NENSA News

NENSA is proud to announce the 2016-17 Gallagher Cup Eastern Cup Champions!  This years overall Eastern Cup winners are (drum roll please)…Alexandra Lawson, a U20 from the Craftsbury Nordic Ski Team, and, Elliot Ketchel, a U18, from Green Mountain Valley School.  CONGRATS to you both!

Our champions are determined by overall season ending best Eastern Cup points.  The male and female atop the Eastern Cup points rankings at the conclusion of all eight Eastern Cup races are our Gallagher Cup winners.  Eastern Cup overall winners have been named since 2008.  At the conclusion of the 2014 season, NENSA began awarding the Gallagher Cup to the champions of the season long Eastern Cup series.  The Eastern Cup circuit is New England’s, and one of the nation’s, premier race series and NENSA felt the competition and community behind the series speak to Mike Gallagher’s legacy as an athlete, coach, and community leader.  We thank the Gallagher family for supporting us in our approach to honoring Mike’s legacy for NENSA.

Go to http://nensa.net/point-standings/ to see a full list of all the year end Eastern Cup Standings.

NENSA Board of Directors 2017 Spring Meeting

Sunday May 7th, 12:00–5:00PM   

To be held at:  Room 101 in the Collis Center, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH

12:00-12:15 Welcome & Introductions  (Carol)

Introduction of new Competitive Programs Director Hire

Approval of Fall 2016 Minutes / Set Fall 2017 meeting

12:15-1:00 Treasurer’s Report  (Peter H.)

  End of Fiscal Year 2017,

  FY2018 Budget  

1:00-1:15 Board Development:  Nominations and Voting  (Cami)

1:15-2:15 Executive and High Performance Director Report  (Amie)

  Resource Development & Fundraising  (Lucian)

  Auction and Annual Fund

2:15-2:30    Break

2:30-3:00   Website and IT operations (Laura)

3:00-3:30   Community Development & BKL (Amber)

3:30-4:00   Committee Report Summaries and Related Board Action Items

4:00-4:15   New Hire: Competitive Programs Director  (Justin Beckwith)  

4:15-4:30   Break

4:30-5:30   Executive Session

The New England Nordic Ski Association Board of Directors and Staff are pleased to announce Justin Beckwith of Warren, VT to the team as the new Competitive Program Director. “I believe in a holistic model of athlete development that encourages lifelong participation in the sport” said Justin on his new position with NENSA. “In this position, I will share my passion for adventure and competition with the entire NENSA community from the youngest BKL skier to the most veteran Master.”

A New York native and lifelong skier (and avid kayaker), Justin grew up skiing for the Holland Patent School and competed at Junior Nationals for both Mid-Atlantic and New England.  He graduated from the Stratton Mountain School and went on to attend Middlebury College, earning a BA in Environmental Studies and Nonfiction Writing. Justin has a strong competitive background as a world class athlete, skiing for the Middlebury College Ski Team and represented the US Team at the 1999 World Juniors held in Saalfelden, Austria, and competed at the 2001 Pre-Olympic World Cup in Salt Lake City.

With a successful career from 2006-2015 as Program Director and Head Nordic Coach at Green Mountain Valley School, Justin has a diverse background as an athlete, coach and trip leader. Justin has a long list of experience with competitive trips from the J1 Scando trip leader in 2009, World Junior Coach in 2012 and the New England Team Wax Tech 2009-2012 and most recently, the Leader of wax staff for the World Juniors and OPA Cup Finals in 2016 and 2017. Justin is known for his calmness through the inevitable storms of wax testing and making the right calls, consistently putting out the competitive skis on the best skiers day in and day out during a busy week.  During his tenure at GMVS, Justin has also ran NENSA’s Eastern REG Camp, so stepping back into that role will be a natural for him.

In keeping with the NENSA mission, the Competitive Program Director is tasked with positioning NENSA as a central resource for our community and as a national leader in coach, athlete, and club development. Beckwith will be guiding and creating resources to support NENSA’s athletes and coaches and will work closely with community stakeholders including USSA, EISA, local clubs, and the NENSA staff team. As CPD, Beckwith will also support NENSA’s Eastern Cup race series, the New England Junior National team, Eastern REG Camp, our Elite & Development teams, Coaches Education, Masters programing, and manage scoring and competitive rankings.

