JHSC Club and Community Nordic Update
Happenings of the JHSC Nordic Program, Trail Creek Nordic Center, and Local Nordic Community
Welcome to the April Edition of “What’s Going On” for the 2022-2023 season!
All one can say is wow, what a year for JHSC Nordic! With record national finishes, record number of program participants, a busy race schedule, more master skiers than ever, and a ski season that just never seems to end, the 2022-2023 season is definitely finishing up in the epic category. Read on to find out all the details in this month’s Nordic newsletter…
Another fantastic season has come to a close for JHSC Nordic at Trail Creek! We are wrapping everything up in a far better place than last year, with a huge base of snow still on the ground despite closing day on March 31st. This has been a massive season in every sense of the word, from our early opening of Trail Creek to our huge enrollment in ski club programs, to impressive performances from athletes all year long. Some key stats tell part of the story of the JHSC Nordic program this winter:
230 local youth athletes enrolled in JHSC Nordic programming this year
146 days of grooming at Trail Creek this year (40% of the year!)
11 athletes qualified for Junior National Championships in Fairbanks, AK
3 podium finishes by JHSC athletes at Junior National Championships
1 Team Sportsmanship award won at Intermountain Youth Champs
35 skiers on the Ositos Team run with Coombs Outdoors, nearly double last year
4 Junior Team athletes ranked in the top 10 of the IMD U14 Cup
5 Comp Team athletes who earned All-American (Top 10) status at Nationals
80 athletes who received leased equipment from the Club this year
1 athlete qualified for the US Ski Team U18 Trip to Finland
162 participants in the Skinny Skis Moose Chase
34 Nordic masters full-season attendees
76 local elementary schoolers JHSC taught through TCSD Winter Sports
3rd ranked junior club in the country, JHSC's best finish ever!
This was a banner year across the board! We saw record enrollment in the Teewinot, Ositos, and Lollipopper teams and we had to add days of programming to accommodate the interest. We had our Junior team athletes dominate the U12 and U14 classes at Intermountain races, with amazing team performances and huge interest in competition. The Juniors also won the Sportsmanship Award, which shows the character and quality of our athletes. We brought back the Moose Chase after 4 years away and had huge community participation with over 160 racers! We also qualified 11 athletes to Junior National Championships in Fairbanks, AK and came home as the third-ranked club in the nation! From the grassroots to the elite, this year was amazing in all aspects.
Thank you to everybody who helped out this season, it was truly one for the books! Every parent, volunteer, community member, coach, and athlete contributed to this amazing year. Although it may not feel like Spring yet, it is time to take some rest and get ready for the start of another ski year in May!
Head Coach and Nordic Program Director
Lollipoppers
Lollipoppers finished the season with fun and games and longer skiing adventures, and all of them demonstrated tremendous skill development as the season progressed! We finished our last two weeks off with a Leprechaun Hunt, in costumes, with plenty of downhill practice on Gut Flop! We finished our final week with Nordic X (again in Costumes) Donut relays, tug-o-war, relay races, and a pretty good snowstorm for the final day of the season. Our Awards banquet was well-attended, and all Lollipopppers received a commemorative wooden medal. Special Season Awards were received as follows:
Monday:
Most Improved Boy - Arrahlee "Juice" Van Gelder
Most Improved Girl - Posy Smith
Nordic Spirit Boy - Adrian Preheim
Nordic Spirit Girl - Olivia Pollard
Tuesday:
Most Improved Overall - Hadley McDonnell
Nordic Spirit Overall - Cormac Valenstein
Wednesday:
Most Improved Boy - Duncan Cameron
Most Improved Girl - Amelia Miller
Nordic Spirit Boy - Max Bell
Nordic Spirit Girl - Eva Cranston
Teewinots
Mastering Trail Creek is a piece of cake for these second and third grade speedy skiers! March brought a cocoa party to the furthest reaches of Trail Creek at the top of Homesite. The never ending winter allowed for this boisterous group to just keep skiing faster and faster.
A record number of Teewinots have been busy at Trail Creek this year. Activities have included schussing through bamboo forests, obstacle courses to develop agility, balance, and speed while skate skiing, ski ballet, skiing under coach bridges and keeping bodies moving to stay warm on chilly days. Way to go Teewinots, looking forward to next year!
