See Previous (2009-10) News Items or the
News Items for the Following Season (2011-12).

CONTENTS Five USSA Awards to East SWSA Named Jumping/NC Club of the Year Women to Jump in Sochi Olympics P.T. Bland (1923-2011) Frenette and Lamb go Flying in Planica Willy Graves, Alissa Johnson, College Champions 2011 McCrillis Award to Tim Norris Two Great Days of Jumping at Harris Hill Continental Cup Competition in Iron Mt Article about Salisbury in the New York Times. Steamboat's Chris McNeill 1954-2011 Eastern Team Travels to Mpls. & Norge. Peter Frenette leads U.S. at Otepää. Two items about Peter Frenette. Bill Demong is a Dad. Lake Placid Masters Jumping. Brattleboro Jumper Terry Tyler (1932-2010). Honored: Stone, Demong, Alexander, Frenette. Report on FIS Clinic, by Dan Warner. No Jumping in 2011 Empire State Games. Gossip from Underneath the Takeoff. Links to 3 articles on USST & High School Jumping. A Good Summer for Kids Jumping in Lake Placid. What's Bill Demong up to this summer?. Master Jumper saves drowning woman in RI. Peter Frenette is National Champion. Mark Breen and Bill Clinton. Alan Sargent (1921-2010). Skiers and Coaches Racing Bicycles. Report from the USSA spring 2010 Meeting.

East Garners Honors at USSA Convention The Annual USSA Convention is a time for awards and recognition, and Eastern Division brought home plenty of awards this year. Salisbury received the Ski Jump/NC Club of the Year Award. [ See Letter.] Peter Frenette was named the Ski Jumping Athlete of the Year. Joe Lamb received the highest USSA recognition, the Julius Blegen Award, given for a lifetime of service. David McCahill was named the SJ/NC Domestic Coach of the year, Ken Tokle received the Mittelstadt Officials Award. SWSA Named Jumping/NC Club of the Year The USSA has named the Salisbury Winter Sports Association the 2011 Ski Jumping/Nordic Combined Club of the Year, recognizing all that SWSA accomplished in less than 12 months: designing and building a new 70 meter ski jump and raising money to pay for it, and organizing a very successful Junior National Championships. Congratulations to SWSA for your accomplishments which earned you this prestigious award.   [ See the USSA Letter 233 kb pdf.] Women to Jump in Sochi 2014 The IOC announced on April 6 that women's ski jumping will be included in the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, Russia. Learn more at Ski Jumping USA.   Dr. P.T. Bland (1923?-2011) P.T. 'Doc' Bland of Westby, Wisc. died on April 15. Doc was a long time, enthusiastic supporter of ski jumping through the Snowflake Ski Club in Westby where he practiced medicine. In his middle years, he undertook ski jump designing, which he continued into his eighties. For a number of years, Doc was chairman of the USSA ski jump design committee. Calling hours Saturday, April 23. [ See long obituary article in the LaCrosse Tribune.]   Frenette and Lamb finish their Season at Planica     Peter Frenette finally got a shot at ski flying, but he didn't have to travel alone to Planica up in the far western corner of Slovenia. Chris Lamb was with him, and Chris had flown two years earlier as a forejumper in Kulm-Mittendorf. In the March 17 qualification, Frenette finished in 36th postition, just six positions and less than five points from the qualifying cutoff. Forty skiers start in ski flying and ten are prequalified, leaving 58 athletes competing for 30 spots. Lamb finished in place 43. We hope that they both enjoyed the experience. See Results of Qualifying. Willy Graves wins first USCSA National Championship It's been over 30 years since ski jumping has held a National Collegiate Championship but with the support and arrangement of Dan Warner, the US Collegiate Ski Assoc, which describes itself as the alternative to NCAA, held its first National Championship jumping event on March 5 on the 90 meter Olympic jump in Park City. Several qualifying competitions were held throughout the season across the country. The start list wasn't long on quantity, but the quality was undeniable, and Willy Graves who recently retired from the US Nordic Combined Team, came out on top in the men's category in a tight competition that saw the three medalists separated by only 4.5 points. Alissa Johnson won the first ever Women's Naional Collegiate Ski Jumping Championships. It will be interesting to see how these new title events grow