To all MAST parents:
As you all may or may not know, Mark Conway, our esteemed (he begs to differ) coach of more than 15 years, is planning to ease off on his responsibilities next year. He plans to step away as head coach and allow his strong coaching staff to take on the head coach positions. Mark still plans to help as a support coach. What many of us didn’t know was how much work Mark has been putting into the daily administrative tasks required to run a great ski program for over 100 skiers from many different schools every year. These are tasks easily picked up by parent volunteers. We have created an org structure with Mark’s guidance and input (see attached) to continue the strong Minneapolis Alpine Ski Team program for many years to come. As most of us know, Mark puts a great deal of care into everything he does in order to make the MAST experience for our skiers top notch. We want to continue that attention to detail for the benefit of our young athletes. No doubt Mark, hesitant to let go of the program that has been his winter life for many years, would also like to see this program remain strong. In that spirit, we had a great show of parent support at our Parent meeting early in the season and started filling many roles, thank you!!!! Very impressive! We’d like to further invite any and all parents to indicate if you have the time and interest next year to engage in some of the tasks you see in our MAST org chart. Specifically, we could use a little more support in Registration, Program Administration, Fund Raising, Equipment, and Race Management. We also need a parent rep from Washburn to help with overseeing the whole program. Too many volunteers is good, as we can put you on the “active reserve” list, as people’s availability may change from month to month, year to year. The first slide of the attached explains the roles a bit, and the second slide shows who has signed up so far. Please respond to Bill Bray (evai1@usinternet.com, 507-301-7109) if you are interested in joining any of these task groups, or have questions about them. As Mark says so often, skiing is a labor-intensive sport (not just for the athletes) and requires the help of parent volunteers. Plus, it’s fun, you get to work with other talented and energetic parents, and you help our athletes become great skiers and exceptional citizens! Dear MAST Athletes, Parents and Coaches: Thank you to all of the coaches and parents who worked tonight’s race. It went very smoothly for the most part. Just over 360 race runs were completed in under two hours tonight. Results are attached. Congratulations to the Washburn boys for squeaking out a narrow 6 point victory over Wayzata. Congratulations to the MAST boys for finishing third. Congratulations to the Washburn girls for taking first in team scoring and to the Southwest girls for placing second. Kudos to Finn Cherveny on his victory tonight and to Jack Bajek who has been scoring points consistently all season long for the Millers. Jack finished third overall. Also moving up in the results this week after showing impressive improvement in training over the last couple of weeks were Stuart Durand (6th), Wyatt Shelton (8th), Sam Moore (9th) and Xavier Turpin (10th). It was a great night for Mpls girls from all three teams. Nine girls placed in the top eleven. Gabby Harritt put down the fastest times on both runs to finish first. Eva Voyakin followed in second, Kate Moore in third, Lucy Renz in fourth and Reese Kuehn in fifth. Keep up the hard work everyone. Wild Mt Invitational Friday, January 26 We are sending six teams of six athletes each to the Wild Mt Invitational (SW boys and girls, Washburn boys and girls, MAST boys and girls). The coaches have been tracking race results all season long. We met after tonight’s race to further make our picks for the Wild Mt Invitational on Friday. Because you are skiing so well, you made our task very difficult. Listed below are the athletes who have secured a spot on a Wild Mt Invite Team either as competitors, alternates or forerunners. Also listed below is the schedule for the day on Friday. Note that athletes should meet the bus at 6:15am to load. Please come to the bus wearing your hat, gloves, and gs suit. This will allow you to stand