The Teewinot Crew
Devo Team
While March didn’t bring much spring skiing this year, the Development team still made it a fun month. The Donut relay started out the month and was a smashing success. It seems nothing motivates young athletes like the reward of a chocolate mini donut! Slower skiers went fast, and fast skiers went faster. The donut relay was followed by the annual BB gun Biathlon, this year we practiced shooting with the Junior team.
The Devos finished up the season with a hot chocolate party hosted by the Everett family at their summer Forrest Service Cabin at Black Canyon. The end of season party at the Jackson Elementary School was a great success, and it was awesome to see all the athletes and families celebrating a great season. We hope everyone gets some more skiing in this spring. With luck we will be skiing until June. See you next year!
Development Team Season Award Winners:
Most Improved: Cooke Dawes / Chloe Mower
Skier of the Year: Lucas Fitz / Annika Stanley
Nordic Spirit: Finn Hoath / Emerson Walles
Development Team Head Coach
Ositos
Ositos finished out the season on a fun and festive note with an exploration day up Game Creek full of practicing tucking and spotting deer on the hillsides (all while keeping a wary eye out for mountain lions), and a final dress up and games day at Trail Creek. So much growth both on and off the skis with our amazing groups of kids from Munger Mountain Elementary, Jackson Elementary, and Colter. The future is bright, goofy, and full of Nordic X course laps for this phenomenal crew! Here is a link to a video of our celebration day at Trail Creek.
Junior Team
The Junior Nordic season has concluded! Junior Nordic athletes had a great season. We had several athletes compete around the region and several athletes compete locally. The stoke was high this season as there was lots of snow all year which made for great conditions, lots of jumps into powder, and endless kilometers for developing technique and overall essentials.
We couldn't be happier with the group chemistry, and the friendships formed on the Junior Nordic team this season. Junior Nordic athletes will look to their spring, summer, and fall sports to stay in shape and gain fitness going into next season. We hope to have a handful of Junior Nordic athletes come train in the summer as well! Thanks to everyone who made this season so great!
Junior Nordic Crew
Junior Nordic Team Head Coach
Comp/Prep Teams
March was an outstanding month for the Prep/Comp Team across the board! JHSC brought 11 athletes to Fairbanks, Alaska for Junior National Championships and had an amazing week. Jackson Hole ended up ranked 3rd of all the clubs in the country, behind only clubs from Anchorage and Minneapolis! This achievement was earned by every single member of the Prep/Comp team, even those who were not at Nationals. Contributing to this success were: podium finishes from Lucas Wilmot and Lena Poduska; top 10 results from Nate Streubel, Aurora Stiles, and Peter Warner; and top 20 results from Sam Sinclair, Abigail Murphy, Sam Hutchinson, and Mason Wheeler. NICE WORK TEAM!
Comp Team athletes also went to other races outside of the region in March, including William Baxter who competed in Western Club Championships in Truckee, California! William had great races including a 4th place for U16s against competition from all over the West. The last action of the year was at Supertour Finals in Craftsbury, Vermont where Mason Wheeler traveled for some late season racing. It was a packed schedule with four races in 5 days and Mason earned strong finishes in the relay, individual start, and 22k junior mass start where he got 2nd overall!
Looking ahead, all of the Prep/Comp athletes will now rest for the month of April and take some great time off before the training season begins anew on May 1st. Organized practice with JHSC will begin with our annual training camp in Bend, Oregon which will run from May 13-21! Comp Team training will begin upon our return at the end of May. Have fun this offseason and a huge thank you from everyone at JHSC Nordic!
Head Coach and Nordic Program Director
Kirsys Campbell
If you’ve been out skiing at Trail Creek this winter and encountered groups of Teewinots or Juniors skiing around, there was a good chance that one of the coaches leading or following, depending on the circumstances was Kirsys Campbell. Kirsys is a great example of one of the key people it takes to take the youngest Lollipopper and turn them into a national champion. Thanks for your contributions to JHSC Kirsys!
Kirsys Campbell started Nordic skiing with her family in Lander, Wyoming, a couple years before moving to Sun Valley, Idaho, and joining the middle school's prep team as a 6th grader. She grew to love the sport as an athlete for the Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation, and later on running cross country and skiing for the University of Alaska Fairbanks.
