Tag: Grethe Lise-Hagensen

Bernie Nelson Leads the U.S. Development Team into a New Era

Bernie Nelson was recently named the U.S. Ski Team’s newest D-Team coach. (Photo: courtesy Bernie Nelson)

There are days skiing here in Bend, Ore. when the privilege of sliding on groomed trails becomes ho-hum. Maybe you’re not feeling the energy buzz. Maybe the technique is breaking down. First world problems. But we stress about them anyhow.

Those are the days when it’s a sight to see Bernie Nelson gliding along. She gobbles up the meters as she presents a holy grail of vertically stacked imagery. Hip, knee, and ankle perfectly aligned. Then there’s her power which makes this skier feel perfectly humbled. She is a model of biomechanical efficiency to emulate. As she passes by, this much is clear: she is simply a profoundly better technical skier than most.

At twenty-eight-years-old Nelson began her tenure as the U.S. Ski Team’s Development Coach on May 1.

“She was our top pick,” U.S. Ski Team Head Coach Chris Grover said over the phone. “She was the best combination of the skill sets that we were looking for. She was the best combination of personality, experience, knowledge, approachability, coaching ability.”

On the periphery of the sport, Nelson may not have been the obvious candidate. For those immersed in Junior Worlds and U23 wax cabins and trailside coaching sessions, the native of Truckee, Calif., was a lock.

“So this was somebody who had had some limited experience with the elite team athletes, a lot of experience with the next group down, the developing athletes,” Grover said. “What we really tried to do also in this hire was take into as much consideration as we could the wants and desires of our primary stakeholders and that was the D-Team athletes themselves. We had several of those athletes that were actually part of the discussion and they were really excited by the idea of actually working with Bernie in particular and that was an important part of the discussion.”

Nelson worked with several USST skiers as a guest coach during last season’s Bend Camp and also developed relationships with developing athletes during her international stints as a coach.

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She began coaching cross-country ski athletes while matriculated as a sophomore at Montana State University (MSU). In a span of eight months beginning February of her Freshman year, Nelson underwent surgery twice for Compartment Syndrome. Grethe-Lise Hagensen, Nelson’s head coach at MSU, recognized her talent as a teacher and asked if she would assist with coaching.

BSF elite athlete Jennie Bender (l) and head coach Bernie Nelson fist bump before the start of the 2015 women’s SuperTour sprint A-final in West Yellowstone. Bender went on to place first overall.

“That is how I started,” Nelson said. “I helped Grethe facilitate workouts and just really worked under her wing and with Chad Anderson who was also coaching. It was the three of us and then Grethe took a sabbatical for a year. Chad was the head coach and I was the assistant coach and that is when I really fell in love with the process because it was a whole training year that I was helping Chad and was responsible for what I would call my first team.”

Hagensen, now a coach in Tromsø, Norway recalls Nelson as beyond her young adult years. “Naturally, she was a teacher and a coach — Bernie is a quick one, she is smart and fast,” Hagensen said during a phone call. “She was just calm and young but old. She was wise. Sometimes the age doesn’t really matter, she was mature for her age.”

Nelson, at the time, balanced what few could have pulled off: coaching age-group peers, some of whom had been her teammate at MSU.

“She obviously gained respect from her peers,” Hagensen said. “She was a friend and a coach, but it worked. They looked at her as an equal. She holds her own. They discover rather quickly that she has skills and that she is qualified. Because she is comfortable when she is knowledgeable, then you appear strong, and that is something people sense. Bernie is not going to bend or be insecure – she is the opposite.”

After coaching at MSU, Nelson went on to become the Elite Team coach at the Bridger Ski Foundation before moving to Oregon and coaching at the Bend Endurance Academy. (Nelson had been a nursing student when she accepted the USST coaching position.) It was during these years Nelson had the opportunity to wax tech and coach internationally. She was exposed to a range of age groups from U14s to senior athletes. She began to understand that she was drawn most to the U20 and U23 niche. An age when an athlete often begins to learn more about methodology and becomes a more independent learner.