and prosper. See result sheets with college affiliations for Men's Competition  and  Women's Competition or see some nice videos: see willy and Alissa jump or view a longer video and slide show. 2011 McCrillis Award to Tim Norris Each year the John W. McCrillis Award goes to an individual who has contributed to the sport of skiing, in acknowledgement of their efforts to promote and encourage the youth in our area to enjoy the ski sport. The 2011 Award winner in Tim Norris of Proctor Academy, Andover NH, who has been instrumental in supporting the sport of skiing for many young skiers over the past 30 years. Tim received the award at the John W. McCrillis Award night, Saturday March 19, at the Mount Sunapee Resort. See report & pictures of Award Banquet. Two Great Days of Jumping at Harris Hill The warm weather didn't defeat the Harris Hill crew. With a big boost from visiting Central folks, they resnowed the tower and cut a track in time to run the Annual Pepsi Challenge competition. Sunday was an even better day as the wind dropped to half. Mike Glasder doubled up, winning both days, as did Nina Lussi. Central J-2 jumpers look like the best bet in next week's JO jumping -- they took the top three spots on Sunday and the top six on Saturday! [ See complete results of two days jumping ] A Strange Weekend in Iron Mountain Saturday was a good day for ski jumping in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan where the Kiwanis Ski Club hosted this season's only Contintal Cup competitions in the U.S. Peter Frenette placed tenth and Chris Lamb finished in 28th place. The young Polish jumper who notched the longest ride of 133 meters followed in the second round with only 89.5 ! Warm weather on Sunday cursed the organizers and the competition was cut to a single round. Anders Johnson finished seventh, Mike Glazder 21st and Nick Alexander 22nd. [ Saturday Results ]       [ Sunday Results ] Nice article about Salisbury The New York Times has published a nice article about Salisbury's commitment to build their new ski jump. [ See the Article ] Chris McNeill (1954-2011) Dave Norby has sent us a link to an article in Steamboat Today describing the brief but full life of Olympian Chris McNeill who died unexpectedly in Steamboat Springs, CO, at age 56. Chris was a two time Olympic ski jumper (1978 and 1980) and a long time resident of Steamboat Springs. [ See article ] Eastern Jumpers Compete in Midwest Zach Daniels, Luke Daniels, Miles Lussi, Matt Doyle, Chris Rydel, Sam Shapiro and Nate Capone traveled to the Midwest with coach Evan Bliss to ski in three 70 meter competitions: Wednesday evening in Minneapolis, then Saturday and Sunday on the Norge jump outside Chicago. Zach Daniels skied well, taking a first and two second places. The six were joined at Norge by Cooper Dodds who attends college in the Twin Cities but drove to Chicago, where he also took a first and a second place and set a new hill record! You can access results on the SkiJumpingUSA.com schedule page Frenette Tops U.S. Jumpers Peter Frenette was the top U.S. jumper Saturday, placing 27th in the men's special jump at the World Junior Nordic Ski Championships in Otepää, Estonia. See USSA Article or FIS Results. Frenette Jumps to 18th in Sapporo World Cup Peter Frenette, in his first World cup weekend, improved from 33rd on Saturday to finish in 18th place Sunday, scoring his first World Cup points. Next Peter will head to Otepää, Estonia for the World Junior Championships.   Read More.   And more good news for Peter: the Plattsburgh Press Republican newspaper annouced that he had obtained sponsor support from a local law firm. Good! We hope that Nick, Nick and Chris can find similar help.  See Clipping. (93 kb) or the Newspaper web site.  (It's slow!) It's a Boy! Bill Demong is a Dad. Bill Demong's bride Katie delivered a son Liam on Wednesday, January 12. 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 skied the World Cup events in Chaux Neuve, then returned to USA with his team mates to prepare for World Championships in Oslo in a few weeks. Lamb wins Masters -- Fairall takes Devlin Cup Nina Lussi, AJ Brown also winners.   