Archive | Junior Blog

Not a dream!

The final Eastern Cup of the season. Where to start? Probably at the very beginning, with long nights and early mornings of basement waxing, van packing, and weather website refreshing.

I often get stressed before races. I get most stressed before the final Eastern Cup. I got stressed enough before this one that on Wednesday morning, a full 2 days before leaving, I dragged ALL of the race boxes and bins into my living room. Like a fluorinated version of the show “Hoarders”, I dumped everything onto the floor and neurotically cleaned, re-organized, and re-packed. Putty knives got wiped down, sandpaper strips got stacked into little tupperware containers organized by grit size, and kick and glide waxes got nearly re-arranged by size and temperature. Then everything got methodically stacked back in the van just so and before long it was finally time to hit the road.

In my racing days I was superstitious to a fault. If I didn’t have pasta on a blue plate the night before a race, it was sure to go poorly. No orange Gatorade on the bus to the venue? Forget about being fast. But I learned (and try to preach) how silly that can sometimes be…all the same, it was hard not to find parallels between this weekend and the Dublin/Holderness weekends of years past. All the zeros were in the bag in case of typical Holderness chaos weather. The coaches had a mighty fine dining experience at the Chili’s restaurant in Keene, and sleep was harder to come by than ever.

Race day dawned cold, with a temp inversion and some sun thankfully chipping away at the biting frost even as we drove up to the Dublin School from the hotel. -8 to start, but creeping into the single digits as we tested wax. The team filtered in and looked dialed. For all the stress and pressure some may have felt, it was mostly a focused and energetic start to the day. Looking back, I’m actually amazed and really, really proud at how well things went.

It was a big group, with a lot of MNC competition from both this generation and the next…definitely a metaphor of the transition we’re experiencing. Alongside Eastern Cup regulars were younger athletes like Farmer, Niko, and Carl. Not to mention a bigger group of MMU and BHS athletes (Jax, Silas, Noe, Snow) who raced great and got to experience one of the most fun race days and courses of the circuit.

The first race was a 3km skate, fea

Julia in send mode (photo: Dave Priganc)

turing a couple notably climbs but much more notably some serious descents ripe with ice and sugar snow. Many athletes took falls, most seriously being Finnegan who ended up with some nice scrapes on her chin as a battle scar. Ava finished a close 2nd, even after a slight detour off the course and into some nice powder snow.

In another great show of short-distance skate speed, Rose finished 11th. A year ago this type of race would’ve presented all sorts of problems for Rose, but a lot of work on rollerskis and in the gym has resulted in a whole lot more confidence, pure speed, and high-energy power. Not far behind Rose was Ali who capitalized on those exact same qualities, which have been definite strengths for many years now. Watch out for this one in twisty, technical courses!

With valuable points on the line, Hattie, Sammie, and Finnegan were next up, all finishing within the same second.

The men’s race was also a pretty important battle, with Charles having a great Rumford weekend and looking to lock-down a spot on the New England team. He is a V2 machine who only utilizes the V1 technique when absolutely necessary. I didn’t see his whole race but I doubt he used V1 at any point during the whole day…he rocketed to 10th, matching his career-best from the Rumford classic sprint with his 2nd straight top-10 overall EC finish!

Charles cruising through an intenstly-speedy turn (photo: Dave Priganc)

Charlie Cobb represented the Pugs for another top-30 in 29th, while Jax and Silas, both seniors this year, ended up right near each other once again. I wish I had a total time calculation over the course of the whole year because week-in and week-out these two (along with Ethan Hobbs) just duke it out in such a close fight each time. The young guns had some close battles of their own, with Farmer and Carl seeming to also be neck-and-neck despite the individual start format.

Turnaround time was quick for the 1.5km afternoon races. Even less hills, even more tight racing. Ava rebounded from her wrong turn in the morning to take the OVERALL WIN by a scant .08 seconds…always push hard all the way to the line, people! This might be the first time an MNC skier has won an overall (not just U16) Eastern Cup race? We might have to dive into the record books on that one. Congrats Ava!

Many results were similar for the women, but this time both Julia and Esther hammered their way into the top-30, with Hanna, Lily, Mackenzie, and Isabelle taking a step up as well. In the 1st-year-U16 category, Virginia continues to get better every race, doing well in what is sure to be an intense rivalry with Putney skiers in the coming years.

Charles wasn’t quite able to match his top-10 result in this shorter race, but he and Charlie Cobb both nabbed top-25 races, and Niko was the big player in the afternoon race, looking super-composed and strong the whole way.

