| The 2005-2006 Hayward High School Ski Team. Story & photos by Phil Van Valkenberg
|
|
Dominating the high school ski-racing scene:
The Hayward Hurricanes
Story & photos by Phil Van Valkenberg
| Hayward High School Hurricane Jesrin Gaier rounds a corner at the 2006 Wisconsin High School Ski Championships. Story & photos by Phil Van Valkenberg |
|
A strange thing happened at the 2006 Mesabi East Invitational at Giants Ridge. At Minnesota's premier high school cross-country ski event (aside from the Minnesota
State Championships open only to Minnesota skiers), there was an unusual winner in the boys team category: The Hayward, Wisconsin, Hurricanes.So what happened? How did a Wisconsin program with less than three dozen skiers top the Minnesota powerhouse schools? Unlike Minnesota, where cross-country skiing is a varsity sport and there are over 100 high school teams, only 25 Wisconsin schools field teams. The Wisconsin teams also
tend to be smaller while perhaps up to 4,000 students ski on Minnesota teams. No pat answers to the Hurricanes skiers' success to be found in that data. Maybe you'd expect an outstanding team from the home of the American Birkebeiner and an area that's known for having that essential XC ingredient: snow. At the same time, plenty of Minnesota teams come from northern towns with strong Nordic traditions, too.
Dig a bit deeper though and you'll find that Wisconsin high school cross-country ski racing is thriving and, despite the relatively low numbers of teams and skiers, may have some intrinsic advantages. "The Hurricanes team is structured like a club program that encourages participation for the love of skiing," revealed head coach Bill Pierce. "We are heavy on the encouragement so we appeal to kids who want to
compete or just ski. Instruction for all levels is emphasized. Of the 32 skiers we had last winter, 21 competed – 11 girls and 10 boys – and the rest skied recreationally. The majority have come out of the Nordic Kids and our middle school programs." As you might guess, community support is one key to the team's success. That support network includes Terrell Boettcher, editor of the Sawyer County Record, viewed by Pierce as "an honorary team member
who never skis." Boettcher attends many meets to give the kids recognition they deserve in the sports section. But many other people, more directly involved, are needed. "One or two people could not run this program. Volunteers are essential," Pierce said.
Parents of skiers are the No. 1 resource for volunteer help as one might suspect. Shara Fredrickson heads
the booster club, formed two years ago to help host the Wisconsin State Championships. Shara is the mother of Kyle, a senior this year, as well as daughters Carly, an eighth-grader on the middle school team, and 9-year-old Celie, who skis with Nordic Kids.
"It's like being a part of a whole active community family," Fredrickson said. "The kids have the same circle of friends and they get to know each other and we get to know their parents."
The young skiers also benefit from willing fund-raisers. The students are responsible for getting their own skis. But other equipment, like roller skis and protective gear, are loaned from the team and uniforms are supplied.
"Bill Pierce has done a great job soliciting funds from local businesses," Fredrickson said. "As a booster mom, I can only encourage and thank the Hayward people and businesses for supporting the team. Parents
from about 15 different families helped. We also received a grant from the American Birkebeiner Ski Foundation Skier Development Program."
An important feeder for the high school team is the middle school program, according to Gerry Denk, who was involved for five years as head XC coach for the Hayward Middle School. "We've gone through a great transformation from a two-day-a-week, recreationally oriented program to a more multifaceted, three
days a week last year," he said. "A group did four to five competitive events, and all 25 skied the State Championships and won the boys and girls as team events.
Denk continued, "We're fortunate here with the Nordic Kids program. The skiers are already oriented toward coming out on a regular basis and have learned basic technique. We expand on technique work and try to finish off each session with some fun things like relay events. We try to be serious to an extent because
we feel that an important thing we impart to the kids is that you don't know what fun is until you know what work is."
Another involved parent is Steve Narveson, a volunteer coach for numerous years at the middle and high school levels. "Kids are split up according to ability, and I work with one group all year," Steve said. "The support the program gets from all the coaches has made it a success, along with the competitive schedule."
Narveson's daughter Jenny graduated last spring and has gone on to St. Benedict College in Saint Joseph, Minnesota, where she will ski this winter.
Seventeen-year-old Hayward High School senior Michelle Narveson provided her perspective on how students benefit from the program.
"I was always an athletic person and have skied since I was 4," Narveson said. "It was a good fit to go to
the ski team. The hard work aspects are a big thing I get out of it, and I know I put more into it because I'm part of this group effort. I have a lot of friends because of the team, and we do things off-season together."
The camaraderie and hard work paid off for Hayward's Kyle Frederickson, Matt Pierce, John Grossi, Billy French, Aaron Friermood and Jesrin Gaier – all of whom climbed to the top step of the podium at the Mesabi East Invitational last January.
"I told them two days before that they'd have a chance to win," Pierce said. At the same time, he'd be the first to discount psychology as the answer.
"Our program is a complete package. While the Minnesota teams are bigger and have a longer history, there's pros and cons to that. We treat skiing as a 12-month program. If it was a WIAA sport, we could only have contact with the kids during a rigidly defined season," he said.
"Many of the skiers are also runners and we encourage them to combine this with roller skiing and cross training like biking or kayaking occasionally. For the kids it's not so much the results, it's the social environment; they want to have fun. One of the thrills is to use the school bus to go to events. It's a great social time the minute they board," Pierce added.
"On a more important level for their futures, they can use skiing to help get scholarships and a higher
education. Eighty percent of our skiers are on the honor roll. Skiing helps make them keep priorities in order.
"Overall the parents like to see the level of organization we have, the planning and efforts to support the skiers with things like waxing. How good you do that sort of thing is reflected in the results. This is why Hayward is behind the team 110 percent. It takes the whole community to make it go."
Hurricanes skier Kyle Frederickson's perspective on things bodes well for the future of the team. "It's great to win," he said, "but I remember when I was a young kid on the team with older skiers helping me. Now I get a lot out of being an older skier helping the younger ones."
While this profile of the Hayward Hurricanes is an insight into a successful high school program, the reality is the climate in the upper Midwest for young skiers is extremely healthy overall.
Through CXC (Central Cross Country, the Midwest arm of the United States Ski Association), all young skiers have the opportunity to compete in six Junior Olympics qualifier events, which can get them into the event to be held at Soldier Hollow, the 2002 Winter Olympics venue, in Utah, next March. For Minnesota skiers in programs that restrict the season, CXC training camps can help fill in the gaps.
For Wisconsin high school skiers, a real highlight has become the 3-by 1K Relay Championships at the Capitol Square Sprints the second weekend of January in Madison.
The National Championships will be in Houghton, Michigan, this year for skiers with USSA licenses. This event qualifies skiers for the World Junior Champion-ships and the European J1 Scandinavian Trip for 16- and 17-year-olds.
The top 10 boys and girls from each state's high school championships will be invited to the Continuous Pursuit at the Junior Birkie at Telemark Resort on the Friday before the annual Birkebeiner marathon in February. Relays and individual starts are also part of Junior Birkie for all skiers and teams.
For youth skiing programs, the American Birkebeiner Ski Foundation's Skier Development fund awards $30,000 annually in the form of grants of up to $3,000 each. For information, log on to www.birkie.com/information/foundation.html.
Phil Van Valkenberg lives in Hayward, Wisconsin. Phil was the bicycling columnist for Silent Sports for its first 10 years and has authored eight books on biking in Wisconsin and the Midwest.
|
