| The 2006 Lodi Cross-Country Ski Team competed at the state high school championships
in Trego, Wisconsin.
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The Lodi Experience
How we started a high school Nordic ski team
by Dale FanneyA little over a year ago, I was a typical 55-year-old Master skier dragging my bones around on roller skis and running trails to train for another winter of cross-country ski racing.
Meanwhile, my two daughters were gearing up for their own ski season that involved a 30-mile drive to
train with the Madison Nordic Junior Team. They had coaxed a friend to join them, but the prospect of recruiting more of their friends into skiing here in southern Wisconsin seemed unlikely. The cost of equipment and race fees, combined with dark, cold weather and frequent travel to Madison, puts a damper on skier recruitment.
About this time, Don Fariss, longtime coach of the Madison team, announced his retirement. This prompted
an urgent family meeting to talk about finding alternative ski racing opportunities. I told my daughters that if they wanted to field a team of their own making, they would need five girls and at least three boys. A week later, we had 21 kids, including six in middle school and 18 who had never skied before.
The Lodi High School Ski Team was born.
My sudden appointment as ski coach was both exhilarating and insane. Our team had no money, no
equipment and virtually no skiing experience. And the parents of these skier wannabes had little familiarity with Nordic skiing culture. I had a real job as a family physician plus my own fading racing career to maintain. But my girls and their friends were ecstatic and ready to ski.
My first job was to establish a ski club and raise money for a local trail system. The Lodi Golf Club
approved a trail on their hilly and north-facing golf course. The Sauk Prairie Memorial Hospital Foundation donated a Healthy Lifestyles Initiative grant to raise awareness about the health benefits of cross-country skiing. Other patrons and skiers donated enough money to purchase a used snowmobile and a track-setter along with signage and a homemade skating drag.
Two weeks later it snowed and we had an easy 2K trail for beginners along with a hilly 3.5K trail. Most
important, we had a groomed trail right behind the middle and high school complex for after-school ski practice.
I then turned my attention to acquiring equipment. Fariss came out of retirement to be my "assistant coach" and donated a boatload of basement and eBay-bought specials to the team. The Madison Nordic Ski Club allowed us to rent some higher quality racing skis. A few enthusiastic parents bought boots and skis in
cooperation with a group discount from Fontana Sports in Madison.
With duct-taped boots, mismatched poles and lots of old Salomon bindings, I called my newly outfitted skiers the 1972 Bulgarian National Team.
Undaunted, the kids hit the snow with their new (old) equipment. The first practice on snow became known as "The Battle of Lodi," resulting in tired bodies and several broken bindings and poles. By week's end, however, the team was skating and making progress.
Remarkably, some of the best runners on the high school cross-country team couldn't balance on skis. As I watched them, I struggled to imagine how they would finish the grueling 7K race course at the high school championships just three months away.
Team members could not bring their ski equipment to school, so every day we hauled 20 pairs of skis and poles to practice. Just getting skis on feet and poles in hands was a challenge at first. Just the necessity of
wearing gloves and other skiwear while training seemed to elude even the brightest new skiers. To say we waxed a few pairs of skis would be the understatement of the century.
In mid-December, we had a breakthrough experience. The team took a road trip to ABR in Ironwood, Michigan. It was a winter wonderland, and the team yelled a collective, "Wow!" If there was one experience that crystallized their love for cross-country skiing, it was gliding and flying through the pine
forests of the U.P.
First-year skier Katee Kratcha, said, "Going to ABR was amazing. I had never done anything like that before. The trails were gorgeous. And rooming with the girls was so much fun. Skiing really brought us together. The team felt like a family."
After ABR, the team was sold on skiing. And that was good, because for the month of January, the Banana Belt south of Wausau saw only brown grass and warm conditions. During this period, I worried that
everyone would quit. But to my surprise, these kids came to practice regardless with an enthusiasm for skiing and being together.
We ran with poles, did hill intervals, time trials and a winter triathlon. We skied along the shore of a local lake and, once a week, on manmade snow at the Tyrol Basin Alpine Area west of Madison. The team gained some racing experience at the Capital Square Relays in Madison and the Snekkevik and Badger State Games in Wausau.
For the high school championships, we were able to field a team of six boys and six girls along with two middle school girls. We borrowed old racing jerseys from retired Mad-NorSki juniors. As the Lodi skiers lined up for interval starts, I was amazed by the transformation they had made. I choked up a bit watching them enter the stadium to finish their races. Our girls finished 14th and the boys 16th.
Two weeks later, four skiers did the Korteloppet, completing another rite of passage into the great ski culture of the upper Midwest. Jacob Pellman, who eight weeks earlier strapped on cross-country skis for the first time, said of the Korte, "I witnessed a completely new level of skiing. It's safe to say that after skiing and living the Korteloppet, I was hooked on the sport."
The whirlwind of that first season ended by March, but the work of preparing for our second season
continued throughout the year. We applied for grants from the American Birkebeiner Ski Foundation and the Lodi Optimist and Rotary clubs. This fall we have 18 returning and 17 new skiers and we have added a new coach. We already have eight juniors who plan to do the 2007 Korteloppet.
There is more than one way to start a high school cross-country ski team. The Lodi experience has taught me the importance of a school-based team that builds on respect and friendship.
Providing local grooming for after-school practices, charging affordable participation fees, and helping athletes attain equipment were essential for the success of our program. Our sustainability will depend on youth development, a strong local ski club and trail system, committed coaches, and, of course, snow.
Dale Fanney is a Master skier who has participated in several Master World Cup and Worldloppet races. He lives in the hills of Lodi, Wisconsin, with his wife and two daughters.
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