by Larry Stone, Eastern divisional Coach An old fashioned real winter! A winter like the ones we had when we were kids (no matter when we were born!). Plenty of snow and consistent cold temperatures gave the East a winter to really put in some serious time actually jumping instead of trying to get hills in shape. There were a lot of good things that happened this year. One of our highlights was Brian Welch's qualification for the World Junior Championship Team and another was Jeremy Carter's Silver medal in the K90 Junior Olympic J-1 Jumping event. Our sport is notorious for it's fickleness. Some people start out hot and end up in a slump; and others finish on a high note like Matt Delaney's 89 meter jump in the K90 National Championships. The thing that really encouraged me this year was that despite the ups and downs (some of which were injury related - Chris Decker , Willy Graves and Brian Farnham ) we have enough depth in our program that somebody is usually cycling through on a high note to take up any slack. Let's look at some of those highs and the exciting notes of this past winter. Things started out hot going into the winter after great performances by Welch and Decker last Fall. As winter got under way Decker placed very well in the first World Junior tryout (2nd) and Welch hung right in there as well culminating in his making the team based on the last meet at New Year's in Lake Placid. At Gunstock, Tobin Whitman left his mark on their K87 meter hill with a new hill record along with some good jumping there by Jonathan Kling and others. Decker emerged from a semi-slump to win the Salisbury weekend with a great set of performances. Salisbury's weekend was good to bring the younger skiers into a " big kids" setting with the Nordic Kids' Festival. It was a very successful effort by the Salisbury Winter Sports Association with help from Lebanon and Andover! It's nice to see several clubs work together to pull off a joint effort. After a European jaunt with the US Women's Team as mascot (the rooster) and forerunner Jeremy Carter caught fire and had great rides to win junior class at Brattleboro and then again at JO's for a silver medal. Morgan Goodwin also peaked at JO's for his Gold medal in the J-1 Individual Nordic Combined. Willy Graves provided some inspired jumping at Saturday's Brattleboro Pepsi Challenge but went down at perhaps the same moment that Chris Decker learned how Iron Mountain, MI sometimes eats its young. (Both boys recovered from their twin broken collar bones to compete at Nationals.) Another highlight was watching "Iron Man" Marshall Ambrose run two Team Sprint races in the same afternoon at Junior Olympics and win two silver medals for his efforts. At the Junior Olympics, the Eastern team emerged with two golds, five silvers, and a bronze! Throughout the winter our older skiers all had their moments and gave us a very good season of jumping with no one person dominating the scene and that speaks volumes for the depth in the Eastern program. Also encouraging is that the end is certainly not in sight as Graves, Delaney, Kling, Sam Burke, Evan Bliss, Andrew Baker and Brian Farnham all showed moments of good athletic performance and potential, as well as, the next wave of the Andover Airforce with Peter Freire, Chris Lamb and Nick Fairall making their first Junior Olympic appearances and making solid progress. There are a lot of people out there working hard to make this happen from Jon Farnham and Casey Colby in Lebanon, Tim Norris in Andover, Tom Dodds in Hanover, John Swanson in Salisbury and NYSEF in Lake Placid, as well as, the countless volunteers who help make the programs and meets happen. Money is always an issue when it comes to athletic programs and Marianne Fairall is making progress on that front and also helping to make the Eastern spectators and fans more audible with all those bells sold at eastern meets. Dan "Mouse" Warner , now a fulltime ORDA employee, has certainly helped us in Lake Placid to have more consistent and better quality training opportunities. Seeing some of our skiers move on to National Development programs is what we are here for - that and to provide good experiences for all the skiers who want to give our sports a try. We should all be very proud to see Bill Demong become both the K90 Special Jumping and Nordic Combined National Champion. We will all watch intently to see what he does in Salt Lake next winter. We must give a hearty thank you to Peter Mikkelson for his years as the Eastern Chairman and wish him luck as he moves on to his next endeavors. He will always be welcome around the ski jumping scene. In summation, the past winter showed ski jumping and Nordic Combined to be healthy and growing in the East at all age levels and it was especially good to see more Seniors staying involved. Hopefully this will continue into the foreseeable future. It would be great to see these skiers stay around to give Masters Don West and Jon Farnham some company!
