NENSA News

NENSA is pleased to announce Stratton Mountain School as the 2018 Club of the Year.  2018 was a defining year for cross-country skiing in the United States – and there is only one eastern club that can claim an Olympic Gold medal.  While Jessie Diggin’s win in South Korea was the most visible success – the Stratton Mountain School has consistently been a leader in New England and beyond with skiers thriving at all levels of competition.

Stratton has flourished under Sverre Caldwell’s guidance for 38 years, with programming that spans from Bill Koch through the professional SMS T2 racing team.  Many Stratton skiers are local kids who start gliding on snow in the West River Bill Koch League – however the program attracts athletes from throughout the US and abroad.  Stratton skiers become immersed in a culture of success, many before they know what competition is, by following the lead of coaches and peers – many of whom are National and International Champions.

One telling statistic of Stratton’s success is boasting 23 consecutive years of winning at least one gold medal at Junior National Championships and qualifying at least one athletes for the Junior World Championships team.  Stratton skiers and coaches are a staple of our New England Junior National and US World Junior Trips.

During the 2018 season Stratton skiers won six National titles and 12 individual World Cup events.  During the FIS Junior World Championships, Ben Ogden was a member of the historic silver medal relay team in Goms, Switzerland and his sister (and Stratton alum) Katharine, won both races at NCAA Championships.  Stratton skiers are found at all levels of racing within New England, spanning local Bill Koch club races, Zak Cups, Eastern Cups and low key events like the Cochran’s Skier Cross.

Andrew Newell, four-time Olympian describes his relationship with his home club: “I’m a proud member of the Stratton club so I’m always rooting for other Stratton athletes from wherever I am on the World Cup.  To me that really signifies what the ski club model is all about.  I came up through the SMS junior camps, attended SMS, raced for the SMS elite team, and will always consider SMS my club no matter what capacity I am racing.  Stratton has done a great job welcoming to new skiers of all ages and abilities and because it’s so fun to be a part of a community like Stratton old guys like me enjoy sticking around, I know I’m always welcome at SMS training.”

Congratulations to Stratton athletes and coaches past and present – keep up the good work!

NENSA is pleased to announce Nathan Alsobrook of Bowdoin College as the 2018 Coach of the Year.

Last winter Alsobrook led the Bowdoin Polar Bears to one of their most successful Carnival seasons – where every weekend either the male or female team placed in the top-six.  On individual Carnival days the women’s team placed fourth, four times and the men’s team pulled down two fifth place finishes. These excellent results qualified three freshman skiers, Gabrielle Vandendries, Renae Anderson and Elliot Ketchel, for NCAA’s in Steamboat Springs, Colorado – a historical benchmark for the Polar Bears.

Over the past years, Nathan has been active in NENSA Programming, including serving as a coach at Eastern Regional Camps, chairing the Coaches Education Committee and running L100 Technique clinics for the state of Maine.  Through his dedication to these programs he has made the Bowdoin Nordic Team a visible and attractive institution for skiers to continue their careers.  The Eastern Intercollegiate Ski Association (EISA) is a valuable pathway for athletic and personal development and we applaud the excellent job Nathan has done to support his skiers, and it will be exciting to watch the Polar Bears continue to succeed in the coming years.

Christian Gostout ’20, from Rochester, Minnesota describes Alsobrook as someone who, “offers his thoughtful attention and advice equally to every single skier on the team, coaching everyone in the unique way that works best for them. I think this is what allows the team to focus on and achieve both individual goals and team goals, regardless of what level any skier is at. Whether you’re trying to balance college racing with qualifying for JNs, ski All American at NCAAs, or just have well executed carnival races, Nathan will share his enthusiasm for every ambition his athletes have within and beyond the sport.”

Elliot Ketchel ’21, from Warren, Vermont describes Alsobrook as a well rounded leader, “Nathan is much more than a coach to all his athletes, he is an amazing mentor and friend. He cares about everything every one of us does in skiing and outside of it, and he is fully supportive of our pursuits, whether they are athletic, academic, or something else.” Ketchel was awarded the Bowdoin Outstanding First-Year Male Athlete award this spring.

It is an exciting time for Bowdoin Skiing with the hiring of two-time Olympian (’80 & ’88) Leslie Krichko as assistant coach, and during the winter of 2019 the Polar Bears will be debuting their new wax trailer.  You can stay up to date with the team at www.bowdoinnordic.blogspot.com.

Congratulations Nathan Alsobrook on your hard work and fantastic accomplishments!

Cross country skiing is an international sport, and with that in mind NENSA is very excited to announce that we are bringing Ludvig Sognen Jensen to New England for a week of high visibility rollerski events. Known to some by his social media handle @luddeyo, Jensen is the world’s fastest cross country skier in the new discipline of supersprint racing.

His arrival in Boston on August 6th will kick off a week of events across the northeast including a stop at the U16 national camp in Lake Placid, NY where Ludvig will train with the U16s and face off head to head in a “celebrity deathmatch” sprint with Andy Newell on August 8th. Luddeyo will then make at stop on the afternoon of August 10th to the Burlington VT waterfront to set a NASTAR like sprint course and time that athletes are welcome try to get as close to as they can! He will also make a guest of honor appearance at our App Gap Challenge rollerski race in Fayston, Vermont on August 11. There will be autograph sessions at High Peaks Cyclery in Lake Placid on August 8, and at the SkiRack in Burlington, VT on August 10.

