Good Morning MAST Athletes, Parents and Coaches:
1. Attached is a 2023-24 MAST Family Roster. Please respect people's privacy and use this information only for purposes related to MAST (forming car pools, mentoring new families, seeking out mentors, following up with relationships you have created, etc.). We are waiting for Hyland to announce our lane assignments. Once we have this information we will be able to establish which age groups and teams are practicing when and where. And once training times are established, I will send out a calendar in spreadsheet form and we will update the Team Snap and Google Calendars. 2. Tomorrow is our RETREAT. 9AM-Noon: 11th and 12th Grades 1-4PM: 7th through 10th Grades Location: The Ski Jump Chalet at 84th Street and Chalet Road. As was announced at practice yesterday, we are asking athletes to BRING the Following: 1. Laptop or Smartphone (returning athletes only; first year MAST skiers do not need to bring a laptop or smartphone). 2. On your laptop or Smartphone, DOWNLOAD a video of yourself skiing from last season (this applies to returning skiers only; obviously rookies don't have any video yet). 3. Camp chair or folding chair of some sort (for you to sit in). 4. Water bottle. 5. Notebook and pen. 6. Wear athletic clothing and sturdy athletic shoes (yes, we might be moving outside a bit) plus jacket, hat and gloves in case it is chilly. 7. A desire to engage, learn, meet new people, set yourself up for success. Seniors: don't forget to email or text me if you are staying for the afternoon session. By the way, thank you for your hard work and enthusiasm this week. You are off to a good start. I am already seeing measurable improvement in your balance, footwork, and movement patterns. Get a good night of sleep. We will be working hard tomorrow. Mark 612-275-8392 [email protected]m Wednesday, November 15, 2023 Hello MAST Community! The 24th season of MAST opened on Monday with a roster of 101 athletes representing five Minneapolis high schools. Welcoming these athletes are nine veteran coaches, seven of whom are MAST alumni. Our athletes are excited to get on snow and see if they can top the outstanding results they achieved last year. We continue to roster students with little skiing experience and do our best to turn them into lifelong skiers, excellent ski racers, and exceptional citizens. Our Board of Directors is dedicated to keeping the cost of skiing with MAST low for Minneapolis students by sponsoring a steady stream of fundraising efforts throughout the year. Back in the Spring, dozens of athletes and parents spent an evening cleaning out the horse barn at the State Fairgrounds. We returned with over 80 volunteers on Labor Day to clean the goat and poultry barns. In September and October, we held our annual MASTers Golf Tournament at Hiawatha Golf Course and a delicious spaghetti dinner at Mr. Paul’s Supper Club. Mr. Paul’s generously donated 100% of the ticket sales to MAST while our hardworking, cheerful athletes hosted, served, bussed tables, and washed dishes. Finally, many of our current families made generous donations to MAST over and above the team fee when they registered their athletes for the team this year. Through the generosity of our parents, alumni, athletes and coaches, MAST continues to thrive and make a significant contribution to the healthy growth and development of Minneapolis students. For this I thank you! Today is Give to the MAX Day. Last year, your generosity enabled us to purchase a spectacular new tent that serves as the celebratory gathering space at our big races. We thank you for your contributions that fulfilled this fundraising objective. This year, we are earmarking any funds we receive for the purchase of a new team trailer. Our current trailer was generously donated by a MAST family roughly ten years ago. It continues to serve us well, hauling gear to and from supplemental training, races, and camp. In the off season, it houses a portion of our training equipment. MAST has experienced significant growth over the last ten years, which necessitates the need for a second trailer for transporting all of our skis and training equipment during the season and securely storing our gear in the off season. If you have the means to make a small (or large) contribution to MAST through Give to the Max, rest assured that it will be used responsibly for the benefit of our athletes. Give To The MAX MplsAlpine If you would prefer to send a donation by check, just mail it to MAST Headquarters. Mpls Alpine Ski Team 4800 Harriet Ave Mpls, MN 55419 And if you have any desire to get involved with MAST in any capacity (coaching, board membership, fundraising, outreach, etc.), please reach out to me directly. You can help us keep ski racing alive for Minneapolis students for many more generations of ski racers. Be well and thank you for all the years of support you have given our team. Mark Conway Head Coaching team! 612-275-8392 [email protected] www.mplsalpineski.org MAST Update Week One Saturday, November 11, 2023 10:00PM Good Evening MAST Athletes, Families and Coaches: The 24th Season of the Mpls Alpine Ski Team opens on Monday. Although there is no snow or freezing temperatures in sight, we have a full slate of activities on the calendar and many tasks to complete before dryland training opens on the 14th. I. Sunday, November 12, 6PM Do not miss the Orientation to the 2023-24 