What an awesome accomplishment – Congrats, Dave!

With that, we end an era and begin a new one as Bryan Shpall and Christine Schozer pass the captain’s torch on to Hig Roberts and Katelyn Barclay.

Get excited Panther fans – only 8 more month before we race again!

March 26, 2013

Former Middlebury skier and two-time U.S. Olympian Andrew Johnson has been named the new head coach of the nordic ski program at Middlebury College. Johnson comes to Middlebury from the University of Vermont, where he served as an assistant coach for the past three years, helping the Catamounts to the 2012 NCAA title.

“I couldn’t be happier to be joining the Middlebury athletic department and ski team,” said Johnson. “The strong culture and history of skiing at Middlebury makes it a unique place to be, both for students and as a coach.”

Before joining the Catamounts, Johnson was an assistant nordic coach at the University of Utah during the 2008 and 2009 seasons. While at Utah, he earned a B.S. in Environmental Studies.

“We are thrilled to welcome Andrew Johnson back to Middlebury to take over as the head coach of the nordic skiing program,” said Director of Athletics Erin Quinn. “Andrew brings a wealth of skiing experience at the highest levels of the sport, as well as excellent coaching experience.  Most importantly, he is an outstanding teacher and his philosophies of coaching and building teams will be an excellent fit with Middlebury College.”

A native of Greensboro, Vermont, Johnson was a member of the U.S. Ski Team from 1999-2007. He competed in the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah, as well as the 2006 Olympics in Torino, Italy. He also competed in the Nordic World Ski Championships in 2003, 2005 and 2007. Johnson was the U.S. National Champion in cross-country skiing in 2005 and 2006.

Johnson began his career at Middlebury College where he was a three-time NCAA All-American from 1997-99 under head coach Terry Aldrich. He was the U.S. Junior National Champion in cross-country skiing in 1996.

“Middlebury’s demonstrated commitment to skiing coupled with its outstanding campus facilities and impressive upgrades at Rikert Nordic Center make it an ideal place to be,” added Johnson. “Having attended Middlebury College and skied for the program, it’s a bit of a dream come true to be able to return and help lead the ski team into its next chapter.”

This weekend, Kaitlin and I headed over to Craftsbury to try to stuff ourselves full of racing for one last time. As a mini tour format, with three races over the weekend, culminating in a pursuit start classic 10/15k for the overall title on Sunday, it was a low key opportunity to bash our heads to the snow one more time. What made this weekend especially nice, and what I looked forward to the most going into it, was that for what felt like the first time this year, it would be an opportunity to race without any overhanging expectations or pressures. We were there for the love of racing and it was one more time to try to feel that fire. This time, I got to race solely for the sake of racing, for that mid-race deal-making, and to me that’s the best feeling there is in skiing.

Some highlights from the races:
#1 The coolest part of it all: for the prologue, we got to start on top of “Mt Craftsbury” (their big snowmaking pile), so out of the gate got to drop into a sharp downhill- SO FUN!
#2 We both got to race sprint heats on Saturday, a privilege we don’t often get in the college season, so that was also great.
#3 Lots of college kids were there- between Bates, UVM, Dartmouth and UNH it felt almost like a mini carnival!
#4 It is actually mid winter in Craftsbury, everyone, so in case your flights to Fllorida for spring break got delayed, you should probably change your plans to go to Craftsbury again.
#5 Lusty came and raced the 30k Spring Fling on Sunday, and won. Nice way to go out…winning!
#6 After the races were done the sun came out and there was a barbeque and sugar on snow. That felt how last races in the spring are supposed to feel. Especially with the sugar on snow part. So happy to end it in the homeland of VT.

Thanks to Stratton and Kate Barton for taking care of our wax this weekend, to Craftsbury for putting on yet another fantastic set of races, and to everyone back at school who’s put up with our craziness in the last two weeks for wanting to keep racing!

That aside, I can now say that the season has officially ended for the Middlebury Ski Team. Here’s to a great year!!

2013 NCAA Championships from Stella Holt on Vimeo.

No, putting together a recap of things like the Tormondsen trail’s national unveiling to a collection of strong skiers, the importance of snowmaking in having the events take place and the general love for skiing that the event drew out form folks is not easy. Likewise, just how lucky we were to have the weather we did for both races is nothing short of a miracle. Let me just say, I’m grateful to those that made this happen, selfishly, because it was a movie script scene at Rikert for the week of those races.

But more about the racers: Kelsey, Ben, Austin, Annie & Heather emerged from the rigors of a race season to qualify for the big show. Through the week leading up the event, they prepared well and didn’t lose focus, a feat when the races are happening on home turf with noisy dorms and unfocused classmates uncertain of the culture around nordic skiing. Again, support from friends, in this case the Marston family, helped keep folks directed. “It is so nice to be in a house,” Heather said while we prepped dinner one night. It was, indeed.

