** Editors note: This will be a twice-monthly 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 rob@fasterskier.com. Please give coach’s name, email, and a several paragraph write-up of the nominee.
Jeff lives, trains, and coaches skiers in the Sierra Nevada’s of Northern California.
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<p><I>1. Background. Tell us about yourself Jeff.</I></p>
<p>I came to skiing relatively late in life. I grew up in the San Francisco Bay<br />
Area and went to College at UC Santa Barbara— not places conducive to<br />
learning to ski! After college I took a job in Yosemite teaching rock<br />
climbing and outdoor education and suddenly found myself in a winter<br />
environment. I entered an XC ski race on a whim and just ran around the<br />
course on my “Fischer Step” no-wax skis. It was fun and I became hooked.<br />
Soon I was skiing and racing a lot and moved to Truckee to take a job as a<br />
High School Cross Country ski coach. I also taught XC skiing and became<br />
certified by PSIA although my examiner, Nancy Fiddler, almost failed me<br />
because I couldn¹t ski down hill very well!</p>
<p><I> 2. You've worn many hats over the years.. …being involved coaching for Far West as head coach, to Auburn Ski Club (ASC) head coach, the UNR coach, Truckee High School coach, World Jr coach, Scandinavian trip coach, and now back with Far West and ASC. Can you tell us a bit about the ride and the experiences along the way? </I></p>
<p>After coaching at Truckee High School I got hired to be the Nordic Coach at<br />
University of Nevada, Reno. At that time UNR had a limited ski program and<br />
competed as a club sport in the USCSA. After my first year at Reno we<br />
managed to move the program up to NCAA skiing. I remember coaching at those<br />
first races in the NCAA and I was a ‘nobody’ coach with no credentials. In one<br />
of our first races, I was skiing backwards on the course to get out on the<br />
trail, and I came flying around a corner and ran right into the top skier<br />
from the University of Utah, knocked him over, and broke his ski! I had a<br />
lot to learn and it took me a long time to be accepted as a legitimate<br />
coach. But what I learned is that what it takes to build a good ski program<br />
is having someone who is passionate about the sport, is willing to learn,<br />
and stays with the program for an extended period of time. Having consistency in<br />
coaching is one of the keys to building a strong program.</p>
<p>After 7 years of college coaching I decided to leave UNR in 1999 and to<br />
begin working with the Auburn Ski Club and Far West to build our junior<br />
programs. At that time Far West was one of the weakest divisions in the<br />
country, often nick-named “Far Worst.” I stepped into an incredible group of<br />
people who wanted to bring up the level of Far West skiing: Glenn Jobe,<br />
Sally Jones, Bill Sterling and many others all pitched in to help create a<br />
program almost from scratch. I learned that it takes a village to build the<br />
best programs and that no one coach should take full ownership of the<br />
program. What we did was start year round training programs and we had a<br />
philosophy that we wanted our programs to provide for serious JO type<br />
athletes but also to be fun and introduce kids to a great life-time sport.<br />
We built our training around a love of doing fun adventures outside. To<br />
succeed in skiing you have to train a lot, so we emphasized teaching kids to<br />
love training by going to wild places in the Sierra, climbing mountains,<br />
swimming lakes, and loving to be outside training. We had fun but we trained<br />
a lot. </p>
<p>In 2006, I helped coach at the World Junior and U-23 Championships in<br />
Slovenia. This was an awesome experience and I came away with good<br />
confidence in where US Skiing is headed. Our athletes were totally committed<br />
and were right in there with the Europeans. Seeing our Junior women on the<br />
podium for the relay was great and seeing the coaches from around the<br />
country come together to provide excellent support for the athletes showed<br />
me that we have a lot of good coaches here in the US and we can learn from<br />
each other. It reminded me that USSA needs to keep working on coaches<br />
education and having US coaches interact with each other. I think one of the<br />
biggest benefits of the REG regional junior camps is getting the coaches<br />
from around a region together to exchange ideas and learn from one another.</p>
<p>After 2006 I stepped back as head coach in Far West and handed it over to<br />
the capable hands of Ben Grasseschi. I am still totally involved as a coach,<br />
this is what I do, but I think it is great for the program to have a new<br />
head coach who brings new ideas to the team. It’s cool because we have<br />
consistency of coaching staff but also new perspectives this way.</p>
<p><I> 3. How's Far West changed over the years? </I></p>
<p>The main way Far West has changed is in its growth. We now have over 40 kids in<br />
the ASC Comp and Devo teams (age 12-19) plus we have started a senior<br />
program with a summer camp and weekly senior team training, and we are<br />
branching out to address coaching our masters as well.</p>
<p><I> 4. What's the most rewarding aspect of coaching, for you? </I></p>
<p>Oh that is easy: being outdoors going on adventures with the athletes. Turning<br />
kids onto the things I love in life, training, rock climbing, kayaking,<br />
crust cruising, jumping off cliffs into cold water, cycling, etc. I feel<br />
that this diverse approach to training works to make great athletes instead<br />
of just going roller-skiing everyday.</p>
<p><I> 5. Best place to ski? </I></p>
<p>We are so lucky with the skiing we have here in the Tahoe Basin! I love<br />
Tahoe Donner and Royal Gorge. My all time favorite skiing though, is to<br />
skate on the spring corn all over the High Sierra: no trails, no grooming,<br />
just hundreds of miles of wilderness skating!</p>
<p><I> 6. Most memorable coaching moment? </I></p>
<p>At the 2005 Junior Olympics when Matt Gelso won the J1 boys sprint! This was<br />
Far West's first JO Gold Medal from an athlete who had come up completely<br />
through our programs.</p>
<p><I> 7. Let's say you were given $1,000,000. And it could ONLY go to xc<br />
skiing in the US. How would you spend and allocate the money? </I></p>
<p>Oh Cool. I would give 1/3 of the money to USSA for Coaches education, 1/3 of<br />
the money I would divide among the the top clubs across the country that are<br />
developing our juniors, and the final 1/3 I would give to Pete Vordenberg<br />
and the US ski team to use as they see fit, because Pete is doing an awesome<br />
job!</p>
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