Scholarships are available to support program costs.
GUIDING PRINCIPLES
- Develop in participants a life-long passion for skiing
- Create a positive learning environment that emphasizes individual improvement
- Teach ski skills and training methods based on the USSA Long-Term Development model
- Ensure that participants experience the exhilaration of going fast on skis
- Introduce skiers to the fun and excitement of healthy competition
- Provide support to athletes who want to pursue ski racing at a local, regional, and national level
- Develop cooperative and supportive skiers
- Create opportunities for older skiers to mentor and serve as role models to younger skiers
- Ensure that all participants (skiers, coaches, parents) see themselves as members of the Ford Sayre community
Message from Hilary McNamee, Nordic Head Coach
I’ve been Nordic Head Coach for five full seasons now and the 2023/24 season was, by so many metrics, the best year of my career! It seems that all at once, we’re reaping the benefits of the investments we’ve made, particularly in people over the last few years: enthusiasm is high among coaches and skiers alike, participation is steady if not growing each season, and competitive performance at the JNT level hit a new high-water mark. And the icing on the cake is that the fun, yet focused culture of our JNT seems to be the envy of the Eastern junior circuit.
In my humble opinion, the continuity of vision and the “off-season” work that the full-time, year-round Head Coach position is able to provide, is key to steady progress within the organization. It was a big change and a financial leap back in 2018 to move to that structure. Fast forward a few years, and as the program grew, so did my non-coaching responsibilities. The logical next step was to invest in a full-time Assistant Coach to make sure that the JNT skiers were still getting someone’s full attention! Now we have reached a point where a Nordic Coordinator has become necessary to manage much of the administration of the Nordic programs and allow the coaches to really focus on coaching as well as take some of the burden off of our volunteer Program Heads.
We’ve done our best to balance affordability with maintaining the financial resources to staff and run these high-quality programs. Staffing is by far our biggest and most important expense, but we’re also making sensible and necessary capital investments along the way; purchases like:
- A 15-passenger van ($35k) to replace the costly long-term rentals
- Laser rifles to introduce BKL skiers to biathlon ($5k)
- A mobile gear/warming hut for Garipay ($4k)
- A test ski and rental race ski fleet for our JNT skiers ($10k)
Each year we strive to balance the budget and most years we do, but it often comes down to a decision to draw on our reserves or increase program fees. As we look to the future, we’d like to continue to keep costs for participation within reach and balance our budget with a larger contribution from fundraising.
Hilary McNamee
Nordic Head Coach