Looking ahead - updated

Congrats Class C State Champions! Here's what there is to know about the nordic team for the next week or so.

End of Season Gathering:
Please be sure you're free for our team appreciation night on Tuesday, February 28 at 7:00 in the Community Hall.  This is the evening for our end of season gathering, where we will look back at the season, say many thank-yous, and enjoy dessert.

Photos:
Anyone with photos from this season should share them with Sam (sam.kapala@gmail.com) by Saturday (tomorrow) evening, February 25, so he can include them in the slideshow.

Optional Races:
With states behind us, the regular high school race season is now complete.  Coming up next weekend (Saturday, March 4) is the U16/Eastern High School Qualifier, which is scheduled to take place at Black Mountain in Rumford.  For those that don't know what this is, the qualifier is a "two race in one day format" (usually classic in the morning, skate pursuit in the afternoon) to determine who is eligible to represent Maine in both the U16 festival and the Eastern High School festival.  Each of these festivals is a 3 day/2 night event of skiing and racing.  U16s are for younger skiers (kids born in 2001 or 2002) and EHSs are for high school skiers.  Each state in New England (and nearby) will field a similar team and they all race against each other on the festival weekends.  Note that if you make either of these teams and choose to attend the festival weekend, there is a not insignificant fee to be paid by the skier/family (probably $300 plus NENSA membership).  Click here for a post on mainehighschoolskiing.com re: the qualifier

Anyone is welcome to participate in the qualifier - info will be found on www.mainehighschoolskiing.com over the next few days.  Please note that this is not a MCWS team event, so the registration fee is not covered by your MCWS team fee.  John Tarling has graciously agreed to wax for our skiers participating in the qualifier, so please extend an extra thank you to John for his help.  Good luck to all that elect to ski in this race!  Remember that if you make one (or both) of these teams and intend on participating in the festival weekend(s), you must have a check in hand and be prepared to pay on March 4, the qualifier day.

For those that do make either the U16 or Maine EHS team - those festival weekends are:
U16 - March 10-12 at Titcomb Mt, Farmington, ME
EHS - March 17-19 at Mountain Top, Chittenden, VT

If you do plan on skiing in the qualifier, please let Susan know early this week, as we may do a group registration (TBD). 
New info posted today on mainehighschoolskiing.com shows a link to an online registration form, so we will not be doing a group registration.  All skiers participating in the qualifier will need to submit their own registration.

Practices:
Since the regular high school season is over, there will not be any more official after school practices at Pineland.  Since we still have snow, skiers are welcome to stay at Pineland and ski on their own (passes are still good), you will just need to find your own rides home from Pineland at the end of the day.

It's possible that John may come out to ski a couple afternoons a week.  If/when this happens, Susan will let let kids know at school and/or post on the blog.  If John does this, he will be volunteering his time because he is really nice, so be sure to thank him :)

Uniforms:
Everyone should return their CLEAN uniform to Susan this week.  Kids skiing in the qualifier next weekend may keep their uniforms until after that race.

Friday

All team members should have their team jackets with them on Friday and wear them to the awards and for photos.

A reminder that skiers riding on the van to Waterville should arrive at Desert Rd no later than 7:20 on Friday morning.  We will immediately load the vans and drive away no later than 7:30.

It is hard to pinpoint an exact arrival time back to Desert Rd, but it will most likely be in the 1:45-2:45 timeframe.

Great day today everyone!

Thursday afternoon

As mentioned in the previous post re: States, the vans (and any else that wants to) will be stopping at Portland Pie in Brunswick for a bite to eat on the way back from the races.  Kids should bring $20.  Expected time back to Desert Rd is 6:30ish.  Anyone needing their van riding kids earlier is welcome to collect them at Portland Pie.

Go team!

States Info

~ Updated Sunday 2/19/17 ~

States will be taking place this coming Thursday and Friday, February 23 and 24, at the Quarry Road trails in Waterville.  Directions to the venue can be found here: Directions to Quarry Rd.

Practice During Vacation Week:
See the Practice Tab

Who's Racing at States:

Send pictures to Sam

A reminder to everyone to send any pictures from this season to Sam (sam.kapala@gmail.com), who is putting together a slideshow for our appreciation evening on February 28.  Pictures can be from practice, races, riding in the van, pasta party, waxing, etc.  Thank you!

