St. Olaf Nordic Team

The St. Olaf Nordic team got some exciting news this spring! We have the opportunity to hire an official, paid assistant coach for next season! Here is what we would hope to expect out of an assistant: Help at afternoon team practices 2-3 times a week (3:30 or 4 pm during the week, and usually about 9 am on weekends. Season runs for 19 weeks, not including school breaks, early October - early March) Travel with either varsity team or development team to races to help with waxing and race support Scheduling of these duties is negotiable, pay is $2500 for the year If you or someone you know is interested, please contact Head Coach Tom Jorgenson: jorgenso[at]stolaf[dot]edu or 507-786-8107

Well, the banquet is over, the last day of classes is tomorrow, and finals week is upon us.  The school year is officially ending, and with it comes the beginning of the training year! Which means we should probably go over a few things! The team at the banquet 2014-2015 Captains:  Nels Thompson Jake Brown Amelia Schurke Nora Gilbertson Rachel Lee 2013-2014 MVPs: Jake Brown Paige Schember Matt Haugen Award: Kelsey Cork Best Coach Ever Award (no but actually, he won CCSA Women's Coach of the Year) : Tom Jorgenson It's not hard at all to say that this season was pretty amazing, but what's even more exciting is the direction that the St. Olaf Nordic program is headed.  The team has a multitude of wonderful ideas on how to keep the leaps and bounds of progress going, and with Tom returning, we hope to be unstoppable. We're excited to welcome new skiers, sad to say goodbye to our seniors, and excited for whatever life throws at us next. Speaking of ...

A few weeks ago, Nora and I traveled to Stowe, Vermont for Junior Nationals. It was my first time going to JN’s and I was super excited. Ahead of me lay a week of meeting tons of skier from across the country, racing in some tough races, and lots of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. Nora raced for the Midwest while I raced for New England. Doing some classic sprinting I arrived to the Trapp Family Lodge (made famous by some movie, the voice of music, the sound of singing, something like that) and began to get pumped for the week. Before the races, all the regions were treated to a parade of athletes through a crowd of thousands of adoring fans, the lighting of the glorious and awe-inspiring Olympic torch (sponsored by Irving), and a one of a kind comedy routine by a guy in a ripped jean jacket who road around on a Zamboni flexing his arms at the crowd. As you can imagine, it inspired me.   The trails at Trapp were fantastic. The course starts with rolling downhills b...

6 months ago the word “college” felt like this big, foggy, cloud of unknown to my vulnerable, rookie, high-school-post-grad mind. I’d been living in a little slice of forever that consisted of school, assorted sports competitions, summer vacation, jump up a grade, and repeat. But there I was, September 1st, moving 300 tons of personal belongings into an unairconditioned Kittlesby dorm with a bunch of nameless faces, bubbling with a mixture of excitement, nervousness, and naïve boldness, and mostly just feeling very sweaty due to the fact that our dorm topped out at upwards of 1000 degrees in the afternoon heat. I felt like a clean sheet of paper, ready to scrawl an entirely new story upon, and hoping to fill a good portion of it with adventures as a member of the St. Olaf Nordic ski team. The majority of my ski training in that first week at school consisted of getting lost on a run in the Carlton Arb and nearly getting hit by a semi roaring down Highway 3 while riding my rus...

So this was my first year on as a Stolaf Nordie, and all I can say is that it exceeded my expectations in so many ways. About this time last year I had only just decided to attend St. Olaf and was still unsure about whether or not I wanted to continue skiing 'nordically' in college. I started skiing somewhat spontaneously with my High School as a freshman back home in Acton, MA, and picked up the sport relatively quickly. I had a total blast that first year, and started to get an understanding for what the nordic community was like. I was on my school team all four years, and skied with a fantastic club, CSU, in the summer for three years as well. However, following an injury at the beginning of my season junior year, and a somewhat disappointing season senior year I wasn't sure if skiing in college was the right choice. It was.  After my first week at St. Olaf, and training with the team, I knew I'd made the right choice. Although training was ver...

We just wanted to send out a quick THANK YOU to everyone who supported us during the St. Olaf Athletics Phonathon on Friday this week. Because of you, we were able to raise $2,370 for next season. This number is absolutely amazing, and we are so grateful. For those of you who still would like to donate, you can do so here . Every little bit is appreciated.  Thanks again to everyone and we can't WAIT for next season! 

Last week, Gustavus College cut their varsity nordic skiing program with no warning, claiming that because the sport is not sponsored by the MIAC (Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference), the school has decided to allocate funds and resources toward the sports that do compete in the MIAC.  For those of you that aren't from Central Region, the nordic ski teams compete in a conference called the CCSA (Central Collegiate Ski Association) which was formed once the MIAC discontinued its sponsorship of nordic skiing in 2004-05 due to low numbers of schools with nordic teams. Competing in the CCSA is what qualifies us for NCAAs, just like the MIAC for other sports in Minnesota.  With Gustavus choosing to cut their nordic program, there are now only two colleges in Minnesota with varsity nordic programs (St. Olaf College and the College of St. Scholastica), and only seven varsity programs in the Central Region. After the performances put on by Central...