See Results Chris Lamb flies to a dominant victory   Nick Fairall clinches the Art Devlin Cup Terry Tyler (1932-2010) We have received the sad news of the death on December 3, 2010 of Terry Tyler. Terry lived in the Brattleboro VT area and was a Brattleboro Outing Club ski jumper in the 1940's and 50's, where two of his sons also carried on the tradition. Terry continued as a lifetime supporter of the BOC ski jumping program of and of the Harris Hill Ski Jump, and he was a fixture at Harris Memorial meets, sitting in his pickup truck at the base of the hill. For a number of years, Tyler owned Maple Valley Ski Area where he saw to it that a 30 meter jump was built and maintianed.   [ See Obituary ] The American Ski Jumping Hall of Fame honors Nick Alexander -- Bill Demong -- Peter Frenette -- Larry Stone On December 5, in Red Wing, Minnesota, eleven people, including four from the East, will be honored with induction into the American Ski Jumping Hall of Fame. This Hall of Fame, not to be confused with the Ski Hall of Fame in Ishpeming, MI, is just a few years old, with its first class of honorees inducted in 2007. The first two classes were very large, 47 in 2007 and 68 in 2008, making up for lost time by inducting those already in the Ishpeming Hall and then honoring Olympians and National Champions. The 2009 class included the first four honored women and several men mistakenly overlooked in the two previous years. The newest class includes some "automatic" choices (Olympians and National Champions) and some who were selected from nominations by the public.   Go to the ASHF web site and click on Hall of Fame to read the names of all 141 honored members. A Few News Items from the Mouse-Man Dan "Mouse" Warner attended the fall 2010 FIS TD and Judge seminar in Las Vegas. He reports that Peter Claus and Mark Levasseur both passed their FIS Judges exams and will judge in Steamboat and Park City this winter for COC NC to finish the testing. Also Steve Sydow from Duluth has passed and will do Iron Mt. Corky Colby will also judge at Iron Mt. and Joe Lamb is to be TD in NC at Oslo for the World Championships this season as well. Corky, Pete, Mark, Rex Bell, Art Tokle and Warner were all in Las Vegas to take the course. He also wrote "The FIS folks were very pleased to see the interest USA Ski Jumping is bringing to the table to try and bring back ski jumping to a high level the US. Everyone is trying hard to get our program strong again. Our group is still seeking funds so anyone can go to our website usaskijumping.org and donate. Any amount is welcome.   Mouse" Empire State Games jumping dropped from schedule After running annually for almost 30 years, the Empire State Games ski jumping and Nordic combined events have been dropped from the Eastern ski jumping schedule due to a conflict with the Junior Olympics. The JO events will run in Salisbury from Tuesday, Feb. 22 through Saturday, Feb. 26 and the Empire State Games end on Sunday, Feb. 27. Eastern coaches felt it would be unreasonable for their teams to rush from Salisbury to Lake Placid late Saturday night or early Sunday morning and try to be ready to compete, so the ESG events have been dropped. During the 1980's, the ESG jumping was one of the most popular jumping events in the east, but like all ski jumping competitions, the numbers have gone down steadily to the point where now no Eastern big-hill event can run without our top juniors. The conflict can not be resolved because neither event is simply an Eastern competition -- they each belong to a higher authority (USSA & ESG, respectively) and so are not under local control. See Eastern Schedule.   Gossip from Underneath the Takeoff Chat and Sightings at Flaming Leaves 2010 by Don West, webmaster With no volunteer assignment during the 2010 Flaming Leaves ski jumping competitions, I had an opportunity to wander around and chat with folks. And I found plenty of nice folks to chat with. I couldn't resist sharing several news items and updates. Jack Phelps, a jumping judge and stalwart of the Salisbury CT club (SWSA), enjoyed the flaming leaves as he rode his BMW motorcycle from north-west Connecticut up to Lake Placid. He even took an extra ride early Sunday morning, just for pleasure. Jack provides most of the pictures for the ongoing pictorial report on the construction of the new jump in Salisbury. Walter Malmquist, a 1980 NC Olympian, is back in the sport and becoming more and more involved. He was the main speaker at the Saturday evening reception at the Olympic Center to introduce USA Ski Jumping. Walter is learning the basics of Nordic