The Nordic ski team is training hard to place top three in the state again after a successful season last year. The captains and coaching staff prepare the team with strength sessions, running, and roller skiing to work towards another strong season of racing. 

The Nordic ski team has a long history of excellence. Alumni like Olympic gold medalist Jessie Diggins and Paralympic gold medalist Sydney Peterson show the dedication of the athletes on the team. Still today, it continues to produce exceptional skiers winning section champions and conference champions last season.

Although winning section champions, conference champions and with boys placing eighth at state and girls second at state, there is more to being a team. The coaches want to help elevate athletes’ potential, but they also seek to build better people and teach life skills.

“I think we definitely have a really good talent pool that we’re drawing from this year, even though the team is going to be young, but it’s just helping athletes kind of become socially and emotionally mature,” Ryan Jensen orchestra teacher and boys varsity coach said.

The climate poses problems for Nordic ski training because of how little snow we get in the early months of winter. Without snow, the team has no choice but to do dry-land training and other activities that prepare them for skiing. 

“A challenge is probably just the weather. It’s been really bad. So it’s just finding good snow to ski on and getting everybody involved,” Carson Peterson, senior boys captain said.

The coaching staff works hard to give all levels of skiers the support they need. This includes the head coach of boys varsity, the head coach of girls varsity, the head coach of junior varsity along with many volunteer coaches. These volunteers are alumni, parents, friends and family members who contribute their time, helping grow the team. These coaches are vital to introducing the sport to the new skiers.

Jensen stated that the team has an “extensive and highly experienced, volunteer and technical coaching staff” along with the main coaches consisting of Jensen, Torry Kraftson and Bill Simpson.

Last year, the team experienced some division between the varsity and junior varsity ranks. However, this year with new captains and new skiers, they hope that team bonding will become a regular activity throughout the season. 

“It was to the point [last year] where I was not ever seeing JV and a common goal [as captains] we hope this year, that we can get more JV and varsity bonding. That’s our main hope for this year,” Natasha Lipetzky junior and girls captain said.

The coaches are looking to assist with the team bonding as well. Bringing the two groups together benefits the entire team, and builds a stronger sense of community.

“We have planned in time for them to be working with small groups of athletes, to not only get to know them, but to help them understand the different elements of Nordic skiing, technique or dryland training, and also keep varsity involved in the JV groups as well,” Jensen said.

The Nordic ski team has been a continued community for self-driven and motivated students to become strong athletes and better people. Through support from coaches, family and friends the strength of the Nordic team will continue for years to come.

“I’ve been on a team for seven years and my favorite thing about it is probably the coaching and teamwork that everybody puts together and just having a team grow into one big family,” Peterson said.

This story was originally published on The Pony Express on December 17, 2023.