2025 NENSA Fall Coaches Conference

BKL Parent Leaders Conference, High School/Junior/College Coaches Symposium, and USSS L100 Assessment

Saturday Nov. 8th & Sunday Nov. 9th 2025

REGISTER HERE

Conference Schedule

Posted HERE

Saturday Evening Keynote & Coaches Social

Hosted by Podiumwear

How I Built This: SMS, West River Sports, and Supporting Skiers All the Way Through with Sverre Caldwell

Panel discussion on community development with Former Stratton Mountain School Program Director and longtime NENSA community stalwart Sverre Caldwell.

“I am not making them great. They are making themselves great.” – Sverre Caldwell, to FasterSkier in 2019.

As of late, America has had outsized success in the world of nordic skiing. In American skiing, the State of Vermont has had outsized success in producing world class nordic skiers. And in Vermont, one community tucked up in the Green Mountains has been home to an outsized number of those skiers, Stratton.

Nordic hadn’t climbed the mountain yet, literally, when Sverre Caldwell started coaching at SMS in 1980. Down in the West River Valley community of Putney, a generation of successful American skiers including Bill Koch, Martha Rockwell, and Sverre’s brother Tim were working with a group led by Sverre’s Father, John.

Sverre set to grounding his family roots in ski community. While coaching his SMS team, he led efforts to get local kids on skis at West River Sports, and on the other end, founded the SMS T2 Olympic Development Program. The result was a community which lived up to his highest ideal: have skiers pursue the sport to the best of their abilities, wherever those abilities took them.

Now retired, our NENSA community gets a chance to hear stories, lessons learned, and guiding philosophies from a community member who has an outsized role in developing what we all know and love as US Skiing. In a loosely structured conversation, Sverre is set to lead this discussion as he led his Program: approachable, set in principles, and with a love of nordic skiing radiating through.

Sverre Caldwell, Fmr. SMS Program Director Bio:

Sverre Caldwell has coached, developed, and led the SMS Nordic community since 1980. During his tenure at SMS, the nordic program produced 15 Olympians, and produced at least one Junior National Champion for 24 straight years (a streak which is currently ongoing, now at 28 years).

Featured Saturday Presenters

Foundations of Balance for Developing Nordic Skiers – Sharon Henry, PT, Ph.D, ATC Professor Emerita of Physical Therapy at the University of Vermont.

Dr. Sharon Henry will provide a two-part lecture and practicum focused on the elements of balance control, how the skill of balance changes across the athlete development span, and the guiding principles that coaches can use to select activities that enhance balance control in their athletes. With a PhD in Neuroscience and post-doctoral training in human postural control, Dr. Henry has a long career in sensorimotor control in musculoskeletal populations. As a student of cross-country skiing for the last 18 years and member of the Mansfield Nordic Club ski community, she is interested in and challenged by the balance demands of the sport and is happy to share her expertise in balance with the skiing community!

Navigating Sport Phases: The Human Side of Coaching – Lizzie Larkins, M.S.

Skiers are always coming to practice from somewhere else. Coaching skiers, then, means helping them navigate the sport alongside big transitions in their young lives.

Lizzie Larkins has spent her career thinking and researching those big transitions. While actively coaching the Montana State Bobcats ski team, she completed her thesis examining the transition away from competitive nordic skiing for skiers at the collegiate and elite levels. Here those findings are paired with Lizzie’s own experiences as a former UVM skier, junior coach at Auburn Ski Club in her native Truckee, California, member of the 2022-23 World Junior Ski Championships Staff, and US Trip Leader for the 2024 Youth Olympic Games. Lizzie currently works with the US Paralympic team.

BKL Parent-Leaders and Coaches Saturday Program

BKL Technique Essentials – Bob Fisher, Prospect BKL.
- An on-foot clinic sharing technique progressions, drills, and games from some of our regional BKL leaders.
- Bob Fisher has been a longtime 5-6th grade coach at the Prospect BKL program in Woodford, Vermont. He grew up skiing himself in Southern Vermont, and has raised his three children through Bill Koch League programming.
Philosophy of Youth Skiing in New England – Mackenzie Rizio, NENSA
- A talk on the values and ideals of the Bill Koch League, from NENSA’s own Youth and Introductory Program Director
BKL Practice Management Roundtable Discussion
- Come join the conversation around best practices around BKL group management with other club coaches and parent leaders.
BKL District-Level Event Planning Workshop -Jay Davis, Ford Sayre
- Hear from Ford Sayre BKL’s own Jay Davis on some special events that FS offers their club members – and. then design your own event plan tailored to your club and district.

For 26 years, he has been an integral part of the Ford Sayre BKL program, coaching every grade level and sharing his love of skiing with athletes of all ages. His two children have also grown up skiing and racing with Ford Sayre. As Head Coach for the K–8 BKL programs, he leads the planning, coordination, and education of the coaching team.

High School/Junior/College Coach Saturday Program

Ski Service Essentials for Junior Skiers – Zach Caldwell, Caldwell Sport.
- Managing the constraints of time, conditions, and equipment consistently produce the right tool for skiers on race day, with Zach Caldwell.

The NENSA Ecosystem & Analysis of Current Junior Skiing Landscape – Ben Theyerl, NENSA.
- Where and how are skiers in New England developing? Ideas to help us all ski better, together.
What are we Looking at? Analyzing Junior Technique Building Blocks – Kathy Maddock, Dublin XC Head Coach, Adam Terko, Mansfield Nordic Club Executive Director, Alex Jospe, Stratton Mountain School.
- An on-foot & on-ski group clinic sharing technique progressions, drills, and games from some of our regional coaching leaders.

Sunday Offering

USSS L100 Assessment

Assessment by Bryan Fish & Ben Theyerl

Registration Deadline Sunday, October 26th

Full information on the USSS L100 Assessment Opportunity is Available HERE.

Registration done separately through USSS Sport Ed. Academy. Please note that the cost of this USSS L100 Assessment is $50. Registration for Saturday’s Program is done via NENSA HERE.

Already Certified? – Saturday’s offerings earn the 10 Continuing Education Credits required to maintain certification for USSS L100 + L200 Coaches!

Coaches should “self-report” their participation in the Sport Ed. Academy.