Chocolate and Skiing

For something to do after the States races, how about combining chocolate and skiing?  Check out the Chocolate Festival taking place in NH on Sunday, February 28!
http://www.mwvskitouring.org/Chocolate-Festival.html

Note from John

The Maine Coast Waldorf HS Ski Team spent this past Saturday competing at the WMC Championships in a one day race series in Fryeburg. The light snow and cold temperatures made for a great day of skiing at Stark's Hill. The Classic Boys race started the day and our boys had a solid start with Tucker winning, Nick in 6th, Eli in 15th and Davis in 17th. For the Girls Classic race Louise and Fiona were solid in 3rd and 11th, also scoring were Wilson in 16th and Ava T in 29th. In the afternoon Skate race the Boys again were lead byTucker a very close second, Nick in 6th, Eli in 14th and Dylan in 18th. The Girls skate race closed the series, Louise again leading the team in 3rd followed by Fiona in 12th, Wilson in 22nd and Ava T in 30th. For the day the Boys were second to a very strong Freeport team and the Girls ended in 4th. We are hopeful the Girls will regroup from illness and be in good form for the upcoming State Class C Championships at Quarry Road in Waterville.

This season has been a challenge as our team is larger than years past. This is a good sign, however the large group requires more attention to ensure everyone gets the proper level of support. We have nine new freshman as well as two guest skiers from Morse High School, and thankfully Sam K is back again this year to help with coaching. We started the year with two plus weeks of dryland training before getting early skiing at Pineland before the Christmas break. This year's ski camp was back at Rangeley, again thanks to the generosity of the Pierce family. The snow came the day the camp started and we had four great days of cold weather skiing.

The WMC race season opened the week after the break with a 5K skate race at Pineland. The season started great with Tucker and Olivia winning their races, Louise and Nick were both in fourth, Eli, Dylan, Fiona and Ava H were the scorers helping the Boys to a first and the Girls a second place finish. The next race up was the popular Telstar Relay Race. The history, the fun, and a deep field make this race a season highlight. This year our first team of Tucker, Nick, Louise and Olivia had a great battle with a strong Gould team, and although we came up a little short, it was a great race with lead changes throughout. We had two teams starting in the A wave, Eli and Fiona joined Morse skiers Jenny and Makail and finished a strong 14th, also our B team of Dylan, Davis,Caitlin and Wilson were second in their race. The second WMC race at Pineland was not held due to no snow.

Our next race was the WMC Relay at Starks Hill. This was a Boys and Girls team race. We tried to even out our teams and had good results as the Boys two teams were 2nd and 3rd and the Girl's were 1st and 6th. The next WMC race at Libby Hill was a skate race in challenging soft new snow. Nick won his first High School race, Olivia won the Girls race and Louise finished in 3rd followed by Caitlin and Fiona, the other scoring girls. Tucker, while taking a needed rest/sick day, still managed a 7th, with Eli and Thomas as the next scorers. The Sassi Classic race at Black Mt is one of the largest High School Races in Maine and Nick, Eli, Dylan and Thomas lead the Boys team. Louise in fifth was our top girl's finisher, Caitlin had a breakout race in 14th and Myla had her first High School race finish. Due to the cancelled WMC race we added the Maranacook Wave race for those who could make this fun unique race with a start for each HS Class. We had great finish results with Tucker, Jenny and Makail winning their class, Olivia was second and Nick 5th, Louise 6th and Caitlin 6th in their respective class. This could be a fun race to add next year. The last regular season WMC race at Stark's was one of the team's best result of the year. Both Boys and Girls teams won their races, Tucker added another win followed by Nick, Eli, and Thomas. Olivia also added another win followed by Louise in 4th, Caitlin continued her strong finishes with a 10th and Fiona a strong 14th.

Our freshman skiers all made great progress and all made it to the starting line this season, this is an achievement they can build on for next year. For the Freshman, Caitlin was outstanding and was among the top four scorers, Adams had a very solid WMC Championships with a 25th and 26th, good for a first year skier, Ava T also had a good WMC with a 29th and 30th. Eliza, Myla, Ethan, Stuart, Aiden and Max all competed in their first WMC Championship races.

