Ski Racing Kids!

@ Coach Z Chapeau to your kid for wanting to race after puking.  The last time I had a stomach bug, I couldn't move for 30 hours.

My kid was sick and decided to go for it, crashed into the netting, went to the ER, but is OK. See you next weekend.

Evergreen, Coach.....it's nice to know that some of the younger generation actually have a degree of toughness to them.

evergreen wrote

My kid was sick and decided to go for it, crashed into the netting, went to the ER, but is OK. See you next weekend.

Sorry to hear that.  Hope they are ok.  

The reactions to that course that I heard were the gambit to it was fast but fun to it was one notch from peeing in your speed suit.  It definitely was a lot faster than the Twister course from last year and the Bristol course from states last year which has a significant flat gliding section at the top.  I think the States course at West will be more of a gliding course than this one was.

Back at training last night, fever is gone. She and we have been really enjoying ski racing, didn't think we would, but there you go you don't know until you try and now we are hooked.

Cool photo on my son forerunning u16 states GS today on the slicked course I've been on.

Coach Z wrote

Cool photo on my son forerunning u16 states GS today on the slicked course I've been on.

Coach Z wrote

Cool photo on my son forerunning u16 states GS today on the slicked course I've been on.

Awesome!!!!

quick update on Double Z

He placed 5th combined for the U14 State Champs weekend series.  Best result was a 4th in GS and two 7ths in the SL and SG.  Had his best two runs of the year in the GS and just missed the podium.

He earned a decent seed (probably a B seed but could be an A) for Eastern's at Sunday River.  His goal he wrote down at start of the season was be top 5 in States and he achieved it.  Need to be top 25-30 in Eastern's to make CanAm's at Tremblant - might be tight as there are a ton of really fast racers in VT.  We'll see as he seems to be peaking at the right time.

Shot from the Super G

Nice !! Little Z has great form , got to be a proud dad!!

So nice to meet you in person!  My daughter started ski racing in December, and finished 32 out of 76 girls in the U14 slalom on Monday, so proud of her!

evergreen wrote

So nice to meet you in person!  My daughter started ski racing in December, and finished 32 out of 76 girls in the U14 slalom on Monday, so proud of her!

Nice to meet you too.  I forget which area you are based at?  

Might want to check out NYSEF winter term for December to get her ready for next season.  It was a big boost for my son.  Kids are coming from programs all over the state for a month of winter term and a full half of the top 10 boys and girls at states did WT for at least one month.

Congrats DoubleZ

Skimeister is WF's last fun race of the season - 3 runs GS, SL, ski cross.  No speed suits and the kids wear costumes.  My son dressed as his coach.

Double Z killed it in the ski cross for the win

Is the rumor I'm hearing true that JP is leaving Northwood

http://burkemtnacademy.org/burke-mountain-academy-announces-coaching-additions-and-infrastructure-investments-for-the-2017-18-season/

So what happens when I sent my kid there because of him. He knew he was leaving?

Hi guys.  This is JP D. of Northwood.  Yes, I am beginning a new adventure in my journey.

I just want to make it clear to everyone that this all happened rather quickly.  At some point in the 3rd week of April, BMA called me and we began talking.  As early as I could, at the end of the 4th week of April on FRI 28-APR, I announced to our head of school that I would not return for 2017-2018.  Right up until the beginning of 4th week APR, I was 100% returning to Northwood.

My colleagues here at Northwood have all been wonderful in helping us raise the ski program to its current status.  We have a lot of kids here now who know how to arc!  In fact, that was the most heart-wrenching part of my decision;  'Leaving' the kids.  I find comfort in the knowledge that the new admin team at Northwood has gotten a taste of what having a high performance ski team is like and they are NOT interested in anything less.

We already have a handful of candidates to take over and continue the good work on the foundations that are already laid here.  I have no doubt that the program will move forward and that everyone will be pleasantly surprised.

All the best,
JP D.

While my son was accepted to NW the cost was way higher than what I expected.   Our current plan for my son is that he will be doing Nysef Winter Term For the full season next year. I have no doubt that NW would be better academically but I just can't afford it.   Plus with WT he will live at the OTC saving us all that driving a NW day student living 20 miles from LP would have to do every day of the school year.  Not having to feed a 14 year old boy for 4 months also is a big savings

I don't begrudge JP to move onto a higher paying gig.  Race coaches at the high end are nomadic by nature not unlike college football or basketball coaches.  He had some great results and the big boys came calling.  On the other side like HH I would be upset though if my son had committed to go there.

The other interesting thing in the BMA PR release is that they invested in a state of the art tuning set up.  This is going to further the arms race and costs of ski programs and create a devide between haves and have not programs.

Looks like USSA got smart based on last years drop out rate - they went back to a set of rules that will allow the smaller kids to continue to compete as they get older

http://www.nyssra.org/pages/news/Equipment%20Rules%202017-18.pdf