“I really started coaching U23s when I was a U23 myself,” said Nelson. “I was pretty young. For me, I think it is a really pivotal time in an athlete’s life when they start to take more ownership in their training. They are more curious as to why, they are more curious about the process. Why am I doing this training? How does it affect my body? How do I feel after rest? They are really starting to clue in and they are really starting to take ownership for their hours and their sessions. That for me is such an empowering time to be an athlete. I find a lot of joy of being a part of that process. Helping them clue into their own potential and helping them maximize it.”

What Nelson speaks of is a gradual release of responsibility: a pathway of guided, collaborative, and then independent training. The U20 and U23 athletes on the U.S. Ski Team (USST) all come with their own coaches and clubs. It is a time when the athlete gets advice from both their club coach and the USST coaching staff while providing their own input.

Nelson said she welcomes the collaboration with club coaches and college coaches who are guiding some of the D-Team athletes.

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“From a coaching perspective, just like we are trying to get the athlete to see the power of the team, there are also opportunities for coaches to come together and collaborate,” Nelson said. “I think that is why it is so powerful for me, or why I am so personally passionate about it — coaching this age group and this level I can continually get exposed to new ideas and I am always learning from other coaches. … You go on these U23 and World Junior trips and it is different people coming from different clubs to be coaches and to be wax staff and we are all working together. You have to be flexible and cohesive to achieve a group goal and get to the same endpoint.”

Bernie Nelson and Red dog, on a trail run in Bend, Ore. (Photo: courtesy Bernie Nelson)

Nelson moves into a role vacated a year ago by Bryan Fish who became the Cross-Country Sport Manager for US Ski & Snowboard, while Gus Kaeding who was a part-time D-team coach last season moves into a full-time position with the organization’s sports science department.

It remains a time of promise for developing skiers in the U.S. With numerous top-10 performances and a smattering of medals at World Juniors, the foundation for Nelson’s development work is solid. She’ll have the opportunity to coach vets like Hannah Halvorsen and Gus Schumacher as well as new athletes that include Novie McCabe and Kendall Kramer.

Nine skiers total comprise the 2019-2020 development team. All of them met objective criteria for their USST nomination. The D-Team athletes come with their own aspirations and hurdles to clear. Nelson said she sees herself as a resource to assist skiers in achieving their personal goals.

“That is a huge part of my job, how can I be a resource to these guys? How can I help enhance their experience so they can achieve these goals and move into and take the next step whatever the next step might be for them at this moment?” said Nelson “Some of them are younger. Some of them are a little older. So the next step for some might be the A and the B-Team and the next step for others might be you know, top-five at World Juniors or top-10. The stair stepping developmental process. I am just another perspective for them.”

Asked about any nerves she might bring to the job knowing the nation’s cross-country skiing microscope has become more fixated on high-achieving young athletes as they have garnered success at World Juniors, Nelson simply chuckled.

“To be honest, let’s put it this way, I think this is why I was a better coach than I was an athlete,” said Nelson. “As an athlete, I would get, I mean terrible pre-race anxiety. And as a coach, I am able to break it up into smaller chunks.”

Nelson has said in the past that putting on a race bib gives skiers “superhero powers … it’s like a cape”. It’s now Nelson’s time to instill some wisdom, provide some technique cues, and to help D-Team athletes harness those superhero powers.

May 20, 2019
Johnson Takes Over as Head Coach at MSU after Trygstad-Saari Resigns

Matthew Perry Johnson was hired as the new head coach for the Montana State University Ski Team. He will begin his position in August. (Photo: Evan Hagen)

It has been a tumultuous two years for the coaching staff of the Montana State University cross country ski team. The past two springs have seen complete shifts in staffing — long-time head coach Grethe-Lise Hagensen’s contract was not renewed in 2014 and her replacement, Kristina Trygstad-Saari, resigned from her position at the team’s helm earlier this year. The Bozeman, Mont. university recently announced that former Middlebury College racer and Alaska Winter Stars coach Matthew Perry Johnson will be the newest head coach for the Bobcats starting in August.

In Trygstad-Saari’s first year as a coach the MSU Ski Team finished seventh at the 2015 NCAA Championships in Lake Placid, and the nordic team garnered two All-Ammerican honors. Despite the success, Trygstad-Saari decided to leave the position to explore paths unrelated to skiing. The 30-year-old has been in the ski community as a racer and coach since a her days as a junior with the Bridger Ski Foundation, and explained that she needed a change. “I’ve spent a lot of years moving around in the ski world, both racing and coaching, and I haven’t always been 100 percent sure that it’s where I should be,” Trygstad-Saari wrote in an email, adding that the decision to leave was incredibly difficult.

