Billy missed the early January World Cup events as he waited for the arrival of their first child.

On Wednesday, Jan 12, 2011 Billy's bride Katie delivered a baby boy, Liam (right). Billy wrote on Twitter:  "well fatherhood has begun! Liam was born Wednesday night weighing in at 7lb 14oz! My beautiful wife is recovering well and we are three!"

Bill rejoined the World Cup tour in Chaux Neuve.

The 2010-11 World Cup schedule was very sparse, with only 15 event compared to 27 in the 2011-12 season. To make room for the World Championships, the FIS left a string of five weekends open. Bill finished the 2010-11 World Cup season in a tie with teammate Johnny Spillane with just 14 points. (Todd Lodwick led Team USA with 103 points, followed by Bryan Fletcher with 75.)

Bill and Katie got a big scare in late June when Liam bacame ill. The doctors at childrens hospital diagnosed botulism** and put Liam on a respirator. Liam spent a month in the hospital, 12 days in the ICU. Billy wrote "During his stay, Katie and I split the time in 8 hr shifts daily to allow some sanity breaks. It was a really challenging time but after a few days we realized we were very lucky in that as scary and severe as botulism is, babies who contract it recover 100% if it detected in time to get them breathing and feeding support." We are happy to report that Liam seems to have enjoyed a complete recovery
**Botulism is a rare (approximately 110 cases in the U.S. per year, the majority in infants) but serious illness caused by botulinus toxin, a very powerful toxin produced by the anerobic bacterium Clostridium botulinum which is common in Utah.

The 2011-12 National Jumping and Nordic Combined Championships were again held in the summer on Plastic but were split, with the Large Hill event in Park City and the Normal hill jumping and the Nordic Combined Championship about a month later at the Norge Ski Club complex in Fox River Grove, Illinois. In the special jumping championships, Bill finished nineth on the Large Hill in Park City and third on the Normal Hill at Norge, and he scored his fifth career National Nordic Combined Championship at Norge.

Between the two halves of the National Championships, five members of the NC team (Demong, Spillane, Bryan and Taylor Fletcher, and young Eric Lynch) traveled to Europe for some Summer Grand Prix competition. Bryan Fletcher led the team on the first day in Oberwiesenthal with an 8th place finish. The next day, Billy finished third in a new event. For a couple of years, FIS has sanctioned just one NC format, the Gundersen sprint, but now they tried a new format that they are calling a Penalty Race. You can read an explanation of the event, and much more, on Billy's blog.

The second stop on the 2011-12 World Cup tour was Lillehammer where, for the second event in a row, the wind blew out Saturday's Nordic Combined jumping. In Friday's provisional jumping, used for Saturday's XC seeding, Bryan Fletcher jumped to 16th place, followed by Bill Demong in 28th, Taylor Fletcher 45th, and Johnny Spillane 50th. In the race, Bryan dropped back to finish in 31st place but Demong moved up to 25th, and Taylor Fletcher raced all the way up to 21st position post his best ever World Cup finish. Spillane also raced well, moving up to 35th place. Haavard Klemetsen (NOR) won the day.

Sunday's event in Lillehammer was run in the new Penalty Race format. (You can read an explanation of the event, and much more, on Billy's blog.)
Billy jumped to 31st place and Bryan followed in 35th -- they both had to ski four short 150 meter penalty laps. Johnny and Taylor failed to qualify in the top 40.
In the XC race, Billy and Bryan worked their way up to 7th and 8th respectively, perhaps because of when they chose to run their penalty laps (think NASCAR pit stop strategy). Bryan finished a creditable 16th, but Billy suffered a disqualification for skiing only three penalty laps. Eric Frenzel (GER) won the event ahead of Jason Lamy-Chappuis (FRA).

On Saturday, Dec. 10 in Ramsau, Austria, Billy finished 11th, his best World Cup finish since the 2009-2010 season, jumping to 14th place and moving up three spots in the XC race. Bryan Fletcher jumped to 22nd position and moved up one place in the race. Todd Lodwick joined the boys, bringing the top four together for the first time this season, and finished 29th. Johnny Spillane couldn't match his 12th place trial jump, dropping to 49th in the jump but racing back up to 37th. Jan Schmid (NOR) won the event over defending World Cup champion Jason Lamy Chappuis (FRA).
Taylor Fletcher traveled back from Europe to contest the Continental Cup event in Park City, where on Friday he moved up from 26th place to finish in second spot. Nick Hendrickson followed in 7th place with Brett Denney 10th. Denney, Fletcher and Hendrickson recorded the top three XC times.
Saturday in Park City, the COC boys contested a two man team sprint relay with the teammates alternating through four 1800 meter laps each. Taylor Fletcher teamed with Nick Hendrickson and started 14th, 1:27 back, but stormed up through the field to finish third, 25 seconds back.

