Good Evening MAST Families and Athletes:
What a team we have! A BIG Thank you to our wonderful parents and coaches who came through to put on an awesome ski race tonight. It wasn't our race to manage, but we ended up filling most of the race worker positions at the last hour. Thank you to our seven person course crew led by chief of course Dan Trockman. That was the most perfectly groomed track I have ever seen. Thank you Jeff Wedren for stepping up at the last minute to serve as starter. He didn't know he was volunteering to stand on the top of Mt Everest for two and a half hours. Thank you to the gates judges who also endured some very cold and windy conditions on the hill. Great job gate judging. We are developing an experienced crew of gate judges. Thank you to the scoreboard recorders, bib distributors, bib collectors, and Matt McConville who stepped in at the end of the day to call the race. Finally, thank you to our magnificent coaching staff. Their hard work with the athletes on the hill every day really showed tonight. Take a look at the results. Seven MAST girls in the top ten, with Julia Westphal in first, Anne McConville in second, and Ramie George in third. On the boys side, Luke Moertel finished in 7th with Sam Moore right behind in 8th. Great skiing boys. Tonight, you all skied really well. You have improved tremendously. Keep working hard. Your coaches are really proud of you. Practice bright and early. Mark Good Morning:
Attached are the boys and girls run orders for today's race, and the race plan, If you are not on the run order, please train today from 5-7:15PM. I know the schedule says that training is for varsity, but everyone is welcome if you are not racing. Wear rope tow gloves just in case the rope is turning. Note that Mpls is not in charge of this race, so the schedule is a bit different. Inspection does not open until 4:15. Race starts at 4:30. You will ski the same course twice. Girls are on the course set in lane b (skier's right). Boys are on the course in lane a (skier's left). We may need scoreboard recorders. It isn't clear to me whether they have scoreboards. I volunteered our snappy laminated scoreboards. If a couple people are willing to record times, please send me an email. We may end up needing you. We are assigned the top gate judge position on both courses. We have four gate judges. My thought is that you could pair up. One judges the first run. The other judges the second. Matt McConville, you get to rest your golden chords today. Wayzata has announcing duties. Dan Trockman, can you please be chief of course today. I will give you a radio. You have a good crew. No supplemental training Saturday, so everyone should kick themselves out of bed early tomorrow and enjoy a Saturday morning sunrise from the top of Lane A, B and C. Great training lanes. Take advantage of the opportunity. See you this afternoon. Mark 612-275-8392 Good Morning:
To answer your first question: practice will continue as planned. Equity is the buzz word for MPLS Public Schools. I don't see how excluding junior varsity athletes from practicing or competition advances the expressed goal of equity. I certainly have no intention of doing so. I see absolutely no evidence that COVID is spreading through our team from interactions on the ski hill. MPS may decided to cancel our buses to away races, in which case parents may need to pitch in. As far as I can tell, buses are still on order for our race on Monday at Wild Mt. We have two races coming up immediately. Attached is a spreadsheet listing the athletes who will be placed on the run order for our Lake Conference race tomorrow at Hyland and for our Metro East Conference race on Monday. Please look this over carefully. Even though you attend SW or Washburn, you might find your name on the MAST run order. We cannot bring everyone who wanted to attend either race. If your name is on the run order for either race and you are no longer available to race, please email me immediately. Race Schedule for Friday, Jan 14 3:30PM. Bib Up, Warm Up 4PM Inspection 4:30PM First Run Start Race Schedule for Monday, Jan 17 12:30PM. Load buses at Washburn. 3:00PM. Inspection. 