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From the FasterSkier archive — posts syndicated from athletes’ and coaches’ own blogs between 2004 and 2012, kept online as published. Current coverage is at fasterskier.com.

Tag: elite-team previews

The 12: Bend Endurance Academy

Dakota Blackhorse-von Jess (Bend Endurance Academy) skating to a career-best 38th at the Quebec World Cup freestyle sprint last December. (Photo: FlyingPointRoad.com)

Note: This is the eighth preview in our U.S. elite-team series, which we’ve dubbed the “The 12.” We asked coaches to tell us what’s new and whom to look out for in the coming season and will publish additional previews in the coming weeks in no particular order.

Team: Bend Endurance Academy (BEA) a.k.a “The Dirty Ravens,” according to coach Ben Husaby.

Coach: Ben Husaby (Executive Director and Nordic Director as well as van driver, cook, DJ and pop psychologist).

Support: “J-Beck,” Justin Beckwith (Green Mountain Valley School) for testing, Scott Johnston (Methow Olympic Development) for application, and “J-Nice” (New England Nordic Ski Association) for top-tier resource procurement at major competitions. “Although we have decided that all of this will not be necessary in the future after reading this study, this might be the advantage we have been looking for,” Husaby wrote in an email.

Roster: This guy: What could he be thinking?

Bend Endurance Academy’s lone elite-team athlete: Dakota Blackhorse-von Jess (Photo: Ben Husaby)

Who’s new: No one for winter, but the BEA has “a ton of new and returning ravenettes that have come around for summer training,” Husaby explained. “They have done a fine job of pushing the lead bird.”

Notables include Rogan Brown (University of Vermont), Jordan Buetow (Bates), Bella Smith (Montana State University), Elena Breed (University of Denver), Reitler Hodgert (The College of St. Scholastica), Tony Squallace (Gustavus Adolphus College), and Joel “The Filth” Bransky (St. Olaf College), as well as Ben Grodner (Wasatch Nordic Ski Academy), and Pat Madden is on loan from the Bridger Ski Foundation.

Who’s missing: Lars Ellefson. “He has embarked on a long desired (secret) passion; body building,” Husaby wrote.”(This is not a joke).” Well, sort of. He’s a big-time gym rat and works at the Central Oregon Community College club sports department, Husaby explained. “We have lost him for the time being.”

“For the future, we would like to offer this once in a lifetime opportunity,” Husaby added. “If you choose to hang out with us we will give you one of these as a token of our appreciation.” (See below)

VonBallCap (Photo: Ben Husaby)

Top results last season: According to Husaby, it’s a tie for Blackhorse-von Jess between “getting the opportunity to compete with ‘our’ awesome Americans on the World Cup. And being given the play by play from Halsey at US Nationals, Classic Sprint Semi, where the commentary went from ‘Dak is down!’ at the start to ‘Dak is in the lead!’ down the finishing stretch. I have a hard time watching sometimes.”

Dakota Blackhorse-von Jess and coach Ben Husaby, the two main components of the Bend Endurance Academy in central Oregon. (Photo: Ben Husaby)

Blackhorse-von Jess, 27, won the freestyle sprint at U.S. nationals in Midway, Utah, following a bronze-medal finish in the classic sprint at Soldier Hollow. After placing 38th in the Quebec World Cup skate sprint in early December, he went on to qualify for the World Cups in Switzerland (Davos), Finland (Lahti), and Norway (Drammen).

Coach’s comment: “I would like to think that we offer a very comprehensive and complete training atmosphere where everyone can reach their personals goals,” Husaby wrote. “We had great success last year with Pat, Bella and Rogan making it to the NCAA championships. In the future we would certainly like to entice skiers to consider Bend and BEA as their place to roost. It certainly is taking shape during the summer months. I buy a lottery ticket every week hoping to hit it big so I can underwrite it all. But in the meantime Dakota and BEA’s great supporters will focus on trying to get him to the highest level.”

