Day 3 - Colorado Camp

Day 3 brought us fresh snow! After 6 to 8 inches of snow fell overnight, we were able to get some of the first tracks down Main Vein...along with 1000 of our closest friends!

The snow underneath the powder was AMAZING. With Main Vein opening today, it completely changed the amount of vertical the girls can get in daily. The American Eagle lift provides about 2,000 feet of vertical each run. The trail was chopped up early on in the morning and we took advantage of the conditions to work on balance and recoveries. Undoubtedly, athletes are required to make numerous recoveries in both training and racing as the terrain changes, surface changes, turn shape changes, etc. Making laps in conditions like today forces the girls into those situations while they try to maintain a medium radius turn shape. They get bounced off their line, pitched forward, back and inside, all from the rapidly changing terrain and they have to dig into their tool box to find ways to recenter, keep the skis on the snow, pole plant, and move into the next turn. We made laps throughout the morning, skiing until 12:45 when fatigue finally set-in and we needed to pull the plug.

An early season trip to Colorado would not be complete without a sighting of the best GS skier in the world, Ted Ligety. While taking a quick break in the mid-lodge, he graciously signed autographs and took pictures with any young ski racer who approached him, pretty awesome! Rachel and Josie were not shy...

Prior to dinner, we made our first appearance on the wally ball courts for an hour of heated competition. We had some amazing games and everyone contributed to some impressive rallies. We are all looking forward to our next set of games on the courts in Colorado. The high altitude wally ball training will bode well for our games back in Vermont.

The forecast for the next few days is looking spectacular - Thursday 29/sunny, Friday, Saturday, & Sunday 37/sunny. With temps in the teens every night, we are in for an incredible surface to get some work done!

Until next time!

Photo Cred: Ashley Houser

2015-16 Blog is LIVE!

The 2015-16 season is officially underway! We nearly have a completely new squad this year, with only two returning athletes from the 2014-15 U18 Women's Team - Ashley Houser and Katelyn O'Toole (disabled list last season). To make a long story short, we have combined our U16 and U19 teams to have one women's team. We are off to a great start with a fun group of girls. Once we have the full team, we will have 13 athletes.

Session 1 MMWA athletes started on November 2nd and went through a week of classes and dryland before departing for our Colorado camp on November 8th. Over the first week, they participated in a variety of activities. We began with a full team hike up Sterling to the top of Main Street. The terrain on Main Street looks without snow is wild and it is so impressive to see how much snow it takes to get the trail ready for us! Tuesday they went through a rigorous sprint workout, followed by Wallyball on Wednesday, then a hike up Pinnacle on Thursday, and finished the week with an initial goal setting workshop on Friday and physical testing.

Monday, November 9th was our first day on snow! While the space wasn't ideal since Copper did not have the Main Vein open, we still had a great first day! It is always fun to get your boots and skis on make those first turns of season.

Day 2 provided better space for us and we had a very productive day. The girls have been working on GS fundamentals while skiing on their SL skis. Skiing on the shorter ski allows them to focus on the body position and movements of GS without the struggle of turning the bigger GS skis. They did a fantastic job progressing today and everyone made some strides in their skiing.

Apparently, I am a giant.

We also ran into a couple of former MMSC/MMWA athletes who were part of the 2015 graduating class - Sandra Schoepke and Ingrid Klinkenberg. It's always fun to see our former athletes and teammates continuing to pursue their skiing dreams. Sandra is currently enrolled in a PG program at with the Park City Ski Team in Utah while Ingrid in skiing in a PG program in Aspen, CO. We wish them the best of luck this season!

Over the first two days on snow, the girls have taken a total of 183 runs. Tomorrow morning, we will continue with our GS progression with some directed freeskiing in lane space. In the afternoon, we will transition to GS skis.

Until next time!

March Madness Update

Yes, it's been sometime since my last post. Again. However, seeing that today is the 20th Anniversary of Michael Jordan's first return to basketball, I will try to make a triumphant return with tonights post. The Bulls lost that game in OT, so hopefully this post ends up better than that.

The girls have been quite busy. Balancing school and skiing is always a battle during the season, and March is the true test. The girls have been going in many different directions and have likely spent more time on the road than in class.

