Recent Grads in Skiing

I'm proud to say that a couple of our '09 skiers are working in the ski world post-graduation:

Nick has been hired as the assistant coach of FXC (Fairbanks Cross Country), a junior racing team. I'm thrilled to have one of our skiers decide to pursue coaching. Nick did good work as a captain this year and showed that he wasn't afraid of responsibility, and I know he'll do well in this role. Fairbanks has an amazing xc ski community, and it should be a great place for him to break into the coaching ranks. Not a bad place to be a geologist, either.

Nat is now writing feature articles for Fasterskier. There aren't many professional nordic ski journalists around, so this is quite an accomplishment, even if this is a very part-time deal for the moment. Now that he's a member of the nordic ski media, I'll have to treat him with more respect, lest he write a scathing expose about our ski program. Seriously, his writing is a great addition to the site, and in this role he has the opportunity to explore big issues in the ski world from an objective viewpoint - something that's usually lacking in the US ski community. Here's one of his recent articles, which has generated a lot of thoughtful commentary.

We also have another team member from last year who's made a ski-related career move: Ollie accepted a position on the Green Team last spring, and he's currently in Craftsbury training hard for next season. I'm sad to lose Ollie - he did a great job for us last year - but I'm excited that he'll have the opportunity to see how good he can be in this sport. We'll look forward to seeing him at the races next year.

Graduation 2009

Last weekend we sent our 4 seniors off into the world: Nick, Nat, Courtney, and Tom. Here are 3 of the proud graduates - Cookie Monster was nowhere to be found after the ceremony, but I saw him get his diploma, so I'm pretty sure he's legit.


We'll miss these four next year, but we're looking forward to seeing what they do next. Congratulations graduates!

Nat Profile

Check out Nat's profile on the Bowdoin homepage.

Huge Baller

Madagascar Training Video

As we enter another long dryland season, Jeff reminds us that you can train for skiing anywhere...

Training Video 08-09

As promised, here's the video that Ollie put together from clips of our training this year. Enjoy!

Breakup Dinner

Last week we had our breakup dinner - last official team function of the year. We had a stellar meal and wrapped up the season with a slide show and a video courtesy of Ollie (to be posted shortly). We also elected captains (Elissa and Niko) and gave out some awards:

Polar Bear Award (most outstanding skier):
Courtney Martin & Colman Hatton
Both Colman and Courtney were remarkably consistent this year. Courtney was our top finisher in 8 of the 13 college races and had our best women's finish (32nd in the UVM 10k classic). On the men's side, Colman was our top finisher in 7 of 13 college races and was the only skier in our scoring 3 in every race.

Freshman Emergency Van Driver Award (male first-year skier most likely to be trusted with driving the van in an emergency situation when no certified van drivers were available):
Dan Polasky
Dan was consistently the least irresponsible first-year man on the team - no locking keys in the van, no excessive lateness, no loogies partially frozen onto his skis, and no bringing his race skis to be waxed 5 minutes before start. Good Minnesota values.
(Note to any Bowdoin administrators reading this post: no uncertified drivers were harmed in the making of this award - strictly a theoretical exercise).

Congratulations to our new captains, award winners, and the whole team on a successful season!