It’s the beginning of a new year and the first flakes have been seen. The team met to discuss the upcoming year. The excitement is palpable!

Coaches Nelson and Drew gave us an exciting introduction to the season and got us all ready to have a fantastic season.

Given Coach Drew’s family commitments, we will have an additional assistant coach for the season to support our team. This new individual will be announced shortly.

All communications going forward should be done via TeamSnap instead of text. This is a policy here at STA. The captains’s parents do have the ability to text the coaches. Please feel free to connect with the captain’s parents if you need any information or understanding.

There are some team manager options developing and will be announced soon.

We discussed the race schedule. Races are great opportunities for our athletes to build their skills. It is also very important for the parents to support our races. Our minimum requirements for each race is 2 volunteers and some of the races require more. This includes gate judges, timekeepers, course management, among others. Race positions will be sent around via signup genius to follow.

Have to get to races around 3.45 (need to be 35-45 minutes early) in order to make sure that the races are managed.

The chili dinner will be hosted at the Nelson residence at 5 Sunfish Ln, Sunfish Lake, MN. Parking will be defined and the requirements for what to bring is listed. We will have around 60 or so people. Please bring enough to feed and cover.

Chili, cornbread, desserts, salads, fruit. No green jello salads. This is the one area we fall short.

Volunteer and course workers clinic will be shared and provided via link. This can also be done personally. If you have any questions on the volunteering in signup genius. Coach Nelson is officially FIS certified and is happy to teach and guide us on what to do. Just ask…

Fri Dec and below, everything is pinpoint accurate in Team Snap. The only big dates to acknowledge and understand are the invites. Invites are top 6 or top 10-12 depending on the race; not the entire team. Transportation is not provided for these. The Jack Zahr will have a bus. This race will be top 6. When you click on the link into Team Snap, the information will be under the link in Team Snap. All of the other races will be much larger and likely top 20. There will be one more all day invite added to the schedule as it stands right now. This will likely be either Welch or Afton but will depend on numbers of other teams. For the invitationals, qualifications are usually known around a week before. This is based on the results of previous races along with time trials in practice and this will generate the starting order. Sometimes this can change up to the day before as higher level racers may drop out due to illness and other conflicts. Remember we are weather dependent and sometimes things can happen.

We are a racing team of 10 skiers for varsity and 10 for JV. If we are over 20 then those racers are part of the development team. They don’t typically compete in races but are at all practices and could qualify into the top 20 and race. There is a lot of learning that happens around the protocol for practice and races and get used to the rigors of getting equipment on, getting to the hill, inspection, and how it all works.

You must complete your waivers in order to race. You can find it at http://www.skiandboardmn.com/25groups_highschool. Please complete and send to Coach Nelson so that he knows it is done. Welch and Afton do have their own waivers and those also need to be completed and sent to Coach Nelson. That means you need to send THREE in total.

Practices. You need to get going ASAP on practice to work the correct and specific muscles to be ready for the season. This needs to happen during the off season. It is also very important to get your skills refined starting at the beginning of November. This has to happen prior to getting on the hill. We will be on dry land until snow falls. The only dry land that will have a different schedule is the week of the 10th. Practice will be on Tuesday and Friday instead of Wednesday and Friday (4-6). This will be inside and outside practice. On snow practices will be Wednesdays and Fridays from (5-7). Full race gear.

Buck Hill is the home hill. All on snow practices will be there. You will need a season pass there. All boys will be expected to help clean up at the end of practices. There is no changing in the Chalet. Buck Hill does not want to see any boxers! Boot bags need to be stored in the Chalet in a group together. Do not leave keys, phones, or computers in boot bags.

Transportation is facilitated by the upper classmen. The upper classmen are expected to take an under class men under their wing and to make sure they have transportation to practice. This is a very serious responsibility that the senior students take seriously as a leadership opportunity. It is expected that the driver never ever leaves the parking lot without speaking with the underclassman and making sure they are accounted for. They are not required to bring back but options can be arranged. A team bus is used for away races (any venue other than buck hill and not for invites nor sections nor state).

A Buck Hill season pass is required to participate.

The team fee is $250/skier. This will be paid via Final Forms. This is the portal where all school eligibility forms are completed. Coach Drew will still be doing a lot of administrative work to support the team. If you played a fall sport you will likely have most of what is needed to participate but you should make sure that you have everything completed. The concussion screening takes the most time and should be done ahead of time. It also requires a mouse so you need to make sure this has happened and you are cleared. You can do dry land without concussion assessment but you can’t get on snow without it.

Race suits are provided for the racers. These are very expensive custom racing suits we are luck to have and reuse. This is a huge honor and needs to be treated with respect and care. They are incredible suits that are only used for races. You get your suit in a bag and with a care card. At the end of the year all three of those things needs to be returned at the banquet. Each suit has a number in it and will be assigned. Do not lose any item. Do not care for the suit in any way outside of what is described on the card. If the suit is returned with any damage, you will be responsible for the cost on an individual basis. No duct tape, don’t put away wet.

A lot of equipment has been donated in the last year. Skis, helmets, guards, suits, shorts, etc are all available. Please see Coach Nelson if you are interested in any of this gear.

Required Equipment: Goggles, FIS approved helmet, Choppers, Shin Guards, Pole Guards, Racing Skis, Racing Boots, Poles. Practice GS suit, mouth guard.

If you need something ask.

Additional training. During Thanksgiving and Christmas Coach Nelson is happy to provide additional training. He can get 2 hr blocks at Buck. He also now has officially taken the U18/U21/FIS coach position at Buck Hill and will have additional racing options both during and after this season to get more gate time. Contact Coach Nelson for those as options.

Additional Apparel has moved into a different direction on apparel cause of past problems with vendors, etc. We are now going to be going direct with a company like sync that is available with branded apparel. The team fee went up slightly so that we can have an open branded apparel site open all year. more details to come on this front. This will provide a much more dynamic apparel experience.

The captains are responsible for coming up with a signature apparel option each year. This year the captains are doing a branded jacket.

Parents are the backbone of our program. You are also vital to help on the hill. We will have a website that will help show all of the information on how to judge and what constitutes a legal line as a gate keeper. This will be posted on cadetsalpine.com. There will likely be training videos coming for the conference too. Just ask, don’t be shy.

Eligibility is key. Bullying, harassment, hazing is not tolerated period. Zero tolerance. There are very serious consequences to any behaviors in this regard.

If you are out for medical reasons (dr appt) you need to have a note to the admin by 1pm in order to still be considered able to race that day.

All comms via Team Snap. If you haven’t filled out parent info, son’s info, email, etc, please provide to the Coaches so that your information can be added. If your details have changed please let the coaches know.

The end of the year banquet is Sun March 1st at 4pm. We are likely at Mendakota Country Club. This has been great in the past.

Scoring in conference races. If there are 40 racers. The fastest gets 40 pts and the last gets 1 pt. We can score our 8 out of 10 for the team vs team. Invitationals, non-conference, sections, and state races are different.

Practice and home races – you are expected to help clean up. Do not come to Coach in shoes and ask to leave. You must help clean up the course.

The jacket is the standard now and will run for as long as they have this model. Buy it for the long-haul.

Warm ups were donated for race days. This is an overcoat over the GS suit that is used to train and allow them to ski. These are managed on race days and brought up and down on the hill. You are responsible to return it at the bottom of the hill at the end of the race.

Friday Jan 16th is the snow day volunteer event. It’s a half day project (8am – 12.30pm). We will likely need donations for snow pants, choppers, etc. We will need to fundraise to make this happen. We will need cadets to teach the kids how to ski.