Alpine Season webinar. Our schedule is jammed packed with practices, extra trainings, camps, races, race intentions, early releases, buses, sign ups, deadlines, tuning, equipment drop offs, car pools, etc. Please plan to attend this webinar. We will answer all of your what, who, when, where, and how questions. Hopefully, you will then find it much easier to keep up with all of the opportunities and responsibilities. Athletes: sitting in your MPS Email Inbox is an invitation to join the webinar. Please follow the link in your MPS account to join the webinar. Parents, please try to view the presentation with your athlete using his/her MPS account. If this is not possible, you can join using the link below, but please exercise patience because we will have to admit you to the meeting. meet.google.com/dpy-ctoq-urd II. Monday, November 13, 6-7:30PM Hyland Season Pass Photo Night Whether you purchased your pass through MAST or online through Three Rivers Park District, join us Monday night to get your picture taken and pick up your season pass. In addition, we will ask you to take care of some administrative tasks. One task we need to check off the list is to ask you to complete and return a Transportation Waiver from MPS. This waiver is needed should our bus not show up to take us to a race and we need to jump in parents’ cars to get to the race venue. Please download and have your parents fill out and sign the waiver and bring it with you Monday evening. PARENTS, IF YOU ARE NOT BRINGING YOUR ATHLETE TO HYLAND ON MONDAY, BE SURE TO SIGN THE TRANSPORTATION WAIVER AND SEND IT TO HYLAND WITH YOUR ATHLETE. Click here to access the Hyland Waiver Download the attached MPS Transportation Waiver AND the Season Pass Pick Up Checklist. III. Coffee and Salsa Individual Fundraiser Closes MONDAY Don't Forget To Turn In Your Orders on Monday! If you sold MinneSalsa and Urban Ventures Coffee to raise money to cover some of your additional expenses with MAST, BRING YOUR SALES PROCEEDS AND ORDER FORMS TO HYLAND ON MONDAY EVENING. IV. Dryland Training Schedule Tuesday, November 14 through Thursday, November 16. Monday, November 20 and Tuesday, November 21 Time: 4:30PM-6PM Washburn Stadium Wear good athletic shoes. Wear layers of warm clothes. Bring Water. Be ready to work hard. V. MAST Retreat Saturday, November 18 11th and 12th Graders: 9AM-Noon 7th through 10th Graders: 1PM-4PM Bush Lake Ski Jump Chalet (84th Street and Chalet Road) We are bringing back an old MAST tradition, a team retreat. The chalet at the ski jump is not big enough to comfortably house a retreat for our large team, but it will be perfect if we split up into two groups—one meeting in the morning and the other in the afternoon. The retreat gives the coaches an opportunity to explore many different aspects of our sport with you: technique, tactics, visualization, goal setting, enhancing peak performance, and some important sessions for our new athletes: the elements of a slalom course, what to expect on race day, how to utilize Sprongo, understanding the fundamentals of our sport. There is no need to sign up, just show up. VI. Introducing Sprongo. All MAST Athletes need to have a Sprongo account in your name. Sprongo is the video sharing site we use to store the video clips we take of your skiing during the season. Yesterday, all athletes new to MAST should have received an invitation from Sprongo to set up a member account with our team. Follow these instructions please. 1. Set up the account using your first name and last name. This is important because your coaches will be “tagging” your videos using your name, not a nickname or alias. 2. Set up the account using your personal email address, NOT your school address. When your graduate from high school, you will no longer be able to access your school email account. If, for any reason, you want to access your videos after high school, you will still be able to do so using your personal account. 3. Save and safely store your password AND share your password with your parents and anyone else who loves you enough to want to follow your progress in Sprongo. 4. Upload a picture of yourself to your account profile. This will help the coaches and your teammates learn to recognize you on the hill and off. VII. Ski Area Waivers Parents and athletes: be sure to sign the waivers to all of the ski areas we will be visiting this season. I know many of you have gotten this done already, so thank you. I would like everyone to get this done by Monday. Please. Welch/Wild Giants Ridge-- This link will take you to all of the various waivers used by different customers who ski at Giants Ridge. You as an alpine ski racer need to open and complete the waiver titled “2023-24 Competitive Event Participation Agreement.” Afton Hyland VIII. Registration With MPS Athletics Last call to register for Alpine Skiing with MPS Athletics. Here is the link to follow to register online: https://mplscity-ar.rschooltoday.com/ Here is the link to follow to pay the MPS Activity Fee of $75: https://mplscity-ar.rschooltoday.com/viewmyaccount NOTE: 7TH AND 8TH GRADE ATHLETES NEED TO PAY THE $75 ACTIVITY FEE BY CHECK TO YOUR HIGH SCHOOL ATHLETIC DIRECTOR. THE ONLINE PAYMENT SYSTEM WILL NOT TAKE PAYMENT FROM MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENTS. MAKE THE CHECK PAYABLE TO YOUR HIGH SCHOOL ATHLETIC PROGRAM, i.e. Washburn Athletics. All athletes need to be cleared to participate