NENSA News

May 1st marks the start of our new membership year at NENSA and we have some exciting developments to share with you!

Membership renewals are now open!

There’s no better time than today to take care of your renewal and access a full year of NENSA programming, benefits, and resources. Join or renew at membership.nensa.net.

Explore the all-new “Member Benefits” tab

You will find a new tab titled “Member Benefits” at the top of your screen. Here you can access all of your NENSA member benefits and resources in one place. This is your one-stop hub for all the perks that come with being part of the NENSA community, including—but not limited to:

• Discounted entry to NENSA events
• Access to educational opportunities and resources
• Subscription to NENSA newsletters: Kickzone (the official newsletter of NENSA), Trail Tales (BKL), and Coaches Update
• Access to Eastern Cup, Bill Koch Festival, and U16 and Eastern High School Championship events
• Eligibility for athlete development projects
• Scoring and ranking in Eastern Cup, Zak Cup and Marathon Challenge
• Exclusive offers from NENSA sponsors

Club leaders: Now is also a great time to renew Club memberships!

If you are enrolled in NENSA’s General Liability Insurance program, you’ll want to do this before your first program. You can find information about Club Liability Insurance on the Member Benefit page. 

NENSA Clubs are eligible to receive General Liability insurance coverage under the NENSA master policy.

A Master policy aggregates coverage for the community, offers better coverage than what clubs may find individually, and saves our clubs the costs of these separate policies. It is a member benefit that we are proud to offer and that we believe will benefit our community directly through the local savings it offers to clubs.

NENSA Club Liability Insurance

NENSA is a member-supported nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting the culture of cross-country skiing across all ages and levels.

Your support provides critical funding that keeps our operations running year-round. It funds programs for skiers of all ages and levels, from youth and grassroots initiatives to adult events and elite development. It also helps us offer low- and no-cost programming, expand access, and create a more inclusive and vibrant Nordic ski community across New England.

Thank you for being part of the NENSA family!

NENSA is excited to announce the nominations for our Regional Elite Group (REG) and Regional Development Group (RDG) Camps! Nominated athletes should fill out the acceptance form linked below by Friday, May 9th, 2025. An additional form will follow after this deadline to formally accept and pay a camp deposit, fill out medical and allergen information, and provide emergency contact information (aka, the paperwork form is still coming!).

CALL FOR COACHES: Interested Coaches should fill out the call for coaches form HERE.

Full nomination lists, acceptance forms, criteria and information is and will remain available on NENSA’s “Development Camp” Page HERE.

Regional Elite Group Camp (REG) – August 9th-13th at Stratton Mountain School, Vermont

The Regional Elite Group (REG) Program is a US Ski and Snowboard (USSS) and National Nordic Foundation (NNF) sponsored program which introduces promising skiers to a regional network of peer skiers and coaches via a structured training environment modeled after US Ski Team Training Camps. Eastern REG organized and administered by NENSA for the USSS Eastern Region, including Mid-Atlantic and New England skiers.

Members of the REG are invited to REG Camp during summer each year. REG Camp serves 3 overlapping purposes. 1) Provide a fun, structured training block for peer athletes from across the East, 2) Facilitate regional collaboration between skiers and coaches on training and technique, and 3) Serve as a qualifying opportunity for the National Training Group (NTG) Camp held by USSS in Utah every October.

REG Camp this year is structured to include:

– A cohort of U18-U20 skiers with proven potential as nationally competitive skiers.

– An emphasis on providing a structured training block, while also targeting representative efforts for testing towards National Training Group (NTG) Camp.

– Estimated cost: ~$600 including Room and Board. Final cost will be represented at time of camp deposit submission.

Regional Development Camp (RDG) – July 5th-7th at Craftsbury Outdoor Center, Vermont

Regional Development Group Camp (RDG) is a NENSA-run program which introduces promising skiers to a regional network of peers and coaches through a structured training environment. Regional Development Camp is designed to be a regional training camp opportunity for skiers engaging in multiple different developmental pathways, with a base of skiers drawn from top performers at NENSA Eastern High School Championships, NENSA Eastern U16 Championships, and USSS Junior Nationals.

RDG is designed to cater to skiers from Ages 14-17 in their USSS Age Group, U16s and U18s. Eligible skiers are those that qualify from the following criteria.

RDG Camp this year is structured to include:

– A competitive and diverse group of U16-U18 skiers from across new England with proven potential to be nationally and regionally competitive skiers.

– An emphasis on introducing skiers to a peer cohort of training partners, and to focused offseason training on rollerskis/dryland.

– Estimated cost: ~$370 including Room and Board. Final cost will be represented at time of camp deposit submission.

Call For Coaches: REG and RDG Camps

Join in on the Big Get Together!

