** Editors note: This will be a weekly column highlighting our ski coaches from around the country including elite coaches, college coaches, high school coaches, volunteer coaches, and learn-to-ski coaches. This is an effort to sample a diverse group of coaches and recognize the people who are the backbone of today’s skiers. If you would like to nominate a coach for an interview, please email robertwhitney99@hotmail.com. Please give coach’s name, email, phone, and a small paragraph describing the nominee. The more diverse, the better.
![](http://images.fasterskier.com/oldsitearchive/upload/070321-123728-Deno.Stateteampic.jpg width=450 height=337.5 border=1><br />
<font size=1 face=verdana>Deno and State Team</font></center></p>
<p><B>Coaching Background?</B></p>
<p>I started skiing at the tender age of 3. It all started like this: My dad used to be a chain smoker back in the 70’s and one day he just quit cold turkey. So within months we had Bill Rodgers running jackets, Edsbyn hats, Asnes skis, and Scando-polyester apparel in the closet. He started running marathons, read the Jim Fixx book — It was on like Donkey Kong!!! </p>
<p>Basically, in one fell swoop — we became an endurance sport family. He was in the National Guard, so you know what that meant—oh yeah, old skool biathlon! I really didn’t care for the whole scene and lying in the snow shooting a gun sticking to my young nine-year-old face wasn’t fun. Really, hockey is where it’s at for most young Minnesota boys. I still consider it a rite of passage, and my ski racing program has quite the history of turning local rink rats into all-State nordic skiers! So, after a couple years in the hockey wilderness, I fell back into skiing (a good thing). It basically took about three hockey games at the Bantam level and getting crushed into the boards by defensemen three feet taller than me to get me back out on the trails! Racing in Minnesota high school races in the mid 80’s was a total ‘trip’ looking back on it. I started racing in 8th grade and people couldn’t figure out if they should classic, marathon skate, or do a combination of both. Kids were kick waxing the outside channel of the kick zone to allow for both. Unreal! My athletes would never fathom such a story. Geez, I feel like a dinosaur fossil just thinking about it.</p>
<p><B>How’d you get into coaching?</B></p>
<p>Coaching on the nordic scene found me—I didn’t really go looking for it. I was staring at a bright future in lawn chemical sales, and in my spare time I helped out my younger bro’s high school team and it turned out to be a lot of fun. My brother Jon was my first athlete to get All-State. And, as any coach who has tried to coach a family member will tell you, it’s the toughest thing to do. He had more talent in his index finger for the sport than I had in my whole body—and he was a pure racer. Since my motto was “Train, train, train†let’s just say we learned a lot about each other! He graduated in 1995 and we just spoke for the first time the other day. </p>
<p><B>Age? </B></p>
<p>Well, the running joke around here is that my true mental age is half my physical age. </p>
<p><B>Tell us about the team(s) you coach?</B></p>
<p>The fabulous group of athletes I coach belong to one or both of the clubs I coach. The ski team at Forest Lake Senior High (nestled off the shores of beautiful Forest Lake, MN), is my high school program where I’ve been coaching there since 1998. Our high school season goes from mid-November to mid-February. Most of our training and racing is done across the border on man-made snow at Trollhaugen Ski Resort, thanks to our friend Rollie Westman. Our team is pretty small (16 boys, 10 girls) and we are all about quality. We have to be.<br />
Nordicwerks SkiKlubb is the club I founded back in 2001. The program started with 12 skiers and now the numbers are closing in on 35. I’ve got some great assistant coaches and it makes all the difference from June through August. The kids meet five times a week at various locales in the Forest Lake area and nearby St. Croix River Valley. Nordicwerks has members from area high schools such as White Bear Lake, Stillwater, and Mora. We also have alums that ski collegiately all over the nation. Weekends, as you can imagine, find the Nordicwerks circus on the road at all the Midwest Junior National qualifiers.</p>
<p><B>Who do you look up to?</B></p>
<p>There are three coaches whom I have a lot of respect for in our Nordic community. The first would have to be Dave Johnson of the Marshall School in Duluth, MN (he was featured earlier on Faster Skier). Here’s a guy who has won everything you can win at the high school level in MN, just a dynasty maker in the late 1990’s with Duluth East HS. And he’s the kindest, most helpful guy—and with no ego. I’ve had conversations with his alumni athletes and they love the guy and his philosophy — have fun skiing. All coaches preach this, but he lives it everyday. After my boy’s team from Forest Lake won the state title for the first time in 2005, Dave was the guy I sought out. His happiness for our accomplishment was so sincere — no different than if he’d just won again himself. He has been a true inspiration to me and my coaching.</p>
<p>Another coach who was a big help was Chris Grover of the US Ski Team. Chris came to the Minneapolis/St. Paul area a few years back, right about the time I was planning on launching Nordicwerks. I really appreciated Chris’ philosophy on teaching technique and his open-mindedness about discussions on racing—be it World Cup or teaching young athletes how to ski. Chris is a good dude, and I’m glad he’s on the US Ski Team staff!</p>
<p>The last coach I’d like to mention (in this land of great coaches) is Pete Vordenberg. Here’s a guy who recently went to Rybinsk, Russia as the one-man band and waxed, cheered, lugged stuff everywhere, and still found the time to write a fantastic story about our super Nordic athletes on www.teamtoday.org. Pete loves nordic racing. The intensity, the passion—and he has the time to talk it with anyone. I’m proud to be involved in a sport with such dedicated, enthusiastic coaches as these. </p>
<p><B>What similarities do you have with other coaches?</B></p>
<p>The similarities I share w/ coaches around the USA is this
PASSION. Our sport is absolutely amazing. The drive and intensity required to excel in nordic racing is fueled by it.</p>
<p><B>Where do you see yourself in 20 years?</B></p>
<p>Coaching youth soccer in northern Italy or Southern California. Or maybe bartending in the Maldives.</p>
<p><B>Random facts? </B></p>
<p>I have two cats — Summer, a crabby tabby and Enzo Ferrari, a Himalayan speed climber.</p>
<p>Favorite movies — Rushmore, Apocalypse Now, and Fight Club</p>
<p>Favorite color — Nordic blue</p>
<p>Favorite cartoon — Ren and Stimpy</p>
<p><B>Rap or country?</B></p>
<p>You’ll find a bit of Wu Tang Clan as well as some Johnny Cash on my Ipod.</p>
<p>And my moto: Two wax tables and a box of scones!</p>
<p>Thanks Deno!</p>
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