2012 -2013 Season Report

NYSSRA – Nordic has a good policy in place with membership fees waived for first year new members age 13 and under.  29 youth took advantage of that this season.  That roughly equates to those that “graduated” or aged out of the youth program.

Even though it was completed some 15 years ago the BKYSL Leaders Manual, still serves as a reference for those days when inspiration for a fun lesson or ski game doesn’t come to mind when planning a practice.  This document is available as a PDF that can be downloaded from the NYSSRA web site.

We had a highly successful Bill Koch Festival at Bristol Mountain, with a clever theme “Festival in the West”.  Many followed the theme with western hats, bandanas and a few mustashed youth.  There was a great turn out by Genesse Valley youth and sparse turn out from Old Forge, from Syracuse, from the Shenendehowa BKYSL, From Cayuga Nordic, and one from the Higley Ermines.  There was a great showing from Erie PA area and I will add their contact information to the on-line listing of BKYSL local Clubs.  Alex Carpentier came closest to the mystery time to win the Secretaries Cup.

NYSSRA does maintain a supply of ribbons for local BKYSL events to which other regional clubs are invited.  That supply must be replenished.

The southern Adirondack region will host a Bill Koch Festival in March 2014 at Lapland Lake.  The theme will be, “It is time for a new generation of Super Heros!”

The Ks for Kochers logs were due by April 1, 2013.  There are two Gold medal seasons one for 410 kilometers by J4 skier Adam Bollt of the Higley Ermines, and one for 243 kilometers by J5 skier Alex Carpentier of RXCSF.

My thanks to Heidi and Bill Broderick who recently started a Mid Atlantic Bill Koch Group on FaceBook.  This should help greatly with communication between divergent coaches through out the Mid Atlantic region!

Nominations remain open for a BKYSL Committee Chairman for the 2013 – 2014 season.

Festival 2013

Thank you to the Genesse Valley and RXCSF for a fantastic festival at Bristol Mountain in Canandaqua.  To summarize the fun that we all had explore this video of the high points of the “fest of the west” posted by Heidi Broderick.

First Snow

Hannah Collinsworth is the first BKYSL Skier on Snow in New York State! – Photo by Mitch Collinsworth.

And here she is, the first Mid Atlantic Bill Koch Youth Ski League member on snow.  Hannah Collinsworth is in her backyard on Beam Hill on the ridge just east of Ithaca.  Way to go, Hannah!

Great reminder that NYSSRA – Nordic should distribute this year’s ski log soon.  More snow is on the way.

To see a video of a portion of Hannah’s first 2 k of skiing click here.

Ready

There’s snow, lots of it, in the hills of West Virginia and it is headed this way.  Time to get out the skis and check the fit of the ski boots.  All over the Mid Atlantic plans are being made for a great season.

The Gennesee Valley BKYSL and RXCS Foundation will host this season’s Mid Atlantic Bill Koch Festival March 2 and 3, 2013, at Bristol Mountain. You recall that the festival was held there several years ago. It is a great venue and we all had a memorable time.

There is a new BKYSL Club in North Creek/Garnet Hill and a new one starting up in the Kingston area.

NENSA’s Bill Koch Festival will be in Weston, MA Feb 8, 9 & 10 and you are invited!

Other dates for your calendar:
- January 1, 2013 – Resolution Day race at Old Forge with BK fun race
- February 3, 2013 – Old Forge BK fun race.
- February 17, 2013 – Shenendehowa Classic BK Fun race.
Can your club add a date to this calendar?

We will be doing the Ks for Kochers program again this year. I will distribute a PDF of a log you and your youth can use to keep track of the distance you accumulate over the season.

And here’s a special challenge for you. Take a picture of your first ski on snow and send it to me with a couple sentences describing where you are and when. The first NYSSRA – Nordic BKYSL renewed/new member will receive a gift package in exchange for the photograph.

Looking ahead to 2014, the Southern Adirondack BKYSL clubs have expressed interest in hosting the 2014 Festival at Lapland Lake.

2012 Season Report

A Graduating J3 Starts

There were 149 Bill Koch Youth Ski League Youth (age 13 and under) who had membership in NYSSRA – Nordic this season.

2012 Secretary's Cup Winner

I pass along the ski community’s gratitude to the Old Forge and specifically the Polar Bear Ski Club for a fantastic 2012 Mid Atlantic Ski Festival.   Our youth had a great time and didn’t seem to mind that they had very little new snow over an icy base.   A decision was made early in the week before the Festival to change Saturday’s race to free technique.  Additional new snow was predicted on Saturday afternoon and evening.  If additional snow had materialized then they would have had more to work with as they set track for Sunday’s championship.  It was a great accomplishment for an otherwise lackluster season.

Paintball Biathlon at Dewey Mtn

The Lake Placid and Saranac Lake youth had a fantastic series of paintball biathlon events that stimulated much interest and participation.   NYSEF hosted 6 events throughout the winter at the Olympic Ski Jumps in Lake Placid and Dewey Mountain Recreation Center in Saranac Lake. We had over 85 young athletes participate in at least 1 event this winter. This program was supported by the Uihlein-Ironman Sports Fund of Lake Placid.

The RXCSF Youth Ski/Genesse Valley BKYSL has offered to host the 2013 Mid Atlantic Bill Koch Festival.  The Southern Adirondack BKYSL is seriously considering hosting the 2014 Festival at Lapland Lake in Mid March.  If others have a vision for hosting a Festival please let me know.   Guidelines will be provided on request.

We recently received an order of Bill Koch Program first place through fifth place and participant ribbons to replenish NYSSRA – Nordic’s supply.  These ribbons are available to NYSSRA – Nordic Bill Koch clubs on request.

We recommend that NYSSRA – Nordic continue the practice of waiving first year membership fee for youth 13 and under.  This past year there were 51 that took advantage of this offer.

