Solid arguments have been made to help answer the question of whether to attend an East Coast or West Coast school with a NCAA team ( http://www.fasterskier.com/racing.php?id=1210 ), but there are of course other factors to consider. Such as, what happens when a school you have your eyes on doesn’t have an NCAA team? Are you out of luck? Relegated to get your skinny-ski fix by going on weekend trips with gator and fishscale sporting members of the college outing club? Are you doomed to have to leave the excitement, fun, and challenge of racing with a school team forever? Never fear, USCSA is here! The United States Collegiate Ski and Snowboard Association is like the sister of NCAA competition, allowing students from currently 250 schools nationwide to continue to, or even begin Nordic ski racing.
![](http://images.fasterskier.com/oldsitearchive/upload/040630csc1b.jpg width=450 height=422.02925045704 border=1><br />
<BR><font size=1 face=verdana>me and my Colby-Sawyer teammates from Nationals held at Northstar at Tahoe,CA in 2003</font></center><BR><br />
I started skiing under USCSA as a freshman at Colby-Sawyer College where my teammates and I re-instituted a USCSA team after it died many years prior. Before my Junior year I transferred to Cornell University, where I now ski for the largest Nordic ski club team in the Eastern division. Thanks to the all-inclusive nature of cross-country competition under USCSA, any school can start a team of any size and ability. At Colby-Sawyer College I was the only female on my team of three members. At Cornell I helped teach teammates who’ve never seen snow before to ski. The NCAA teams may recruit Norwegian ski gods, but we have fun with ever-improving Australian study-abroad students. Many of the teams not awarded Varsity status at their university are forced to operate as student run clubs. While this means racers may not have a coach to enforce technique and discipline it is also a testament to the dedication of students who want to ski strongly enough to balance team budgets, fund-raise, and organize travel on top of training and racing. A small budgets means we use alumni-donated klister that no one has ever heard of, and it is not uncommon to sleep on the floor of a teammate’s parent’s house who happens to live near the race site. Despite the less than ideal environments we never fail to have a good time on and off the trail. The trials and tribulations that come from not having a coach and operating under a very small budget bring teammates closer together and victory that much sweeter. As my recently graduated teammate and captain said, “When I decided to go to Cornell I thought my ski racing career was over, and four years later, the nordic team was the best time I had here.†It must be stressed that not all teams are student run clubs, some USCSA teams are official varsity teams of their institutions. Regardless of team status, we’re all there to compete in a sport we enjoy.<br />
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