Then it was time to pack up rapidly, and migrate to Plymouth. Time to prepare classic skis, eat dinner, and try to get some sleep before the final EC race of the season.

I won’t write paragraphs about points, ranking lists, and team namings. Suffice to say that was a big part of the day, but not the only factor. As I talked about with the MNC squad beforehand, the best way to ski our best was to keep doing things the way we had been doing them all year. Whether that was warmup plan, wax testing, pre-race mentality, or otherwise, the momentum was building and throwing hail-mary’s wasn’t the smart move.

Finnegan just had such a solid season. She missed out on JNs by ONE POINT but got a ton of great experience (photo: Dave Priganc)

The U16 girls got things started, and it was a really cool display of the range of this group. Ava took a clear victory in her final race as U16, while Rachel, Hattie, Virginia, and Finnegan got to close out what was really their first “full” season of Eastern Cup racing. To have both of those experiences in the same race says a lot about the club and our ability to help skiers develop and improve.

Jax and Silas represented the Pug Nation in the men’s race, with Charlie Cobb also rolling up to add support. This course required a lot of old school vibe, and the guys brought it with smooth striding and a lot of transitions…the kind of stuff built upon hours of rollerskiing at the Range and trail running through Richmond and beyond; both training modes which these guys have put lots of work into!

In the U18 women’s race, the weight of all the emotions started to hit hard. I’m not ashamed to say I was in tears even just giving hi-fives as the team went up to the starting gate one-by-one. I wished Julia good luck in her final Eastern Cup as an MNC skier and then had to take the long route around the big field to avoid her parents, because I didn’t have sunglasses on me and didn’t want them to know I was already crying…

The course is long, and deep in the woods. It was pretty much impossible to know too much about how anyone was doing, but I could tell by the body language of our group that it was going well. Sammie and Ali crossed the line within the same minute or so, and I was balling my eyes out before they even had their skis off. Of course Dave was there to capture it, which was even more profound because the night before I’d been given a photo from these two in their first Eastern Cup season…

In 5 years, a lot has changed. This club has come a long way, but the skiers have come even further. When I first came to MNC the core group of the women’s team was Ali, Sammie, and Magda. At this point, the women’s team is stronger and bigger than ever, and I’ve never been more proud of all the girls on this team. Take a glance at this race alone: Sammie, Rose, Ali, Julia, Lily, Isabelle, and Hanna all raced great. All except Hanna are graduating this year, and they will each do awesome things with their ski careers. Following in their ski tracks is a veritable army of Eastern Cup ladies ready to kick butt just the same, with a BKL group eyeing the next step too.

Ali and Sammie have been there through it all, and it hasn’t always been easy. Those two have been there to see my greatest moments as a coach (and been part of some of those moments) and, more importantly, they’ve witnessed all the times I’ve screwed things up, and they hung tough through it all. I coached at the college level, sure, but as the kids would say “it hits different” when you get to spend 5 years working with some skiers from middle school to college acceptance letters.

They got stronger, they got faster, and they definitely got taller

We had found out the night prior to this race that Magda had made the JN team for the Intermountain region. With her amazing 2nd place finish in the open women’s race (a 1st and a 2nd for the club, in the same weekend?!), Sammie locked-up her JN qualification for New England. And just outside of Barre on the drive home, after hours of hand-wringing, we got a phone call from Justin Beckwith and learned that Ali had been named to the New England team when all the points shook out.

Like I said, I try not to be superstitious, and I’ll try not to get sappy…but the fact that Magda, Sammie, and Ali will be reunited at Junior Nationals, as seniors, is the most storybook ending anybody could hope for. It still feels like an unreal dream that I haven’t woken up from, but it’s Wednesday at this point so maybe I’m not asleep but in a deep coma.

In the end MNC will be sending 6 athletes to Junior Nationals. It’s our biggest team ever, and the team that I think has the best chance of some of the most memorable performances the club has seen. But this “storybook ending” is never a guarantee, and while we were fortunate to have success at many levels it doesn’t always mean every season was a storybook one for every skier.