in Alpine Skiing by their high school athletic director. All forms must be signed and submitted and all activity fee payments collected. I will send out an email sometime on Monday with the names of all athletes who are cleared to participate. IX. Registration With MAST A handful of you still need to register with MAST. Please do so today. Thank you. MAST Registration X. Giants Ridge Camp We currently have 48 athletes registered for our Giants Ridge Training Camp over Winter Break. If you know you are attending, please do not delay registering. If you need to break up the camp fee into smaller payments, we can make arrangements to do so. Just contact me at [email protected]. Here is a link for more information about camp and how to register: Giants Ridge Training Camp XII. Team Calendar The team calendar is loaded in google calendar and displays on our website. Scroll down to the bottom of the home page. You can link our calendar to your personal calendar if you want. We will also be loading our team calendar in Team Snap. See you Monday night. Arrive anytime between 6 and 7PM. Thank you for your careful attention to detail. Mark Conway 612-275-8392 [email protected]
Good Evening Everyone:
The link to the Afton Waiver arrived today. Please complete this waiver along with the others I sent previously. Afton: https://Afton-Competition-Waiver-23-24.eventbrite.com Giants Ridge: https://waivers.edgeauditor.com/auto-setup/giant/wak4vo Welch and Wild: skiandboardmn.com/23hsrace Hyland: https://threeriversparks.link/HHTeamWaiver Last Call: Concussion baseline testing. At Washburn tomorrow, Nov 8 at 3:30pm. At SW, Monday, Nov 13 at 3:45PM Here is a link to sign up for a testing spot: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/15EYv8WeCy-0SFj-SPrYveUUEOgcrc70V/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=104897266214364412095&rtpof=true&sd=true More to come.... Sleep well. Mark MAST Update #9
Saturday, November 4, 2023 Good Afternoon MAST Athletes, Families and Coaches: One week to go. Crunch time. The coaches are excited to get started. Hopefully you are as well. This update is EXTREMELY IMPORTANT. I will be sharing new information with you as well as new links to follow, plus some reminders. The pre-season is filled with administrative tasks. Please get them done this week. There will be plenty of more administrative tasks to complete every week once the season opens. Ready-Set-Go! I. Giants Ridge Training Camp Information and Registration Our 16th Annual Giants Ridge Training Camp is NOW Open for Registration. When: Monday, December 18 at 6AM to Thursday, December 21 at 10PM. Where: Training at Giants Ridge Recreation Area; Lodging at Camp Chicagami. Transportation: Northfield Bus Lines and Shubat Bus. Meals: Breakfasts and Dinners at Camp Chicagami. Lunches at Giants Ridge. Cost: $650 includes four days of lift tickets, lane fees, training; three nights lodging; three breakfasts, four lunches, three dinners; AWESOME coaching. Detailed information about camp can be found on our website. Here is a link: https://www.mplsalpineski.org/giants-ridge-camp-2023.html To register for the 2023 MAST Giants Ridge Training Camp Click Here Deadline to register: December 1, 2023. Yup, short registration window. II. Ski Area Release of Liability Waivers Every ski area in Minnesota is now requiring athletes and parents to sign a release of liability. These can all be completed and signed online. I believe that some if not all of the waivers require a parent’s signature, even if the athlete is 18 years old. Check each waiver for details. I would ask all parents to sign each waiver for each athlete by Sunday, November 12. This gives you one week to get this done and off MY T0-Do List. Yup, another short window. Afton promises me that its waiver will be ready early this week so you should be able to get them all done by Sunday. But please start on the three that are ready to go now. And then we never have to talk about it again... until next year. Hyland Wild and Welch Giants Ridge This link will take you to all of the various waivers used by different customers who ski at Giants Ridge. You as an alpine ski racer need to open and complete the waiver titled “2023-24 Competitive Event Participation Agreement.” Afton: I have not yet received the Afton competition release/waiver. As soon as Afton sends me the link, I will pass it along to you. III. MAST Registrations For those who still need to register with MAST, Click Here: https://go.teamsnap.com/forms/385505 IV. MPS Registrations Are you registered for alpine skiing with MPS Athletics? Are you Cleared To Participate? The athletic directors must “CLEAR” you before the coaches are allowed to let you participate in practice. If you registered with MPS, check with your high school athletic director to see if you are cleared to participate or are missing any forms. I suggest stopping by his or her office rather than calling or emailing. They are really busy. And if the ADs send me a list of cleared athletes, I will send that out to all of you. If you still need to register with MPS for Alpine Skiing, here are the links you can follow. For Washburn and Justice Page Students: https://washburn.mpls.k12.mn.us/athletics For Southwest and Anthony Students: https://southwest.mpls.k12.mn.us/athletics For All Other High Schools and Middle Schools: https://mplscity-ar.rschooltoday.com/ Note that you are asked to