in the cold should the bus be late, carry your gear to the trailer without shivering away your energy, assist (effectively) with trailer loading duties, and speed up the time it takes you to get out on the hill to warm up before inspection. It will also demonstrate to your coaches that you have some brain cells. Parents: we need to supply race workers for this invitational plus fill roles to support our athletes with food, beverages, and the festive tent home base. Please sign up to help here: Friday, January 26 at Wild Mt (9:40AM Start) Washburn Girls: Gabby Harritt Kate Moore Reese Kuehn Ellie Arbeiter Amelia Moertel Julia Westphal Alternate: Josie Bitney Washburn Boys: Levi Ehlers Finn Cherveny Jack Bajek Beckett Wedren Stuart Durand Steffan Drekonja Alternate: Freddy Proell Southwest Girls: Lucy Renz Lia Rulf Eva Voyakin Avery Patterson Ingrid Hartzell Mila Voyakin Alternate: Reese Brothers Forerunner: Julia Maurice Southwest Boys: Parker Hunt Eli Kroll Massi Bray Sullivan Hunt Beckett Krueger Leo Spanier Alternate: Logan Benz Forerunner: Quinn Nelson MAST Girls: Violet Mueller Beatrice Mueller Ella O’Connor Sarah Rosenthal Alma Wernimont Elsa Addy Alternate: Sylvia Pulkrabek MAST Boys: Makeen Mkaouri Elliot Vap Samuel Moore Xavier Turpin Henry Payne Wyatt Shleton Alternate: Will Cherveny Week 11 Calendar Tuesday, Jan 23 Hyland Training 3:45-6:00PM Pods 11, 12 Lane 3 5:00-7:15PM. Pods 7, 8 Lane 3 6:30-8:45PM. Pods 9, 10 Lane 3 5 and 6:30PM Practices Meet On South Chair For Warm Ups Wednesday, Jan 24 Hyland Training 3:45-6:00PM Pods 11, 12 Lanes 4,5 5:00-7:15PM Pods 10, 9 Lane 4 6:30-8:45PM Pods 7, 8 Lane 4 Wear Rope Tow Gloves. 5 and 6:30PM Practices Meet On South Chair For Warm Ups Thursday, Jan 25 Hyland Training 3:45-6:00PM Wild Invite Teams (optional) plus Pods 11, 12. Lanes 2, 5, 6 5:00-7:15PM Pods 7, 8, 9, 10. Lanes 5, 6 Wear Rope Tow Gloves. 5PM Practice Meet On South Chair For Warm Ups Friday, Jan 26 Wild Mt Invitational 6:15AM Load Bus From Washburn 8:45 Course Inspection 9:00AM Gate Judge Meeting at Finish 9:05AM Course Workers Meeting at Start 9:35AM Forerunners 9:45AM First Run Start 1:10PM Second Run Start 4:00PM Awards Hyland Training 5:00-7:15PM All Pods. Lane 4,5 Wear Rope Tow Gloves Saturday, Jan 27 Hyland Training 7:45-10:15AM All Pods. Lanes 1, 2, 3 Tuesday, Jan 30 MEC Race #3 at Welch Village This is a wonderful race for all MAST athletes. Everyone who wants to race will be entered. There will be four separate courses set—two for the JV race and two for the Varsity race. More details coming soon. For now, make sure you have stated your race intentions. Parents: we need to supply a LOT of race workers All hands on deck. Please sign up to work this race. It will determine the MEC Champions for boys and girls AND the MEC Junior Varsity Champions for boys and girls. The Washburn girls will be defending their 2023 Metro East Championship against the 2023 MN HS Alpine Girls State Champions, Hill-Murray. Sign Up To Work The Race Here: Tuesday, January 30 at Welch (5:00PM Start) State Your 2024 Race Intentions Here Looking Ahead: Supplemental Training at Wild Mt Saturday, February 3 Bus Loads: 2:30PM at Washburn Bus Returns: 10:30PM at Washburn Bring A Sack Supper Sign Up Here: Feb 4th Supplemental Training Registration See you tomorrow. Mark
Good Evening:
Just a few notes about tomorrow:I requested an early release of 2:30PM for athletes from Northeast, South, Sanford and Roosevelt. I requested an early release of 2:45PM for athletes from Anthony, Southwest, Justice Page, Washburn. I also suggest that parents send a note to school requesting an early release. We still need race workers. Here is a link to sign up: https://signup.com/go/WeMPfjc Following our race tomorrow, I will send out MAST Update Week Eleven, which will include the coaches picks for the Wild Mt Invitational. The homepage of our website is up to date if you need to find immediate information about practice times, links to sign up for the Feb 3rd Supplemental Training, and race worker sign ups for Wild Mt Invite and the MEC Race #3 on January 30th. See you tomorrow. Mark Good Evening: Attached are the timing results from tonight's early training session. Remember, there was very little to no gate judging so it is possible that some of the blistering fast times were due to gate skippage (yes, I made up that word). Practice bright and early on good lanes in the morning. Supplemental Training in the afternoon. A few spots remain: https://go.teamsnap.com/forms/385525 Don't squander these opportunities to seek technical perfection. I should see you at one of these sessions at least...and some of you at both. Now go to bed. Mark
