New York Team at 2009 Eastern Highschool Championships
link to Results
link to photos
link to day one video
Posted by Barbara Beall
The JO Blog by Mr. Brooker ends with a bag of ski wax coming from the Junior Olympics to the EHSCs. So let’s pick up the story there. And perhaps this will be a long enough blog that it is deserving of its own headline.
Once Junior Olympics were done, Margaret Maher, Julie Hindsill, Chris Frielinghaus, Eric Metzler, Lauren Jones, Coleen Stevens, and Scott Stevens, the official coaches to the 2009 NY EHSC Team realized that they had 48 kids signed up to go, and a lot of organizing to do. How do you get 48 kids and all their gear from Rochester, New Paltz, Kingston, Johnsburg, Glens Falls, Queensbury and Lake Placid to Rangeley Maine? Divide and Conquer. On Thursday, a convey of cars left from Rochester, Margaret drove the NYSEF kids from Lake Placid, and the Izzo’s drove their own kids over. A van driven by Julie left from Utica to meet a group in Glens Falls. Kids from New Paltz were driven north by parents to a central rendezvous point in Glens Falls. In Glens Falls, parent drivers including the Nevins Family, Rick Winslow, Mr. LaJoie, and the Mulchays, were joined by Julie in a six car / one truck convey connected by cell phones and walkie talkies and lead by Chris Frielinghaus and me (aka “Mama Duck”). The Stevens drove separately to Maine, and one set of parents (clearly the smartest) flew their own plane there from Rochester, reducing a 12 hour trip by car to a 1.5 hour trip by air. Other parents from Rochester who drove to the event included Deborah Denton, Deborah Tuttle, Mrs. Swayze and Fred Voit, who served as a wax technician. We left Glens Falls at 2:00 PM, and drove to Littleton, NH where about 24 of us stopped for dinner at a 99 Restaurant; Chris had called ahead and made reservations. We told the restaurant to have one check per table, assigned each table a captain to ensure that there was a tip and that the bill was divided equally. Thank goodness Nordic Skiers are also good students and can do math. While there, the manager came up to us and asked “are you the leaders of this group.” “Yes, we said.” “I just want to let you know that this is the best, most well behaved group of high school athletes we have ever had in our restaurant.” That was a relief, and set the tone for the whole weekend. After dining, we gassed up the cars and continued north into the wilds of New Hampshire and Maine. Rick Winslow was the sweep vehicle, checking in with us after each major turn to say everyone in the 7 car convoy was still on track. We arrived at the cabins in Rangeley Maine at 10 PM. The stars were incredible that night. The kids stayed in 9 cabins overlooking Rangeley Lake, with two other sets of kids (the NYSEF kids) staying in two houses down the road. Gear unpacked and kids in bed around 11:00.
Next morning was leisurely wake up, breakfast and free time for homework until 11:00 AM when Margaret, Julie and the rest of the team arrived for the passing out of uniforms, lunch and a team meeting. Margaret gathered the group together and said from this point forward there would not be a single free moment, and boy she wasn’t kidding. Group got into cars at 12:30 and up to the race site which was about 20 minutes away on the side of Saddleback Mountain ski area. All told, New York’s contingent included approximately 44 kids, 7 coaches, 16 parents and one sister of a skier. The parents served as chaperones, errand-runners and cheerleaders to the kids racing.
The first races were at 3:30 and 4:30 that afternoon, a 5.2 km individual skate race for boys and girls. New York did not get room in the wax tent because we wanted to be close to the race course with the wax benches; putting klister wax on 44 pairs of skies during the weekend without having ski racks etc. would require the ability to move quick and keep an eye on what was happening. Bibs were handed out, wax benches set up, start times posted on the side of the tent with duct tape, and kids warmed up. But I was a little jealous; the other teams had all this good stuff going on. New Hampshire had these two tables filled with food and baked goods and huge containers filled with gator aide and water, and stoves outside with soups and hot chocolate bubbling. It looked like the HFL high school ski team and parental boosters had come for a visit. They even had kleenex and hand sanitizer lotion on the table. Wow. The wax technicians from the other teams had these cool home-made wooden ski racks that folded up like a book – each ski spot was numbered and assigned to a kid. New York had a pile of ski bags in the snow and a bunch of gatoraide under the table. But, like the good spies that we are, we took pictures, and us parents talked about how we could have the food organized and who could build some of those fold-em-up ski holders. In the skate race, top girl finishers were Elizabeth Izzo in 13th, Janie McClelland in 17th and Danielle Winslow in 22nd. For the boys, Kevin Sprague medaled, finishing 8th, Charlie Benze finished 32nd and Dan Stevens finished 41st.
After racing, the kids put skies away, loaded them back up into Mr. Nevins’ truck, and we loaded up and headed back to the cabins, and in less than 0.5 hours, showered (amazing how many showers teenagers can take in a day), dressed and headed back up the mountain to have dinner at Saddleback Ski Lodge. Unfortunately, New York was not aware that there would be an awards ceremony after dinner that night, so we had a quick team meeting after dinner and went back to the cabins; Kevin Sprague missed out on getting his 8th place medal in the formal ceremony.