With the latest new snow we look forward to another couple weeks of skiing and the Class C State Championships.

Race today

Today's race will be at the Oak Hill section of Pineland.  Boys have individual starts, every 15 seconds, beginning at 3:30.  We don't have an exact time for the girls start, but it will most likely be shortly after the boys finish starting.

Race on Tuesday

There WILL be a race tomorrow (Tuesday).  This is intended to be a fun time, so the format is a little different.  Here are the details:

• SKATE race
• 5K
• At Pineland (will post exact location once we have it)
• Boys start at 3:30
• Skiers will race in reverse seed order, so the fastest skiers will start last

And the most fun of all, everyone should wear Valentine's Day themed attire 💖   There will be prizes for the best costumes!

To be clear - no race suits are necessary or expected.  Wear anything you like, hopefully with a valentine/red/pink theme!

WMC Championships on Saturday at Fryeburg

The races tomorrow ARE ON!

Schedule:
Course for both races is 4.66K
Boys Classic - :15 Intervals, 11:00am
Girls Classic - :15 Intervals, 11:45am

90 minute break (for most finishers) and touch-up grooming

Boys Skate - :15 Intervals, 1:00pm

Preliminary info for Saturday

This Saturday, February 11, the WMC Championship races will take place at Stark's Hill in Fryeburg.

A few things to know about Saturday:

• There will be two races this day, a CLASSIC race at 11:00 followed by a SKATE race at 1:30. These are the boys start times and are approximate for now but will be finalized by Friday.
• We will have vans leaving Desert Rd at 7:30.  Anyone wanting a van ride must contact Susan by Friday at noon.
• Since we will be at Fryeburg from 9:00am until approximately 3:00pm, everyone will be outside for a long time.  The weather forecast for Saturday is mid-teens, so everyone will need to bring enough clothes, move around, etc. to keep warm.
• This is a big race and a fun day, and we hope lots of parents and siblings come out to cheer on the team.  Some teams will undoubtedly have large food spreads, and while we don't plan on that, we could use parent help in a couple areas:

           - Three helpers to be at Fryeburg by 9:00am to help set up the dome tent
           - Someone to provide something warm for the skiers (tea? hot chocolate? soup?).  This would be a nice thing to help keep the skiers warm and sustained throughout the day.
           - If anyone is inspired to help organize some more substantial food (chili, bagels, etc.), please give Sarah Pierce a call (776-4959)
           - A batch of cookies, bag of clementines, etc. is always nice :)
           - If you can help with the tent/tea/etc., please contact Susan.

More detailed info about the races and the schedule for Saturday will be posted in the next day or so.

No race today, yes practice today

Because Gray-New Gloucester (the host of Libby Hill) is closed today, we will not be having a ski race today.  There will be two races on Saturday instead.

There WILL be ski practice at Pineland today.  Bring skate skis.

Update re: this week's WMC Championship races

Here's where we stand on this week's WMC Championship races as of now (Tuesday, 2:50pm) ...

Wednesday's race at Libby Hill in Gray is still on.  This is a SKATE race.  The start time has been changed and it is now scheduled for the boys to start at 3:00pm, girls at 3:45pm.  It is possible that Wednesday's race may be cancelled if ANY of the participating schools end up with a snow day that day.  If this race doesn't happen Wednesday, it will happen on Saturday.  See next paragraph.

FYI - We will be driving away from Pineland on Wednesday at 1:20pm.

Saturday there is a CLASSIC race at Fryeburg, with the boys starting at 11:00am.  If Wednesday's race doesn't happen, then we will have two races on Saturday, a CLASSIC race and a SKATE race, with the classic race taking place first.  Time of these races TBD.  If we have two races on Saturday, the second race will not be a pursuit.

Reminder that we provide transportation TO the Wednesday race but, since it is close by, we expect parents to bring their skiers home from the race.  Let Susan know asap if you need help figuring out transportation.

Winter sports evening

A date has been set for the end of ski season appreciation evening - Tuesday, February 28 at 7:00pm in Merriconeag Hall on the Freeport campus.  More info will follow as the date approaches.  For now, please put this on your calendar.

Race schedule update

Check for updated info on the Race Schedule tab.