Trygstad-Saari said her experience with the MSU team was highly positive, and that a highlight of the season was in Lake Placid where skiers Cambria McDermott and Forrest Mahlen notched fourth and fifth place finishes, respectively. The lone year as head coach didn’t come without challenges, however, as Trygstad-Saari worked to balance athlete’s training and travel, in addition to the coaching transition.

Cambria McDermott, fourth place and top American finisher in the 2015 NCAA Championship 5 k, high fives Montana State University Head Coach Kristina Trygstad-Saari.

“The year was challenging, and I had a lot to balance and learn,” she wrote. “Some of our athletes got pretty tired later in the season, and I think I could have done some things differently with training and travel planning. However, I was generally satisfied and think the team responded well to the changes.”

With her departure from the team, the single-season coach is ready for what the future holds. Trygstad-Saari is currently in Vermont finishing up her master’s degree at the Middlebury College Breadloaf School of English. “Hopefully I can explore some options that will put [the degree] to use!,” she wrote. “As of now, the future is wide open, and I look forward to some new adventures.”

A large pool of candidates applied to replace Trygstad-Saari, but in the end it was Johnson who got the job. The new head coach grew up skiing with Alaska Winter Stars in Anchorage and raced for Middlebury College in the years following. After graduating he began assistant coaching at Burke Mountain Academy. He left three years later to become the program/director and head coach of the Utah Nordic Alliance, and in 2014 he returned to his roots and coached with Alaska Winter Stars.

MSU Athletic Director Peter Fields said in a press release that he was pleased with Johnson’s hire. “Matt possesses a strong background in program and student-athlete development,” Fields said. “He has also worked on both coasts as well as the Rocky Mountain region, and is well respected. Matt sees the big picture and is very motivated to continue the level of excellence the Bobcat ski program has established.”

Johnson applied for the open position at MSU because of the potential he saw in the program. While it was difficult for the Alaska native to leave his current athletes, he said the high-level juniors he has coached over the years inspired him to make the progression to collegiate coaching.

“Bozeman is such a great environment for ski training year round and the potential I see in the MSU Nordic Program is massive, so in that sense applying for this position specifically was an obvious choice,” Johnson wrote in an email. “The more difficult aspect of the decision was deciding whether to move on from coaching juniors, which I’ve made the focus of my career so far… The way those kids motivate me to work as hard as I can for them definitely pushed me towards pursuing the position with MSU to work with an entire team at that level.”

In the coming year, Johnson hopes inspire the team and its individuals to greater success. As for the future, however, he has big hopes for his team including an NCAA title. “I would like to help establish this team as a place where athletes who are serious about their skiing as well as academics know they will have every opportunity to improve and grow,” Johnson wrote. “I think this team can win NCAA titles and produce athletes who are ready for World Cup competition after graduation.”

To get there, Johnson will have to overcome the challenges associated with being a new coach on a well-established team, especially given the fact he will be the third head coach in two years for many of the older athletes. “Any time there is coaching turnover there are challenges to overcome,” he wrote. “It’s a situation I’ve dealt with from an athlete’s and coach’s perspective so I know that as long as everyone feels comfortable communicating openly, there’s nothing we can’t overcome with relative ease.”

Although Trygstad-Saari is leaving, she is excited to see what Johnson will do with her former team. “He’s had a wide-range of coaching experience and has the passion and motivation to help drive the program,” she wrote. “He also has the skills to excel in the position beyond the ski trails; he will be a tremendous asset to the Bozeman nordic community. I think the team is in a great place, but I’m confident that Matt will bring even more to MSU and continue this trajectory.”

Johnson will start at MSU in August and said that he has yet to come to a final decision regarding an assistant coach.