The classic race at NCAAs is, for a coach, the most stressful day of the collegiate year. March is not kind on kick wax conditions and this year was no exception. We tested beginning days before the event and ski choice was paramount. The men opened competition and the last moments between testing wax and waiting for the first splits to roll in were the longest of my year. I watched Austin (bib 2) climbing his first trip up the A-climb with a mixture of elation and relief. He was kicking well, skiing well and making time on the racer in front of him. Similarly, Ben lit out from his 30th starting spot with a fierceness he hadn’t boasted since early in the season. When skiers are going well, there’s an energy that a coach gets to live in, it’s intoxicating and both Austin’s 28th place and Ben’s 4th, a first-team all-American result and his strongest race of the year were a joy to see. The tension lifted slightly, as we prepped the women’s skis.

It wasn’t to be a perfect day. Only Kelsey had a race close to where she’d been racing through the last part of the season, and even then she admitted to feeling the (not unreasonable) nerves of a first year skiers at NCAAs. Heather was essentially taken out of the race early by an oncoming virus that would crush her week and Annie found and unfortunate tree to connect with during a left hand corner descent from the A-climb. Many races, we’ve left happy but not content. In this case, the men felt content and the women unhappy. Herein lies a principle challenge in a week like NCAAs. It would be easy to overlook a feat like Ben’s 4th place or the debuts of Austin and Kelsey given the expectations for Heather and Annie. The crew didn’t. Patty and I didn’t. We merely doubled down and readied for the skate mass start.

Repeat meetings, ski prep, grooming, nerves. Insert perfect spectating weather and increase the spectators. Ratchet up the importance. Focus in on the last few seconds before the women’s mass start began Saturday’s racing. Conditions were fast and fun skiing. Unfortunately, the hopes of high finishes were dashed for Heather before the race in the form of a fever. Kelsey and Annie lit out with 39 other great racers. Five minutes into Annie’s race, her hopes too were dashed. Another fall near her Thursday’s crash knocked her to a physical place unable to ski. She was hurt. “I cracked.” She explained later. Kelsey was left as our only unaffected racer. She finished in 33rd. As there are no bad skiers at NCAAs, it was a respectable showing from the first year racer. Watch out for Kelsey Phinney. She will become a helluva skier in the years to come. On the results page behind Kelsey and Heather. On a second page, there lives a bold printed did not finish with Annie’s name under it.

Short of winning the race, there are few outcomes that could be better for her. Not the team score or the hometown pride. Skiing is fickle and harder than it looks. Annie’s rise to strong results was meteoric and based on her ability to lock out the expectations and pressures of racing. When that ability faltered under the tremendous pressure of hometown racing, parent visits, coach hopes, friend spectators, and movie picture finales, so did her results. Short of those reading this blog post and, perhaps, Annie, few people will think about it again. Lesson learned. Game on.

Like the first day’s fantastic opening, the second day’s tragic start had to be shelved in favor of more racing. We were lucky to have Eileen Carey, a great coach and an old friend, helping Chase, Patty and me as we dialed in skis for the warming conditions. After a few last minute structure applications, the boys headed towards the start line. Cue silence, expectation and the excitement of racing.

The race was a generally reserved affair. Many of the western racers had started hard on Thursday’s race. (I heard a lot about how easy the course was in the days leading up to the first race- not so much in the hours after it.) I can’t help but think it cowed a few racers into not lighting out. Fast conditions and a strong pack of skiers kept the group bunched together. Austin hung on strong in the teens for a long, long time before the effort proved too much and he fell back to no-man’s land. He continued to push and reach for the finish. He closed out the day in 31st place. Ben hovered near the front for the better part of the day. If you don’t know the kid, then you don’t know the type of sweetness he’s capable of- I’ll remember him smiling and nodding during the race when I shouted, “Ben, you’re having a GREAT race!”

The eight person pack that came into the finish was impressively close. A late effort from Miles Havlick earned the Utah skier his second NCAA title. Ben and Sam Tarling, who attends some small college in New Hampshire tied for seventh. (A great way to watch these racers end the year.)

The rest of the weekend was thank-yous and barbecues (again, Thanks Gregg Marston). The sunny temps and great skiing were hard to beat. The final days of the season felt full and happy, which is how final days are supposed to feel.

I don’t think it will be twelve years before we host the NCAAs again, which is good because this was a week that fired a lot of folks up. Including me.

More soon.