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Other previews: Alaska Pacific University | Bridger Ski Foundation | Craftsbury GRP | Maine Winter Sports Center | SSCV/Team HomeGrown | Stratton Mountain School T2 | Sun Valley SEF Gold Team

August 8, 2013
Elite Team Preview: Methow Olympic Development

Methow Olympic Development skier Sam Naney (left) rollerskiing with Brian Gregg of CXC during a recent training session in Washington state’s Methow Valley. Gregg joins the MOD squad as a training partner this summer, but will continue to compete for CXC. (MOD photo)

Note: This is the seventh preview in a quick-and-dirty series on U.S. elite teams. We asked coaches to send their 2012/2013 rosters and tell us what’s new for the coming season. We will be publishing additional reports over the next few weeks. Teams are presented in no particular order.

Team: Methow Olympic Development (MOD)

Coach: Scott Johnston

Roster: Sam Naney

What’s new: Brian Gregg as a training partner. Gregg will spend much of the summer in his hometown of Winthrop, Wash., working with Johnston and Naney in the Methow Valley. Naney tied the knot in June, marrying massage therapist Alison Hanks in his parents’ backyard.

Top results last season: Naney, 27, notched a career best of 13th at U.S. nationals in the 15 k skate. In the Tour de Twin Cities that followed, he tallied three top-five finishes and ended the season with a slew of SuperTour and NorAm top 10s. He made the podium in St. Paul, Minn., placing third in the 20 k freestyle pursuit.

Coach’s comment: According to Johnston, last year was an important building block for Naney, a sprinter with aspirations of being a better all-around skier.

“We chose to take a slightly different approach with his training and focus more on building a better aerobic base training. We did this at the expense of his Sprint specific training and his results bore this out,” Johnston wrote in an email. “We had to make decisions to deviate from his traditional strengths of sprinting and power in the training, and those decisions cost us in the season; despite qualifying 5th in the Nationals skate sprint, Sam did not move on through his quarter and went on to have similar disappointing results in sprinting, usually his strongest event.”

Sam Naney of the Methow Olympic Development squad working out in northern Washington. (MOD photo)

This year, they’re working “to bring the whole package together,” Johnston wrote, adding that the progression was already happening.

“This winter should be Sam’s strongest yet,” he continued.

In an email, Naney explained that he specifically wanted to boost his speed and anaerobic power by the start of the season.

“The hope is to carry the training well all the way through to November and the Canadian World Cup trials,” Naney wrote. “Last season we built a great ‘cake’ but didn’t have time to add the finishing touches.”

It can’t hurt to have Gregg, 28, training alongside him. Entering his seventh year with Central Cross Country (CXC), Gregg will continue to compete for the Midwest’s elite team, keeping his home base in Minneapolis. His wife and CXC teammate, Caitlin, will stay there, training between a series of five-week intensive anatomy and physiology courses at Normandale Community College.

Reflecting on his performance last year and goals of improving, Brian Gregg decided to return to Johnston, his high-school coach in Winthrop, Wash., as a personal coach.

“Scott and I have discussed his training philosophies a lot and we have identified a number of areas that I have to improve,” Gregg wrote in an email.

Gregg detailed the move on his blog, explaining that he’d return to the Midwest for training camps while working individually with Johnston and Naney out West. He aimed to minimize travel, training in long blocks, and liked Johnston’s scientific approach with speed and intensity monitored by GPS, lactate and heart rate. Gregg is currently training most days with the two-man MOD crew and loving the coach-to-athlete ratio.

“Scott’s coaching style is very hands on and individual and requires a small group,” Gregg wrote. “For Sam and me, our individual strengths complement well with opportunities for the other to improve. We are able to push each other and are making notable improvements.

“It is tough to be away from Caitlin but I do get to spend more time with my family, and I believe this will help me make that next jump in performance,” he added.

His childhood friend, Naney is excited.

“It’s been a great change from last season in which I spent the whole year training solo,” Naney wrote. “Brian offers distinct qualities as a training partner and his distance skiing focus contrasts well with my sprinting, allowing us to feed off each other and push each other in our weaknesses.”

As for Johnston’s method, Naney has always liked its unique and out-of-the-box ideas.

“Scott has made a concerted effort to look outside traditional ski training and into other sports to find better ways to train endurance and speed athletes,” he wrote. “Currently we’re working with a mixture of marathon runner training and swimmer training. Instead of maintaining a cyclical-style training plan where we repeat the same workouts all year, we operate off progressions of workouts, increasing workloads and intensities all the way into the fall. We’ve found that in this manner, we can continue stressing the various physiological systems such that they respond faster and stronger than before.”