June 30, 2015
From the Arctic Circle to Bozeman: Hagensen Reflects on MSU Coaching Career

Grethe Hagensen runs alongside former Montana State University athlete Tyler Reinking at the 2012 NCAA Championship in Bozeman, Mont. Hagensen was head nordic coach at the university for a decade. (Photo: Stuart Jennings)

Grethe Lise-Hagensen served as Montana State University’s Head Nordic Coach from 2003 to 2014. During her decade as head coach, Hagensen brought the team from a state of near non-existence to ranking third in the nation at the 2010 NCAA Championships. In May of 2014, Hagensen’s contract was not renewed by the university’s administration. FasterSkier sat down with Hagensen in July to talk about her time at the helm of the MSU program and the accomplishments she achieved during her ten years as head coach.

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BOZEMAN, Mont. — Like most Norwegians, Grethe-Lise Hagensen was born with proverbial skis on her feet. Unlike most Norwegians, she decided to bring her successful ski career to the United States.

Hagensen grew up in Tromsø, Norway, roughly 300 miles above the Arctic Circle where she found an early introduction to skiing out of necessity. Her family didn’t have a car and like many of the other townspeople, she had no choice but to ski into town whenever she needed to go to school, buy groceries, or visit friends.

Hagensen’s skiing soon evolved from a means of travel to a form of competition as she was introduced to racing. Her entrance into world of ski racing would change her life forever, and by the time she was a teenager she had already won a Norwegian national championship and was on the Norwegian National Ski Team.

In 1979, Hagensen was part of what she described as the “the biggest athletic event in northern Norway.” A relay team consisting of Hagensen and fellow Tromsø skiers made their way to the top of the podium, astounding spectators.

“It was a huge sensation. It is still probably the biggest athletic event that has ever happened in northern Norway because we were such underdogs,” she said during a recent in-person interview. “For us to win it was a shocking thing. Top ten would have been a sensation, and we ended up winning.”

Hagensen first ventured to the U.S. to attend the University of Wyoming. During her time there, she earned all-American honors each of her four years at the university and was part of its winning team in the 3 x 5 k relay at the 1985 NCAA Skiing Championships.

Hagensen graduated from the University of Wyoming in 1986. She returned to Norway, where she coached both soccer and skiing. She then married American John Villar and the couple had two daughters.

In 2002, Hagensen and her family made the decision to move to Bozeman, Mont. for a year so that her children, Bjørk and Embla, could learn English. The family’s plan was changed when a friend informed Hagensen that the head coach position at Montana State University (MSU) was available.

Hagensen applied for the job, accepted the university’s offer, and has lived in Bozeman ever since.

“Suddenly they could smell gold”

Grethe Hagensen smiles in an undated photo. Hagensen served as head nordic coach at Montana State University from 2003 to 2014. In 2010 she lead the team to third place in the nordic rankings at the NCAA Championships. (Photo: Montana.edu)

When Hagensen took over as MSU’s head nordic coach in 2003, it was the first year since the 1980s that the university had a male team. While women had been part of the team for many years, their results were lackluster and recruitment was challenging.

“You need to have results to get good athletes — it’s like the chicken and the egg,” Hagensen said of her entry into the program in 2003. “I thought it would take me five years to build up a winning team that would be competitive against CU [the University of Colorado] and DU [the University of Denver].”

The winning combination came earlier than expected. While a handful of good finishes from MSU skiers scattered the results of the Rocky Mountain collegiate series in Hagensen’s early years as head coach, it wasn’t until 2007 that the team really started to excel.

The turning point came during the first weekend of Rocky Mountain Intercollegiate Ski Association (RMISA) races at Soldier Hollow in Midway, Utah. With a relatively strong first day of competition, Hagensen was optimistic about the mass-start races. During the women’s 10 k, she was waxing the men’s skis and conversing with a fellow coach.

“I remember I said to one of the coaches, ‘I might get a medal today’ and he said to me, ‘Grethe, you might take the top three,’ ” Hagensen explained. “After that I don’t remember anything.”

Her colleague was correct as a trio of MSU women consisting of Jamie Woelk, Mandy Bowden Axelson and Claire Rennie rounded the corner into the final stretch of the women’s race. The three Bobcats swept the podium, separated by less than a second.

It was the first time in RMISA history that a women’s team had taken all three spots on the podium in a single race, but the historic moment almost didn’t happen as all three skiers were nearly disqualified.