Graduates from the Bill Koch Program

Congratulations to Travis Koziol who skied a total of 18 hours and, as a J6 skier, received a Silver Ski Distance Award. Any one else who kept a ski log needs to get their nominations in for this season’s recognition.

Ks for Kockers

Each season the New York State Ski Racing Association – Nordic reward their youth members for their motivation and dedication during the ski season.   Within this Bill Koch Youth Ski League program, the “Ks for Kochers”, our youth keep track of the number of kilometers that they cross country ski with their BKYSL Club, with their family, or on their own.  They record the number of kilometers they ski every week, every month, and add up the kilometers for an end-of-the-year total. NYSSRA awards a certificate that says, “I went the GOLD distance”, or silver, or bronze. The chart below shows the thresholds for the “K” award according to age and the number of kilometers skied. That way EVERYONE WINS! Your local club may also have an award…ask your coach or leader.

Since a majority of youth skiing is done on other than formal groomed trails NYSSRA – Nordic uses an approximate calculation of 10 kilometers an hour and allows a substitution on this basis.  As youth get into competitive aspects of the sport they may find a more precise conversion.

The purpose of the program is to start young skiers keeping track of the skiing they do.  As they progress to the next competition level (an to a different coach) it serves as a record of their accomplishments.  It also establishes the cause and effect relationship of effective training to good results in endurance sports.

NYSSRA recognizes the following for their accomplishments this past 2010 – 2011 season [name/youth class/distance/local club]:

GOLD

• Jen Broderick J3 613 k RXCSF
• Katelyn Broderick J4 572 k RXCSF
• Laura Broderick J5 542 k RXCSF
• Andrew Carpentier J6 250 k RXCSF
• Hannah Collinsworth J5 428 k Tug Hill Screamers
• Nathan Collinsworth J5 438 k Tug Hill Screamers
• Amy Duclos J3 1040 k Shenendehowa
• Sarah Duclos J3 1040 k Shenendehowa
• Jackson Koziol Lollipop 125 k Shenendehowa
• Travis Koziol J6 240 k Shenendehowa
• Bailey Moore J4 501 k Shenendehowa
• Chandler Moore J3 633 k Shenendehowa

SILVER

• Tyler Koziol J5 247 k Shenendehowa

BRONZE

• Alex Carpentier J6 73 k RXCSF

Look for information about the Ks for Kochers this coming season as the snow starts to fly.

2011 Mid Atlantic Bill Koch Ski Festival

This just in from Chief of Course Ed Lubin:
“I skied at Highland Forest this morning. Conditions were great. 2-3″ new snow and freshly set tracks. There will be a thaw tomorrow through Fri., but snow depth is still around 2 ft. and it’s supposed to get cold again Fri. night. If anyone’s hesitating signing up because they’re worried about conditions, no need.

“Russ and I trimmed branches on the race loops, Mitch worked on the ski-O course, and Von Sleight and Don Carr started building a terrain park. Everything’s coming together nicely.”

Looking forward to seeing the whole gang this weekend.

Youth Skiing in New York State

By now you have all seen the wonderful article on our BKYSL program on page three of the January 2011 issue of Adirondack Sports and Fitness. If you haven’t seen it get out to your favorite distribution locations to get a copy. Their distribution of the free publication can be found on their web site. Or you can download an electronic version from other areas of the same site.

Much of the information for the article came from NYSSRA’s BKYSL Leader’s Manual and articles I have written in Competition Manuals and in the NYSSRA Newsletter. Unfortunately I did not mention NYSSRA – Nordic or how you can get your youth into a local club. You can find this information on the NYSSRA – Nordic web site.

What I learned most from this that we outdoor winter enthusiasts can take advantage of this wonderful resource for getting out the word on NYSSRA – Nordic’s programs. It maybe too late to get more stuff in this season, but put your thoughts and experiences on file so that Darryl has materials when he lays out the winter issues next year. You can always add a current photo or new twist just before his deadline.

Keep on skiing while the snow lasts. It will keep you young and adventurous!

2010 in review

The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads This blog is doing awesome!.

Crunchy numbers

A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 1,800 times in 2010. That’s about 4 full 747s.

In 2010, there were 3 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 6 posts. There were 3 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 2mb.

The busiest day of the year was March 16th with 64 views. The most popular post that day was Festival a Big Success.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were nyssranordic.com, google.com, mail.yahoo.com, saratogabiathlon.com, and mail.live.com.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for bill koch ski league, bill koch, bkysl, bill koch youth ski league, and bill koch ski.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

1

Festival a Big Success March 2010
2 comments

2

2010 Mid Atlantic Bill Koch Festival January 2010
3 comments

3

Great Season for Youth on Skis May 2009
2 comments

4

About November 2008
2 comments

5

BKYSL Season Is Here November 2009
Thank you all for the continued interest in the Mid Atlantic Bill Koch Youth Ski League run by NYS Ski Racing Association – Nordic. The season has just begun and our youth are out enjoying the snow and discovering the great winter out-of-doors! Now for some more snow, please?

1 comment

Fall Committee Meeting

The Mid Atlantic Bill Koch Youth Ski League committee will meet in Kunsela Hall, on the SUNY-IT campus, Utica at 9:30 AM Sunday, September 26, 2010.  The main item on the agenda will be support for the Mid A Bill Koch Festival to be held in Syracuse area in February 2011.

If your club needs ribbons I will have NYSSRA’s supply with me.

Our discussion this spring about changing from the J# classes based on age to a system like NENSA uses based on school grade was fairly balanced between pro and con.  Certainly there were no strong arguments either way. So my approach or recommendation is to keep the system we have.  It is working.  Why re-tool?

I hope to see you Sunday morning.