Press release
Salt Lake City, Utah – Jan 10, 2012: The National Nordic Foundation announces the NNF Cup to increase the awareness of America’s premier cross country club programs. It simultaneously aims to trigger the competitive nature of these clubs and entice them to strive to even do even better. These clubs provide daily support and motivation to tomorrow’s stars today.
1 CXC 1298
2 APUNSC 881
3 SVSEF 730
4 Green 428
5 Homegrown 366
6 BSF 198
7 CU 183
8 Team Strongheart 166
9 MSU 159
10 AWCA 139
11 UAF 127
12 UU 100
13 Bend Endurance 93
14 Stella 87
15 RMR 73
16 NMU 59
17 Dartmouth 57
18 UVM 52
19 MOD 51
20 Big Thunder 42
21 Alaska Nordic Racing 31
22 Fast 26
23 Middlebury 25
24 AWS 23
25 CSU 18
26 UNM 15
27 Nordic Combined 14
28 CNEPH 13
28 Boulder Nordic Junior Team 13
28 Michigan Tech 13
31 Japan 11
31 St. Olaf 11
While Nordic is considered an individual sport, no athlete can go it alone. The club programs develop and support athletes from first time skiers until they retire from the sport decades later. These clubs are the athlete’s teams and the athletes wear their club colors proudly.
The competition between clubs to be the best is raising the level of support and success for the nation as a whole. A rivalry between clubs makes everyone try harder. It starts the first time a young skier dons his club jacket that is most often two sizes too large. It continues at JO qualifiers and the Junior Olympics where athletes cheer for their teammates as much as themselves. And now an ever expanding support to expand post JO support through the USSA Super Tour is pushing this club rivalry (and our national aspirations) to the next level.
Just as a US athlete dare not show up to a US Ski Team training camp wearing a Team Norway hat. One best not show up to a SVSEF training session wearing an APU hat unless you are on APU. The NNF Cup aims to increase the recognition of what our nation’s top clubs are doing to prepare athletes to be competitive internationally. It also aims to encourage more clubs to step up and create their version of a the best club model.
NNF Cup Rules
1. Athlete score points for one club. 2. Use existing Super Tour races. 3. Score top 3 members of the club who finish in the top 10 using Continental Cup scoring 4. Have three team standings: male, female and overall. 5. Overall winner will win the NNF Cup and be awarded a traveling trophy.
Support Tomorrow’s Stars Today
The National Nordic Foundation exists to help America’s young, dedicated, and driven Nordic talent realize their, and America’s, long term potential in sport and in life. The biggest hurdle facing American Nordic racers is gaining consistent access to international quality coaching, training, and racing experiences from ages 15 through 25. Providing future generations of U.S. Nordic athletes earned access to a progression of high-quality international competitions, their life enriching lessons, represents this nation’s greatest Nordic development opportunity and funding need.
The National Nordic Foundation and its Pillar Projects exist to fulfill this need. The NNF’s 2011/2012 investment in the cross-country discipline is a record $83,000. These strategic investments, made to Support Tomorrow’s Stars Today, are made possible by the generous contributions from over 1000 individuals who donated through the Drive-for-25 and other NNF fundraising efforts this fall. THANK YOU NORDIC COMMUNITY!
Please donate to the National Nordic Foundation and support tomorrow’s stars today as their quest for athletic accomplishment on the trails prepares them to achieve their potential in life while inspiring others to do the same. Please Donate $25 or $2500 Here Now!
Alex Kochon
Alex Kochon (alexkochon@gmail.com) is a former FasterSkier editor and roving reporter who never really lost touch with the nordic scene. A freelance writer, editor, and outdoor-loving mom of two, she lives in northeastern New York and enjoys adventuring in the Adirondacks. She shares her passion for sports and recreation as the co-founder of "Ride On! Mountain Bike Trail Guide" and a sales and content contributor at Curated.com. When she's not skiing or chasing her kids around, Alex assists authors as a production and marketing coordinator for iPub Global Connection.
5 comments
rweston
February 11, 2012 at 2:25 pm
This is an exciting program/award
However: your statement, “The biggest hurdle facing American Nordic racers is gaining consistent access to International quality coaching,” is so outdated, so far from the truth, it makes me puke. Kinda like the old Alaska T’s that said, “skate til you puke.” It’s this attitude that is the “biggest prevailing problem” and it trickles all the way down thru the ranks of the men and women who have taken it upon themselves to become really good xc ski coaches in this country at all levels of “ski sports.” It in turn effects how the athletes view these poeple/coaches. We use/burn these good people/coaches up and then throw them aside and start the process all over again. It’s time to realize we’re moving in the right direction and have gotten here thanks to all the coaches and the passion and knowledge they bring to every level. I could go to any “XC Ski Region” of this Country right now and find a really good coach that could prepare my kid to become the best he is able to become. Sverre Caldwell is one of the TOP COACHES IN THE WORLD ! Get it? Best In The World ! Coach Cork? Look at what he has done with just a good former High Schooler and the list of really good coaches goes on and on, Maine to Alaska.
roger
davord
February 11, 2012 at 7:57 pm
I think the problem in the US is that there are too few ‘professional’ coaches. Ones that have experience at the international level, ones that have been coaching for a while and have been coaching various levels and have success, ones that you can this is their profession, meaning that they have studied and finished various schools for coaching/education/physiology/psychology/exercise science, etc. Essentially knowing what they are doing, and not just letting athletes go and hammer at certain intensities/intervals while not having a clue why they are doing it. Not too many of those coaches around. Caldwell and Cork are certainly one of the better coaches in this country. I think CXC’s and SMS’s results over the years prove that.
nordic_dave
February 12, 2012 at 10:08 am
Roger,
Thanks for the dissertation on coaching, I agree as Cork is a personal friend. Unfortunately I think you missed the point, NNF is about helping athletes get to those competitions. That is an area that we are behind on in exponential terms. Not a day goes by that I don’t hear from athletes and various coaches both club and USST about the need for funding. We fund Roger, we don’t coach.
This PR is about recognizing clubs on the domestic level helping build the pipeline, we wish we could do more and maybe we will soon. Sorry to learn that you aren’t feeling well.
Dave Knoop
Executive Director
NNF
rweston
February 12, 2012 at 11:52 am
Dave,
Your programs funding of our American Athletes is OUTSTANDING! ! !
Perhaps striking that “line or two” in your over-all(otherwise positive) discription of this much needed/great award would be another positive step. There are many hurdles along the way as we both know, yet only the coaching hurdle (somehow along the way) always seems to surface as an excuse why we aren’t at the top. Americans need to realize it takes 20+ years of commitment by an athlete to have a chance to race amoungest the leaders of the world. There are no short cuts.
Dave, again many thanks to what you are doing to enable those athletes that are indeed making the full commitment to have a fair chance.
PS: feeling much better today, thanks.
roger
nordic_dave
February 13, 2012 at 1:16 am
Roger,
I look forward to meeting you someday soon. Please feel inclined to send me an email at nccsef@gmail.com
Thanks, Dave