On the home front, every club and site put on a quality tournaments with a bit of juggling of traditional events. Brattleboro, for example, traded their normal date with a cooperative Lebanon club so officials could be available. The Olympic winter brought out the best in many situations. The Finnish Olympic Team, here for pre-Olympic training and a K120 meet in Lake Placid, provided a great opportunity for our skiers to see World Class ski jumping up close. Thanks to ORDA for providing that situation. Watching Morgan Goodwin, Matt Cook, Carl Van Loan, and Jed Hinkley do well in the March World Cup “B” Placid event was truly inspirational for our divisional Nordic Combined skiers. Thanks to Joe Lamb and Lamb Lumber for their support of the this event. I'd also like to thank Jason Lemieux for his work with our Eastern Nordic Combiners this winter. It seems another Eastern talent wave of Nordic Combined skiers is in the making. Special Jumping saw great progress this year with Brian Welch making the Olympic Team and consistent great performances by Jonathan Kling and Evan Bliss – and Sam Burke's great day at Salisbury. The younger skiers had their moments as well with remarkable progress by Nick Fairall, Pete Freire, Chris Lamb and Andrew Bliss. The Masters class saw a resurgence with Tom Dodds, player-coach from Ford-Sayre and Jim Soderberg from way over in Caribou, Maine, joining Don West, Dr. John Connelly and the Cannonball. Congratulations athletes! And a most sincere thank you to the officials and families who worked so hard this winter supporting our Eastern program!!! An entity that deserves a BIG thank you from the East and NYSEF is the Olympic Training Center in Lake Placid. The OTC is an extremely important resource that we cannot take for granted. We truly appreciate all the OTC support from Tracy Lamb, Jack Favro, Bill Freeburn, Jared Steenberge, Mary Ann Petterson and Mary Saulpaugh! Now it's time to get ready for a summer of training opportunities and fun competitions. Let's use the experiences of the an Olympic Winter to help us move forward and let's see how many Easterners we can put on the 2006 Olympic Team. See you on the hill!
Winter was tough – a late start to the snowmaking season and reoccurring tropical heat waves– but true to form the organizers at all the eastern sites did fantastic job of getting the hills and courses shipshape for the events. Running a shovel, making and bagging snow for 24 hours is not a glamorous job. As we head into spring I would like to thank Larry and Marianne for all they have done; also, the officials, the hill crews and the markers should get a round of applause. The First Aiders, the calculations folk, the starters who brave the cold and wind at the top, the announcers who rev up the crowds, as well as the competition committees who register and hand out the numbers – all these people deserve our thanks. Without them there would be no meets and no Eastern Ski Jumping. Another group greatly appreciated is the sponsors – THANK YOU!. It seems that there may be a few new jumps built in the East in the next few years. Vermont Academy is in the midst of building three new jumps this spring and hopefully Lake Placid will be doing the same next year. Brattleboro has drawn up plans to renovate their jump as well. Congratulations to our eastern athletes on this year's Olympic Team. And the Junior Olympians were awesome at their games. Keep up the good work.
OLYMPIC WINTER NOTES
Also earning a spot on the World Junior team for Nordic Combined was Morgan Goodwin from Keene, N Y, and the NYSEF program. Morgan placed 22nd in the Individual event posting the 7th fastest cross-country time and skied in the Team event in which the US team placed fourth . Other Easterners of note were the Andover, NH duo of Carl Van Loan and Jed Hinkley who were members of the Nordic Combined Olympic Team along with Bill Demong. Bill Demong anchored the Jumping portion of the Olympic NC Team event with a USA best result ever and was 3rd overall individually in the jump. The Yanks couldn't quite hang on to their 3rd place after the jumping but still managed the best ever USA Olympic Team event finish of fourth.
In early March the World Cup "B" Nordic Combined circuit came to Lake
Placid and saw some outstanding results by Eastern skiers. Although the
weather provided insurmountable obstacles, several noteworthy
performances were turned in. One was Matt Cook's win in the sprint cross
country event. The winds forced canceling the jumping portion of the
event which leaves us wondering where Matt could have placed. Morgan
In an Olympic year, naturally the attention goes to performance
results and who makes what team, but for every winner in the spotlight
there is subsequently someone who doesn't make the team and gets lost in
the shuffle. One person who didn't make this Olympic Team who still
deserves commendable credit for his commitment and effort is 1998
Olympian Casey Colby. Casey put his life on hold to give it one more
try. When he just missed making the team he was then an outstanding
example to the younger skiers on how to deal with disappointment
gracefully. Casey is and always will be an Olympian and we hope to see
him continue his involvement through the years.
"Aude Volare" -- Dare to Fly!
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Goodwin produced his top result to date with a 9th place finish. Carl
Van Loan was 6th in that event and Matt Cook 29th.