officiating: judge and TD work. I hear that he had also done a little coaching and that he is back jumping and even trying out the V-technique. At the reception, we learned that Chris Lamb had recently begun studying at a college in Trodheim Norway, where he has arranged to train with a ski club and their coaches. Ken Tokle drove up on Sunday morning from the Bear Mt. area with his wife Nina through splendid fall colors. Ken, nephew of Torger and Art Sr., was a jumping judge for 43 years, but finally retired in 2009. Sam Burke is back from his final college year in Scotland and is looking for a job. We are glad to hear that he is hoping to jump again this coming winter. Tara Garraghty-Moats came up for the annual roller ski race up the Whiteface Memorial Highway, and then stayed for the weekend. She didn't jump -- I am told that she is still recovering from an injury. Sitting on a railing, chatting with Sam Burke, Tara had a scary moment as she tipped forward and ended up hanging by her hands, looking like a sleeping bat. We hope the she didn't get banged up too badly and that we see her back on jumping skis by snow season. In the Sunday morning sun, long time NYSEF boss Horst Weber (left) told jokes and chatted with Chuck Berghorn (right). A long time jumper, Chuck had been on the ORDA staff at the jumps for years, in charge of snowing the tower and maintaining the track. Chuck had heart surgery six years ago but still goes hunting whenever he can. His son Brian rejected the thrill of ski jumping for the thrill of bobsledding. The 21 year old will compete in Europe this season for the first time. One year ago, during the last Flaming Leaves weekend, Art Lussi, father of the three flying Lussi kids, was rushed to the hospital with a mysterious medical problem. Sunday he reported that his recovery has been almost complete and that he is feeling well. Art's young son Miles jumped in the competition, flying 80 meters both days, while his older sister Danielle was looking stylish in big city clothing, walking around the venue taking pictures, or selling souvenirs at the bottom of the hill. She had come back on a quick two-day recess from her first year at Harvard University, which she reports is "hard". (We guessed that.) Middle sister Nina Lussi is in Austria, starting what is planned to be a three year stay at the sports academy in Stams. Mom, Martina was busy all weekend, attending meetings and clinics, working on fundraising and judging both competitions. We wish the best to all the Lussis. Colin Delaney took a few rides on Sunday, not in competition but as a fore-jumper. Colin is a sophomore at St. Michaels College in Burlington VT. He might have jumped on Saturday but instead he rode in a College mountain bike race in Pennsylvania with his small St. Mikes club team. It was a difficult race for Colin with a crash and two flat tires, but he happily reports "I qualified for Nationals!" Congratulations, and good luck. I had a nice chat on the judges stand with the incredibly youthful looking Jim Alexander, Chief of Police of Lebanon NH and father of Olympic Jumper and National Champion, Nick Alexander. We talked about Jim's growing up in Brattleboro during the glory years of the Brattleboro Outing Club jumping program under Alan Sargent, who died earlier this year. (A few days later I was shocked to realize that I had jumped Harris Hill before Jim was born!) I could tell that the cost of Nick's travel was weighing heavily on both Nick and Jim, and that they sincerely hope that the new initiative, USA Ski Jumping, gets into high gear soon to alleviate some of the financial strain. A Good Summer for Kids Jumping in Lake Placid David McCahill reports that the 2010 Lake Placid Grasshopper summer ski jumping camps were very well attended. Read more on the NYSEF Blog. David also clarified one more NYSEF item. Most of you know that Casey Colby has signed on to coach for the new U.S. ski jumping team (previously known as Project-X) and many of us assumed that he would be resigning from his NYSEF post. Not true, says McCahill. " ... he's still going to balance that with NYSEF coaching this winter" so no staffing changes in NYSEF ski jumping. What's Bill Demong up to this summer? According to an article on FasterSkier.com, Billy has committed to four more years of competition, and started the four year, post-Olympic period with several