Middlebury Skier Moves From NCAA Straight to the World Cup

Senior David Donaldson Earns Spot in the Professional Ranks

MIDDLEBURY, Vt. — David Donaldson of Toronto, Canada, a senior on the Middlebury College alpine ski team, capped off the most impressive winter of competition for an Eastern collegiate skier by placing second in the Audi Coupe Nor-Am Cup giant slalom standings. As a result of his dominant performance this season, Donaldson has earned himself a starting spot in every giant slalom race next winter on the most prestigious circuit of alpine ski racing on the planet, the FIS World Cup.

Donaldson will join professional athletes in competitions spanning from Beaver Creek, Colo. to Alta Badia, Italy, the same races contested by the likes of Ted Ligety and Bode Miller. But before he can take advantage of his newly earned spot on the tour, Donaldson, an economics major and history minor, will have to finish four more months of coursework at Middlebury as well as the summer German language program.

“Securing this spot enables me to compete in World Cups and still finish school. It allows me to ski on my own terms. And that’s the biggest thing,” noted Donaldson about his accomplishment.

“Over the past five years, since going to school, it has been my dream to clinch a NorAm giant slalom or slalom—or both—spots. I feel like I’ve been within an arm’s reach a few times and haven’t done it, and I almost failed to do it again. So it’s hugely fulfilling,” he added.

Donaldson, who grew up training at Georgian Peaks and was a member of the Ontario Ski Team, began his collegiate racing career at the University of Vermont, where he won the NCAA giant slalom national championship title during his freshman year in 2009. After pursuing skiing outside of college for several years but failing to make the national team, Donaldson returned to school at Middlebury in 2011. However, NCAA restrictions prevented him from competing for the Panthers until the 2012-2013 season, his final year of collegiate eligibility.

Middlebury College ski team head coach Stever Bartlett spent two years watching Donaldson progress as an athlete in his program.

“David worked hard in the early season making a few changes to his style and technique and then found a good balance between racing, school and rest,” remarked Bartlett. “He really found his confidence this season and that certainly was another factor in his success.”

In NCAA action this winter, Donaldson won five out of the six giant slalom as well as two slalom races on the Eastern Intercollegiate Ski Association (EISA) circuit. At the NCAA national championships, hosted by Middlebury, he finished as runner-up in the slalom event, missing the win by a mere three-tenths of a second. Donaldson was, by far, the most consistently dominant male athlete participating in EISA competitions this winter.

“Next season, I’ll be at EISA races as often as I can be. If I’m around, I’ll definitely be showing up,” Donaldson said. He has been a vocal advocate of the collegiate circuit for years, and he believes his time there prepared him for the next step in his career.

Heading into the final races of the tight Nor-Am Cup battle, Donaldson sat in a distant fourth-place in the giant slalom standings. The Nor-Am Cup is one of the Continental Cup series dominated by national team athletes who aspire to the professional ranks. But in a miraculous turn of fate, Donaldson, the college skier, won his first Nor-Am ever in the second to final race of the season, and he found himself suddenly catapulted to the top of the standings over national team athletes from both Canada and the U.S.

“I think it almost proved to those people, for more than just me, that there are a lot of great skiers out there who don’t need to give up just because their national teams aren’t supporting them,” Donaldson remarked.

In Friday’s final giant slalom of the season, Donaldson led the first run but had a costly error on the second when he fell on his side and slid across the snow before he was able to get back on his feet and complete the course. His sixth-place finish, however, was still good enough to secure second overall in the standings behind Canadian Ski Team member Phil Brown.

“I was focusing on just making sure I was in the moment, turn to turn, and not anywhere else on the planet. I was in the zone,” Donaldson remarked on his last NorAm race of the season, where he finally secured his World Cup spot.

The top two North American athletes in the final standings of each discipline of the Nor-Am Cup receive automatic starts to all races on the following season’s World Cup calendar. Donaldson will travel to races in Austria, France, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, and Slovenia next year as an invitee to the Canadian Ski Team.

“I am proud of his accomplishments and the way he has embraced his experience as a member of the Middlebury ski team and the Middlebury College community,” said Bartlett. “David is several years older than most of the athletes on the team and is affectionately nicknamed ‘Uncle Donnie’ due to his veteran status. In many ways, he provided mentoring for the younger athletes—not only as a fast skier to chase in training, but also as an example of someone who never gives up on his dream.”

The Middlebury College alpine ski team has demonstrated on more than one occasion that its program can prepare athletes for competition beyond the NCAA. After his freshman year with the Panthers in 2011, Rob Cone of Killington, Vt. was named to the U.S. Ski Team. David Donaldson now adds his name to the list of skiers who have turned from the NCAA ranks to the major league.

Caption: David Donaldson racing on the NCAA circuit this winter

Credit: Cory Ransom

MEDIA CONTACT: C.J. Feehan, EISA Media Specialist

Cell: 802-342-2917

Email: cfeehan@gmail.com