Amie Smith, Executive Director of NENSA, says of this new hire “We are thrilled Justin will be joining the NENSA staff, and our organization.  Justin will bring a wealth of knowledge and a breadth of experience – regionally, nationally and internationally, as well as his love and enthusiasm for the sport, to NENSA and to our New England skiing community.”  Justin takes over this position from Amie (former High Performance Director, 2015-17) who will remain at NENSA as the Executive Director.

Justin resides in the Mad River Valley with his wife Brie and their new pup, Mr. Benham.

Our Annual Fund is STILL OPEN until midnight tonight ~ Monday May 1st ~ there is still time to give! Thank you to all who have given so far, and to those of you able to make a donation today, on our final day of the fund drive.
http://nensa.net/giving/annual-fund-2017/

Greetings NENSA members and NENSA fans!  We have just received a wonderful gesture from a member who is making an immediate Matching Challenge, and is willing to MATCH all donations of $50 or more (please give more if you can, as it too will be matched!) for up to a $5000 matching challenge total donation to NENSA.  

This is the last week of our Annual Fund Drive, as our fiscal year ends April 30th.  We have a goal of 6ok that we set a year ago in our Board meeting.  That amount was based on funding our annual budget for all the programs, races and clinics you have come to know and love.  We still need your help to help us meet this 60k goal.  We are getting there – we are 59% of the way to 60k, but still have a ways to go!  Please be as generous as you can, and now more then ever, as your gift of $50, or more, will be matched dollar for dollar.

THANK YOU to everyone who as donated thus far, and thank you everyone who is able to make a donation today and be a part of this wonderful Matching Challenge we have going this final week.  And thank you to our anonymous Matching Challenge donor too!!

Congratulations go out to our New England U16’s ~ Will Koch, Josh Valentine, Griffin Wright, Matthew Moreau, Anna Lehmann, Abigail Streinz and Charlotte Ogden, who all qualified, based on their results at USSA Junior Nationals this past March, for the USSA/NNF National U16 Camp this July out in Sun Valley, Idaho.  New England is also allowed to name another girl and boy as our discretionary picks to attend, and this year, Olivia Cuneo and Zander Martin will be attending (Tim Cobb was asked, but had to decline).  Congrats to all of you for your hard work and excellent results, and for qualifying for this training camp.

 

NENSA’s Eastern REG Camp will be held Saturday June 24 – Thursday June 29th, at Green Mountain Valley School campus, in Waitsfield Vermont.  This is a slight change from the original published dates of 6/22-6/28, due to USST coach scheduling and availability. This camp is by invitation only, and qualifying U16/U18/U20 athletes will be sent invites by May 1st.  All U16 athletes who qualified for Junior Nationals this year will automatically receive an invite.  U18/U20 invites based on final overall rankings for the season.

We are officially half way through the month of April, yet only 17% of the way to our goal of 60k raised for our NENSA Annual Fund.  Thank you to everyone who has generously donated thus far ~ but we still need the support of all our members to reach our goal. Please consider a tax deductible donation to NENSA today.  Click here to donate.  Thank you!

“Meet us in Norway! You will love it,” Heidi said when my husband Kris Freeman and I were planning our spring vacation. Kris’s brother Justin, his wife Heidi and their two girls, Iris and Sage, live in the Netherlands and love going on ski vacations during the winter. While we were planning our trip, my parents, Jim and Michele Dodge, and Kris’s parents, Donavon and Barbara Freeman also decided to come ski in Norway to see Justin and his family during their spring break trip.

Right now we are in Nordseter, Norway for two weeks, enjoying the spring skiing, warm temperatures and endless kilometers of free, groomed trails. The trails from Nordseter run all the way to Lillehammer and connect with the Olympic tracks at the Birkebeiner Ski Stadium. In Norway, Nordic skiing is the favorite pastime and and part of their history and culture. The government maintains the trails and grooming and thousands of families are out enjoying the mild temperatures and great skiing this week.

Kris and I both grew up skiing with our families. I started skiing with my parents in their backyard and trails winding through 70 acres of woods. My Dad would pack a lunch and we would spend the day skiing as a family. We would also go to ski races all over New England, and take ski vacations during school breaks. Kris grew up skiing with his parents and his brother, going on trips at a young age that included skiing the Canadian ski marathon.

