Dublin School Hires Nina and Michael Silitch to Head Nordic Program

Dublin School, an independent, boarding and day school of 145 students located in southwestern New Hampshire is pleased to announce the hiring of Nina and Michael Silitch, formerly of Chamonix, France, as their new Nordic skiing coaches. The Silitches will lead a coaching staff that includes Lindsey Masterson, Alison Weber and Head of School Brad Bates, who first met Nina while they were teammates on the ski team at Dartmouth College. The Silitches bring a wealth of knowledge about skiing, racing, training, nutrition, and developing young skiers. Michael, who teaches math at the school, and Nina, who teaches French and sculpture, have moved into the brand new Monadnock Dormitory on campus with their sons Birken (9) and Anders (7).

Nina is coming off of an impressive year of ski mountaineering in Europe where she earned a silver medal in the World Championships and won her final World Cup competition in Tromso, Norway in April; historic feats considering no American had ever medaled at this level of competition. Nina raced alpine for many years before converting to cross country while a student at Holderness School, where Michael also attended and joined the cross skiing and running teams.

After skiing and riding at the University of Colorado, Michael Silitch worked for Outward Bound, taught in boarding school, and dedicated himself to a life of mountaineering and high alpine guiding.  Outside Magazine wrote an article on him when Michael was the first American invited to join the Company des Guides in France. Head of School Bates commented that “in just two months on campus the Silitches have already had a meaningful impact on the culture of our campus. Through their interactions with students and their modeling of a healthy lifestyle they are helping us to build up our endurance sports initiatives on campus. The school’s founder believed that young people should get outdoors and ski as much as possible during the winter. I think he would be smiling to see two people inspiring the next generation of students to work hard and play hard.”

The Silitches arrive at a time when two of the children of the school’s founders, the Lehmann family, have donated land and resources to construct a 7.5 km race and training course on campus. The course, designed by John Morton of Morton Trails, was completed this fall and will play host to the New England Prep School Championships on February 12^th, 2014. Dublin was once the highest town in New England and with its trails reaching as high as 1800 feet above sea level, receives and retains substantial snowfall during the winter.

The Silitches can’t wait for the season to start. Nina commented that, “we are excited to be a part of building the Dublin cross country team to the next level. There is a young and motivated group of students whose energy and enthusiasm we hope to use to build a family home away from home, an environment where students can be challenged in new ways, discover new personal limits and attain goals that they might have thought unattainable.” According to Bates, the Silitches are a great team to help kids, in Nina’s words, “learn that nothing is impossible and dreams can become reality.”