Ludvig’s agent Steffen Aabel tells us “the absolutely [most fun] thing about working with Ludvig is to push our national sport forward with supersprint, where I can be witness to and support the pioneering work he puts down. Therefore it is incredibly cool to be able to announce that we together have created a collaboration that is part of developing sport on another continent.”

The announcement of Ludvig’s visit is part of NENSA’s push to fill a gap in the programming available to US skiers in the off season. Earlier this summer we announced our partnership with Swenor Rollerskis, as well as our continued collaboration with SWIX in supporting our summer and fall NENSA Rollerski Race Series. This series will bring together elites, juniors, and masters to strengthen our ski community, and NENSA Competitive Director Justin Beckwith is also creating a bridge to Europe and international competition with the inclusion of Ludvig at the App Gap Challenge.

There will be five races in the 2018 NENSA Rollerski Race Series. Athletes will be ranked by their best 3 of 5 placements, with senior athletes vying for a cash purse graciously provided by Marty and Kathy Hall. (1st: $500, 2nd: $300, 3rd: $200) The top skiers from pre-registration (lowest US Ski & Snowboard / FIS points) will race on NENSA’s matched sets of Swenor Rollerskis. Depending on race formats skis will be provided to the top-ten or top-twenty skiers of each gender. For more information please visit http://nensa.net/rollerski and for questions email justin@nensa.net and tom@nensa.net.

NENSA is the Community Olympic Development Program (CODP) for cross-country skiing in the East as well as the umbrella for most organized Nordic skiing events in the region. Cross-country skiing, as practiced by our youth skiers and families, is a lifetime activity firmly rooted in New England tradition. It is NENSA’s mission to sustain a vital and active skiing community in New England. Visit www.NENSA.net to learn more about our organization.

 

The Jackson Ski Touring Center in Jackson NH is looking for a new Executive Director.  If you are interested in this position, please go to this link for more information:  http://jacksonxc.org/wp/media/JSTF-Exec-Dir-Job-Announcement-6_2018-1.pdf

Last Tuesday morning in Lake Placid, New York, 46 athletes toed the line for an uphill run test on Whiteface Mountain. The workout was part of our annual Eastern REG camp and would be a grueling uphill grind in the late June sunshine. The camp brought skiers together from New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine, Massachusetts, and New York for a week of training with an all star cast of coaches and guests, all hosted by the Northwood School, right in the heart of Lake Placid.

A few hours later, when the test was over and the skiers had recovered, they gathered for presentations from a group of former Olympians including Andy Newell, Dorcas Denhartog, Tim Burke, and Andrew Johnson. It was an inspiring afternoon and the Olympians drew from their experiences to pass on some expert wisdom to the next generation of skiers.  Four time Olympic biathlete Tim Burke told the athletes to dream big, make every day count, and to ask questions. He stressed that the best athletes always wanted to learn more about their sport.

Johnson spoke of finding his own path in the world, and not feeling constrained by what others might think is the right trajectory. He told the campers that they were ahead of the curve already compared to where he was at their age, and complimented their level of dedication and focus.

Dorcas Denhartog gave a heartfelt presentation and spoke her love of skiing and the family bonds that can be strengthened by our sport. She told the campers of her father and how he became both student of the sport, and her biggest fan when she was competing. He collected Olympic pins when he traveled to watch her at the winter games. After the Olympic Day celebration she passed out a pin from his collection to each of the campers, saying “I could think of no better way to make sure that that passion was passed on than to share his pins with New England’s aspiring Olympians. I had no idea if the skiers would understand, or if they would want a pin from a ski event that happened before cell phones. But I’d like to think that wherever that pin goes, it will add a little tug to the heart of that skier, inspire and empower them to follow their passion.”

Though the Olympians came from different backgrounds there was a commonality in their message that US Ski Team development coach Bryan Fish summed up as “push yourself toward bigger goals than you think you might be able to achieve, make each day count because experiences pass by faster than you think,  take the opportunity to learn about yourself and your sport each and every day- and last – enjoy the amazing people within our great sports. These people will be friends for life.”

It was a truly special celebration of personal and athletic history with amazing energy that carried over into the rest of the week’s training schedule. 

The following days included technique work, movement education, an epic long run/hike, and a fast paced agility course that kept the skiers on their toes and thinking one step ahead. It was exciting to see the dedication and enthusiasm of these young athletes as they drew inspiration from their coaches and each other to make the camp a success. Andy Newell joined the camp as both a coach and an athlete, taking part in all of the trainings alongside the campers, and offering unique insight into his years on the World Cup. He commented that he was impressed with the “fitness and athleticism of these young skiers” and later told us that ” because of this new athlete/coach relationship we were able to accomplish so much more together in a short period of time. The future of Eastern junior skiing is looking bright!”

Dorcas praised Andy’s presence at the camp, telling us that “His position now is going to be a key link of communication and understanding between the national team and our REG skiers. The skiers were able to make the connection between the legendary Newell they know about through the media, and the real person they met at the camp, who was once like them.”

NENSA Would like to thank the Northwood School, NYSEF, the Lake Placid Olympic Regional Development Authority (ORDA) and all the amazing coaches who helped make this week possible. Below we have included a few photos from the week, as well as a video of camper Ben Ogden rocking our agility course, and videos of the double pole test Scroll to the bottom of the post for results from the Agility Test, Uphill Run Test, and the Double Pole Test.

PHOTOS

VIDEOS:

https://www.facebook.com/usskiandsnowboard/videos/613776945687784/

 

 

RESULTS

Agility Test

Uphill Run TT

Double Pole Test