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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: USSA Center of Excellence

  • Caterinichio to Leave Post as USSA Nordic Manager

    Caterinichio to Leave Post as USSA Nordic Manager

    USSA Nordic Manager Joey Caterinichio (l) speaks to USSA Vice President of Communications Tom Kelly about the 2014 USSA Congress. (Photo: USSANetwork/Youtube)
    USSA Nordic Manager Joey Caterinichio (l) speaks to USSA Vice President of Communications Tom Kelly about the 2014 USSA Congress. (Photo: USSANetwork/Youtube)

    Joey Caterinichio, a longtime figure in the cross-country skiing community, announced last month that she plans to step down as nordic manager at the United States Ski and Snowboard Association (USSA).

    Beginning the position in 2012 after John Farra left to join the U.S. Olympic Committee as high-performance director of the Paralympic Nordic Program, Caterinichio has served as the manager of one of the largest branches of the organization for roughly three years.

    Caterinichio’s journey to USSA began long before her time as an administrator. A native of Anchorage, Alaska, she raced throughout high school, college and beyond. She then became a coach and founder of the Alaska Nordic Racing in Anchorage. Over her years of training young athletes, she attended 18 junior nationals as a team leader or head coach for the Alaska region. Caterinichio also began working with Kikkan Randall when the three-time World Cup sprint champion was a U14 and on multiple Team Alaska trips.

    Joey Caterinichio poses at the 2010 Olympic Winter Games with Kikkan Randall, a former junior athlete of Caterinichio. The USSA Nordic Manager announced that she plans to leave her position when a replacement can be found. (Photo: USSA)
    Joey Caterinichio (l) at the 2010 Olympic Winter Games with Kikkan Randall, one of her former junior athletes. The USSA nordic manager announced that she plans to leave her position when a replacement can be found. (Photo: USSA)

    Caterinichio was also the chief organizer for U.S. nationals when they were held in Anchorage in 2009 and 2010.

    When Caterinichio took over the managerial role in 2012, she oversaw several projects regarding reorganization of USSA’s nordic branch — from updating websites and contacts to easing scheduling procedures. During her time as manager, Caterinichio went to two World Championships and the 2014 Olympics, where she served as an organizer and general support.

    During her time on the international circuit, she observed what it took to be the best in the world and brought what she learned to her work with domestic skiing. According to Caterinichio, the link between the U.S. Ski Team (USST) athletes racing in Europe and the athletes competing on home soil is crucial in maintaining a healthy ski racing community.

    “It’s super important that our domestic athletes have some sort of tangible reach to the international athletes,” she said in a phone interview. “Between criteria, our SuperTour, sending athletes to the World Cup, and making domestic skiers part of World Championship teams, I feel that it was one of the best parts of the jobs. “

    Over the years in the position, Caterinichio said that her main focus has been to lay the groundwork for clubs around the country to develop strong athletes.

    “There’s been a lot of work by the clubs that’s forwarded skiing in the United States over the years,” Caterinichio said. “I came from the field, so with the trust of my colleagues I came into USSA trying to help make USSA have a better light in what it can offer folks. That was my goal.”

    Caterinichio pointed to the new membership policy recently announced by USSA as a project that aims to make USSA and skiing in the United States more accessible.

    “It’s going to make cross-country bigger,” she said pointing to decreased membership fees. “Right now there’s roughly a thousand members in cross-country. Now we’ve lowered the prices so much that our goal is 10,000 members.

    “The task was to increase membership within USSA and do it in conjunction with working with everyone instead of alienating them,” she added. “A national governing body is important for any athlete to belong to. It happens in swimming, it happens in hockey.”

    Caterinichio said that one of the main reasons for her departure was USSA’s need for someone based in Park City. While she has performed her work from Alaska for the past three years, the new membership program will require someone on-site. According to her, her replacement may require a team rather than an individual.

    In a USSA press release, Executive Vice President of Athletics Luke Bodensteiner explained that the  position for nordic domestic program director will be based at USSA’s Center of Excellence in Park City. The association is seeking applicants “with a deep background in cross country ski racing and with strong marketing and administrative skills. It’s anticipated that the position will start in Park City by mid to late summer,” the release stated.

    “This is a substantially different job than Joey has undertaken, incorporating many of her responsibilities, but additionally focusing on club education/development, growth of participation in USSA and its programs, and expanded external relations,” Bodensteiner wrote in an email to FasterSkier. “The team manager-related activities that were a large part of Joey’s job are not included in this position, and will be handled separately.”
    As of mid-July, the position was closed while USSA evaluated candidates. “But pending the outcome of
    that we’d be happy to continue to evaluate additional applicants if we don’t fill the job in this round,” Bodensteiner wrote.

    Caterinichio plans to stay in her current position until there is a sufficient replacement. Once her role has been filled, she will stay with USSA in a volunteer capacity.

    “I’d love to continue to work with USSA and consult,” she said, adding that she’ll also continue working with the National Nordic Foundation (NNF) and possibly work in a business venture unrelated to skiing.

    “Caterinichio has worked to increase the quality level of USSA cross country events and played a strategic role in managing the membership task force the past year,” the USSA press release stated. “She will remain on during the transition and will continue to be engaged with the USSA as she has for over two decades.”

  • Salt Lake Medical Firm to Help Team

    PARK CITY, UT – A new medical partnership with Salt Lake MRI will bring added benefits to U.S. Ski Team and U.S. Snowboarding athletes. The U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association (USSA) announced a partnership with Salt Lake MRI to provide support to injured athletes providing priority bookings and scan support.
    “The efficiency of quickly getting our athletes assessed and undergoing the right treatment modalities takes our sports medicine program to another level,” said USSA High Performance Director Troy Flanagan. “This type of partnership is critical in providing the very best care to our injured athletes.”

    The program will provide the U.S. Ski Team and U.S. Snowboarding with optimal care with priority bookings and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan support for injured athletes. The pairing with USSA and Salt Lake MRI will ensure time-effective care for the athletes, enabling a potentially quicker recovery.

    “The benefit will be first and foremost to USSA because we’re able to provide U.S. Ski Team and U.S. Snowboarding athletes’ diagnostic imaging results to physicians from anywhere in the world,” said Salt Lake MRI Founder and CEO Radd Berrett. “We are set up to perform MRI or X-rays while athletes are in town and have the best musculoskeletal or neuro radiologists in the country do the reads. The interpretations of those diagnostic images are available not only to the Team physicians but also to the athletes’ personal physicians.”

    Salt Lake MRI also plans to work with the USSA utilizing Apple iPads. The Salt Lake MRI iPad program allows trainers and doctors to log in to a secure server and view athlete diagnostic images at the USSA Center of Excellence. The Salt Lake MRI iPads can also be used by the USSA while traveling throughout the season. While reviewing images, the USSA athlete, trainers and medical staff can view the notations from Salt Lake MRI’s radiologists, particularly musculoskeletal radiologists, all of whom have exceptional backgrounds in the sport industry.

    The USSA Center of Excellence is the national training and education facility for the U.S. Ski Team and U.S. Snowboarding located in Park City. The Center includes a state of the art weight room, rehabilitation center, kitchen and athlete lounge, gym, trampolines and skateboarding features.

    “I saw the opportunity and was excited to get involved,” said Berrett. “We need to get more awareness here in Utah to recognize that we have the greatest athletes in the world in our own backyard.”

    Source: USSA