Nordic team ramping up for season

Rebecca Dussault joins staff

 Head coach Austin Ross and assistant Molly Susla already have the kids involved in some serious preseason training as they prepare for the upcoming Nordic ski-racing season. In fact, the training started last summer, and while participation was somewhat limited during the summer training sessions, it was nonetheless effective for a handful of ski racers.
“It’s tough to keep people thinking about winter in the summer,” admits Ross, “but we definitely had some kids who were regulars and got in some good summer training.”
The team officially kicked off preparations for the winter last week, despite the lack of snow in the valley.
“Unfortunately, we’ve had to do mostly dry land training, but we have been on snow twice,” says Ross. “We’re definitely getting in some quality workouts with or without the snow.”
In fact, the team has been cramming for the upcoming season as Ross and Susla have them involved in morning strength training at CrossFit twice a week, with additional afternoon sessions six days a week.
“Eight practices in six days is demanding but Nordic racing is tough,” says Ross. “Our goal is to make sure our hard workouts are quality.”
Furthermore, with Ross returning for his third year and Susla for her second, Ross looks to take his coaching to the next level.
“It’s nice that the kids know the system coming in,” says Ross. “The framework is in place and now I can fine-tune things and improve my effectiveness as a coach.”
While the team shrunk a bit from last year with the graduation of Forrest Smith and the loss of Kai Sherman to a student exchange, Ross expects to have 12 athletes on the team this year—six on the race team and six on the developmental team.
Aiden Truettner returns this year after making it to the Junior Olympics last season but he will have his hands full as he moves up an age class this season.
“I expect him to be one of the leaders on the team,” says Ross. “He’s moving up to the U-18s this year but I’m hopeful. I think he will perform well.”
Ben Swift is making the jump to the U-18 class as well. Nate Hoskin joins the team for the first time, and will join Truettner and Swift in the U-18 age class.
“He’s jumping into the deep end right off the bat,” says Ross.
Sam Crossett will be the lone girl on the race team this year and Woody Martineau should make a splash racing his second season in the U-16 age class this year. Martineau was the first alternate for the U-16s at the Junior Olympics and Ross hopes to see a strong season from him this year.
Meanwhile, Ross expects to see big numbers among the younger programs this season. The staff got a huge influx of knowledge and talent for the younger programs as Olympic Nordic ski racer Rebecca Dussault was hired to be the recreational programs director, with Frances Bursch as her assistant.
“We expect to have a ton of kids in the younger programs,” says Ross. “We’re super lucky to have an Olympian on the staff.”
The team will continue their frantic preseason schedule through the next couple of weeks to get as much strength and conditioning in as they wait for more snow. Ross hopes to get as many of his athletes up to West Yellowstone, Mont. for the annual Thanksgiving Camp so they can get some races under their belts before the start of the race season.
“It sounds like we’ll have a big crew up there,” says Ross. “They’re tune-up races and it’s an awesome place to get in some good solid on-snow training.”
The race team will then have one more weekend of racing December 13-14 before they jump into Junior Nordic Qualifier race season with events slated for Eldora, Durango and Aspen.
“Those first races are a good way to figure out how everybody stands up against the competition,” says Ross.