Coaches Corner

Hello MAST Athletes:
We are in the middle of an aggressive race schedule I just want to offer a word of encouragement as you work so hard to stay on top of your studies while also bringing your best skiing to the hill each day.  
You need to know that yesterday’s start order was filled with some of the best skiers in the State. The competition was fierce. The girls’ race featured two MN State High School Champions from 2024 and 2023. The boys’ field was filled with really strong teams and many skiers who are also club skiers in USSS programs. The Invite was a wonderful test of your progress, and you performed really well. 
On the girls’ side, we had 7 girls finish in the top 25 in a field of 20 teams. Eva made it to the podium in 8th place. Avery Patterson started 76th and finished 14th. Amelia Moertel has been working hard to stand strong on her outside ski and put her inside shin on the gate and it paid off with a 16th place finish. Violet Mueller (20th) and Phoenix Ehlers (21st) are finding the tiger within and attacking the rise line more aggressively. And Ella O’Connor is continuing her streak of putting together two clean runs to finish 23rd. Mila Voyakin started 116th and finished 25th. She won the sixth seed, and it looks to me that Sofia Larson finished 2nd out of the 6th seed skiers.
On the boys’ side, Hudson White started 94th and finished 16th, our top male finisher.Congratulations Hudson. You have worked very hard to achieve that result.Steffan Drekonja skied an impressive second run to move up from 35th to 24th.Xavier Turpin and Will Cherveny executed strong tactics to finish 35th and 37th. Here is the good news. There are about eight boys who can come out on top on any given run. There are another six of you who are chasing those boys and closing that gap. And we have many more who are rookies this year and have made tremendous improvement in just their first year. As I told a parent yesterday, most athletes train better than they race. It takes time and experience for an athlete to bring his or her best training runs to a race. You will make mistakes. Just one turn skied out of balance can throw a great run into disarray. That happened for several of you yesterday. When that happens, this is how you need to think about it. 
Tell yourself that you are still learning. You will make mistakes and that is okay because I can learn from the mistake. I can use the mistake to focus in on a technical issue I have (i.e., like not pressuring the outside ski through the end of the turn or making a strong pole plant). Tactical mistakes can teach me how to improve my inspection and course memorization. And know this: you are improving. Be confident when you exit that start. Better yet, be fierce. Be determined. Expect to ski your best.
Additionally, you need to keep supporting each other. Yesterday, standing on the knoll, I could tell when a MAST athlete was heading out of the start or crossing the finish line. I could hear the “roar of the crowd”, in this case, the roar of your teammates. KEEP THAT UP! From our first athlete out of the start to the last. 
Thank you to all the parents who have been working the races. This has been a big ask all season and I want you to know how grateful I am to all of you for helping out. Three more races to go (counting Sections). Please keep filling those race worker positions. And athletes, once again I was filled with pride to see our team descending South Wild in our patented FLYING V to clean up the ruts. There is no better expression of respect and gratitude.
One bit of housekeeping for tonight and Thursday at Welch, store your bags on the shelving in the lower level of the chalet or in the cubbies in the hallway on the main floor. And please clean up after yourself as you always do. Let’s leave the chalet spotless when we leave. 
We still need two assistant starters and three gate judges for tonight. Please sign up to help here: https://signup.com/go/oEeafzb
See you at the hill.
Coach Mark on behalf of all the MAST Coaches.