Good Evening:

Attached are the run orders for tomorrow's races.   
Maximus Davis is racing for Jonah Byron in Seed Eight for  SW Varsity. Freddy Proell is racing for Maximus in Seed Two for MAST Varsity.

Parents: Please bring chairs for athletes to use during lunch. 
It is going to be very cold tomorrow. PLEASE wear plenty of layers. If you have snow pants, wear them. The race organizers MAY decide to implement a "no strip" rule. This may mean that you have to wear snow pants and a jacket over your gs suit. If you don't have snow pants, at least wear your race shorts.

Regardless of whether they implement a no strip rule, NO ONE is allowed to ride the chair in their gs suit. I expect all athletes to help carry outer layers down to the finish arena for teammates. We will establish a designated drop off point.  

Now get to bed.  See you bright and early.
Mark

Good Evening:

First, I am CANCELING Thursday's practice. I know this will disappoint many of you, but you have had a stressful week with a race and end-of-quarter academic responsibilities. I want you to tune your skis on Thursday, eat a healthy dinner, help clean the kitchen, play a board game with your little sister who you haven't seen for the last 10 weeks, and go to bed EARLY. You need to rest your mind as well as your legs for one night. You need to be to Washburn at 7:25AM to meet the bus, or arrive at Afton between  8:30 and 8:45AM if you are driving with a parent. If you are really upset about missing a practice, come to morning training on Saturday and then train again Saturday evening at Wild Mt.

Second, here is the schedule for tomorrow  A formal schedule from race headquarters is also attached.   
7:25AM.                      Meet the buses at Washburn. Wear a hat and gloves to the bus.  No more bare heads and hands. Wear a mask on the bus, in the chalet.
8:30-8:45AM.             Unload. Bib up. Secure your lift ticket.
8:45AM.                      Warm Up--Direct Free Skiing
9:45AM.                      Varsity Racer Meeting Finish Area Inga's Run.
10AM.                          Inspection Opens Varsity Courses (On Inga's Run)
10AM.                         JV Race Meeting Finish Area Inga's Run.
10:15AM.                    Inspection Opens Junior Varsity Courses (On Heidi's Playground)
10:30AM.                    Varsity Run 1 Start.
10:45AM.                    JV Run 1 Start.
1:00PM.                      Inspection Opens Varsity Run Two.
1:15PM.                      Inspection Opens JV Run Two.
1:30PM                       Varsity Second Run Starts.
1:45PM.                      JV Second Run Starts.
4:30PM.                      Awards.

Additional Instructions

• Come to the bus DRESSED in your race gear.    
• Pack skis in a ski bag, if you have one. MAKE SURE YOUR SKIS ARE STRAPPED. TWO STRAPS. Matthew, Joel and I will be carrying skis and poles in our vehicles.
  
• Bring your boots onto the bus.  
  
• Boot up on the bus when you arrive--or in the parking lot.  
  
• You can store your bags in our truck beds during the race. Our trucks will be in the parking lot by the race hills so you can access your bags during the race if needed.  Afton is not allowing anyone to change in the chalet or store bags in the chalet. If you think you will want to use the cafeteria or go upstairs in the chalet, you will need to show a COVID vaccination card to access those spaces.
  
• MAST is providing breakfast snacks, but I recommend that you eat a hearty breakfast at home if possible.
  
• MAST will be serving lunch on the hill at our tent between runs.   
• During the race, the coaches expect you to watch and cheer on your teammates.  You should NOT be hanging out at the tents during the race. The only exception to this rule would be if lunch arrives during the first run and we need some of the athletes to start moving through the food line.   
  
• I also expect teammates to carry jackets down for each other. Middle and late seed athletes can carry jackets down for early seed athletes and early seed athletes can carry jackets for late seed athletes. No one should have to ride the lift to the top to retrieve their own jacket.   
  
• You are wearing a MAST Jacket: represent our team responsibly. Be respectful, gracious, and courteous.   
  
• Make sure YOUR name and PHONE NUMBER are printed clearly on all your gear, including your jacket and snow pants. With 500 athletes in attendance, the odds are high that someone will ski away with someone else's gear--unintentionally of course. Who doesn't have Leki poles? Or black training shorts?
  
• Tune your skis... oh, I said that already. Go to bed early. Get a lot of rest. Can't say that enough.
  

No practice Thursday (or Friday).
Sleep well.
Mark

Good Noon Day MAST Athletes, Parents, Coaches:
Attached are TWO very important spreadsheets. PLEASE take five minutes to review each. I am trying to avoid any last minute hiccups on Friday. I want to make sure my information is accurate.  You can help.  