Lily, back and healthy (photo Dave Priganc)

This spring at the REG Camp I gave a short talk on communication. One of the key takeaways? People who make a team, a trip, or an event are easily a focal point. They get to be where everyone wants to be, doing what everyone wants to do. But the people “back home” are still working hard, getting it done, and improving themselves. It can often be a one-way street: people at the “event” share what they are up to, social media proclaims the cool happenings, and others back home clamor to see what is going on. I am super guilty of this. How often does it get passed the other way? It’s so easy for people at the “event” to forget that life is still humming along elsewhere…my challenge is for all of us to keep the broad scope in mind. To appreciate every bit of skiing at every level.

The athletes you read about throughout this blog post? Nearly every one of them who is not going to Junior Nationals earned a spot on the Eastern HS team or the U16 team. If they didn’t, they’re competing at the State Meet or spring races across the region. There are amazing skiers who will achieve national and international success in this club, there are skiers who will achieve regional success, and skiers who find success through their own growth and small steps. One is not necessarily more important than the other, even though some may be more visible and public. It’s really good to keep this in mind as we approach the part of the season where results, teams, and championships take center stage.

Think broad scope, think of everyone you can, and support them as best you can!

Just a sample of the awesome team we have! (Photo: Dave Priganc)

Results from Saturday

Results from Sunday

Photos from Saturday (Dave Priganc)

Photos from Sunday (Dave Priganc)

Congrats to the 6 MNC athletes who qualified for the New England team heading to 2020 Junior Nationals! On March 7th this group unites in Truckee, CA to take on the best juniors in the country. Way to go Charles, Ava, Hattie, Rose, Sammie, and Ali!

Just like that we are counting down the days till departure for Eastern Cup Finals. In keeping with tradition, and a good tradition to have, this third Eastern Cup weekend continued our roll of momentum toward the stressful end of the season. The VT Qualifier was the mid-season boost of confidence needed to take our racing another step higher, and we saw our best collective effort yet in Rumford.

Sammie in a photo by River Valley Graphics

On Friday we drove AWAY from the big snowstorm, instead having a real fun time navigating sleet and ice on our journey down the venerable Route 2. There was in fact some new snow in Rumford, but not nearly what we would return home to.

Saturday’s individual start skate races were on the cold side, with silky packed snow and steam billowing from the lungs. The women started it off with a few really strong showings such as Rose and Sammie who have put up some of their best distance races this season. Right in that pack were Hattie and Finnegan who continue to be locked in a battle for the U16 team with CSU and a few other competitors we have keen eyes on!

The course featured a lot of rolling downhill at the start, before climbing on mixed terrain toward the legendary High School Hill which was lined with fans and coaches giving their loudest encouragement to tired bodies. The sun was out and after testing wax in puffy coats and squeaky snow in the early morning, most were out enjoying the bright blue sky and snowy trails for the men’s race. The girls team positioned themselves on HS Hill while Charles put forth his best race of the season, catching a ride from the Middlebury College skier who started 15 seconds behind him and sticking it out the whole way to slide ahead of some big competition.

On Sunday morning we could feel the cold inching in underneath the cheap, poorly-insulated hotel door at the Blue Iris Motor Inn…Rick actually pulled back the curtain on the sliding back door to reveal the ice that had built up inside the room. Sure enough, it was -11 out there during the wee hours. The coaches dined on luxurious oatmeal and coffee prepared on the official MNC hotplate and hit the trails to test kick and glide for a chilly classic sprint.

We arrived to find a big rise in temps to -9, and a sprint course laid out with tracks that were, uh, how do I put this…it was very “Rumford”.

Rose gaining ground on one of the more acceptable sections of tracksetting on the course (River Valley Graphics)

Good thing we can be kind of scrappy when we need to be. Kick was also interesting and provided the big lesson and coaching takeaway from this race weekend. The weather was very cold…around 4 degrees at race start. The course was what many would consider pretty flat, save for one hill where striding/running was required for abotu 10-15 seconds. Various green hardwaxes were working and we chose a combination that we felt provided both kick and free glide. Everyone had this same wax on, and the different reports were staggering. We had every response, from “perfect” to “just a little more under the toe” to “my skis are complete $#&@”.

Interestingly, this spectrum occurred roughly along the lines of age and experience. Classic sprinting is one of the toughest events to race in: everyone knows smooth classic skiing is beautiful and effortless. But channel that into a 4-5 minute race and most tend to ski a lot more haphazardly and uncontrolled due to the feeling of “this is so short, I have to go faster and faster and faster”. Oftentimes though, going harder doesn’t make you go faster and this is never more true than classic skiing. What’s really required is careful reading of the course, the conditions, and your technique of choice for various elements of the loop.

