STONEY'S CORNER Lake Placid 1932 .. Squaw Valley 1960 .. Lake Placid 1980 .. Salt Lake 2002 Get ready because here we go into an Olympic year and a special one at that. Every twenty years or so we (the USA) has a chance to host the Olympic Games on our own turf and showcase our athletes against the world's best. This is an opportunity for the American public to see athletes who have come up through divisional programs go on to the Olympic experience. We will get a chance to see Eastern athletes in action including Bill Demong and hopefully several others. We wish good luck to Easterners who are in the running for an Olympic spot - Jed Hinkley, Carl Van Loan, Brian Welch, Taylor Hoffman and Casey Colby. It is great to see Casey going for his second Olympic Team. I guess all the coaching Casey has been doing since the Nagano Olympic games got his competitive juices flowing again. We will be watching closely and wishing all our Eastern athletes the best. This should be a good winter for our younger developing athletes as they watch their older role models while thinking about what to do to realize their own dreams. The groundwork for these youngsters future is being built now. When you watch athletes this winter, realize you are seeing results of many years of hard work and keep in mind what is needed to be done with your coaches to get there yourself someday. There is a definite path to ski jumping evolution starting with youth ski league, up through divisional programs and on to Junior Olympics. Behind every Olympic athlete are people like Jon Farnham and Tim Norris who help young athletes to develop their elementary skills and make their experience happen. It will be an active winter with a full Eastern schedule with a period during the games where many Easterners will be in Utah as volunteers and/or spectators which will spread our resources thin. We should take a moment to thank Marianne Fairall for all her hard work in helping Eastern Ski Jumping grow into a self supporting entity. There are too many people to mention them all by name, but take a minute this winter and thank some of the people who have helped make skiing the exciting experience it has been for you. You'll feel better and so will they. So let the Games begin and let's see what the USA can do. There is something about the Olympics that gets American athletes to rise to a higher level of skiing. Whether you are rooting for a specific person or the Home Team, cheer on these athletes who have worked so hard. On to Salt Lake, but remember your chance might be in Italy in 2006! Keep working hard, enjoying the experience of Ski Jumping and Nordic Combined Skiing and having fun. See you on the hill!
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Being nice to spectators, officials and sponsors is your charge - it's not an option. It's for your benefit. The next time you're asked to help out at any site, ask how long can you be of service, instead of whining about it. Sportsmanship is about more than just how you perform in your event.
Hopper Highlights
During the ride up the boys only had to stop three times. This is pretty good for a carload of five boys who drink a lot of soda and juice and eat Chris Lamb's mother's doughnuts and cookies. This was a better than average start to this trip. This year there were twelve jumpers which made for five fun filled days. The jumpers trained on the K18 and K48 hills. They all agree that summer training is beneficial. After watching the jumping on the last day of the camp, I really could see improvement in each jumper from our group as well as the other skiers. The best camp activity was going to Fuzzy Bliss's camp to go boating and tubing. They definitely can't wait for the next chance to do that again. At the end of the camp, when they had awards, the boys had a hard time choosing from the prize table especially between ski straps and posters- but I guess that's a part of life. Packing up is a whole other story in itself. It was confusing, especially when you can't figure out whose dirty sock is in the middle of the floor or where was that lacrosse stick that was left in the woods. The ride home was especially interesting, when Chris and Sean drank too much soda on a hot day and we had to stop every five minutes…but there were definitely a lot of funny stories remembered before we got back to New Hampshire. The vote was unanimous: Grasshopper Camp was a Blast! Ed. Note: We appreciate Elizabeth's interest in ski jumping and her support of the Eastern program. Thanks Liz!
NEWS and NOTES
"Aude Volare" -- Dare to Fly!
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