Alumni are a major source of funds for private schools. Having gone to such an institution, once a year I receive a call from a classmate, asking me for a contribution, but more than that I get the low down of what others from our class are up to. This was my inspiration for creating an Eastern Alumni Association. I presented the idea at the last Eastern Committee meeting in Lebanon. By forming an Eastern Ski Jumping Alumni Association we hope that more former skiers will stay involved with eastern ski jumping, whether it be with new athlete recruitment, fundraising, or coaching. The newly formed fundraising committee will lead this project. Look for updates on their progress in future New Heights and look in the new Alumni News section to read about what our former jumping brethren have been up to since hanging up their boards. I hope that many former skiers will join me in the Alumni Association and help secure the future of ski jumping in the East, so that others can have the great experiences so many of us had. If you have any interest in donating to the Eastern Alumni Fund or if would like to know of the whereabouts of any of your former competitors please let us know. We will do our best to locate that individual for you. Feel free to contact me at michael@collincom.com or 207-775-9120.
Program Development
"Ski Jumping – GIVE IT A TRY!" was the title and motto when the Lake Placid Ski Club and NYSEF sponsored two free ski jumping sessions for youngsters (and the "young at heart") to come to the jumps and "GIVE IT A TRY" on the 18K hill. "GIVE IT A TRY" was advertised in local newspapers, radio and flyers to elementary school children. Over 30 children and a couple of adults showed up at the Olympic jumps to try ski jumping! An added bonus was to those who gave it a try successfully could participate in the Lake Placid Lions Club Meet the following weekend – and there were a few that did (and had some surprisingly good rides)! There was one enthusiastic boy who was ready to go off the 48K after his first try...whoa! The "GIVE IT A TRY" organizers seized the opportunity at the free sessions to promote the Lake Placid Ski Club/NYSEF jump program and supplied the participants with information about the summer grasshopper camps and how to sign up for jumping in 2001/2. We plan to contact the participants in the early fall and remind them about what a thrill they had in March when they "GAVE IT A TRY"! This program development idea was easily executed and was a lot of fun for everyone involved including the regular jumpers who could show off their jumping skills. Your club may want to "GIVE IT A TRY", too! Ed. Note: The more ideas like this that we can share throughout the eastern program the more we will all benefit! Let's GIVE IT A TRY!
Stoney's Corner
Taking a moment to look back on the winter, I have several thoughts which I've expressed in the East report but some of them are worth repeating. Great job, Bill Demong, and we all wish you the best getting ready for Salt Lake. Perhaps there will be another Easterner or two who will make the Olympic Team but our hopes obviously go out to the whole team. I'll repeat the thank you to Peter Mikkelson for his work as chairman of the Eastern Committee. Peter has had a difficult year and our best wishes go out to him as well as our appreciation for his dedication to our sport. Another appreciative note goes to Jon Farnham who has served as Vice Chairman for the past several years. I'm sure "Cannonball" is not going anywhere and will still be in evidence on the Eastern scene continuing to add his mix of spice to our division. Best wishes to our new Eastern Ski Jumping Board of Directors. With the involvement of some of the new faces in our group interacting with the continuing members, 2002 could prove to be a productive year especially in addressing the financial challenges to maintaining and further evolution of the programs. There were some really exciting moments last winter. Who can forget Willy Graves' 95 meter ride in front of his hometown crowd at Brattleboro or Chris Decker's awesome jumps at Salisbury? We have depth in our program and more developing talent on the way. 2002 will give us some challenges as the focus shifts to the West but if things keep developing on the current path, we will have plenty of excitement here. Let's wish our Olympians "Good Luck" as they move towards February 2002 and let's keep working hard in the East to develop more athletes for the next Olympiad in Italy in 2006. Who knows what youngster from Andover or Lebanon could be headed there? See you on the hill.
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