“We almost got disqualified because someone said that I skied next to them,” Hagensen said. “I don’t remember skiing but I must have because I was in shock. I was so happy. Maybe I skied maybe I didn’t, who knows.”

Despite the alleged incident, the women’s results stood and Hagensen was issued a warning. The moment, however, was a major turning point for the program, which had existed on a small scale four years prior.

“Suddenly they could smell gold. Once you do it, you have broken the barrier,” Hagensen said.

She credits the rapid rise of the MSU nordic team to a focus on American athletes who might have been overlooked by other universities, some of which heavily recruit European skiers and only the best American juniors.

“I always had, not the best juniors in the U.S., but maybe the ones who were a little bit behind,” she said. “I tried to get them to become the best. You have Ryan Scott and Tyler Reinking, these guys were OK and then we just built them. That’s what made me the most proud over my years: taking care of the Americans.

She also made sure to focus on building technique before anything else.

“We tried to tap into whatever edge they had. Technique was something that we had to work on a lot,” she said. “You can’t be the best if your technique is a handicap. I tell everyone to focus on their technique and then we get them to the next level.”

After joining the big show in 2007, MSU continued to progress at an unprecedented rate. With recruitment soaring and a tight-knit team, Hagensen entered the 2009/2010 season with high hopes.

With their eyes on the NCAA Championships in Steamboat Springs, Colo., the team qualified a full six-person squad for the event: Scott, Reinking, Bernhard Roenning, Kaelin Kiesel, Mellie Park, and Casey Kutz.

Underdogs from the beginning, MSU wasn’t expected to be overly competitive, let alone make a run for the podium. However, they did just that with all three men placing in the top 10 in the second day of competition. The results propelled the squad to third place overall at NCAAs.

“We had a phenomenal year, and suddenly we had three [men in the] top ten and Kaelin Kiesil was fifth,” Hagensen said. “Sometimes everything lines up.”

Later that year, Hagensen received the Intercollegiate Coach of the Year Award in recognition of her contributions to MSU.

Termination After a Decade

The Montana State University Nordic Team performs upper-body testing in an undated photo. (Photo: Dan Heil)

After 2010, both Hagensen and the MSU nordic team continued to find success with top finishes in the RMISA and NCAA race series. In 2012, for the first time in school history, MSU qualified a full team in both alpine and nordic for the NCAA Championships that took place on their home courses in Bozeman, Mont.

Hagensen also received the RMISA Coach of the Year Award that year.

During the 2012/2013 season Hagensen took a sabbatical year so that she could spend time with her mother in Norway who had just suffered a stroke. During that season, assistant coach Chad Andersen took over the responsibility of the team.

In what would be her final season as MSU’s head nordic coach, Hagensen lead her team to qualify a full NCAA Championships squad once again. At the 2014 NCAAs in Soldier Hollow, MSU saw two athletes — Jessica Yeaton and Sawyer Kesselhiem — earn all-American honors with fifth- and ninth-place finishes.

Adding to the season’s milestones, the nordic team won both the men’s and women’s awards for team of the year at the Montana State Athletics’ 2014 ALL (Academics, Leadership and Life Skills) Banquet in April.

Not long after, Hagensen said she received a positive review from her athletic department and was given a mandate to hire a new assistant coach. The new assistant coach, Andrew Morehouse, had both a verbal and written agreement with Hagensen for his position that was yet to be made official by the university.

In May, she said she was summoned MSU Athletic Director Peter Fields’ office for what she assumed would be a conversation about the assistant-coaching position.

What she experienced was far from what she expected.

Instead of discussing the assistant coach position, Fields told Hagensen that her contract would not be renewed in the coming year.

“They asked me to come in and I thought they were going to ask me about the new assistant coach that I was to hire,” she said. “… Ten years of my life was canned in two minutes.”

The university declined to comment on the decision due to its personal nature, according to Sports Information Director Tom Shutlz.

“I’m still traumatized,” Hagensen said. “You would think that an institution would bring you in and give you a reprimand or warning or something, but the fact is that there is no job guarantee. You would think that Montana State University would be bigger than this and that they would communicate.”

Hagensen claims that Fields gave her no indication as to why her contract was not renewed and failed to even thank her for ten years of service to the university.

