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Good Morning: I am officially cancelling today's practice. Raining at 5:43am. It is soggy out there. You have worked really hard and we have a busy two weeks ahead. Two days off would be good for you, especially if you have been attending every practice, which many of you have. Go back to bed. Get your rest. The rain is slated to stop sometime this morning so if you really want to ski, go work some of our beloved drills later today or tomorrow. Many of you need to pack for Giants Ridge. Tune your skis before you go. I am sending revised race results. Hudson's time was listed incorrectly so he moves up two spots in the results page. If anyone feels that his or her time was inaccurate in the results page, please let me know. Rest up. Mark 
APPAREL FROM THE MAST SECOND CHANCE STORE HAS ARRIVED! MAST BUFFS HAVE ARRIVED!
YAY! Just in time for Giant's Ridge and winter break! If you ordered apparel or buffs you can pick up your items IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWING TONIGHT'S RACE AT HYLAND, IN THE CHALET. There are also still orders from the original store sale that need to be collected. ALL OF THESE ORDERS CAN BE PICKED UP TONIGHT. If you will not be at Hyland tonight, please contact Coryn Petersen at 612.910.2560 to make arrangements. It would be ideal for all items to be claimed by Sunday evening. Thank you! Have a wonderful winter break! Hello Everyone: 1. Forecast looks more promising. 50% chance of rain at 6PM on my app. Race is on as of Noon. 2. Attached is a packing list for camp. Don't forget a sleeping bag, pillow, towel, water bottle, and warm beverage mug, along with all of your ski gear. And if you have a tuning table you can bring, please do... along with vises, irons, and tools. 3. The following athletes/coaches/parents need to sign GR Waivers. Remember, you need to seek out and sign the waiver marked 2023-24 Competitive Event Participation Agreement. Needing to Sign:Bunay, Jason Cherveny, Finn Cherveny, Will Hedrick, Evalie Conway, Luke Drekonja, Andreas Hedrick, Joel Peterson, Elsa Scal, Daniel Kessler, Quinn Peterson, Beckett The following signed the WRONG waiver. Please sign the correct one. Proell, Frederick Tanner, Rachel Callahan, Morris See you soon. Mark   Good Evening Race Fans: First, rain is in the forecast for the entire night until around 9am. By 7AM, I will send an email out to let you know whether we will hold practice or cancel. Please check your email at 7am before heading to the hill. Second, thank you to all of the athletes, coaches, and parents who raced, worked, cheered and put on the best darn race in Minnesota tonight. Thank you to all of you who shoveled straw last year to help fund our new timing system and to all of you who donated to our fundraising appeal to purchase a new timer. It worked beautifully. In fact, I think this was the first race ever held at Hyland that did not require an athlete to return to the top of the hill for a re-run. Third, congratulations to Southwest skiers Lucy Renz and Lia Rulf on your one-two finish tonight. Very impressive, consistent skiing. And congratulations to Levi Ehlers for his victory as well and to Parker Hunt for a very competitive second place result. Also coming through with a strong finish in her first race with MAST was Ella O'Connor in eighth place. On the boys side, eighth grader Steffan Drekonja put down two beautiful runs to finish eighth overall. What a wonderful performance for a middle schooler against a really strong field of skiers. Sergie will calculate team scoring and when he gets those numbers back to me I will send those out in a follow up email. Overall, the skiing was very solid tonight. We only had a couple of disqualifications and falls. Very nicely done. The coaches spotted a few technical and tactical issues that need attention and I will share those with you in the Week Six Update later this weekend. Hopefully the rain holds off and we will see you in the morning. Now go to bed. And sleep soundly. Mark