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Other previews: Bend Endurance Academy | Craftsbury GRP | CXC | Far West | Maine Winter Sports Center | XC Oregon

July 2, 2012
Elite Team Preview: XC Oregon

Matt Briggs leads XC Oregon teammates Jason Adams (c) and Ollie Burruss (l) during team relays during a training session in late May in Bend, Ore.

Note: This is the first of a quick-and-dirty preview series on elite teams in the U.S. We asked coaches to send their 2012/2013 rosters and tell us what’s new for the coming season. We will be publishing additional reports over the next few weeks. Teams are presented in no particular order.

Team name: XC Oregon

Coaches: J.D. Downing (coach/program director, 15th year)

National /International Elite Roster: Santiago Ocariz, Oliver Burruss, Matt Briggs;

Carolyn Ocariz, Stephanie Howe, Sarah Max, Jamie Woelk

Who’s new: Santi and Carolyn Ocariz (as the two confirmed additions, 1-2 more possible. Carolyn arrived just over a week ago on June 9).

“We are super excited to have them both here,” Downing wrote in an email. “Their addition obviously allows us to significantly boost our national/international elite presence, but just as important to us is the quality of the individuals. Just look at what these two did this spring [rollerskied across the country] — and more importantly why they did it [to feed impoverished children]. There’s also a big comfort level in that Santi has spent several summers in Bend and has a brother living here so the transition should be very smooth. It’s really a perfect fit all the way around.”

What else: With a PhD and all, Howe will likely compete in more marathons this winter after studying at Oregon State University in Corvallis last year on the western side of the Cascades.

While it’s unclear how much Marshall Greene will race, Downing was excited to welcome him back to Bend this summer with his wife and new baby. Greene spent the last couple of years in Wisconsin earning his Master’s degree.

XC Oregon (XCO) is also expecting to add 12 to 15 members to its associate roster.

Who’s missing: Zoe Roy will likely make the full switch to Rocky Mountain Racers (RMR) in Canmore, Alberta, in an attempt to make Canada’s international teams. She was affiliated with XCO last season while completing her undergraduate degree in Utah and also raced in Canada with the support of RMR. Given that Roy is from Bend, Downing will try to incorporate her whenever possible.

Top results last season: Burruss was eighth in the Boulder Mountain Tour and 20^th in the American Birkebeiner 50 k skate, and both Burruss and Briggs had career-best SuperTour results last season. Max was the 19^th woman the in the Birkie this year, and Roy notched four top-10 performances on the Canadian NorAm circuit, two of which were on the podium.

In all, a dozen XCO skiers tallied best-ever results last year, which “radically improved on anything they had done before,” Downing wrote. “We really take our role seriously as positive ambassadors for the sport in Pacific Northwest and there is no question last year was one of our best ever in that regard.”

Coach’s comment: XC Oregon is proud to celebrate its 15^th season this year. According to Downing, it’s either the longest or second-longest continuously running elite-development program in the U.S. Aside from the high number of athletes that represented XC Oregon over the years, at least two dozen went on to coach nordic skiing.

“That more than anything probably reflects the 100% athlete-based approach of XC Oregon,” Downing wrote.

As for spring training, XCO skiers can enjoy at least another week on snow up at Mt. Bachelor, less than a 30-minute drive away.

“That’s a huge upside as athletes can maintain normal routines and yet still get the same quality of on-snow workouts as if we were shelling out thousands of dollars sending them to some remote spot,” Downing wrote. “I feel really good that the vast majority of the crew is in a comfort zone of how they’ll structure their training around everything else in life. We’ve also got some good training partner options this year that should be a big help. Bend itself is often a huge asset since there is a deep and incredibly talented pool of endurance athletes here.

“For the season I think we’ll find 2012/13 looking very much like the average year over the past decade,” he added. “We’ll have a nice mix of some notable SuperTour/Nationals results, some domestic and international marathons, and then the steady drumbeat of regional activity.”

Down the road in 2013, the team may restart a summer internship program for collegiate skiers, especially for graduating seniors interested in racing after college.

“We’ll be fundraising for that this summer and hope to roll out specifics this fall,” Downing wrote. “It’s also likely we’ll want to add 2-3 funded-level athletes in Spring 2013 so that’s always exciting to look forward to.”

June 18, 2012