After the long qualification season, all three girls qualified for a FIS Championship series. Sandra and Ashley qualified for U18 National Championships which were contested at Copper Mt., CO from February 24th through March 6th. Sandra started the series off strong finishing 10th place in the SL amongst the best U18's in the country! Both girls competed in the speed events and while their results weren't as strong as they had hoped for, they both gained some valuable experience competing at the National level. Ingrid qualified for the Eastern FIS Championships and competed in the SL and GS on March 8th and 9th. She had some impressive moments in each events and scored FIS results in both races! Despite a sizable mistake, her second run in the SL was some of the best skiing in a race environment to date!

Since her return home, Sandra has been running a crazy schedule. To give you a quick snapshot of what she will be up to (anything but school), here is it:

NorAm Finals (US Nationals DH), March 15 - 23 ~ 2DH Training, 2DH, SG, 2GS, 2SL
FIS Open Finals, March 24 - 27 ~ 2GS, 2SL
Eastern Cup Finals, March 29 - April 2 ~ 2GS, 2SG, 2SL
Sugar SL, April 4 - 5 ~ 2SL

For those of you counting, that is 21 starts in 22 days! After  some challenging weather at NorAm Speed Finals, they were only able to get one DH Training run and the US National Championship DH that Sandra finished an impressive 23rd!

While Sandra is racing on a daily basis for the remainder of the season, Ashley and Ingrid have been prepping for the Central Division FIS Championships held at Lutsen Mt. in Minnesota. They have been working the moderate pitch of Competition Hill, the top flats of SL Hill, and competed in the TGFS SL at Cochran's on the 18th. Well, Ashley was sick, but Ingrid had one of her best races of the season moving from bib 34 to finish 13th on the day. The girls depart for Minnesota on the 25th and will compete in 2GS and 2SL before flying home on the 30th to battle it out with the Eastern Region at Eastern Cup Finals on Main Street.

Although the season comes to a close in a couple of weeks, there is still a lot of racing to go. Combined, the girls still have 41 starts ahead of them. March Madness is in full swing!

Here are a few pictures from the last few weeks...

Community Day at MMWA

With her frequent trips to the podium, Sandra is quite comfortable up there!

Former MMSC athlete Chris Mullin stopped by training to lend a hand.

Powder Day smiles!

SG Training

Okemo with a rare moment of greatness.

Ingrid getting nasty at Cochran's! (photo cred: RB)

Until next time...

"I found a fossil." ~ Kelsey Chenoweth

After receiving the text, "I found a fossil," from Kelsey a few weeks ago, accompanied by the following picture:

I decided it was time to resurrect the blog. While I could sit here and write a novel about what the girls have been up to since November, I will just give you a look into what has been going on this season. We have a different look team this year with only three athletes. We had four, but a semi-final soccer game claimed the ACL of Katelyn O'Toole, ending her season before it began. The team, dubbed 3's Company, is comprised of Sandra Schoepke, Ingrid Klinkenberg, newcomer Ashley Houser, and (entering his 5th winter at MMSC) Michael Nigro.

They are a special group.

The girls started the season off with an extended trip to Copper Mountain, CO. They worked hard on fundamentals for two plus weeks of skiing on perfect Colorado snow. The girls returned home to be reintroduced to school and having to sit in class for half of the day. However, the race season started soon after that, so their time in the classroom would start to be reduced as their number of starts increased. The girls have raced a challenging schedule from Canadian FIS Sports Expert Super Series, Eastern FIS Open Series, FIS Eastern Cup Series, and Eastern Intercollegiate Skiing Association FIS University Series. They have been competing against the strongest girls in the Eastern Region and have held their own. As we move into late February and March, the girls will head into their Championship season, they will be skiing against competition that more aligns with their peer group. Hopefully, the first half of the season will have prepared them to be relaxed in their competitions as they will not see stronger fields than they have at Eastern Cups and FIS University races.

Here are some picture highlights from the season thus far.

Day 1 on snow in Colorado

Team picture with Lori.

Hero snow

Sports Psychologist Dr. Jim Taylor spoke to our group in Colorado.

Ashley's first time helping set. Ever.

3's Company in Canada

Start at Val St. Come, QC Canada.

Canada. Pretty.

Above the clouds at Stowe.

3's Company and special guest/blog inspiration/Bates Superstar, Kelsey Chenoweth

Fearless Leader, Igor Vanovac, standing proud of his trail.

MMSC/MMWA Legends Alita Rogers, Sophie Leiter, and Linley Shaw at the Middlebury Carnival.

It is my hope that the resurrection of the blog will not end here. The blog is alive and well!