She has coached all ages, among her experiences coaching for Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation, Teton Valley Ski Education Foundation, and Jackson Hole Ski & Snowboard Club.
Off of the Nordic tracks, Kirsys loves all kinds of other outdoor adventures, including trail running, climbing, biking, backpacking, backcountry skiing, and ice skating along with photography, traveling, and reading. Kirsys is passionate about building and supporting both her local community and the Nordic community. She aspires to have the same positive, empowering impact on her athletes that many of her coaches have had on her.
She believes coaching is a wonderful opportunity and important responsibility to inspire young, impressionable individuals to have confidence, push themselves, and learn values that go way beyond sport.
Sport-specific Credentials and Experience
- Cross Country Runner and Skier for University of Alaska Fairbanks
- US Ski & Snowboard L100 Cross Country Coach
Education
- Graduating with a BA in Business Marketing Spring 2023!
Personal Philosophy
Work hard, play hard.
Even though skiing has continued in full winter mode throughout the month, the racing schedule was focused on a few big races.
The biggest event, the USSA Cross Country Ski Junior National Championships was covered in great detail in the Prep/Comp report above, click on the link above to delve into all the details of national championship racing.
Also running in March was the Skinny Skis Wydaho Season Finale, The Original Birkebeiner in Norway, and the Drift 100 starting on the Green River. From the relatively easy to the beyond ridiculous, a great way to wrap up the racing season!
Spring skiing? It barely happened this year! As the season winds down, and our permit runs out March 31st with the Forest Service, the snow has just kept on coming. We did have one last great racing day this month where over 60 racers showed up for the Skinny Skis Wydaho Season Finale. The JHSC programs were pretty much wrapped up by March 18th, but our master skiers have continued to make lots of tracks this month.
Moose and elk continue to wander the trails, hoping for spring. The moose especially have seemed a bit grumpy as of late as the dream of fresh green spring shoots is more appealing than ever with hardly a hint of it to happen. Our grouse flock seems to be surviving the winter well in spite of the busy foxes that have been making lots of tracks every day.
The most important thing at Trail Creek this and every season is the multitude of skiers from 2 to 92 that show up and do their part, whatever that may be, making this really special program and place that we all love so much continue year after year; thanks so much to all who support and ski and make Trail Creek all that it is!
Thanks so much to the skiers and sponsors who make this all possible, with an extra special thanks to our season pass holders!
Abraham-Davis Family, David Adams Family, Chris Baker, Bitzer Family, Brigham Family, Beth Burrough,j Broughton Coburn Curtis-Adams Family, Cutler Family, Lori Fields, Alex Gingery, Alex Gingery Family, Bob Gordon, Parker Gotham, Gross Family, Cynthia Hogan, Maggie Hunt, Maddie Krasula, Lee-Clegg Family, Nancy Leon, Lovett Family, MacWilliams Family, Gigi Mahood, Maria Mahood, Ann Makley, O'Brien Family, William Oliphant, Teya Paciulli, Kristy Rans, Kerri Ratcliff, Reimer Family, Roll Family, Sheafor Family, Roger Smith, Springer Family, Carson Stanwood, Thal Family, Brian Van Hatten, Wakeman Family, Charlotte Walker, Ellie Wheeler, White & Wilson Family, Chris Wimberg, Pete Wiswell, Yeo Family, and Sita Jo Yeomans.
Thanks to our amazing staff!
Kirsys Campbell, George Cartwright, Andy Cavallaro, Jon Filardo, Rody Hagen, Libby Hall, Lauri Harris, Lauren Hugo, Lizzie Johnson, Ann Makley, Amelia Mayer, Bill Mayer, Ben Morley, Rob Murphy, Kathy Neiley, Mark Newcomb, Dennis Oney, Connor Phillips, Johnny Springer, Luna Wasson, Will Wicherski, Calvin Wight, Matt Wiseman , and Tyra (JT) Wynn (plus any others that aren’t on the list).
Thank you to the multitude of youth athletes, for whom this program is designed and would be impossible without their dedication and support!
A special thanks to Jackson Hole Nordic for being a strong supporter of our programs.