Afton Invite Spreadsheet
Open the first tab and confirm you are listed and that the information is accurate, except for the waiver column. THE WAIVER COLUMN IS NOT ACCURATE BECAUSE I CANNOT ACCESS THE WAIVERS AND AFTON HAS NOT TOLD ME WHO HAS OR HAS NOT COMPLETED A WAIVER. If there is a Y in the waiver column next to your name it only means that you attended our first race at Afton back on Jan 5 and that I am assuming you completed the waiver then. If you did, you do not need to sign it a second time. Here is link to complete the AFTON VAIL WAIVER.  NOTE: Athletes must be over 19 years of age to complete the waiver without a parent or guardian. So, that means all waivers need to be completed by a parent.  

Also, I have tried to input two additional pieces of information for Friday.
1.  Who needs MAST to purchase a ticket and who will be using an EPIC pass to secure a lift ticket. Please make sure my information is correct. If you have an EPIC pass, please use it to secure an actual lift ticket. I don't think you can just ski onto the lift with your EPIC pass without activating a ticket... but I could be wrong. Also, if you have an EPIC pass, don't take a lift ticket from a coach.   
2.  Who is riding to/from Afton with a parent. Please make sure my information is correct. Some of you are taking the bus TO Afton but riding home with a parent. If you are doing this, please let me know this as well: 
markrobertconway58@gmail.com.
If there are any inaccuracies listed in the Logistics tab, please shoot me an email at markrobertconway58@gmail.com.

The second tab lists the athletes and teams entered in the Invite. We have two alternates for the boys (Braeden and Freddy) and no alternates for the girls. If there is a girl out there who would suddenly like to attend the Afton Invite as an alternate, please let me know. Happy to bring you.

End Of Season Race Intentions and Supplemental Training Sign Ups

The second spreadsheet lists everyone who has stated their race intentions for the FEB 3 RACE AT WELCH AND THE FEB 11 RACE AT HYLAND. Plus, I have listed everyone who has registered to date for our last two supplemental training sessions at Wild Mt Jan 29 and Feb 5.  

If you need to STATE YOUR RACE INTENTIONS, DO SO HERE.
If you want to sign up yet for supplemental training, DO SO HERE.

WE ARE ON LANES B AND C ALL NIGHT TONIGHT.  
I am really proud of our team. Last night was so cold that over half the teams that train at Hyland canceled practice, including Gilboa. Not MAST. Our 7th and 8th graders were taking countless runs last night until 8:30 on lanes 6 and 7 using the rope tow. Lucy H, Chloe, Josie and several others were skiing without a JACKET, claiming they were plenty warm. Everyone got plenty of training runs in, making nice improvements.   Seeing you working so hard in temps that make most teams quit fills me with gratitude for the awesome athletes we have on MAST. And I have to say thank you to the coaches who come out in the cold to give you the best training around. They are not staying warm by using the rope tow, I can promise you that.  
Because we are on the chair tonight, PLEASE WEAR A JACKET WITH PLENTY OF LAYERS UNDERNEATH.   

See you soon.
Mark

Good Evening:

Compilation of race results took awhile tonight. Another good night for our skiers.  Gabby Harritt and Kate Moore could not have finished closer-- one -one hundredth of a second separated them. Gabby finishing first, Kate second. Vada followed in third, Reese Kuehn in fourth, and Ellie Arbeiter in fifth. The Washburn girls finished with 5 wins and 0 losses on the night. Charlie Smith was our top male skier, finishing in second place. Andreas finished in third, Erik Arnold in fourth and Jonas Geere in sixth. The consistency of the Washburn girls and boys gave each team a 5 win, 0 loss record on the night. The boys edged out Wayzata by three points. Well done Washburn.

Thank you to all who worked the race. It was a cold night and I am grateful for your dedication. Together, we put on an excellent race, sending 166 skiers out the start gate on two different courses. Great job everyone. Steve Arnold reminded me tonight that this was the last race at Hyland for our Senior Athletes. Wish I had thought of this BEFORE the race. Next year. Congratulations Seniors! What beautiful skiers you have become and, more importantly, what exceptional people you are, each and every one of you.

With gratitude,
Mark

Good Evening:

I know you jump for joy whenever you see an email from me in your inbox, so here is one more to make your weekend even better.

1.   MAST is covering the cost of a lift ticket to the Afton Invite. If you have an Epic Pass and you can use it to secure a lift ticket, you will help the MAST budget. But if you have limited uses on your pass, feel free to save your Epic Pass for another time.   

2.   I know that many of you have already completed the Afton/Vail waiver. Afton has not sent me a list of athletes who have completed the waiver since the Jan 5th race date, so the information I sent is incomplete. If you completed the waiver, don't worry about it. I'm sure your name will pop up when Afton sends me an updated list.

3. The Jan 5th and Jan 17th Metro East Conference races were designated as the two races that would determine the Metro East Conference Champions for 2021-22. Congratulations to the Southwest boys for edging out Hastings for the Metro East Conference Championship. This is an impressive accomplishment. Well done boys.  See the tallies in the attachment. The Washburn girls placed second to the best GIRLS ALPINE SKI TEAM in the history of  Minnesota high school racing. How do I know this? Because I have been around a long, long time. The first girls' state champion was my neighbor growing up. We raced on the same team. Be proud girls. Second to the all time best girls team is AWESOME!