In Ramsau on Sunday, Todd Lodwick led the U.S. Team, jumping to 23rd place and holding that spot in the cross country race. Bill Demong jumped to 37th place but raced past eleven competitors to finish 26th. Bryan Fletcher teamed up with Demong in the race, moving up nine spots and finishing just out of the points in 31st, while Johnny Spillane suffered a very bad day, starting last and finishing last. Defending World Cup champion Jason Lamy Chappuis (FRA) won the event in a tight sprint with Magnus Krog (NOR) and moved into first place in the standings by four points over Tino Edelmann (GER).
Sunday in Park City, Taylor Fletcher scored his first FIS victory, coming from 1:50 back to win by 17 seconds. Fletcher turned in the fastest XC time by 33 seconds over teammate Brett Denney. Michael Ward and Nick Hendrickson posted the fourth and fifth fastest race times. Fletcher's win moved him into the Continental Cup points lead. See results  or read  USSA article.

The Dec 16-18 COC events scheduled for Lake Placid were cancelled and moved to mid-week in Park City, and the U.S. boys continued to turn in excellent performanences. On Tuesday, Dec 13, snow fell in the morning, making the jumping difficult, but the U.S. skiers used superior cross country speed to move up in the field. Taylor Fletcher turned in the fastest XC time of the afternoon as he stormed up from 23rd starting spot to finish second behind Mark Schlott (GER). Adam Loomis posted the fourth fastest time, racing up from 26th to finish sixth, by far his best COC finish. Nick Hendrickson (6th fastest) moved up from 27th to finish eighth and Brett Denney (third fastest) followed in 13th. Fletcher took over the lead in the FIS NC COC points race.

On Wednesday in Park City, the U.S. Team placed four in the top ten, led by Loomis who improved on his career best COC finish, jumping to 8th place and moving up in XC to 5th. Taylor Fletcher again turned in the top XC time as he moved up from 36th to finish 7th. He was followed by Brett Denney who moved from 31st to 8th with the second fastest XC time. Nick Hendrickson started 25th and finished 10th with the 6th fastest race time. Schlott won again and regained the lead in the points race, moving Fletcher to second.
The boys now go home for Christmas. The COC schedule resumes on Jan 7 in Erzurum, Turkey, site of the upcoming World Junior Nordic Skiing Championships.

The World Cup continued on Friday, Dec 16, in Seefeld, Austria, with a sprint relay in which two competitors each ran a 7.5 km leg on a 1.5 km course. Bryan Fletcher teamed up with Bill Demong to finish sixth, while Todd Lodwick and Johnny Spillane finished 11th. France's Sebastien Lacroix and Jason Lamy Chappuis won a tight race over Italy and Norway.

In Saturday's 10 km Gundersen event, Johnny Spillane jumped to 29th and moved up one minute to finish a season best 20th. Bryan Fletcher improved even more, from 40th to 23rd. Todd Lodwick moved up seven places to finish 39th. Bill Demong took part in official training and provisional jumping, but did not start in Saturday's competition. Go down two paragraphs to find out why. Jason Lamy Chappuis won the event, extending his lead in World Cup points.

On Sunday Bryan Fletcher jumped to 24th place but then stormed past 17 of his competitors to finish in a career-best 7th, just 10.2 seconds behind the winner, Jason Lamy Chappuis of France. Johnny Spillane raced up from 33rd start position to finish 22nd while Todd Lodwick moved up just one place from 29th to 28th.

Again, Billy's name was mysteriously absent from the start list, and NC Coach Dave Jarrett explained why. The FIS has added a qualifier to Nordic Combined weekends. Each weekend a provisional round of jumping is conducted, the points to be used to seed the cross country in case the Saturday jump is weathered out. This provisional round is also used as a qualifier and, as in special jumping, the top 50 jumpers in the provisional round qualify for the weekend's World Cup competition. On Friday, Billy placed 52nd, just three points from qualifying, so he had to watch the competition on Saturday and Sunday.

After a Christmas break, the World Cup tour was scheduled to resume on Jan 7 in Schonack, Germany, but Schonack suffered the bad weather that has forced cancellation of so many FIS skiing competitions in Europe this season. The Jan 7-8 events were moved to Oberstdorf, GER. On Saturday, Jan 7, the boys contested a 4-man team sprint. The U.S. team of Bryan and Taylor Fletcher, Johnny Spillane and Bill Demong finished eighth in the jumping and moved up to fifth in the cross country relay race.

