• Practice Information

  • High School
    • Competitive Skiers
    • Recreational Skiers
  • Middle School
  • Elementary School
• General Club Information 2007-8
• Suggested Clothing/
  Minimum Temperature
• Calendar/Upcoming Events
• Coaching Assignments
• Weekly Newsletter -
  ie. Doug's Memo
• Equipment Inventory
• Grooming Updates
• Ski Trails/Ski Websites

  • Local Ski Trails
  • Skiing Info
• Membership Information
• Club Mission/Board

  • Mission of 4HCANSKI
  • Board Members
• Contacts/Feedback

  • Feedback
  • Contact Us
• Races
• Results
• Pictures
• Exec. Committee Meeting Minutes

March 11th, 2008

Hello 4-H CANSKI folks

We had a great END of YEAR SHINDIG last Friday at Mt. Ashwabay! Thanks to all who helped make it a success. I counted around 80 people. A bit smaller than last year, but tons of our skiers and their families are down sick.

We saw some coaches faces and former CANSKI skiers at the Great Bear Chase in Houghton over the weekend. Very impressive results from our community, and lots of great fun!

A reminder to those who weren't at the shindig on Friday that club skis are due to be turned in. We collected about half of our gear on Friday. Thanks to Lisa Fratt, Patti Gilbertson, and Judy Holevatz for manning the computer and to Curt Ellson and Matt Hudson for manning the pick-up trucks. Gear can be brought to Ian Meeker's office at the Bayfield County Courthouse or to mine at the Ashland County Courthouse at this point. I also need uniform tops or $40 from the kids who had them checked out.

We'll have snow till tax day to ski on. Remember that just because you don't see it in town, doesn't mean that it isn't on the trail! Scott Nesvold predicts a large snowstorm late in March. It is a good time for field skiing or crust skiing in the woods this time of year. The lake is also still quite good. Get out and enjoy it! If any of the adult volunteers or parents want pointers, I'm happy to meet you at the trailhead and work with you. Just call me...

The ABR end of season race is this weekend. They are giving away a new pair of Atomic racing skis to one of the youth or high school participants (drawing). The races are 3k and 8k. There is a 22K adult event as well. My family always takes the opportunity to ski in to a cabin and enjoy the trails for a full weekend at this time of year. It is usually one of my favorite weekends of the year.

For the recreational skiers and coaches, I hope that you got what you wanted out of the season! Take the time to recreate and enjoy the out of doors throughout the year! For the racers, we have an off season training program that Paul Belknap will spearhead called the 4-H CANSKI Nordic Nuts. They'll meet once a week for middle schoolers or 2-3 times a week for high school aged skiers and work on conditioning, fun, and ski specific training working towards goals that kids will set for themselves. There are also a couple of very fine camps offered by CXC and by the MN Biathlon Association that I highly encourage our kids to take advantage of (weekend or 3-5 days). They are surprisingly low cost and top shelf.

As well, we'll announce trail work days at Ashwabay and at Ashland. A couple of days of work in the summer makes for nice trails in the winter.

E-mail me if you are interested in more info on any of the above or need to be added to an interest list. Also, I'll attach an evaluation for the year so that we can get your feedback and make improvements to our program. You can e-mail or print and send. These are very important. I am also still looking for short statements of impacts of the program on you or your skiers (brief e-mail is fine).

Dennis Liphart will be cranking the Monday night bike rides (including a family ride on the corridor) and Saturday morning training rides up shortly. Call or e-mail him if you wish to be added to the list serve.

Scott Johanik is skiing at nationals in Anchorage Alaska this week. Good luck to him!

I need to meet with the executive committee the 25, 26, or 27th of this month. Let me know what works for you. Also, I need to meet with coaches to look at strengths and weaknesses of our set-up. E-mail or call me and let me know what works.

Great season everyone! Thanks to all of the volunteers (those on the coaching page and those not listed)! You make a difference in the lives of our youth! Thanks also to the kids for their enthusiasm and their interest! It is a privilege to spend time with them!

Ski ya!

-Doug