Good Evening: Thank you to all the parents and coaches who worked our race tonight. What a great job you did. We are learning more about how to fully utilize the Brower Timing System with every race. That is why I am stationing myself in the timing building these days. There is much to learn. Today's race went very smoothly and we trained in some very enthusiastic parents to fill some of these very important race worker roles. I want to encourage all of our parents to get involved with our races as race workers. Being able to put on high quality races is extremely important for the future of our team. Now is the time to learn the roles. Congratulations to the Washburn Boys and Girls for taking first in team scoring tonight. Due to St. Cloud's limited team size, we only scored the top four finishers from each team to calculate team scoring. Congratulations to Gabby Harritt and Levi Ehlers for taking the top step on the podium tonight. Nice consistent skiing. Practice tomorrow through Saturday with another race on Monday against Wayzata, Holy Angels, DeLaSalle, and Lake Crystal. We also have a race at Wild on Friday--The Wild Mt Invitational. We will be taking six boys and six girls from each team. We will need race workers for the Wild Invite. I will be sending out a sign up link very soon. And we have a Supplemental Training at Wild on Saturday. Meet the bus at Washburn at 2:30PM. A registration link can be found on the homepage of our website. See you tomorrow. Mark
Good Evening MAST Athletes, Coaches, Parents and Friends: We had crisp temps and sunny skies for our second Metro East Conference Race. I want to say THANK YOU to all of our parents and coaches who worked today’s race. Once again, the race ran incredibly well. Because of your efforts, every member, of every team, in our Metro East Conference was given the opportunity to race in a high quality race. You braved the cold and did quality work on the hill. Once again, all athletes had the experience of testing their skills in a race that was fairly and efficiently administered against some pretty tough competition. Thank you parents for supporting our athletes. Thank you for sticking around for awards. Our athletes worked hard to land on the podium and deserve to have the team embrace their success. We need your help again on Wednesday. Please sign up to work. Wednesday, January 17th at Hyland (4:30PM Start) And the results turned out quite favorably for Minneapolis skiers. The Washburn girls skied very well as a team to finish in first place. Southwest placed second and MAST placed fourth. Gabby Harritt and Lia Rulf landed on the podium in second and third place respectively. In fact, Mpls skiers placed six in the top seven and seven in the top nine. This is something we are used to seeing from Hill-Murray. Today was your turn to shine. For the girls skiing JV, Mpls placed four in the top seven in a field of thirty-two. Ilsa Beck placed second, Lily Jorgenson fourth, Norah Elden sixth and Madeline Gray seventh. Like the girls, the Washburn boys skied well as a team today. Three boys stacked into the top ten: Becket Wedren (7th), Finn Cherveny (8th) and Jack Bajek (9th). They led their team to a second place finish in team scoring. Parker Hunt and Levi Ehlers had some bad luck on the second run. Parker had to forgo his start due to a broken toe piece on his binding after finishing 7th on the first run. And Levi, who was sitting in sixth place, took a nasty fall on the second run as he neared the finish line. Do NOT pat Levi on the back for a few days. He is going to be a bit tender for a spell. We have another race already on Wednesday. Take what you learned today and work on it in practice tomorrow. Some observations from coaches knoll: OUTSIDE SKI....everyone needs to quiet the upper body, square the shoulders as the skis enter the