New Coaching Staff Announcements
We are happy to announce that Ali Sehnert (formerly Deines) has been hired as the new Prep and Comp coach for the JHSC Nordic program. Ali brings a wealth of experience and knowledge to the program and as former Nordic Program Director at JHSC she has played a large role in building the program into what it is today. Her experience includes her tenure as Head Coach/Nordic Program Director at JHSC from 2004 to 2013, Comp coach at Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation the 4 years prior to her post at JHSC, and racing as an athlete for the University of Colorado. Ali and current Head Coach/Program Director Ben Morley have worked closely together as coaches in the past and look forward to leading the Prep and Comp team together into its next phase. Jon Filardo will continue to work with the team starting in the fall and through the winter. Ali will begin with the team the week of June 16th, and will work into leading training sessions on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Program Director/Head Coach Ben Morley will continue to remain the primary contact point and communicator for the team, but Ali is happy to field any athlete management questions or discussions relating to training and racing. Welcome to the team Ali!
In addition to bringing Ali on board as a Prep/Comp coach, we will be expanding former Junior assistant coach Bria Riggs' role. After taking a hard look at the Nordic program this spring, JHSC leadership decided to act on a structural shift that will allow us to more closely monitor the progression of Lollipopper, Teewinot, Development and Junior athletes. Bria will be working with Nordic Program Director Ben Morley to spearhead a long term athlete development plan for each team and each athlete. The Nordic Program Manual will be the the framework that Bria will be referring to through the process of communicating with coaches, parents as athletes. She will communicate training plans from Prep/Comp team down to each Head Coach so we're sure the training progression of each team is in alignment As a coach, Bria will be working directly with Prep team athletes and older Junior athletes to help the transition of Junior team and Prep team athletes onto the Comp team and assist other teams when their in a pinch. She will also assist Ben with trip and camp management and some operational and administrative tasks.
Bria grew up in Truckee California and skied for Sugar Bowl academy before she skied for Bates College after which she served as a student assistant coach in her final year of school. Bria is currently guiding for for Backrooads, but will start her JHSC dutiies in September and begin coaching in October.
Prep/Comp Summer Training Underway
The Prep and Comp Team completed a series of physical fitness tests last week for their first week of training. The intention of kicking off the first week of training with a test week is to give the athletes an opportunity to establish a baseline so they can monitor their progress through each training block. There are typically 4-5 test weeks running from the end of May through early October. A double pole time trial, the Canadian strength test, a 3000m running time trial on the track, and a trail running time trial round out a full week of testing. Each test serves the purpose of focusing on some specific elements that create a well rounded Nordic athlete, with the understanding the tests really just give us a snapshot of what each athlete is capable of. Current results will be updated by the end of the week; check out the JHSC result archive here. There were some impressive results, some PRs, and even some team records even though it was the first week of training. With consistent training over the years, and physical and mental maturation it's no wonder we're seeing an elevated level of performance even at the beginning of the summer training session.
A handful of Comp team athletes will be heading to Mt. Bachelor on Sunday the 9th for an on snow camp. Athletes will focus on technique while on snow and continue to build a fitness base with dry-land training in the afternoons.
Junior Summer Training
By the time Junior athletes graduate to the Prep team, we try to incorporate at least 3 days of training into their yearly plan. This has proven to help build team culture and progress their foundational strength and technical skills on roller skis, all which translates to producing better skiers when the season rolls around. At this level we still highly encourage kids to be multi-sport athletes, but see the value in offering an opportunity to stay connected with Nordic skiing at some level year-round.
To help ease that transition onto the Prep team, for some of the more committed Junior team athletes we are offering two training sessions per week from June 25th to August 28th on Monday and Wednesday evenings at 5 p.m. - 6:45 p..m. On Mondays the team will start at Snow King with some basic core exercises with the Prep and Comp team athletes and then break out into a game, a hike, a short run, or ski imitation exercises. On Wednesday we'd like to offer an intro to roller skiing session that will either take place at the High School or Middle School parking lot, or at May Park. The coaches will focus on basic body position, fun agility courses, games, and a little technique instruction. Rob Murphy and Anna Gibson will be helping out with this crew.