3:30PM. First Run Start Wild Mt Lift Ticket Once again, I would ask you to help MAST stay within its budget and purchase your lift ticket to Wild Mt for Monday's race. Here is a link: Wild Mt Lift Ticket Race Workers For Friday, Jan 14 Apparently I gave out a bad link to sign up to work the race tomorrow. We already have one gate judge. We could use three more if possible. We always need course workers. We need bib collectors and bib distributors. Other teams are covering the other positions. Sign Up To Work Jan 14 Here: https://signup.com/go/XgtoCev Race Workers For Monday, Jan 17 We need to provide four gate judges on Monday. We could also use some course workers. Please email me directly if you can help. [email protected] Also, these Metro East races are a little more loosely organized so please feel free to ask me if we need to fill any positions the day of the race. Bus Chaperones for Monday Parents, would anyone be willing to ride the bus to and from Wild on Monday. We need an adult on both buses. Because Monday is a work day for many, we are again short on coaches. Joel and I will be driving our trucks hauling gear. Email me if you can ride the bus: [email protected] Tow rope lanes tonight. Wear rope tow gloves. Reminder: 5PM and 6:30 practices start on South Chair. Thank you. Mark Good Morning:
For those attending practice tonight.... We only have one practicer tonight from 5-7:15PM. Please meet on South Chair. The coaches are going to re-visit the fundamentals with you tonight. This is a great opportunity to work on any technical goals you have set for yourself. Improvement comes from training outside of the course as much as it does from skiing in a course, so be sure to attend. Everyone needs to improve their carving skills by creating higher edge angles, building stronger outside ski pressure, and staying balanced through the entire turn. Giants Ridge refunds: If you have not yet received your refund check for Giants Ridge camp, it should be arriving this week. The last batch of refunds was mailed on Friday or Saturday I am told. If you don't receive your check by Friday, please reach out to me. Have fun at practice. Mark Good Evening Ski Race Fans:
Great racing tonight. Thank you to all the coaches and parents who worked tonight's race. It all went very smoothly because of your commitment to putting on a good race for our skiers. Congratulations to the Washburn girls for finishing first in team scoring and our makeshift MAST team finished second. Impressive. We had five girls in the top six. Kate Moore took top honors, followed by Vada who skied the most aggressive race runs of her career. Gabby placed third, Nahlah fourth, and Ellie Arbeiter sixth. Lia Rulf continues to make big improvements in practice and tonight her results demonstrated just how far she has come. Lia finished in ninth place followed by Reese, Amelia, Chloe and Lucy. For the boys, Eric Arnold was our top finisher in 2nd. Charlie finished 4th after a significant bobble on top. Levi, Finn and Jonas finished in 5th, 6th and 7th. Callum's 9th place finish gave MAST six finishers in the top ten tonight. Nice skiing boys. We have four training sessions before our next Metro East race at Wild. There you will face all these teams again plus the powerhouse Hill-Murray team. See you on the hill tomorrow. Have a good night's rest. Mark Hello Everyone:
I heard from Dave Wicker this morning and he told me that we are not allowed to practice today. I will send an update later today regarding tomorrow's race. Mark Good Evening Athletes, Coaches and Parents:
We have 79 athletes participating in the Metro East Conference race tomorrow at Welch. I have sent the names of all participating athletes to the athletic directors for an early release of 2PM. I would also recommend that parents send a note requesting an early release to school as well. If you are riding the bus, you can drop off your skis and boots before school tomorrow. The buses do not have trailers and skis are not allowed on the bus. Joel and I will carry skis and poles. Joel: will be at Pershing Park from 7:30am-8:15am. Mark: will have the trailer at 4800 Harriet (across from Fuller Park) from 7:30am-8:30am. Storing your boots and race clothing/gear at Washburn and Southwest. Washburn: Bring you gear to the storage room by the main gym (012) by water fountain. Go to the Athletic Office and Mr. Giovan Jenkins will open and close the door for you. Ms. Lilly and Mr. Jenkins will be there when you need to retrieve your gear before heading out to the bus. Southwest: meet Mr. Mark Robinson at the equipment room outside of the west gym between 7:45am and 8:15am. Meet him there again at 2PM to pick up your equipment. I do not believe that Welch has any restrictions on changing in the chalet, but I think it would be wise to change at school anyway... just in case. You can bring your boots on the bus to keep them warm. If you are getting a ride with your parent or someone else's parent, please email me at [email protected]. I know of four athletes riding with a parent: Erik Arnold Beatrice Moldow Zae Isensee Sylvia Isensee Most of you have paid for your Welch lift ticket. Thank you. If you still need to pay, here is a link: Welch Metro East Race Lift Ticket Other Instructions.