Next morning was up bright and early – at 5:30 for a 6AM Breakfast and 7AM departure. It was a sunny cold morning, about 5 degrees, and at 5:45 AM I wandered around outside contemplating, thinking, and enjoying a quiet moment prior to the fervor that the day would bring. The lake was making ice – around here we call that noise “adirondack bullfrogs.” Maybe in maine they call it “North woods Moose Calls”? The kids were all very responsible and the evil cowbell did not need to be used as a motivational device. All skies were loaded back into Mr. Nevins Truck and kids and gear into the assigned cars (so people knew when they could leave). On the mountain at 7:30 and then the long wait for klister to be tested for the 1 km sprint heats. The kids warmed up, previewed the course while Margaret and Julie determined waxing. The waxing team then put klister on 44 pairs of skies in about 30 minutes while other parents ensured that kids were lined up in order of start and that each kid’s skies were waxed. The sprint course was a tricky little devil, with a big uphill, some very sharp downhill turns and loose granular snow over ice in places. A number of kids had falls, which were bummers. Best results for girls was a 13th place for Elizabeth Izzo, 25th for Danielle Winslow, and 58th for Juliann LaJoie, with a 16th place finish for Kevin Sprague, a 17th for Dan Stevens, and a 35th for Charlie Benze. Unfortunately, it was very cold and dry that morning, which caused Dan’s asthma to kick up, and forced him out of skiing for the rest of the weekend. However, Dan still helped out with testing waxes, cheering, keeping his teammates motivated, and schleeping gear.
Once the morning sprint races were done, any kid that was not classic racing in the afternoon medley relay had their skies cleaned of klister and a binder klister was ironed on for Sunday’s race. Julie Hindsill taught us that Crisco makes a great klister remover from hands. Sprint awards were at 12:30 at the Yurt, kids had lunch, and the coaches juggled the medly relay teams. Due to two illnesses (Janie McClelland and Dan Stevens) the start list for the medley relay was readjusted around 1:00. Bibs were handed out, final waxes applied, and all kids were to the start line for a gigantic relay extravaganza featuring 58 teams in a mass start. The medley relay was classic guy, classic girl, skate guy, skate girl. New York’s number one team, made up of Elizabeth Izzo, Charlie Benze, Kevin Sprague and Danielle Winslow placed 8th overall. The announcer was great and made for a very exciting race. After the race, a team photo was taken, the remaining klister skies were cleaned and a new klister binder coat was ironed in on all classic skies in anticipation of Sunday’s race. All gear was packed, with a final 15-minute hussle challenge being thrown down to the kids to beat the clock. Skies were put back into the truck, kids were driven back to cabins where they had one hour to clean up prior to going back up to the Saddleback Mountain Lodge for dinner, awards and a really good raffle with lots of swag.. It is universally acknowledged that Emily Burns got the best swag – a head band that said “IRON GODDESS” in pink lettering. Some kids from New Hampshire and the New York Team (led by my son) went out for a little lunch tray sledding on the downhill mountain. Packed kids up, headed back to cabins where remaining skies were waxed, cabins cleaned and gear packed up for Sunday morning.
Up again early, and cars packed by 6:45 AM Sunday because all gear and luggage had to go up to the mountain. Cloudy, cold and snowing lightly. Waxing was complicated by the light fresh snowfall over granular, and also because the racing for that day was a arrowhead mass start for the girls and then the boys for the 7.5 km classic race. We snagged a spot in the waxing tent in case it got really windy and nasty outside, but decided to give it up again, and work outside, where we could quickly move kids through the klister line. Girls were waxed with KR 40 I think – purple klister with universal silver in it – and boys were just waxed with blue hard wax over the binder klister. Danielle Winslow had an incredible race, coming in 14th. However, the most exciting moment for nearly all of us was seeing Kevin Sprague in first place coming around the course during the first lap of the boy’s race. All of the coaches out on the course were asking “New York…New York???? Who is that kid from New York.” Kevin ultimately ended up third, as two teammates from Massachusetts were able to work together to beat him out of the top spot, but it was incredible to see Kevin do so well that day. There was a quick lunch, awards at 1:00, and the cars were packed for the final trip home (12 hours for the Rochester crew).
Was it worth it. Yes it was. Yeah, yeah, New York placed 5th as a team among 5 teams. But we put one of our teammates up on a podium twice. Other kids had great races that exceeded their goals and expectations. More importantly, the kids, the coaches, and the parents learned some really important lessons. Some kids were just pleased to be there, and to race. This was the most intense ski event some kids have ever been to, and this experience will serve them well when they ski at a less hectic event in the future. Many made new friends within the New York Ski Community – friendships that can last over a lifetime of racing. There were some basic lessons learned – mark all your equipment with your name, and mark classic skies with hard wax and klister kick zones. Keep your ski bag zippered up, with the equipment inside. (We didn’t lose a single piece of equipment during the entire weekend – we misplace equipment for short periods of time, but didn’t loose anything). Next time, we will bring surveyor flagging tape on ski bags to identify which car each bag goes into at the end of the day. Saran wrap can be used to avoid klister smearing inside a ski bag when transporting a used ski without time to clean it. Crisco can be used to remove klister from hands. We found that it was possible to wax klister on 44 skies x 2 pairs of skis x 3 classic races in very short periods of time. It is possible to motivate 44 teenagers to move in a uniform direction at any given time (hint – threat of cowbell). It was a joy to know that kids really do appreciate adults going out of their way to help, and will tell you so, even if you are the one with the cowbell in your pocket. Some kids learned that sometimes you don’t do as well as you want, or that somebody has to finish last, but even then you can still contribute to the success of the team. Others learned that you can still contribute regardless of whether you race or not. What did Bill Koch say? – I ski to do my best, not to worry about all the rest, and most of all, to have fun.
I, and the rest of the adults coaches, chaperones, and parents on this trip were so very proud to be part of this event. What a great bunch of kids New York has in Nordic skiing. Thank you for supporting these skiers, letting me be part of this event, and reading this blog.
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