Dear MAST Families: For those who could not attend the MAST Parent Social on Sunday, I would like to bring you up to speed on a project that is in the works. As you know just from looking at me, I am not a spry young fellow anymore. It is time for me to transition out of the administrative duties required to keep MAST operating at a high level. I will be retiring from my current administrative role at the end of this season. I would like to stick around as a volunteer coach starting with the 2024-25 season, but only if the other coaches want me to do so. To facilitate a smooth transition and sustain a high quality program for our current athletes and the next generation of skiers, including my grandchildren (Roosevelt HS graduating classes of 2036, 2038, and 2042), I have been working with Bill Bray to develop a plan to hand off the administrative tasks that I have been doing for many years to small teams of MAST parents. These teams would be activated in full force for the 2024-25 season. However, our hope is to get these teams formed now so that folks can start to familiarize themselves with their roles during the current season while they are fresh in my brain. With this introduction, I will now turn the floor over to Bill Bray who has been extremely helpful in downloading and organizing all of the Post-It Notes that float around in my head 24 hours a day to create a plan for a smooth transition that will sustain alpine skiing as an athletic option for MPS students well into the future. Message from Bill Bray: Thank you so much! to all who signed up as volunteers during Parents Night to help support the administrative functions that Mark Conway has been handling by himself for many years. We are off to a great start! See the attached proposed “Org Chart”. We still have a need for more support, specifically in the areas of Registration/Program Admin, Equipment, and Finance. We also need some people to help continue the successful fundraising programs already in place (I’m told they don’t require much time since they are already developed). We also need 2 Core Members, one for MAST and one for Washburn, who can oversee the entire MAST program with Bill Bray who will represent Southwest. The roles aren’t officially needed until the 2024/25 Season, but we want to start downloading the contents of Mark’s brain this year (it’s at least a few terabytes) to make the transition smooth. If you are interested or just want to learn more about what is needed, send me, Bill Bray, a note at [email protected]. Thank you, Bill and Mark   Good Afternoon MAST Athletes, Parents and Coaches:
I received a message from Hyland this afternoon informing me that they have decided to make snow on the North Chair through tonight. The hill remains un-groomed and will stay that way until tomorrow. Conditions on our training lanes will not be safe for skiing, so the coaches and I have decided to cancel all practices tonight. We will practice tomorrow as scheduled. And just an update on our coaching situation at camp: we now have three females coaches attending so we no longer need to a couple of mothers to chaperone. My apologizes if you have been spending the last 24 hours trying to re-arrange your life so that you can help us out... if that is the case, give me a call. We can always use more help. Thanks all. See you Wednesday on the hill. Mark Good Evening Athletes:
Please click on the link below and then click on the tab marked Dec 15 23 to see if you have stated your race intentions for Friday's race at Hyland. If you have not, please do so. Thanks Mark https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1wd8dZLgYyXofHxPtDDPjLmb7MUzmY4ty/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=107078590759584281333&rtpof=true&sd=true MAST Update Week Five
Monday, December 11, 2023 Dear MAST Athletes, Parents, Coaches, and Friends: Week Four was terrific. We made the most of the warm weather and soft snow. Everyone has been making big improvements. Thank you for focusing intently on learning and performing the drills. Please continue to work the drills with deliberate attention to detail. This is how your skiing will continue to improve. Thank you to Jen and Mike Rulf for hosting the Parent Social yesterday. What a great way for parents to kick off the heart of our season. We have another busy week ahead. We anticipate setting courses tonight. Bring your protective gear tonight and for the rest of the season. Read on for VERY IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT OUR CALENDAR AND THE TASKS YOU NEED TO COMPLETE. I. Our First Race Approaches: State Your Race Intentions Friday, December 15 with SW, Washburn, MAST, Bloomington Jefferson. It is now time to STATE YOUR RACE INTENTIONS FOR THIS RACE. I encourage everyone to race, even though you have not had much time skiing in gates. This will be more of an instructional race so that all of us can rehearse duties: the race workers, the coaches, the athletes (veterans and rookies both). When you click on the link below, look for the tab at the bottom of the page that reads Dec 15. Make sure you open the spreadsheet to that race. Then find your team (scroll down) and then find your name. If you plan to race, type a Y in the Yes box next to your name. If you do not want to race, type a N in the No box next to your name. Friday, Dec 15 23 Race Intentions: Click Here. II. Our First Race Approaches: Early Release From School I will ask the schools to give you an early release on Friday of 2:30PM. This should give you ample time to grab your ski gear and get to the hill. Here is the race day schedule: 3:00-3:15PM. Arrive at Hyland. 