I would love to have kept a timer out there, but in a 5 minute race this course was probably broken into 3.5 minutes of double poling, 1 minute of being in low tucks, and 30 seconds of striding. Adding it all up, kick becomes relevant for 10% of the race. Of course you want that 10% to be GOOD kick, but in hearing feedback from athletes who have done a lot of classic sprinting, the takeaway was to be comfortable with enough kick to run or stride up the main climb and then not sacrifice anything on the larger double poling and tucking portions of the course. One athlete’s report: “I tested my skis and thought maybe they were a little slippy, but I knew I was just going to get out of the tracks and run up that hill anyway, which I did.”

Now, it’s probably easy to read into this as me complaining about people wanting more kick. That is not the case! Kyle and I applied kick, more kick, and even more kick as folks came back. But it’s important to come away from the experience with a takeaway that can be used for the future. As early as Sunday night I was texting with Sara about the workouts we’ve done that helped skiers handle that course well, along with ideas to incorporate in the upcoming summer. Days like this are why Eastern Cup racing is so valuable!

Charles in an SMS-sandwich (River Valley Graphics)

Anyway, on to the races. The qualifier was fun to watch, especially from the stadium area where skiers came flying into the last straightaway with guns blazing. Charles continued a killer weekend with an absolutely devastating qualifier in 8th place! Not to be outdone, the women put 4 into the open heats with Sammie (15th), Ali (17th), Finn (27th) and Julia (28th). Making it into the open heats is a huge deal in these races, with college skiers sticking around to contest the day along with other Eastern Cup teams. On the women’s side only CSU put more skiers into the open heats, which is a really cool marker of where this team is at. Just outside was Rose in 33rd, making her one of the top qualifiers for the Junior heats. In the U16 heats we had Hattie, Lydia, and Virginia all representing!

Open heats came first, with Charles hanging on to 4th in his heat. It was a super fast one though, and he moved onto the semi-finals as a result. In one of the most hotly-contested heats of the day, with poles flying and elbows being thrown, the report was that Charles slid through the chaos and nabbed his first overall Eastern Cup top-10 in 10th place!

In the women’s heats, MNC suits lined up in race after race. This was a little bittersweet, as after the hype of some great qualifying nobody made it past their quarterfinals. But that’s to take nothing away from some really exciting racing. On the big climb, Ali went for the Klaebo move and ran past the whole field, but unfortunately on the long downhill into the finish the others were able to catch her draft and slingshot around. Although they were all involved in tight battles, Sammie, Julia, and Finnegan were out in the Quarters. But it’s a pretty good feeling to know that no matter how a heat goes, you scored a top-30 and got to race head-to-head with the top guns.

In the Junior heats there was a lot more excitement, with Rose having a really good double pole start (a goal she has been working on) and taking 3rd in her heat. At the very end of the day, we had some of the most exciting and cool moments. The shadows were growing long when the U16 girls lined up. Hattie absolutely smashed her first heat, to the point where I realized I never told her that if she was winning by a lot she didn’t HAVE to go hard the whole way and could save some energy for the final (spoiler alert, she had plenty of energy for the final). In what was a very intense personal battle, Virginia put on her best game-face yet and hammered out an epic battle with her rival from Putney, Caroline, coming all the way down to a lunge.

An epic finish! (River Valley Graphics)

Virginia has gotten more aggressive and assertive with every race, and this was another step up toward what I think will be a really cool end-of-season run at BKL fest (still an 8th grader) and U16 Championships in March.

Lydia was a little bummed to not move on after a great qualifier, but has gotten two rounds of head-to-head racing in both sprints this year and is now shooting up in the overall U16 rankings. Lots of young MNC speedsters on the cusp of big things.

The drive home was, as always, a good chance to reflect. Each weekend has gone a bit better as we get ourselves in race mode again and again. It’s easy to lose sight of the fact that a few years ago we would have been thinking “I hope someone can make it into the open heats” and we’re now having to use a whiteboard after the qualifier to organize skis into the “open heat pile, Junior heat pile, and U16 heat pile”. All of this after an already-successful skate day on a tough course and slow snow that left nothing to skis or technical skill, really…just the fittest and fastest in the bunch.

I can’t lie, and they’re public so everyone can see anyway: we’re LOCKED in tight battles across the board for “bubble” spots on some championship teams. No way to sugarcoat it…this weekend is going to be really huge. Luckily I know that we race better and better when the pressure is on. Time to pull out all the stops!

U16 girlz ready to shred some heats