Tonight the coaches took a quick drive down to Tripp Middle School to set up the calendar for the Maine Junior Ski League which our 8th grade Winter Term skiers can compete in.
Kirk Siegel, the Telstar MS coach setting up his race:
It was really fun to get down into the grass roots level of where skiers come from! The Maine Junior Ski League is taking some very progressive action – both Middle School teams and non-school affiliated clubs are included in their constituency. This creates a huge impact in getting more kids from more places out on the trails together – we can’t wait to get the Gould Winter Term skiers competing with all of these great teams this winter!
Attendance tonight included some wonderful newer clubs – Caroline Mathes from the Central Maine Ski Club in Waterville, Dan Perkins from the Penobscot Valley Ski Club in Bangor, Tony Ramsey from the Farmington Area Ski Team and Laura Creagan (my own middle school coach – awesome connection!) who has started up a club in York. They are all doing great things! Gould will be proud to host one of the league races this winter at Pine Hill – watch for the calendar to come out shortly.
After the meeting I caught up with Laura, who had been coaching in New Hampshire for the last few years. She had some very encouraging perspective about the work that Maine is putting in for Middle School racers. She even identified the positive skiing environment here as one of her reasons for coming back to Maine!
We also ran into John Weston from Fryeburg Academy who is working hard to help the Trapp Family Lodge with their organization for Junior Nationals, which they will be hosting in 2014.
A fun Maine ski night!