She quoted from her prepared statement regarding her departure from MSU:

“I was surprised that after a decade of strong performance as a head coach, my boss Peter Fields made no comment to me about all the success that the nordic ski teams that I have coached have brought to MSU. Most surprising was the reaction of President Cruzado, who has as well reported record on workplace issue and good management practices. I realize that most of us have one-year contracts and that MSU management can make changes as they see fit. But after a decade as an MSU coach, to be tossed aside without any reason…”

MSU issued a press release on May 22, which read in its entirety: “The contract of Montana State head Nordic ski coach Grethe Hagensen will not be renewed, announced Bobcat Athletics Director Peter Fields, Thursday afternoon. Hagensen recently completed her tenth year at Montana State. A national search for the position will be conducted.”

There were those who weren’t surprised by the move. Three former skiers of Hagensen who wished to remain unnamed, claimed that coach was distracted and absent during her last year of coaching.

When asked about these claims, Hagensen said she made a conscious effort to take a back seat in the 2013/2014 season because she did not want to overbear the atmosphere that assistant coach Chad Andersen had created during her sabbatical year.

“Last year I wasn’t there and this year I was easing back in so that I wasn’t too powerful or too controlling,” Hagensen said. “Maybe I should have done it differently but those are small things. Not enough to get fired. It is an adjustment.”

Despite some athlete discontent, Hagensen has received many positive reviews from former athletes, including Scott who graduated in 2012. While Scott had not yet returned an inquiry from FasterSkier at the time of publication, he was quoted in a 2011 Montana State University press release saying that, “she (Hagensen) cares about you personally as well as how you are doing as a skier. She taught me how to seek out my strengths and capitalize on those, which carries over to all aspects of my life.”

In the same article, Axelson (member of the podium sweeping team in 2007) is quoted saying, “Grethe taught us that in order to be successful, you have to be self-motivated; you have to know what you want and go after it. When you are driven, opportunities come your way–that’s Grethe’s legacy.”

On July 11, MSU announced the hiring of new head coach Kristina Trygstad-Saari, a Bozeman resident and former Dartmouth skier and coach.

Hagensen was pleased that Trygstad-Saari was tapped for the position, insisting that Trygstad-Saari could accomplish the one goal Hagensen never did with MSU.

“My dream while at MSU was always to win the NCAA Championship,” Hagensen wrote in an email after the announcement. “As the new head nordic coach, Kristina Trygstad-Saari brings experience in racing and coaching to the team. Together with MSU Alpine coach Kevin Frances, I believe the MSU ski team has the potential to achieve that goal, winning the NCAA Championship. I wish them all the best.”

Unsure of what exactly lies ahead of her, Hagensen explained her future will likely involve traveling between the U.S. and Norway. During her sabbatical year she taught at the University of Tromsø which may be a future possibility for the Norwegian.

She’s planned a trip to Oslo with her oldest daughter, Embla, who’s taking a postgraduate year at an outdoors school. Her youngest daughter, Bjørk, has a year left at a boarding school in Park City, Utah.

Wherever Hagensen finds herself, she’s certain of one thing: she will always remember her time at Montana State with fond memories and will continue to be proud of the athletes she coached.

July 18, 2014
Trygstad-Saari Leaves Bridger Ski Foundation for Montana State

Kristina Trygstad-Saari in the leads the 2009 Boulder Mountain Tour. The 29-year-old Bozeman native was announced as Montana State University’s nordic ski team head coach on July 11. (Photo: Saab/Salomon Factory)

When Montana State University (MSU) started a national search for a new nordic head coach, little did they know that their final pick would come from their own backyard.

The university announced last Friday that Bozeman, Mont., native Kristina Trygstad-Saari will take the place of former head coach Grethe-Lise Hagensen, whose contract was not renewed in May.

This is the second job announcement in recent months for Trygstad-Saari as she was reported to be the new elite/post-graduate coach of the Bridger Ski Foundation (BSF) in May. She has since resigned from the position.

“The job opened up later than is ideal for ski coaches and I was already working for BSF doing the elite team,” Trygstad-Saari explained in a phone interview. “Growing up in Bozeman I’ve always watched that position as something that could be a potential career position so when it opened up I decided to apply and see what happened.”