3:15-3:45. Warm Up. 3:45. Course Inspection. Both Courses. 4:00 Gate Judge Meet In Finish Arena 4:30. First Run Start 5:30. Second Run Start 6:15. Hill Clean Up. III. Our First Race Approaches: Race Worker Sign Up For December 15 We need race workers. Lots of them. This will be the first time that we will be running our own races with our own timing system. Please sign up. https://signup.com/go/aVBxfUq And if you are new to working races and you would like to shadow a worker, just shoot me an email at [email protected]. IV. Ski Area Waivers Please make sure you complete the ski area waivers THIS WEEK. 1. Afton: https://Afton-Competition-Waiver-23-24.eventbrite.com 2. Giants Ridge (Select and sign the Competitive Event Participation Agreement): https://waivers.edgeauditor.com/auto-setup/giant/wak4vo 3. Welch and Wild: skiandboardmn.com/23hsrace V. Giants Ridge Camp: Any Mom’s Want To Chaperone? We have ample coaches attending camp, but we find ourselves short on female coaches. We currently have one female coach attending. The boys and girls sleep in separate buildings. Each building is divided into two bunk rooms with 20 beds in each. It is nice to have one adult in each wing, although one can handle both if needed just because we have very responsible young people on our team. That being said, it would be nice to have one to three additional women along just to help out. You would stay in the girls’ cabin and can join us on the hill to ski if you like. We will cover all of your expenses, including the cost of a lift ticket. There is plenty of room on the coach bus or you can drive yourself. And if you can come for just one or two nights, that could be an option as well.Please send me an email or call me if you would like to explore this wonderful opportunity to be part of our beloved Giants Ridge Camp. VI. Misc. Reminders
I will send out our weekly goals sheet to your team snap account later today before practice. Read on for the Week Five Training and Race Schedule. See you soon on the hill. Bring your rope tow gloves and protective gear. Mark Week Five Training and Race Schedule Monday, Dec 11 On Snow Training @ Hyland 3:45-6:00PM: Pods 10, 11,12. Lanes 4,5,6. 5:00-7:15PM: Pods 7,8,9. Lanes 4,5. Pods 7-9: Meet your coaches at the TOP of South Chair at the designated START TIME of your practice session. Wear Rope Tow Gloves Tuesday, Dec 12. On Snow Training @ Hyland 3:45-6:00PM: Pods 11,12. Lanes 4,5. 5:00-7:15PM: Pods 7,8. Lanes 5. 6:30-8:45PM: Pods 9,10. Lanes 5. Pods 7-10: Meet your coaches at the TOP of South Chair at the designated START TIME of your practice session. Wear Rope Tow Gloves Wednesday, Dec 13. On Snow Training @ Hyland 3:45-6:00PM: Pods 10,11,12. Lanes 6,7,8. 5:00-7:15PM: Pods 7,8,9. Lanes 7,8. Pods 7-9: Meet your coaches at the TOP of South Chair at the designated START TIME of your practice session. Wear Rope Tow Gloves Thursday. Dec 14. On Snow Training @ Hyland 3:45-6:00PM: Pods 11,12. Lanes 1,2,3. 5:00-7:15PM: Pods 9,10. Lanes 1. 6:30-8:45PM: Pods 7,8. Lanes 1. Pods 7-10: Meet your coaches at the TOP of South Chair at the designated START TIME of your practice session. Friday, Dec 15. RACE @ Hyland with Bloomington Jefferson. 2:30PM Early Release 3:30 Warm Up 3:45 Inspection Opens 4:00 Gate Judge Meeting At Finish Line 4:30 First Run Starts 6:15(est) Hill Clean Up Saturday, Dec 16. On Snow Training @ Hyland 7:45-10:30AM: All Pods. Lanes 5,6,7. Wear Rope Tow Gloves Good Afternoon Everyone:
For those of you who sold Coffee and Salsa, please remember to pick up your orders TODAY from 2-3PM at Fuller Park (48th and Grand Ave S). Mark Good Evening:
Just a quick note to all of you going to Wild Mt tomorrow. We will be setting some drill courses. Maybe brushes, stubbies, panel gates... you can FINALLY bring your protective gear to practice. Looks like we will be on Expressway... Skiers' left of the first chair you see when you drive in. We will get a lot done. Now go to bed. Mark |
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