Norwegians are on Easter break while we are here, and I am amazed and intrigued by the culture of skiing that I have seen here on the trails in Nordseter and Sjusjoen. I keep seeing families heading out on the trails with backpacks filled with food, shovels, small sleds, and cameras, with sleeping pads rolled up on the top. Out on the trails families pull small children in a pulken (pull sled), and children that look about 4-6 years old are tethered and skiing behind a parent or grandparent. All ages, and all family members, including the family dog, are on the trails together. They stop and create benches made out of snow, some with a small fire, where they spend time playing and eating a snack.

Today we skied on part of the Birkebeiner trail out to a small hut. At the hut there was a table with soda, coffee, hot chocolate and 3 waffle makers powered by a generator. Families were sitting outside on stumps, enjoying waffles, while the young children played in the snow, and the adults soaked in the midday sun.

The atmosphere reminds me of my upbringing and the one my husband has described to me. I feel lucky that I grew up skiing with my family, and continue to ski as a family. Heidi was right-I do love it here! I love experiencing a culture where skiing is a family pastime, with children being taught to ski by parents who were taught to ski by their parents.

The Bill Koch Youth Ski League in New England has this culture through family involvement. USSA competencies say that kids less than 12 years old should be skiing 80% undirected. When I was growing up, many parents in our Bill Koch League were coaches, volunteers, and learned to wax; and most skied with their children and went on ski trips with families from our club. Everyone was involved in some way which created in a community that grew into one of the biggest Bill Koch Leagues at the time. Our league consisted of families who all understood that skiing and recreating year round, as a family, was important to keep their children involved in sport at a young age. This community resulted in continued friendships, and skiers working in the sport as coaches, some in the highest levels of the sport. Hopefully, it will also result in another generation of parents taking their kids skiing, and kids skiing with their parents.

The Zak Cup series is named after Vlastimil Zak, who died unexpectedly when he went through the ice on Squam Lake, New Years Eve, 1979. Zak’s enthusiasm and dedication to our sport lives on in the Zak Series. The Zak Cup is a season-long series to determine the best skiers in each five-year age group over 30. All events that are part of this series are scored for Club points, with all participants earning at least one point for their club. 9 of the 12 scheduled Zak Cups were held during the 2016-17 season, showcasing New England’s varied terrain and snow conditions. Many thanks to the host clubs, volunteers, venues and skiers who make these events well-run, fun and social ski events.

The first race in the series, the Quarry Road Opener, was cancelled due to low snow in December.  The Gunstock skate race, second on the series list, was held in early January on the Gunstock Nordic Association (GNA) trails. It was the first year that GNA held a Zak Cup, and it was a well-run individual start skate race consisting of 2, 4 km loops for the women and 3, 4 km loops for the men. The course had some long sustained climbs in the beginning, and then fun technical downhills that looped skiers back into the stadium.

One week later, the Geschmossel, which is one of the oldest races in New England, was next in the series. Bretton Woods worked hard to make sure the race was held, having the move the start and change the course slightly. The 15 km classic mass start started in two waves, the first one was the masters men, and the second consisting of the women and boys categories. The tracks were firm and fast, making it a tight race for skiers!

On the third weekend of January, there were two Zak Cup races. The White Mountain 30 km Classic in Jackson, NH was held on that Saturday. It’s always a favorite race as it is a part of the New England Marathon Series, Zak Cup series, and it is the One-Day Club Championship. Jackson had received plenty of snow prior to the race, and had the course groomed to their usual high standards. Showing their strength in numbers and performance, the Northwest Vermont Endurance (NWVE) won the Club Championship, just one point over the Cambridge Sports Union (CSU).

Mansfield Nordic Club held the Mansfield Nordic Duathlon the next day at The Craftsbury Outdoor Center. This race is continuing to gain in popularity as Bill Koch-ers, and racers of all ages, try out this classic and skate technique race. The race was a great event, with lots of prizes for participants.  Up next in the series was the Flying Moose Classic held on the Gould Academy Pine Hill competition trails. The 22 km mass start classic race had great grooming and a challenging, fast course.