fall line, keep the weight solidly over the outside ski UNTIL the direction change is completed and you have cleared the gate. The skis need to bend and ski right back under your hips in the turn completion phase of the turn so you can transfer your weight efficiently to the new ski in the transition. All this will happen beautifully, even elegantly, if you stay perched over the outside ski and let the ski work as a tool underneath you. ATTACK the steeps. Some of you get stiff and timid as you come onto the steeper sections of the hill. Your weight goes to your tails instead of to the fore of the ski. Instead, move the hips to the tips as you charge into the fall line. Make sure your skis have maximum edge angle to give yourself a platform to push against and bend the ski. You can’t bend the ski and tighten your arc when the skis are flat on the snow. Keep the flexion in your ankles—shins pressing into the front of your boots to keep your weight to the fore of your ski. Keep the upper body pressed over the outside ski and your chest facing downhill of the outside ski. KEEP SUPPORTING EACH OTHER. We are going to continue to assign race day buddies. Keep cheering for each other in the start and at the finish. It is a beautiful sound to hear from the middle of the hill. See you at practice tomorrow. And don't forget to sign up for Supplemental Training on Saturday... back at Wild Mt. Make the hill your home hill. Sign Up Here: Jan. 20th Supplemental Training Registration Mark
Dear MAST Athletes, Parents and Coaches:
Congratulations to the Southwest Girls who won both the morning and afternoon races at the Giants Ridge Martin Luther King Invitational. Congratulations to the Washburn girls for finishing second and third. Landing in the top ten in the morning race were Gabby (5th), Eva (6th), Lia (8th), and Lucy (10th). In the afternoon race, Gabby again finished in 5th and Lucy finished 10th. Impressive racing girls. And the MAST girls finished right in the middle of the pack of 20 girls teams. Well done. The Washburn boys also pulled off a victory in the morning race and placed second in the afternoon. Finn Cherveny was the only boy to pop into the top ten in the morning race, but Parker posted the 3rd fastest time on the first run and Levi posted the 6th. In the afternoon race, Parker bounced back to finish 5th and Levi landed just outside the top ten in 11th. Also having break out races were Wyatt Shelton and Stuart Durand who has been skiing very fast in practice but having some trouble putting two runs together in races. Wyatt put it together yesterday to finish 25th overall in the afternoon race out of 135 racers. Way to go Wyatt. The lesson for all of you here is to NEVER GIVE UP. JUST WORK HARD AND YOUR DAY WILL COME. I. Race Worker Sign Up Parents: we have a cold day forecasted tomorrow. We need race workers... especially gate judges, assistant starter, course workers, scoreboard recorders. In fact, we need twice the number of gate judges as there are positions available in the volunteer sign-up. It would be nice to have two people sharing one gate judging position. Once the positions fill up, text me to volunteer to share a position. Jan 15 24 MEC Race #2 at Wild Mt Volunteer Sign UP We also have races at Hyland on Wednesday (Jan 17) and Monday (Jan 22). Wednesday, January 17th at Hyland (4:30PM Start) Monday, January 22 at Hyland (4:30PM Start) II. Jan 15, 24 Wild Mt MEC Race It will be a cold day at Wild tomorrow. PLEASE DRESS TO STAY WARM. BRING WATER AND A SACK LUNCH. You need to stay hydrated and fueled to push through the cold. Joel tells me that at GR, each athlete was assigned to carry coats for another athlete during the race. When you get to Wild, you will receive a similar assignment. No one rides the lift without outer garments. Athletes: you need to carry coats, pants, etc. for one another during the race. And if you want to race in your outerwear, you are welcome to do so. Race Schedule 8:30AM Load Buses at Washburn 10:15 Ticket Up, Bib Up, Warm Up. 11:00 Course Worker and Gate Judge Meeting in Finish Arena 11:10 Racer Meeting On Top Of Hill 11:15 Run One Inspection (Vertical slip only. Boys 1st Run Skier’s Left; Girls 1st Run Skier’s Right. Switch courses for second run. Inspect both runs is time allows.) Noon Run One Start 1:15/1:30PM? 2nd Run Inspection: Vertical Slip Only. 3:30? Awards Please plan to stay for awards, even if you are riding home with a parent. III. Saturday, January 20 24 Supplemental Training at Wild Mt We will be holding another Supplemental Training at Wild on Saturday. 