** Editors note: The Coaches Around the Country colum is back again for a second winter. This column will highlight 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 several paragraphs describing the nominee.
Pete, head coach for the Fairbanks XC (FXC) ski club, is the first of the the Coaches Around the Country column this winter.
<br />
Between loops, I imagined that one day I would be the American that the<br />
Norwegians would try to naturalize to make their relay team stronger…<br />
Besides the imaginary ones in the backyard, I didn't actually enter a<br />
ski race until I joined the local high school team. This came on the<br />
heels of a dark time in my life when in middle school – during a brief<br />
but fervent obsession with soccer – I sold all my ski gear to buy more<br />
soccer junk. Luckily, by junior year of high school I had burned myself<br />
out on soccer, and decided to devote myself to ski training. It was<br />
definitely a learning experience the first year, but the second time<br />
around I trained well enough to qualify for JO’s, and do well at the<br />
State Meet and the Eastern High School Champs. </p>
<p>From there I went on to ski for four years at Williams College, had a<br />
great time, grew and learned a lot, trained my butt off and so on. When<br />
all that came to an end, I realized that I didn't have what it took to<br />
hack it as a full-time racer, so I decided to get into coaching. After<br />
some searching, I ended up in Lake Placid with NYSEF, where I spent two<br />
years having a great time with an awesome group of kids and a great<br />
boss. As those two years drew to an end, I started to feel like I<br />
needed a change if I was going to continue to develop as a coach, so I<br />
started to look at various jobs and ended up taking one in Fairbanks,<br />
Alaska…</p>
<p><I>2. You are in your second season with Fairbanks. How's it moving along, and what's it like starting a program (FXC) from scratch? </I></p>
<p>In fairness, I can't claim I started it from scratch; there were a lot<br />
of committed individuals here before I showed up. They set the<br />
groundwork for this program, and really made sure it was set-up to do<br />
something good for the kids of Fairbanks. In fact, their thoroughness<br />
and professionalism is really what drew me here.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, since I've been involved with FXC, it has been quite a<br />
ride. When I showed up in town about 16 months ago, there were 4 kids<br />
signed up for the program. Now we have about 25 athletes with a couple<br />
others interested for this winter, and more wanting to get involved<br />
next summer. In truth, that sounds like a lot more rapid growth than it<br />
has felt like most of the time, but I guess that's just a matter of<br />
being here on a daily basis. Still, there is a lot of good energy in<br />
the Fairbanks ski community right now, and that is really exciting to be<br />
a part of.</p>
<p><I>3. You grew up skiing in the East. How is that different than Alaska skiing?</I></p>
<p>To say the least, Alaskan skiing is pretty intense! At my first Besh Cups<br />
(Alaska JO qualifier races) last December, I was quite impressed by the<br />
size and quality of the field, as well as to everyone's (from the littlest<br />
competitors to the oldest coaches) commitment to kicking butt. I feel<br />
like there are a few more laid-back types when you head to an Eastern<br />
Cup, not as much intensity in the waxing, for example. I think it mostly<br />
has to do with the differences in the geographic make-up of the racer<br />
base, the size of the teams, and the stability of snow conditions in Alaska<br />
vs. the East. I really don't see one as being inherently better than the<br />
other, simply different answers to different situations. </p>
<p>There's also this 6 months of consistent snow thing. Skiing 20-some Ks<br />
in extra blue conditions in mid-October as I did earlier today is pretty<br />
easy to adapt to.</p>
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