I saw first hand the job Kenny, Jack, Reggie and many others did in Salisbury just to get ready for Saturday morning. Jon Farnham and Tom Dodds deserve a huge hand for the great job with the Junior Olympics. Hanover, Lebanon and Andover the New Hampshire big three along with a quick trip to Craftsbury Common made sure the whole country got to see a New England style event. And lets not forget the athlete's doing a great job skiing and putting on excellent shows for each site all winter long. I certainly don't want to leave out all of those that do registration, results, timing, and awards. We all work together to make everything go smoothly. There are far too many to name but each site has "their own little crew that do it their way" and also to the "Officials" that give of their time see that the events are run fair. As for me, I am going in a bit of a different direction. I'm leaving as the manager of the Jumping Complex here in Lake Placid. I will be still organizing the events here and working on the hill in the winter from November to the end of March. I have been organizing and officiating for over 20 years now and would like to step back a bit. Eastern has a lot to be proud of we are doing a good job with the hand we are dealt. Keep up the great work. Thanks, Mouse
Galen Sayward delivers
Galen Sayward, 1st V.P of the Eastern Nordic Officials Association
Eastern Ski Jumping/NC Personality profile "The Mouse" Personality Profile of Dan Warner
The story
is always the same. Official Training is in 20 hours and the hill is not ready to be skied. Guys are scrambling around the tower trying to get it together. There's not enough snow and it's minus 30 degrees out. And it's windy—somebody's ball cap just flew into the Au Sable River. Some important part of the track setter just broke too. The sky is nothing but gray on black. Everybody's angry and nobody knows what to do. Then it happens. He comes out with the black crampons scraping icy pavement. He's got the trademark bright yellow mountaineering boots and the dark blue ORDA jacket on. With a quick glance he
His nickname is the Mouse. He has been the glue that holds Eastern Ski jumping together. He has knowledge as a coach, as a judge, as a technical delegate and as a leader in hill preparation. He knows how to get things done when it's crunch time. Dan Warner was born in the 1950's in a small paper-mill town in Maine called Rumford. He was only six years old when he first ski jumped. He graduated from Rumford High School in 1975 and he was a member of the Chisholm Ski Team where he ski jumped, cross-country skied, GS and slalom skied competitively. He went on to coach for the Chisholm Ski Jumping Team as well as the Mountain Valley team. He knows ski jumps like the back of his hand. He's been chairman, technical delegate, press director, coordinator, chairman, judge, chief of hill, chief of in-run, chief of landing, and chief of competition for just about every ski jumping comp here in the US and a few in Europe too. He lives his winter from one hectic competition weekend to another. Since 1998 Dan Warner has been the Venue Manager at the McKenzie Intervale Ski Jumps in Lake Placid, NY. It's not a ski jumping event until the Moussahh lumbers up the tower, tools in hand, gruff and tough as ever and puts another ski jump back together. It's not the early morning hours of a comp day without pulling into a venue with a load of Jump hungry kids looking up the hill to see those yellow boots holding Mouse in place as he rakes the landing hill out just one last time. And it's not a ski jumping event without Warner peering out from one of the judges booths hoping to see that perfect telemark landing from one of the eastern boys. We wish him the best of luck this summer doing what he knows best -- picking up the dismantled pieces and getting a ski jump back together again-one huff and a puff at a time. We all look forward to driving into the parking lot of the Fred Harris Memorial ski jump in Brattleboro, VT next winter and seeing that hill beckon us to suit up and get up top. He works hard and lives simply. In the words of Mouse- "We know two things in Maine -- common sense and lobstahh!!" Matt Cook
 After JO's, Cooper Dodds and his dad Tom went to Norway for a Nordic vacation. They watched the Holmenkollen jumping and skied in the famous Birkebeiner cross country race. This spectacular photo shows Cooper on the Lillehammer Olympic jump. We hope to post a report from this enviable trip.
"Aude Volare" -- Dare to Fly!
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appraises the rough situation. Thick white knuckles and bulging Pop-eye forearms grab shovels rakes and bars. "Take this and do that!" He shouts. "Huh?" The moustache is already frosty white from the sub-zero temperatures. "No, no .... do it like this!" "You—you got a job? Then take this and shovel that!" Suddenly 20 hours seems like a long ways a way. The in-run suddenly looks like an in-run again. Chunks of blue ice and mounds of dirty snow turn into graded sections of perfect track. Guys on the tower follow the leader and suddenly the Rl is not that, far away. People start sighing with relief... it'll happen, we can do this. Tensions fade into laughter. Everybody's friends again. The sun even comes out for a little bit as the last sections of the table are graded to spec. And yet another Eastern ski jumping competition has been salvaged. Within 6 hours the man turns a heap of frozen mess into a track every kid in the east will be sliding through en route to that elusive jump way past K.