2:30PM. Load the bus at Washburn. 4:30-8:30 Training. Short break for sack supper. 10:30 Arrive at Washburn for pick up. Register for January 20th Supplemental Training Here IV. Week Ten Schedule Monday, Jan 15 MEC Race #2 at Wild MT Load Buses: 8:30AM 11:10AM Race Meeting Top of Race Run 11:15AM Inspection Opens Noon First Run Awards Follow Second RunTuesday, Jan 16 Hyland Training 3:45-6:00PM Lanes 7, 8 Pods 10.11.12 5:00-7:15PM. Lane 8 (Meet On South Chair For Warm Ups) Wear Rope Tow Gloves. Wednesday, Jan 17. Race at Hyland 2:45PM Early Release 3:45PM Course Inspection 4:30PM First Run Thursday, Jan 18. Hyland Training 3:45-6:00PM. Pods 10, 11, 12. Lanes 6, 7, 8 5:00-7:15PM Pods 10, 9. Lane 6 6:30-8:45PM Pods 7, 8. Lane 6 Wear Rope Tow Gloves. 5 and 6:30PM Practices Meet On South Chair For Warm Ups Friday, Jan 19. Hyland Training 3:45-6:00PM Pods 9, 11, 12. Lanes 6, 7, 8 5:00-7:15PM Pods 10, 8, 7. Lane 7, 8. (Meet On South Chair For Warm Ups) Wear Rope Tow Gloves Saturday, Jan 20. Hyland Training 7:45-10:15AM All Pods. Lanes A, B, C Supplemental Training at Wild Mt Bus Loads: 2:30PM at Washburn Bus Returns: 10:30PM at Washburn Bring A Sack Supper Sign Up Here: Jan. 20th Supplemental Training Registration Rest up. Tune your skis. Mark To Anyone Racing At Wild Mt Tomorrow:
Please click on the link below and look for your name under one of the team's listed. Next to your name, TYPE the letter P in the space/column provided if you are riding with a parent TO or From Wild Mt. TYPE the letter B in the column if you are riding the bus TO or From Wild Mt. Jan 15 Wild Mt Race Transportation Logistics We had 2 SW students planning to ride the bus home from Afton last week, which allowed us to send one bus home immediately after drop off. This saved the MPS School District money. Let's do our part to keep MPS solvent. Please fill out this form today. Thank you. Mark .....We still need ....
1 Starter-- just one. Easy job. Just communicate with Timing from the Start House on Headset. The Timer will teach you what to do. 1 Assistant Starter--- helping line up athletes at the start. Text Mark if you can help. 612-275-8392 Thank you to everyone who is already signed up to work the race and bring food. Good Evening MAST Families:
I know many of you are anxious to know if you are racing at Wild Mt on Monday, January 15 in the MEC Race #2. We have a noon start. Buses load at 8:30AM at Washburn. Attached are the racer entries for the Jan 15th race. If you stated YES for your intentions for Jan 15th, you are racing--provided you are cleared to race. Please look over the teams carefully. If your name is listed and you no longer wish to compete in this race, please TEXT me at 612-275-8392. If you name is not listed and should be, TEXT me at 612-275-8392. I will be submitting our final run order first thing Sunday morning. Also, please know that families will be receiving an invoice for the cost of a lift ticket for any AWAY races you attend as an athlete. Please pay these invoices promptly when they arrive. Finally, please sign up to work the races on Monday and Wednesday next week. Monday's race will be cold. It would be nice if folks who sign up to work on the hill only needed to work one run. For this to happen, we need to double the number of volunteers provided by the sign up. If a position is filled and you are willing to share a position with another volunteer for the race, please text me at 612-275-8392. Tell me what position you are willing to work and I will plug you in. Again, I am hoping we can get extra volunteers so that all those who volunteer need to only work one of the two runs. Here are the links: Race Volunteer Sign Up for Monday, January 15th at Wild MT Race Volunteer Sign Up for Wednesday, January 17th at Hyland Practice in the morning. It will be cold but very much worth your while. See you bright and early. Mark 612-275-8392 |
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