click on a separate link to pay the MPS Activity Fee of $75. If you are in Middle School, you will not be able to pay the activity fee online. This is a glitch in the system. You will need to mail or deliver a check to your HIGH SCHOOL Athletic Director. Please write ALPINE SKIING in the memo line so the AD knows to apply your payment to Alpine Skiing. You may also want to include a note with the payment with the name of your athlete. V. Captains’ Practices continue Tuesday and Thursday this week at Lynnhurst Park from 4-5:15PM. VI. Concussion Baseline Testing Dates If you have not signed up to take the Concussion Baseline Test, do so today. Remember, Sanford/Roosevelt athletes take the test on Wednesday, November 8 and do not need to sign up in advance. All Anthony/SW and Justice Page/Washburn students need to sign up in advance because space is limited on each testing date. Here is a link to sign up: Concussion Baseline Testing Sign UP Note that there are separate tabs for SW and Washburn. VII. Orientation to the 2023-24 Alpine Season Sunday, November 12 at 6PM All athletes and at least one parent need to attend this online presentation. We will share some very specific and. important information about our season. Any clouds of confusion you have currently will be answered, unless we are confused as well. I will send out a link to this very exciting meeting later this week. Plan to log on using the link that I will send to your MPSEDU email. That way you should be able to just pop into the meeting without needing to be admitted. And have your parents watch with you on your screen. Make it a family event. Popcorn, blankets, slippers, hot cocoa.. snuggle in together. VIII. Fundraise For Yourself Only eight days remain to sell coffee and salsa. Raise money for supplemental trainings, camp, the banquet, or even next year’s team fee. All forms and payments are due Monday, November 13th at the Hyland Season Pass Pick Up Night. Here is a link for more information about this individual fundraiser: Urban Ventures/MinneSalsa Fundraiser IX. MAST Athlete Retreat Saturday, November 18 11th and 12th Grades: 9:00-Noon: 7th through 10th Grades: 1-4PM Location: Bush Lake Ski Jump Chalet (84th Street and Bush Lake Road) Retreat Topics: Slalom Racing 101: Introduction To Slalom Training and Racing Elements of a Slalom Course and Race Day Inspection Technique Technique and Tactics: Introduction to the Fundamentals Technique and Tactics: Developing Skills To Critique Yourself How To Tune Your Skis and Care For Your Equipment Athlete Mindset For Peak Performance Mental Training and Visualization Training Goal Setting Managing Your Time, Health and Well Being As An Athlete A Message To The 12th Graders: You are invited to stay after the morning session to help the coaches and captains lead the afternoon sessions for the 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th graders. No obligation, but it would be nice to have you contribute your assistance and experience. X. PARENTS--SAVE THE DATE SUNDAY, DECEMBER 3 AT 7PM Race Worker Training (online) XI. MAST Family Contact Roster I will send out a team roster with contact information for parents and athletes. This roster can be used to reach out to families who live near you to form car pools, ask advice or offer assistance (like how to tune skis). No other use would be respectful. For those of you in witness protection or living off the grid, if you do not want your name, phone numbers, address, email addresses, or any other contact information listed, please send me an email and I will redact that information from the roster. XII. Hyland Season Pass Many of you indicated at registration that you would be sending a check so that MAST could purchase a season pass. It appears that some of you forgot to send a check. We have ordered all of the passes that were paid for, so some of you are not on the list for a pass with Hyland. Make sure that you purchase your pass directly from Hyland. Here is a link: Hyland Season Pass Online Purchase If you order your pass online, or already ordered your pass online, you can pick up your pass on Monday, November 13 with the rest of the team. Coming Soon:
Mark 612-275-8392 Good Evening:
I have had a few messages from parents who are having trouble accessing the Giants Ridge Waiver. I understand what you are experiencing, but I don't know why. Using the link I sent in Update 9, I have been able to access all the different GR waivers. When I try another time, I get a screen that wants me to identify a location and an authorization code. And then the next time I get to the various waivers. I have no clue why this happening. I thought maybe it was because I was using my phone, but then the waivers came through on my phone when I tried a second time. If you are having trouble accessing the Giant Ridge Competitive Event Participation Agreement, try this link: https://waivers.edgeauditor.com/auto-setup/giant/wak4vo If you continue to have difficulties, please let me know and I will reach out to Giants Ridge on Monday morning. Good luck. Mark Hi Everyone:
My apologies to the. Sanford/Roosevelt folks. Apparently I changed the testing date over the phone with Sonya to Nov 8th but I didn't make a note of it in the moment. So... NO TESTING TODAY. Sanford/Roosevelt testing will be NEXT Wednesday, November 8th at 4PM. Thanks everyone. Mark |
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