[email protected] or 612-275-8392. Attached is the list of athletes racing and their bib numbers. We only have four coaches attending the race. Joel, Paige, Liam and Myself. Parents, we really do need to supply some gate judges. I prefer not to use our coaches to fill race worker positions. See you tomorrow. Mark 612-275-8392 MAST Update Week Nine Sunday, January 9,2022
Good EVENING MAST Families and Coaches: Another busy week ahead. Two races. Plenty of training. Lots of logistics to communicate. I. Bus Chaperones We need a couple of parents to ride the buses to and from Welch Village with the athletes on Tuesday, January 11-- Specifically, one or more parents to ride the bus from Washburn and one or more to ride the bus from Southwest. I need to go to Welch early to help with race set up. Joel will be driving his truck carrying skis. The other attending coaches may need to meet us at Welch. We need an adult on the bus. Please send me an email if you can ride the bus. [email protected] We will also need a parent or two to ride the bus to and from the remaining supplemental training sessions on January 29 and February 5. The perk is that you will receive a free lift ticket for yourself. I. Week Nine Training Schedule is up to date on the website: https://www.mplsalpineski.org/ II. Jan. 11 Metro East Race at Welch Village A. Team Selections See attached spreadsheet for team selections for the Jan 11 Metro East Conference Race at Welch Village. Click on the first tab. We are taking everyone who indicated a desire to race. We are competing against Hastings and St. Thomas Academy. If your intentions have changed, please email me to let me know. B. WELCH Lift Ticket To purchase a Welch Village lift ticket, please click HERE: Welch Lift Ticket Purchase. C. Race Day Schedule. 7:30-8:15AM Drop off Skis at Pershing Park with Coach Joel or 4800 Harriet (Coach Mark) 2:00PM. Early Release/Load Bus 2:15PM. Depart from SW and Washburn 3:30PM. Warm UP 4:15PM. Racer Meeting 5:00PM. First Run Start First Run: Girls Skier’s Left on Lookout. Boys Skier’s Right on Lookout. Second Run: Girls Skier’s Right on Lookout. Boy’s Skier’s Left on Lookout. Slip/Inspection Between Runs. D. Welch Village Waiver Last call to complete the Welch Waiver if you want to race on Tuesday. Only a few athletes and coaches still need to complete the waiver. Please do so NOW. This will also be valid for our race on February 3 at Welch Village.Welch Village Waiver E. Race Workers We do not need course workers for Welch, but we do need gate judges. If you would like to gate judge, please send me an email: [email protected]. III. Lake Conference JV Race on Friday, January 14 Attached are the entries for the Lake Conference JV Race at Hyland. Please let me know if there are any errors or if your intentions have changed. I don’t have a start time, but it could be as early as 4:15pm. I will submit an early release of 2:30 or 2:45, depending on the start time. Parents: we won’t need as many race workers for the JV race on Friday. I have not yet been informed about our race worker assignments for Friday. Nonetheless, please sign up if you are willing to work the race. If we don’t need you, I will let you know.Hyland JV Lake Conference Race Worker Sign Up IV. LAST CALL: Metro East Race on Monday, January 17 Last call to state your race intentions for the Metro East Race on MLK day at Wild Mt. Race start time is 3:30. We have two buses chartered for a 12:30PM pick up at Washburn. https://www.mplsalpineski.org/race-day-sign-up.html Parents: We will likely need course workers and gate judges for this race. Please email me directly if you would like to work this race. [email protected] We have just over five weeks remaining to train and race. You have trained very hard and have built a strong foundation of fundamental skills. Keep showing up. Keep working hard. Can’t wait to see how fast you ski five weeks from now. Meanwhile, rest up, study hard, tune your skis. Mark Conway 612-275-8392 Hello Again.
Sorry to inundate you with emails, but we have a lot of time sensitive matters to act upon. Attached is a roster with STATED INTENTIONS for three upcoming races.
Here is a link: https://www.mplsalpineski.org/race-day-sign-up.html We will be asking athletes to purchase a lift ticket for the Welch Race ($30 I believe) and for the Wild Race ($21 but might be higher since it is a holiday). I will send you a link to purchase a ticket once we have the teams selected. Before I can do that however, we need everyone to state their race intentions-- yes or no. Thank you. Mark Good Evening Race Fans:
Attached are tonight's race results. Congratulations to Jens Hasler for his victory and the Henry Payne, Will Cherveny, Massi Bray, and Elliot Loes for their top five finishes. Ramie George placed second and was the top MAST finisher in second place, followed by Sophie Jorgenson, Josie Bitney, and Ava Lindseth. We did have a few too many disqualifications tonight. This is to be expected when you are just starting out racing. If you were disqualified, don't get discouraged. Just learn from your mistake. Make sure you aren't just slipping the course before your race run, but actually studying the course. Practice memorizing the course in training. This will make it easier to memorize the course on race day. Ask a coach for some tips on how to memorize course sets. Pay special attention to where the combinations are placed in the course, any delay gates, corridors of open gates, and the finish line. Make sure you push and skate as hard as you can through the finish line. Don't let up early. Thank you to all the parents and coaches who worked the race tonight. What a great group of parents we have. A job well done. Have a good night. Hope to see you in the morning. Mark |
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