The next weekend was the Cheri Walsh, combined with the Eastern Cup race. This individual start 10 km skate race was held on the Holderness School trails. Holderness always puts on a fantastic race, and with plenty of snow, and more snow falling that day, the skiing was superb.

The series continued with the Bogburn at the end of February. The Bogburn is truly a “classic” New England style race not only because of where it is held in Pomfret, Vermont, but also because of its history. The race has drawn high caliber skiers over the years and it hosted by Bob Haydock, an influential NENSA board member and member of the CSU club. Snow was shoveled onto the fun, undulating course, to ensure that the race was held. Some parts of the course were just a ribbon of snow, which barely held on for the last skier.

Due to low snow conditions, Bretton Woods had to cancel their races planned for the second weekend in March, the Bretton Woods Marathon and the Mt. Washington Cup. The Craftsbury Spring Fling was last race in the series, ending the Zak Cup series on a high note as the best conditions ever for this race. A storm had dumped another 6 inches of snow before the weekend, and the course used many of the Craftsbury Outdoor Center’s core trails. The grooming was impeccable, and everyone enjoyed a BBQ on the deck to wrap up the season.

The age group winners for this year are as follows, for M1 women in 1st place is Sara Graves (Stowe Nordic). 1st place for the M1 men is Neil Graves (Stowe Nordic), and in 2nd place is Tyler Magnan (NWVE).  In the M2 division, Clipperly Good (NWVE) won for the women and Damiam Bolduc (NWVE) won the men’s category. For M3’s, Jessica Bolduc (NWVE) is 1st for women and for the men, Eric Darling (NWVE). Sarah Pribram (NWVE) takes 1st for the M4 women, and for the M4 men John Sakalowsky (CSU) is 1st , Chris Brewer is 2nd and in 3rd place is Clinton Krueger (CSU). Karen Alence (Mansfield Nordic) is 1st for the M5 women, and 1st for the M5 men is Tom Thurston (NWVE), 2nd place is Chris Naimie (Bow Nordic), and 3rd place is Mike Kavanaugh (NWVE).

For the M6 category, Ellie Bouffard (Mansfield Nordic) is 1st, Cheryl Carlson (Ford Sayre) is 2nd and in 3rd place is Ann Burnham (CSU).  Rick Powell (Ford Sayre) is 1st for the M6 men, Bryce Wing (Ford Sayre) is 2nd and Robert Faltus (CSU) is 3rd place. JoAnn Hanowski (Mansfield Nordic) wins the M7 women, with Carrie Nourjian (Stowe Nordic) in 2nd, and Jody Newton (CSU) in 3rd place. David Johnstone is 1st in the M7 men, with Graham Holmes in 2nd place and Chris Nice (Ford Sayre) in 3rd.

Jim Fredericks (Mansfield Nordic) wins the M8 men’s category, with Donavon Freeman (Mt Washington) in 2nd place, and John Lazenby (Onion River) in 3rd.  Trina Hosmer (Stowe Nordic) is 1st for the M9 women, with Sally Howe (Stowe Nordic) in 2nd place. Jonathan Chaffee (Ford Sayre) wins the M9 men’s category with John Broadhead (Craftsbury Nordic) in 2nd place and David Hosmer (Stowe Nordic) in 3rd. Sara Mae Berman (CSU) wins the M11 women, and George Hall (Craftsbury Nordic) wins the M11 men’s category, with Larry Berman (CSU) in 2nd place.

Congratulations to Sara Graves (Stowe Nordic) and Neil Graves (Stowe Nordic) for being the overall winners this year of the Zak Cup series! For the women, Trina Hosmer (Stowe Nordic) is 2nd overall , and JoAnn Hanowski (Mansfield Nordic) is 3rd. In the mens category, Tom Thurston (NWVE) is 2nd overall, and John Sakalowsky (CSU) is 3rd place.

For overall Club scores, Ford Sayre came in 3rd place, CSU was 2nd and NWVE came in first this year! Click HERE to find rankings for age categories, overall, and club points.

Congratulations to all those who participated in the Zak Cup and Club Cup series, and thank you to the Clubs and host venues for continuing to put on great races in New England. Bids are now open for the 2017-18 season. Click here for more info on how to bid!