creagan who is our IT Business Systems & Membership Manager.

A shout out and huge thank you to Julia Kern (CSU grad, Dartmouth/USST D team member) for working with the NENSA staff, and putting this together for us!  Peter Graves summed it up well….”When I think of NENSA, I think of the family that is New England skiing. It’s truly a way of life”  Enjoy!!

SUMMARY:  In May, the NENSA Board voted to move from using the NENSA points system, to using USSA points only, for scoring all EasternCup (EC) races, and for Junior National qualifying (JNQ) ranking list.  The NENSA staff had been working hard all summer to update, improve and streamline the EC registration and scoring process.  Here is what YOU need to know to be ready to race in the first EasternCup in December:

1. All EasternCup race registrations will be done on SkiReg.com, and registration will open on November 1st

2. All racers must have valid and current NENSA and USSA membership #’s to race – NO EXCEPTIONS

3. To renew or get your NENSA membership, go to NENSA.net

4. To renew or get your USSA membership, go to USSA.org (prices increase 10/15)

5. Regarding USSA memberships:  All EC racers will be listed in the overall race results, regardless of your membership levels ($15 general membership or $95 competitor membership).  BUT,, if you want to be listed and ranked on the USSA NRL (National Ranking List), and be ranked (best of 3 for U16, or best of 4 for U18/U20) on our NENSA website for qualifying for the New England Junior National team, you MUST buy the USSA competitors membership.  So, if you have any thoughts, plans, dreams or desires to try to make the JN team, buy the competitors membership now.

6. You cannot buy a USSA competitors license later in the season and have it retroactively apply to previous races.  If you want to be listed on the NRL and ranked for JNQ – buy the competitor license, not the general membership NOW, before the start of the race season.

7. Buy both your NENSA & USSA memberships early.  Do not wait until the day you register on SkiReg.com.  Your correct data needs to be in our systems (NENSA & USSA) at least a few days before you register on SkiReg.

8. Each EasternCup race Virtual Team Captain’s Meeting (VTCM) will be hosted on NENSA.net.  Please check our website VTCM race information page for frequent updates, especially as the race weekend approaches.  This page will provide you with venue updates, times changes, important racer and coach information.

9. Registration will close at 5pm on the Wednesday before each EasternCup weekend.

10. Seed lists will be posted on Thursday (using points from the most current list)

11. Start lists will be posted on Friday

12. EasternCup race results link will be provide from the Timer and a link will be posted on NENSA.net.  All racers who competed in the EasternCup race will be listed in this results link.

13. Each EasternCup race will be scored by USSA, and updated to the NRL by USSA.

14. USSA updates their lists by the calendar on these dates:: http://nordic.usskiteam.com/cross-country-programs/officials/rankings/ussa-fis-points

15. SEEDING:  All racers will be seeded by their best of USSA/FIS points.  If you do not yet have current USSA points profile (bought a competitor’s license but have not raced a race yet to be listed on the current USSA list in use), or, if you are a general member, you will be listed as 990 and seeded randomly behind the seeded group.  Once you have a USSA points profile, you will be seeded according to that number.  If you are just a general member, you will always be seeded as a 990 behind the seeded group.

16. For U18/U20 JN qualifying, NENSA will rank Best of 4 EC and/or OOR races, and this will be posted on NENSA.net for current NENSA & USSA competitor members only.  Scored USSA races will be posted for ranking, as soon as we get them back from USSA, usually by no later than Thursday after the race weekend.  Racers without a competitive USSA license will NOT be included in the rankings.

17. For U16 JN qualifying, NENSA will score only the Best of 3 EC races, and no OOR races.  This will be done using USSA Super Tour Scoring (see below).   NENSA shall use the following tie-breaking mechanisms in order (selection races are the 8 U16 races at NENSA Eastern Cups; for sprints, the final results for the top 12 come from the heats/finals, and from the qualifying for places 13 and higher):
    ~Best single finish in a selection race
    ~Second best single finish in a selection race
    ~Third best single finish in a selection race
    ~Fourth best single finish in a selection race

USSA SuperTour Scoring:

The USSA SuperTour scoring system awards points to the top 20 competitors in each event.
Place	Points
1	30
2	25
3	21
4	18
5	16
6	15
7	14
8	13
9	12
10	11
11	10
12	9
13	8
14	7
15	6
16	5
17	4
18	3
19	2
20	1

18.  For JNQ U16/U18/U20 rankings only – the two EC sprint race heats will be scored.

19.  Out-of-Region Races for 2016-17 season:  

~US National Championships, SoHo, Midway, Utah for U18/U20’s only:

Saturday January 7: Freestyle Individual Start 10/15k

Sunday January 8: Classic Sprint

Tuesday January 10: Classic Mass Start juniors 5k/10k

~SLU CARNIVAL/Harry Eldridge MID-ATLANTIC JNQ, Lake Placid, NY

Saturday January 21st ONLY:

EISA men and U18/U20 boys 10 km freestyle (individual start)

EISA women and U18/U20 girls 5 km freestyle (individual start)

THERE IS NO OOR RACES for U16’s

The US Nationals races listed above, as well at the SLU/Harry Eldridge Mid-A JNQ race on 1/21/17, will be scored to the NENSA JNQ Ranking Lists using USSA points for U18 & U20’s. An athlete must be a USSA competitor member to compete at the US National Championships.

To score NENSA JNQ points, U18/U20 athletes must compete in the designated races at US Nationals. Points for other races will not be scored to the NENSA JNQ Ranking Lists.