Trygstad-Saari was one of four finalists for the post, including former MSU assistant coaches, Chad Andersen and Dan Campbell, and current University of New Hampshire assistant coach Stephen Monsulick.

“We’re fortunate to live in one of the best ski towns in the United States,” MSU Athletics Director Peter Fields said in a press release. “And to be able to tap into our local community for our Nordic ski coach is exciting. Coach Trygstad-Saari has competed at the highest levels, raced and coached collegiately at Dartmouth, and knows the challenges of being a student-athlete. We feel she is a great fit for our program and look forward to her taking over the reins of the Bobcat Nordic program.”

Returning member of the MSU ski team and former BSF racer Cambria McDermott also expressed her excitement to have Trygstad-Saari at the helm of the university’s nordic program.

Former Bridger Ski Foundation (BSF) elite team racer Kristina Trygstad-Saari had planned to coach the BSF elite nordic team. However, when the head coach position became available at Montana State University, Trygstad-Saari jumped at the opportunity. (Photo: Mary Klotz)

“Kristina is a great choice for our new head coach. She has had so much success as an athlete and, more recently, as a coach. Besides her knowledge and experience, I think she will bring a new, focused energy to our team,” McDermott wrote in an email.

The decision to leave Bridger shortly after her hire was difficult for Trygstad-Sarri, who was one of the program’s most successful skiers as a junior. While content with her position at BSF, she had always wanted to coach collegiate-level skiing and knew the position at the university was an opportunity she had to take.

“I would say that this has been a really tough decision for me for a lot of reasons. I have always been supportive of and supported by BSF. I am really loyal to the organization and I was very happy with my position there at the elite team,” she said. “I had in the back of my mind that I wanted to coach college eventually. It seemed like one of those opportunities that I just needed to go for and if it ended up working out, I knew I might need to take that step.”

“When I found out that I got the job, I took some time to think about all sides of the situation and it’s definitely challenging to leave something that’s really good. I had really great coworkers, Dragan [Danevski] has always been super supportive of me. I look forward to the new position but it has been challenging for sure.”

BSF Head Coach and Program Director Dragan Danevski had no comment about the departure of Trygstad-Saari but said that the program was currently searching for her replacement.

Without Trygstad-Saari, the club’s elite and post-graduate team is currently without a coach and with several skiers joining the program in the fall, a new hire will be necessary in the coming weeks.

When asked whether she was open with BSF about her college-coaching aspirations, Trygstad-Saari said she had communicated with the club prior to her acceptance of the job.

“I was pretty open part way through the process. Initially I applied not knowing what would happen and just did that on my own,” she explained. “I’ve been pretty open about the process and trying to communicate things well with people. I know it’s a hard decision that affects a lot of people and I hope that in the end it works out for everybody.”

Despite the tough choices that Trygstad-Saari has made, she is ready to lead the MSU ski team into a new era.

The Montana State University Nordic Team conducts an upper-body power test in 2012. Trygstad-Saari will become head coach of the team August 1, 2014. (Photo: Dan Heil)

“I’m really excited to be working with collegiate athletes. It’s an interesting and exciting time for skiers,” she said. “I look back on my college skiing experience and I really value that. I really looked up to my coach at that time so I’m really excited to step into that role and lead these athletes through their college experience.”

Trygstad-Saari, 29, intends to use her depth of knowledge as both a ski racer and coach to push her athletes to the next level. A nine-time junior national champion, she placed sixth in the 2002 Junior World Championships, and was named 2002 National Junior Skier of the Year.

At Dartmouth, she skied two seasons for the Big Green. Since then he has been both racing and coaching, culminating in her position as interim men’s coach at Dartmouth where she lead the team to fifth place at the 2013 NCAA Championships in Middlebury, Vt.

In terms of goals for the MSU ski team, Trygstad-Saari is focused on making her transition into the program easy for her athletes. Once that is accomplished she plans to bring the team to its full potential.

“My priority right now is making a smooth transition for the athletes individually and the program as a whole,” she said. “I know it’s hard to transition between coaches so it’s going to take some time to get to know everybody. I’ve been watching this team grow over the last 10 years and I see a lot of potential. There is no reason that we can’t be in the top three teams collegiate circuit and I hope to take the team to that level.”

July 14, 2014