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by Larry Stone, NYSEF/Eastern Jumping Coach
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What doesn't bode well is to have a situation evolve like what is currently happening with two of our clubs, Salisbury and Brattleboro, going head to head on the same weekend. Let's hope we can get through this in one piece and prevent a situation like this from ever happening again. Both clubs have legitimate issues at stake but if there is blame it has to go to the events department of USSA who were so slow about their site and date confirmation for National Championships.
Despite this situation the winter looks to be a good one for the East with the National Jumping and Nordic Combined Championships here in Lake Placid, February 5-6 as well as a World Cup B Nordic Combined event being hosted in Lake Placid the week of January 24. This will be a good opportunity for our up and coming Nordic Combiners at the Divisional level to experience a quality international competition. There will be tryouts early in the week of the event but our Combiners (Goodwin, Decker, Howe and Kling) have all made good progress this summer and should benefit from this extra event whether they qualify for it or are involved as forerunners.
The Junior Olympics will be in Anchorage, Alaska on March 7-13. The Junior Committee will be sending out letters of confirmation of intent which will need to be returned if you intend to try to qualify or to be involved as forerunners. Doreen Cutter has found a way to keep the price reasonable but in order to make it work, we need to work with her. Qualifiers will be announced at the November 1 Junior Committee meeting in Lebanon as the schedule has undergone some changes.
I'd like to send a personal note from this column to Ryan McKeon who has had to retire due to medical problems. He has been a great addition to our program over the years and is handling this setback with a commendable attitude. He has been fun to work with and was a definite talent. Ski jumping is great but there is more to life than our sport so we wish him the best of luck in any endeavor he chooses. Don't be a stranger Ryan... and I hear you've been a big help coaching in Lebanon so maybe we'll still see you on the hill!
I'll sign off with apologies for the infrequency of this publication but we hope to correct this in the future. One more thing involves OTC camps which will be less frequent as we had several camps cancelled due to lack of sign-ups. Please help us utilize this resource efficiently! We are very lucky to have the Training Center as an option so please help me keep it available. See you on the hill! - Stoney
LAKE PLACID K48 GETS A NEW MARBLE TRACK & INRUN
by Matt Bimonte
It all started by removing 800 square yards of dirt from the old inrun. This was done by hand and took one week to complete. Then came all the 4 x 4's planted 4 feet deep in the ground. Placing these 4 x 4's every eight feet down the inrun and widening it to eight feet across provided a good foundation. Now things started to take shape with the installing of 2 x 6's framing up the shape of the inrun. 750 feet of 2 x 6's were used in the framing of the 150' section which was connected to the new tower section built last fall. The next step was putting plywood on the new framework. Three weeks passed in these steps and we now had a new inrun without a new track. "Surprise!" We had a new track fabricated with marbles according to the St. Paul Ski Club's design which we assembled during this time in sections. The sections were brought down and we installed the new track. Radar monitored speed limits will be strictly enforced on this baby! Construction of this track and inrun took the following components: 5816 marbles; 6016screws; 94 sections of pre-cut plastic track (pre-drilled to allow the marbles to poke through);188 2 x 4's; 47 pieces of plywood; 2256 marble holders made from 1 1/2" PVC pipe cut in half in 5" sections; 7 tubes of liquid nails cement.
The builders were: Tom "Take Off" Glover, Ace "4 x 4" Strack, Bob "Cut Finger" Lawrence, the "Marble Head Brothers" - Matt Bimonte and Weiner Wayne Moran, Tony "The String" Preston, Chad "A Few Good Men" Blinn, and Tom Colby.
(ed. note: The marbles were donated by Paul Kling and Lewis McKeon on behalf of the Eastern Jump Committee. Don West did the redesign work to give this hill a modern inrun profile which has been needed for so long. The Olympic Regional Development Authority was responsible for the cost of the rest of the material and the labor which was considerable. We are very grateful for this new opportunity to develop young jumpers. This hill size is critical to Summer Training for a wide segment of ski jumpers.)
(additional ed. note: Matt Bimonte works at the Lake Placid Jump Complex and a well-known Official in the East as a judge and technical delegate. A former jumper himself, Matt has held the title of National Junior Champion and was a product of Johnny Viscome's Junior Program in Lake Placid -- what goes around, comes around.)
JOHN VISCOME
November 28, 1915 - July 16, 1998
The Lake Placid Junior Team of the 60's produced skiers like Jim Page, Jim Speck, Jay Rand, Jr., Joe Lamb, Corky Colby, Donny Colby, Tom Colby, Denny Jesmer, Chuck Berghorn and countless others. Johnny and his partner, Bud Colby, would appear at every ski jump in the East in the yellow Lake Placid bus filled with eager young ski jumpers. Few jumpers today realize how many hills and clubs there used to be, but Johnny would be there from Bear Mountain to Rosendale to Mt. Beacon to Brattleboro and Salisbury. Johnny helped all of us, no matter where we came from and encouraged us all to give our best efforts. He had a smile and a word of encouragement for anyone who spoke to him whether they were at the top of the sport or just struggling up through the ranks.
John's early years were spent in the White Plains area where he helped organize and run the Norswift Ski Club and resurrected the Norway Ski Club's jump which was abandoned in the 1930's. They kept the 50-meter hill prepared with snow they would scrape from the streets and held an annual meet that would draw skiers like Art Devlin, Mezzy Barber, Art Tokle and even Torger Tokle. The White Plains area thrived during those years and produced jumpers like Johnny, Stan Kissell and many more. In 1953 Johnny moved to Lake Placid after the Norswift Ski Club died out due to World War II's interruption. John ran a Shell gas station located where there is now a Chinese restaurant. In 1955 he teamed up with the late Bud Colby to start the Lake Placid Junior Jump Program.
