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.