See you tomorrow. And you can beg me as much as you want, but I will NOT be sending out another email tonight.

Sleep well.
Mark

MAST Update Week Eleven: Thursday, January 20, 2022

Good Afternoon MAST Athletes, Families and Coaches:

We have a big week ahead. Two races, training at Hyland and a supplemental training at Wild. Plus, you have finals and the end of a semester.

Let’s talk races first.

First, have you stated your race intentions for all remaining races? 
See attached spreadsheet for an up-to-date tracking of race intentions. If you still need to state your intentions for the remaining races on the calendar, please do so TODAY!STATE YOUR RACE INTENTIONS HERE

Second, 3 Big Races Ahead Before Section Champs
1. Monday, January 24 Hyland Race vs Wayzata, Lake Crystal, and DeLaSalle.
Please be sure your name is listed if you plan to race. If your name is not listed, state your race intention NOW! If you don't state your intention for this race by tomorrow morning when I wake up, you will not race.

We still need to fill race worker positions. Parents: please sign up HERE: Jan 24 Race Volunteer Sign Up

2.  Friday, January 28 Afton Invitational
We have three more start positions available for girls at the Afton Invite. If you have not stated your intention to race at Afton and would still like to race, please send me an email directly: markrobertconway58@gmail.com.  
The first three girls to email me will be entered in the race. We will bring additional girls and boys to the race at Afton as alternates if more than three send me an email. All available start positions for boys are filled, but we could use a couple boys to join us as alternates. With COVID, there is a good chance that some of the alternates will be substituted into the race.  

Attached are two very important documents regarding the Afton Invitational. Please download, open, and READ both. The most pressing issue at this point is the need for parents to sign the Afton/Vail Liability Release. IF you skied at Afton on Jan 5, you should have already completed the waiver and do not need to do so a second time. However, some families with two athletes on the team may have only signed the waiver for the one child who was competing on Jan 5... so be sure to sign the waiver for the second child. COMPLETE THE AFTON/VAIL WAIVER HERE
We do not need race workers for the Afton Invite, but we will need parents to help with race support (tent set up, meals, bibs, and more). Details to come in a follow up email.

If you have an EPIC pass, please let me know. I know that Zae, Finn, Will, Elika, and Sam have Epic passes. Please bring them and use them. Anyone else? 
We will need parents to ride the buses to and from Afton. If you can ride the bus, please shoot me an email: markrobertconway58@gmail.com.
We will have tents and firepits set up in the parking lot at the base of the race hills. Parents, please bring folding chairs, soccer benches for the athletes to use during lunch. Tables are helpful too.

Note that Afton has strict COVID guidelines. If you need to go upstairs in the chalet, you need to show a vaccination card. The lower level is available for warming up and rest room use. Masks are required.

3.  Thursday, February 3 Welch (Metro East) Race
We will need race workers also for the Metro East Race at Welch on Thursday, Feb 3. I suspect we will have a 5PM start again.

• 2PM. Early Release
• 3:15-3:30PM. Boot up/bib up.
• 3:30-3:45PM. Warm Up.
• 4:15PM Inspection.
• 5PM First Run Start.
• 6PM Run Two Inspection
• 6:20PM Run Two Start
• 7:20PM Hill Clean Up
• 8:45-9PM Return to Washburn/SW

We will need parents to ride the buses to and from Welch and we will need parents to work the race. Here is a sign up to work the race on Race Worker Sign UP Feb 3.


If you can ride the bus, please shoot me an email: markrobertconway58@gmail.com.
Third, Supplemental Training Sign UP
Sign up is now open for the supplemental training scheduled for Saturday, January 29th and Saturday, February 5th at Wild Mt.  
Here is a link to register:  Jan 29  and Feb 5 Supplemental Training Registration.
Fourth, Week Eleven Training Schedule.... check the website on Friday for an updated training and racing schedule for week eleven.

See you on the hill. 
Mark

Hello MAST Families:

We had some trouble with the accuracy of the results. We have hopefully resolved all of the issues. Congrats to all for skiing so well. Sure, some of you had some trouble, but everyone gave it their best effort. I was impressed with how much improvement you have all made. Keep up the hard work. Congrats to Charlie Smith for his third place finish and to Gabby Harritt who finished ninth. The Hill-Murray girls' squad is the best girls' team I have ever seen in high school racing. Hold your heads high girls. You are skiing really well. Try to learn from them and keep closing the gap, which I think you are doing very nicely.

See you at practice tonight. Dress very warmly. Use the rope tow tonight. It will keep you warm. Lanes 4 and 5.    
Mark