Over the course of the season, we have around 25 high school teams come to Maplelag for training camps. For 7 years now, the Rochester Nordic Ski team has come up. It used to be called Rochester Area Ski Club. The first year there might of been 30 students but this year was all time high of almost 150 students. One thing neat about this group is there are kids from all the Rochester schools, including Mayo, Century, John Marshal, Lourdes and one other private school. Rivals in other sports, they all come together as Nords to form a team. It is awesome to see and be a part of the growth. The energy and enthusiasm of the kids is inspiring.
Team assembled for the Saturday morning ski.
The kids have the option to go out in the morning. Every weekend it is fantastic to see so many kids out on the trail before the sun comes up. Regardless of the temp as evident by this skier.
The kids are super nice. Friendly, respectful, courteous. Jonell and I spent a hour of so Saturday night talking, basically a Q and A, with some of them over a big bowl of popcorn. Great stuff.
It was a lot of work getting skaters waltz in good shape before having 150 skiers doing countless laps. But watching the time trial Saturday afternoon was all worth it. With classic tracks not common in Rochester, the team primarily focuses on skate skiing but will take a group of 20 or so out classic skiing Sunday morning.
Head lamp skiing in the early morning while out grooming.
John Ressman is one of the coaches/leaders I work with setting up the trip. He along with the other coaches and organizers are a big reason the group has grown and remains vibrant. Big shout out to them. It blows me away to see a group this size from Rochester take off like it has. Fargo/Moorhead is a comparable size, close proximity but has had a hard time gaining momentum.
A fun weekend. Thanks!
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