John married Laura Russell from Scarsdale after they met when she was looking to join the Norswift Ski Club in the early 50's and Laura taught skiing and ran the Scotch Cobble Alpine program when they moved to Lake Placid. Today Laura writes a weekly column for the Lake Placid News which often gives mention to local ski jumping events and achievements. Together they had four children: George, John, Jr., Laura Jean and Janet. After the Shell station, John worked for many years at Northwood School and was the caretaker for Kate Smith's home on Lake Placid. He worked for ORDA at the jumps until his retirement in 1992.
John was inducted into the Lake Placid Hall of Fame in 1990. He was a ski jumping institution who was one of those people who made life a better place. We will miss has cheerful presence but he'll live on in the hearts of all of us who knew him. Our condolences to Laura and the family. Keep your tips up, Johnny!
Maine Ski Jumping Legend Passes On...
AURELE LEGERE
Several articles from the Lewiston Sun (Maine) between 1928 and 1935 were reprinted in an article by Dorcas Wonsavage about Aurele after his death this summer. It gives us an insight into his early years. "Twelve year old Aurele Legere, boy wonder ski jumper at the Chisholm Ski Club, Rumford, Maine, climbed to the top of the lofty tower this afternoon and soared away in a perfect jump of 100 feet. He received a big hand for his stunt"... and several years later..."High School Boy Jumps 185 feet on Rumford Jump...the longest jump ever to be made in the state of Maine and one of the longest ever in the East, with the exception of Lake Placid, was completed here this afternoon when Aurele Legere made 185 feet off the newly revised ski tower. The previous record was 162 feet... weighing 115 pounds and only five feet high, young Legere entered the U.S. Eastern Championships as a novice and by the end of the day earned the right to compete as Class A."
In recent years he was largely responsible, with Dan Warner's help, for redoing the Rumford K-64 meter hill which last ran a competition in February 1996 when Rumford hosted the North American Women's Championships. Although Aurele had recently had heart surgery, he was right there at the hill which had been named for him. He also was named to the Master's Ski Jumping Hall of Fame in 1992.
We extend our condolences to his family and will remember the hard working man who was always at the Chisholm Ski Club Ski Jumps doing some extra thing that needed taking care of even though his jumping days were far behind him.
(ed. note: We also send thanks to Dan Warner who has donated his fees from taking care of Aurele's house after his death to the Eastern Jump Committee in Aurele Legere's memory. As Aurele's son wrote to me with the latest check, his dad would be glad to know he is still contributing to the sport he loved.)
A VIEW FROM THE JUDGES STAND
by Art Tokle, Jr.
I know
there are many of you jumpers and coaches out there that
feel you have been "gypped" on what you thought was a much better jump
than the scores actually showed.
The deductions taken away from a perfect, or near perfect jump of
"20" from each judge are mandated by the Federation International
de Ski (FIS). The FIS is the governing body for all competitive
skiing throughout the world. It reigns over all nordic events as well
as Alpine events. FIS rules are modified, improved and sometimes
rescinded based on the competitions (World Cup, etc.) of the previous
seasons.
In brief, the deductions for a Nordic competitors jump are
currently based on 5 points for flight and 4 points for landing,
additionally 2-10 points may be deducted for various degrees of a
fall. The deductions are as follows:
FLIGHT:
General Impression 0.5-1.5 pts
Position of Skis 0.5-1.5
Position of Legs 0.5-1.0
Position of Arms 0.5-1.0
LANDING:
with Telemark
Stiff 0.5
Wide 0.5
Unsteady 0.5
Max. deduction Tele. 0.5
no Telemark (Automatic) 2.0
Stiff 0.5
Wide 0.5
Unsteady 1.0
Max. deduction no Tele 4.0
FALL:
One Hand Touch 2.0-4.0
Two Hand Touch 6.0-8.0
Body on Skis (sitting on tails) 8.0
Tobogganing (wipeout fall) 10.0
Before I conclude, let me give you an example of a jump and the
score given by a judge: The jumper comes off the take-off and is a
little behind in his flight; so he tries to get out over his skis; and
goes a bit too far. Now, he has to back pedal with his arms to avoid
tipping over (many of you out there are thinking "been there, done
that"). Although your skis are in a v-position, the tails are crossed.
When the jumper lands, his feet are parallel and his landing is
stiff. Proper to the Fall Line the jumper catches an edge and loses
his balance causing him to squat down and one hand brushes the snow.
Picture this jump in you mind. It's not all that bad, you've seen
much worse. Here's how the judge saw it:
FLIGHT:
General Impression 1.5 pts.
Skis 1.0
Legs 0.0
Arms 1.0
Total Flight Deductions 3.5
LANDING: No Telemark 2.0
Stiff 0.5
Wide 0.0
Unsteady 1.0
Total Landing Deductions 3.5
FALLS: One Hand Touch 2.0
Total Jump Deductions 9.0
TOTAL SCORE: 11.0 pts.
Judges score may vary as much as 1.5 points, but in most cases will
vary .5 - 1.0 points. Remember that there are five judges and that the
high and the low scores are thrown out. The remaining three scores
are the one in effect.
In the next New Heights issue, I will give another example of a jump and how the judge saw it, and let you know the requirements and contacts for becoming a judge.
END
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