Hey U19’s!
It’s with mixed feelings that I write our season wrap up. On one hand, we had numerous racers qualify for U19 Eastern Finals @ Gore only to have the season abruptly end and the event cancelled suddenly due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On the other hand, we had great highlights as recently as our speed training on Upper & Lower Alley Cat & End of the Season Party. As we hunker down with closed schools, long lines/limited supplies at the grocery stores and the isolation “social distancing” creates, I’d like to highlight some of the great things that happened this past season with our amazing U19 Race Family.
U19 Eastern Finals @ Gore
Congratulations to the following on qualifying for U19 Eastern Finals this year! It was the result of all of your dedication and hard work this season!
Girls – Emily Chudy, Clare Howard, Delphine Cohen, Winnie Mann, Frannie Mann, Ava Amuso & Chloe Gagnon (alt)
Boys –Dax Roy, Hayden Claussen, Ethan Leifer, Henry DiVecchio, & Oliver Thompson
Tristate End of the Year Party hosted by Colleen & John Manning
Big thanks to the Mannings for hosting the End of the Season Party, taking over the tradition from the Cashens, as Chris and his family deal with his torn ACL/lmeniscus. Thanks to Coach Troy, Coach Doug & Coach Mark for their input with the paper plate awards. If you weren’t able to come to the party just let me know and I’ll send you your paper plate award and Catamount Racing swag courtesy of the Parent Association. Thank you Winnie and Frannie for your awesome video! Perhaps you could upload it on Sprongo on our team page?
End of the Season Racer Evaluations
Your coaches have completed your evaluations for the 19-20 season. Please contact me through Remind to give me the email you would like to be shared the document otherwise it will be shared with your parents’ registered email. I’ve changed the format this year back to include coach feedback with an additional space to give your own. Your feedback will help to improve our training next season!
Congratulations on your hard work this season!
On behalf of all the U19 coaches, I’d like to extend a hearty congrats to everyone for their hard work this past season. We’ve seen some great improvement in every racer on the team. Some of you really worked on your “mental game”, while others were working on their carve on steeper terrain. Some racers really improved your commitment of weight to the outside ski, while others worked on earlier pressure before the fall line and earlier release just after the fall line. Some of you really improved your SL clearing technique while others really improved your pole plants which also helped your timing. It was great to see is how motivated you all were and with such positive attitudes that you brought to the mountain every day of training. It inspired us to work that much harder for you.
Thanks so much to Ski Patrol, Steve and the race crew for all of their help and organizing; bringing gates and B-netting up to the top of Upper & Lower Alley Cat and Race Slope as well as their help in setting up and breaking down fencing and courses. I know that we all appreciate how much the safety factor for all of our racers has improved this season.
Thanks so much to our volunteer photographer & videographer, Raphael Kummer-Landau. Not only did he video many of our practices to be posted on Sprongo.com, but he set up an account on Smugmug (password: “catamount”) and uploaded close to 5,000 photos from the entire season. If you haven’t already, please consider contributing $10 or more for his work. Look for his account name: “@raphaelkl”
Big thanks to Coach Colin & Coach Bruce for their leadership and “make things happen” attitude that’s enabled us to have a such a great season.
And finally a special thanks to the parents of our team. You took care of registrations, drove to the mountain early in the morning and late at night, made sure that equipment was taken care of and ready for training and races, video’d our races, volunteered to set up and break down B-netting and courses (even in the rain!). It is your support and help that makes our program possible!
Cheers to a great season and to the next! Take care of one another and be safe.
Coach Pat : )