NENSA is seeking coaches interested in bringing their unique perspectives and experiences towards an excellent gathering of our region’s developing skiers for bot Regional Elite Group (REG) and Regional Development Group (RDG) Camps. An excellent and cooperative coaching staff is essential to providing these programs for our region. REG and RDG also represent an invaluable point of intersection for our coaching community, allowing us to work as a direct team for the better of our region’s athlete development.

Priority for REG Coaches will be those coaches who hold at least a USSS L100 certification and/or are seeking continuing education credit, and those who regularly work with competitive skiers in the U18-U20+ age groups.

Priority for RDG Coaches will be those coaches who come from a variety of coaching backgrounds and demonstrate a interest in regional development, and those who regularly work with competitive skiers in the U16-U18 age groups.

Interested coaches should fill out the application form linked above!

NENSA recently conducted a community survey (we’d still love to hear from you, by the way!) with our largest, most diverse community – the one showing up to race, tour, ski, and enjoy winter for the sake of enjoying winter at our Popular events. We learned a lot, but also had a lot reiterated as well, about what drives skiers to get out and ski together each winter. One of those reiterations: when our community races, they like to race looonnnnngggg…

Marathon racing, those events of ~20 kilometers and above, continues to be the beating heart of Master’s and citizen racing. A snow-filled winter helped this season helped it shine. From early season long haul races in Craftsbury, Vermont, and Orono, ME, to the long haul Loppet around the Mt. Washington Valley, racing long continues to offer a neat paradox: the hardest physical challenge is also oftentimes the most accessible – filled with moments of racing your friends, your peers, yourself, or just getting lost in the woods.

The NENSA Marathon Series looks to recognize those members of our community who are consistently up for the challenge. Updated results from those posted earlier this winter now reflect the full scope of races above 20 kilometer that were held this winter – including both days of 2 day festivals like the Craftsbury Marathon and Rangely Loppet.

The UPDATED Marathon Series Results are posted HERE:

Marathon Challenger Awards

The NENSA Marathon Challenger Award recognizes members of our community who completed 3 or more Marathon races this winter. Challengers will receive a custom hat, courtesy of Skida, in the mail in the coming weeks. Please make sure your NENSA Membership profile is updated with a current mailing address in order to receive your award.

NENSA Marathon Challengers 2024-25

Sarah Pribram – Northwest Vermont Endurance (NWVE): OVERALL TOP FEMALE CHALLENGER W/4 Marathons

Jessica Bolduc – NWVE

Elizabeth Ransom – Gunstock Nordic Association

Damian Bolduc – NVWE: OVERALL TOP MALE CHALLENGER (TIE) W/7 Marathons

Bruce Katz – NVWE: OVERALL TOP MALE CHALLENGER (TIE) W/7 Marathons

Victor Golovkin – Freedom Trail Nordic

Jud Hartmann – NWVE

Dhyan Nirmegh – NWVE

Colin Pogue – Independent

Eric Darling – NWVE

Mark Lena – Independent

Tyler Magnan – NWVE

Jeff Palleiko – Gunstock Nordic Association

Rob Riley – Gunstock Nordic Association

Anders Vikstrom – Independent

Daniel Baumert – Penobscot Valley Ski Club

Gaelan Boyle-Wight – NWVE

Robert Burnham – NWVE

Art Copoulos – Ford Sayre

Michael Dillon – Mansfield Nordic Club

Bill Donahue – Gunstock Nordic Association

Brook Hodgeman – NWVE

Scott Magnan – NWVE

Michael Melnikov – Freedom Trail Nordic

Steven Moreau – Independent

Gordon Scannell – Schussverein Drifter XC (SDXC)

We’re excited to announce that the NENSA Nordic Rocks Interest Form for the 2025-26 season is open! Nordic Rocks is a cornerstone program of NENSA, designed to introduce cross-country skiing to children in elementary schools across the Northeast in a fun, inclusive, and accessible way.

For the past eight years, NENSA’s Nordic Rocks program has been spreading smiles (and snowy tracks!) across the Northeast, introducing thousands of kids in over 60 schools to the thrill of cross-country skiing—right alongside their teachers and classmates. With skis on their feet and laughter in the air, students experience the many perks of outdoor play: fresh air, movement, and a whole lot of winter fun.

But Nordic Rocks is more than just a first glide—it’s a launchpad. The program not only gets kids moving, it also helps connect them with local youth ski programs, creating a pathway for those who want to keep sliding, striding, and smiling well beyond PE class. It’s all about building confidence, community, and a lifelong love for snow-filled adventures!

If you’re a school interested in bringing Nordic skiing to your students next winter, we invite you to fill out our interest form today.

Read more about our Nordic Rocks program HERE.