weeks of rest. He's working on his house (remember, he recently married his sweetheart) and doing some bike racing. The article will tell you that Billy will be racing in the Tour of Utah -- that race ended on Aug 22, but apparently Bill DNF on a very difficult Criterium stage the previous day. [ Read the entire article.] Master Jumper Saves Drowning Woman Master jumper John Conley was at a marina, preparing for a day of boating, when he saw a car roll across the grass and plunge into the water. He grabbed a mask and flippers and ran to the scene, where he dived over and over until he got the driver, an old lady, out through the driver's side window. Read more on a Boston Globe article or check out this Google search for other articles. Peter Frenette is National Champion (twice!) Peter Frenette and Lindsey Van each won two gold medals July 30 and Aug. 1 in Park City as the tradition continued of holding the U.S. National Ski Jumping and Nordic Combined Championships in summertime on plastic. Sarah Hendrickson took home a silver and a bronze medal. Brett Camerota placed second on both hills and went on to grab the Nordic Combined crown, ahead of Olympic medalists Todd Lodwick and Bill Demong. Here are the medalists:   Normal Hill - Men 1. Peter Frenette 2. Brett Camerota 3. Anders Johnson   Normal Hill - Women 1. Lindsey Van 2. Sarah Hendrickson 3. Abby Hughes   Large Hill- Men 1. Peter Frenette 2. Brett Camerota 3. Anders Johnson   Large Hill - Women 1. Lindsey Van 2. Jessica Jerome 3. Sarah Hendrickson   Nordic Combined 1. Brett Camerota 2. Todd Lodwick 3. Billy Demong Read more on the USST web page (three articles), or see complete results on the Park City NSC page (six .pdf files). Party Time in Rhinebeck, NY Many of us knew that Eastern Masters Champion Mark Breen is a member of the New York State Police based in Rhinebeck NY. And we noticed Rhinebeck in the news recently as the location of the wedding of a certain first daughter. However, most of us didn't put the two together ... until now. Mark's wife Debbie sent around a few pictures with the comment: "There will be no living with him after this!" Alan Sargent (1921-2010) "Sad news in the Brattleboro jumping community -- Alan Sargent has passed away. Alan was without a doubt the most instrumental individual in our town to develop a junior jumping program and to put Harris Hill on the jumping map. We are all saddened by his passing."   (from Dana Zelenakis)   [ See Obituary ] Skiers and Coaches are Racing Bicycles Congratulations to David McCahill and Colin Delaney who won silver medals in their respective categories in the Wilmington-Whiteface Bicycle Road Race, the New York State Championship road race. Matt Cook also rode in Delaney's 41 mile event, finishing just three minutes back in eleventh place. That was Saturday, June 12. On Sunday, David and Colin came out again for the NY State criterium championships in Saranac Lake. David finished fourth in the Category 3&4 race, and Colin was the winner in Category 5. Congratulations Champ! Report from the Annual USSA Meetings Dan Warner was one of a handful of Eastern representatives at the annual spring meetings of USSA, May 12 to 16 in Park City, UT. Dan, who represented both Eastern Officials and ESJ&NC (the old Eastern Jumping Committee), has just returned and has shared a brief report on the meetings. Dan started his report with USSA awards to Eastern skiers, coaches and officials (Casey Colby, Peter Graves, Willy Graves, Jay Rand & Jeff Byrne, Joe Lamb, and Bill Demong). He then reported on a movement toward paying ski jumping officials, and a rules change to score two jumps in J-2 Nordic Combined competitions. Ishpeming will host the North American J-1 Championships and the World Jr. Team Tryouts in early January. The Nationals will be in Park City the last week of July, and Salisbury has been officially awarded the JO's. Dan mentioned new developments in Ski Jumping Development USA (once called Project-X) and finished with some optimistic observations on the state of the sport. See Dan's Full Report. Links to articles too good to lose These three links were dropped from the Whats New page after a few months, but the articles are too good to lose completely. Here are the links: Article: Not Easy Time for US Jumping NY Times: Marolt well paid while USSA cries poverty       Article on NH High School Jumping