Update 9 (Week Three): November 26, 2018

​Mpls Alpine Ski Team - Update 9: Week Three-Monday, November 26, 2018
 
Good Day MAST Athletes, Families and Coaches:
I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  We are in week three of our season and once again we are busy...City Kids Java Fundraiser concludes...Hyland Training continues...Supplemental Training begins...Giants Ridge Camp Registration opens...We will continue to work on developing our fundamental skill sets using various free skiing drills.  Please continue to focus hard on learning the proper execution of these drills. We will start to get into gates tonight, but our course sets will allow you to test out the skills you have been learning, like rolling up your edges using your lower legs and keeping your upper body disciplined and quiet.  Don’t expect to see a true slalom course this week with corridors, delays, hairpins and flushes and all that jazz.
 
I.  City Kids Java Individual Fundraiser
City Kids Java(CKJ) orders are due today.  Please bring your order forms and the money you have collected to practice today.  If you can’t make it to practice tonight, please email your order form to Kirsten Arbeiter or drop it off at her home today: 4841 Aldrich Ave. S.  Kirsten needs the form to place the order first thing tomorrow morning.  You can make arrangements via email to get the money to her at another time this week.  Orders will be ready for pick up and distribution after practice on Saturday, Dec 1 at Fuller Park at 48th and Grand.
 
II.  Week Three Training Schedule
The training schedule for the week is posted on our homepage.  For Monday through Thursday practices this week, we will meet on South Chair for directed free skiing at 6:30pm.   We will move over to our training lanes on either the North Chair or the rope tow at 7:15 or shortly thereafter.  Be sure to wear ROPE TOW GLOVES so you can use the rope tow if we are on the lanes closest to the rope.  And you can bring your shin guards if you have them as well as your pole guards.
 
III.  Supplemental Training at Wild Mt on Saturday, December 1
We will be holding our first Supplemental Training Session at Wild Mt this Saturday. Note that the venue has changed.  Welch is not yet ready to open their hills for gate training, so we switched to Wild.  Meet the bus at 2:45pm at Washburn HS. We will return at 10:30.   We will continue to test our fundamental skills with some directed free skiing and set some early season drill courses on South Wild, the same run we ski for the Section IV Championships. The cost is $50 for bus transportation, lift ticket, lane space and coaching.  You will take a short break to eat supper.  We encourage you to bring a sack supper so you can eat quickly and get back out onto the hill.  If you prefer to eat ski area food, bring money.   Please register online here.  When you check out, you will have two options for submitting payment.  I would ask you to please PAY WITH A CREDIT CARD if possible.   If you need to pay with a check, please send it to: Mpls Alpine, 4800 Harriet Ave. S., Mpls, 55419.  Make checks payable to Mpls Alpine.
 
IV.  Giants Ridge Camp
The THIRTEENTH ANNUAL Giants Ridge Camp will be held from December 31, 2018 to January 3, 2019.    Registration opens tomorrow, November 27. 
 
Who Can Attend? 
The camp is open to all MAST athletes on a first come, first serve basis.  We can take roughly 35 boys and 35 girls.  Seventh and eighth graders are encouraged to attend just as much as the everyone else on the team. 
 
What Happens?  
In addition to training on longer pitches and in 60 gate course sets for three days, you will enjoy a race on Thursday (day four) against the Northern high school teams in the Hibbing Invitational.   Because camp falls on New Year’s, we will celebrate the arrival of 2019 back at Camp Chicagami.  We will also hold our annual MAST Talent Show… so start thinking about what talent you might be able to share.   In the past we have enjoyed dramatic readings, skits, stand-up comedy, magic, piano, fiddling, guitar, singing, and dance.   Of course, you don’t have to participate, but please don’t be shy about doing so.  
 
How Much? 
The cost is $460 and includes bus transportation, camp lodging, meals, lift tickets, and race fees.  You will need to bring money to purchase a meal in Cloquet on the drive home on Thursday.    

What About Parents and Siblings? - Parents, please consider joining us.   You will need to arrange your own lodging, but you can pre-order daily lift tickets through MAST for $33 per day.   We would love to have your help with the race on Thursday should you happen to be around that day. We will need gate judges, scoreboard recorders, and maybe a starter and assistant starter.   Come and enjoy the beautiful scenery and slopes at Giants Ridge on the historic Iron Range of Northern Minnesota.  
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How To Register?
Here is a link to more information about camp and registration.   
 
A note on submitting payment:  Please PAY BY CHECK if possible.  We get charged for credit card payment and if everyone pays by credit card we will incur nearly $1000 in credit card charges.   As I have said before, we are very careful with your money. Consequently, we have set the price for the camp as low as possible.  Any savings we can enjoy means we can keep those prices low for everyone.   If you can pay the $460 by check, please do so.  Checks can be made payable to MPLS Alpine and mailed to 4800 Harriet Ave S, Mpls 55419.   Please do NOT hand me checks at practice.   If you have earned and stored account credits through your Sports Illustrated Play account, you will be asked if you would like to apply those credits at check out.   Registration is secure once payment is received in full.  If you are waiting on credits you earned through the Hoigaards Tent Sale, please know we are still waiting on payment from Hoigaards/Vail.   Since it is taking so long, MAST will post the credit you earned to your account by the end of the day tomorrow so you can use it to pay for camp or supplemental training.  Hopefully, we will receive payment for the tent sale hours soon.   And as soon as we have your CKJ sales numbers, we will enter those credits as well.

V.  Will There Be Training At Hyland While Camp Is In Session?
That is the plan.  We will confirm the exact times and days as we get closer to camp.  Most likely, training will be some combination of morning and evening training, depending on coach availability.
 
VI.  Sprongo
I ran into some technical difficulties trying to upload video to Sprongo last week.  I hope to
Have these solved by the end of the day Tuesday as well.   Sorry for the delay.
 
VII.  Save the Date: Sunday, January 13, 2019
Steve and Gail Arnold are opening up the Great Harvest Bakery for a MAST Team Fundraiser on Sunday, January 13th.  I am so grateful to them for this generous offer to help us raise money to keep our team financially accessible to more Minneapolis students.  Families will be asked to PRE-sell bakery products prior to the 13th and then to come into the bakery in shifts to bake, sell, serve, and clean on January 13th.  Parents are an integral part of this fundraiser as well.   Please set aside January 13th to help with this very important fundraiser.   In 2017, we netted almost $8000 for the team.   Just so you know, Gail and Steve donate all bakery ingredients and payroll for the staff that they bring on to assist us.   This is an unbelievable gift on their part, so please be sure to not only thank them, but to help with this fundraiser and frequent their wonderful bakery.
 
See you on the hill.
Mark
612-275-8392