On Sunday in Oberstdorf, the boys were back to a standard Gundersen event. In the large hill jumping, Johnny, Billy and Bryan finished 20th, 22nd and 25th respectively with XC start times 1:23, 1:27 and 1:34. (Taylor Fletcher failed to qualify in the top 50 and so did not start the event.) The three U.S. skiers got together in a group of racers that grew to as large as 13 and pulled the bunch up through the field to as high as 35 seconds behind the leaders before the podium contenders put on the pressure and stretched out the gap by almost 15 seconds in the last couple of kilometers of the race. At the finish, it was Mikko Kokslien (NOR) winning with the U.S. boys in a block: Demong 14th, Spillane 15th and Bryan Fletcher 16th.

On Friday, Jan 13, Chaux-Neuve FRA, hosted a Gundersen event moved from Zakopane, and Bryan Fletcher had the jump of his life, placing second in jumping, just four tenths of a point behind the leader, Jason Lamy Chappuis of France. Bryan started the XC race just two seconds behind Chappuis. Something about the jump grouped the skiers in a clump on the results sheet. Bill Demong started 20th, just 37 seconds back. Johnny Spillane started 48 seconds back and Taylor Fletcher started at 54 sec. Nick Hendrickson joined the team and started at 1:33. With the skiers tightly grouped, a lead group developed and grew up to 13 skiers before it finally split. Bryan swapped between second and first spot while he and Chappuis towed the lead group around the course. After mid-race, Bill Demong was the last racer to join the lead group, but when the group split, he and Bryan found themselves in the trailing half, drifting back. In the end, Alessandro Pittin pulled away to win ahead of World Cup leader Chappuis. Demong finished 8th, Spillane 13th, Bryan 14th, Taylor Fletcher 25th and Nick Hendrickson 49th.

Saturday brought another Gundersen event with Spillane jumping to to 13th, Demong tied for 28th, Bryan Fletcher 41, Nick Hendrickson 48 and Taylor Fletcher 49. In the XC race, Spillane made up 70 seconds and Demong 1:30 as both of them joined the huge lead pack of 19 skiers. As the leaders pressed toward the finish, racers were shelled off the back. Johnny finished 9th, just 8 seconds from the gold and Billy finished 12th, 11 seconds out. The Fletcher brothers finished together in places 31 and 32, while young Nick Hendrickson finished 41st. Alessandro Pittin stormed up from 1:24 back to win a three-up sprint with Chappuis and Riessle to take his second event in a row. The top three were identical to the Friday podium.

In Sunday's Gundersen event, Pittin started fourth, just ten seconds back and made his way to the front by the second interval, then blasted away from the competition and soloed to a 17 second victory, his third win in a row. Behind him, a chase group grew to as many as 14 racers running about half a minute back. The group included Johnny Spillane and Bill Demong, Who had started 20th and 21st, 1:02 and 1:03 back respectively. These two stayed with the big bunch as a few were shelled off the back. Demong finished sixth, 19.5 seconds back, with Spillane in eighth, 26.5 sec. behind the winner -- these were season best results for both skiers. Bryan Fletcher finished in 26th, just behind World Cup points leader Lamy Chappuis. Brother Taylor Fletcher finished in the 39th spot, followed by Nick Hendrickson in 49th. The World Cup now takes a break while all the European competitors hurry home for their national championships. The break was made even longer by the cancellation of the events scheduled for Jan. 28-29 in Zakopane. (The U.S. nationals were held in the fall with Bill Demong securing his fifth national nordic combined championship.)

During the break, a few of the World Cup competitors traveled to Klingenthal GER for a Continental Cup event. Taylor Fletcher joined B-Teamers Nick Hendrickson and Brett Denney in Klingenthal where he placed third and first in the two events. Hendrickson and Denney both place out of the points. See results for  Saturday  or for  Sunday.

World Cup action finally resumed on Feb 3 in Val di Fiemme. The first event was a penalty race, moved from Zakopane -- instead of penalty seconds (as in a Gundersen event), penalty laps are run any time during the race. Bryan Fletcher led the boys in jumping, placing 10th with a 125 meter jump (11 meters short of Bernhard Gruber's leading jump). Johnny Spillane followed in 18th (122.4 m) and Bill Demong 23rd (120.5 m). In the race, Bryan dropped to 14th but Billy moved up to finish in 18th place. Johnny finished 22nd -- all three earned points. (In qualifying, Taylor didn't make the cut. ) Next event -- a team sprint on Saturday.