Eau Claire/ 5 Hills Tour

Our first stop on the Mid-West tour is over with and we saw plenty of far jumps, crazy weather, and even some eagles. This summer Eau Claire did a ton of work on there k85 hill re-shaping the landing hill and dropping the take off a couple degrees to modernize the flight curve of the hill.

Friday night was the first event under the lights with a huge loud crowd cheering on the skiers at the bottom.

Junior class results
1. Miles Lussi 88m,88m 242 points
2. Ben Loomis 85m,84.5m 228 points
3. Nigel Lauchlan 80m,84m 203 points

6. Luke Daniels 78m,75m 188.5 points
19. Matt Doyle 65m,65.5m 134.5 points

                                                        

Saturday brought some warm weather and challenging tail wind for the athletes but we were able to hold a good and safe comp. With the warm weather it should be noted that all athletes were skiing from the same gate and Miles was 2nd over all out of 41 men only being edged by Sebastian Klinga of Finland!

Junior class results
1. Miles Lussi 91m,87.5m 238 points
2. Ben Loomis 87m,83.5m 225.5 points
3. Kevin Bickner 83.5m,80.5m 210.5 points
4. Koby Vargas 80m,77.5m 197.5 points
5. Casey Larson 79m,75.5m 193 points

9. Luke Daniels 73.5m,70m 164.5 points
20 .Matt Doyle 65.5m,60m 119.5 points

   Full results found here- www.ec-skiclub.com/tourney2013.htm                                                    

Next stop is Minneapolis for the K70 event on Wed.

Coach Bliss

Junior National Qualifying

Eastern Junior National Qualifying Rules

What are Junior National’s?

Junior National’s used to be called Junior Olympics which is an end of the year national competition.  The National’s are hosted each year by a different division throughout the country.   The best juniors from around the country meet for a week to test their skills against one another in both individual and team Ski Jumping and Nordic Combined events.  

There are only two classes for these competitions:

Junior 2 Class: age 14-16

Junior 1 Class: age 17-19

There is always one individual ski jumping competition, one individual nordic combined competition, one team ski jumping competition, one team nordic combined competition, and then a fun competition like a target jump or long standing jump.

Junior National’s are held on hill sizes ranging in the K60-K70.

How do I get invited to Junior Nationals?

           

-          Must attend eastern summer camps in Lake Placid

-          Must be able to be competitive on K60-K70 hills;

-          Must meet the minimum age requirement of 2^nd year Junior 3 ( age 13 ) set by the Eastern Junior Committee

-          Must be invited on summer trips to the mid-west and west for national  Jr. competitions

-          Must stay in active contact with Junior National coaches;

-          Must have a current USSA membership;

-          Will be invited on trips in the winter to travel to Junior National qualifiers;

-          If you qualify for Junior Nationals, and you wish to participate in the competition, you will be asked to fill out a Letter of Intent, a Medical Release Authorization, and asked to provide a deposit (to be determined each year) by the Eastern Junior Committee.

J2 Boys

Invited competitors must participate in Jr. Nationals Qualifiers. To be considered for the Eastern Team for the Jr. National Championships, a prospective athlete has to be within 40% of total points scored in a Qualifying event, based on the high scoring athlete in the J2 Eastern Division. Coaches discretion may be applied in case of illness or injury, based on trending form, attitude and commitment. The final team selection will be made by the Eastern Junior National Committee and the head coach.

J2 Girls

Invited competitors must participate in Jr. Nationals Qualifiers. To be considered for the Eastern Team for the Jr. National Championships, a prospective athlete has to be within 40% of total points scored in a Qualifying event, based on the high scoring athlete in the J2 Women’s Class. Coaches discretion may be applied in case of illness or injury, based on trending form, attitude and commitment. The final team selection will be made by the Eastern Junior National Committee and the head coach.

J1 boys and J1 girls

Same qualifying rules will apply for J1’s as listed above under the J2 rules

Rules

All competitors trying out for the JN team must follow the USSA rules and guidelines pertaining to equipment.

J2’s must be on skis that follow the 140% body height rule and suits that fit appropriately. 

J1’s must be on skis that follow FIS rules governing equipment

Nordic Combined

NC competitors must also follow the rules set forth for the special jumpers as you will be competing against special jumpers at the Junior Nationals.

Jump Sites for Qualifying

Qualifying events:       Chicago K70 Fall

                                    Chicago K70 Winter

                                    Salisbury CT K65

                                    Minneapolis K70 (additional qualifying event )

After every qualifying competition the point and percent spread will be updated.

Evan Bliss head coach NYSEF/Junior National team

evanb@nysef.org

New Years Event

Great jumping under the lights on Friday and even better on Saturday with everyone dealing with the heavy snow at times. Thanks to Central and Park City for bringing out their group of athletes this year! Mike Glasder from Norge was the winner of the famed Devlin cup this year which combines results from July 4th, Flaming Leaves, and New Years.


 To Check out full results got to www.skijumpeast.com

Jay Rand talks about past glory days!

STORY No. 60

JAY RAND

Age 62

Lake Placid, NY

Northwood School, University of CO, USST

Memories of the Past - White Rush!
It was in December of 1973 when seven members of the US Ski Jumping Team experienced a real thriller. Jerry Martin, Tom Dargay (Denver Dog), Ron Steele,(Stainless) Terry Kern, Greg Windsperger,Jeff Wright, and I were at Sepp Bradl's training facility in Mulbach, Austria, which is in the vicinity of Bischofshofen. This fearless band of characters was led by no other than our beloved Coach Ed Brisson.
 

As I remember it, the lodge where we stayed was surrounded by towering peaks, in the middle of nowhere, and hot water and warm food was a non-commodity. It snowed heavily on a daily basis throughout the week. Each day we had to trek through the heavy snow for over a mile just to get to the jumps. The last part of the journey involved a descent, and crossing of a fairly long valley, prior to climbing back up the other side to the jumping hills. Of course, this took lots of energy, and by then everyone had broken into a heavy sweat. Yet, that was only the beginning as the reality of boot packing waist deep snow followed by ski packing began.  I don't think anyone's clothes or boots ever dried out as the heat in the lodge was also nearly non-existent. This weary process continued for the first four days without a single jump. I can still vividly hear Coach Brisson growling that it was just what we needed to get us marshmallows into shape!  Finally on about the 5th day we got a very enjoyable rides even though there wasn't much snap left in anyone's legs.

Throughout the week it had snowed everyday with more heavy snows predicted. Warnings began being broadcast about avalanche dangers, and out of the 11 teams that began the week with us, only the Polish team remained. It was now the sixth day, and fearlessly we headed back out to the hill through waist deep snow. (If there ever was a real meaning to boot camp - this was it!) Even the Polish Team remained behind. By then even Coach Brisson was having doubts, but we were on our way back to the hill. We were in the middle of the valley trudging through more than waist deep snow when a thunderous roar echoed through the mountains. It appeared at first that an entire mountain top had broken off and was headed our way. For a brief second we all stood frozen before everyone began in vain to get to a safe spot on the other side. With the deep snow we all knew that was not going to happen.

Personally, I tried to get my bearings. It all happened so quickly -suddenly we were in a white cloud of snow, and I, for one, thought this could be it as I had witnessed similar avalanches in Colorado that had taken people out. Miraculously, the avalanche stopped a couple hundred yards above us. No one would have had much of a chance had it reached us.  Stainless probably did the smartest thing as I recall, he hid behind a boulder to wait it out.

We, of course, retraced our steps to get the hell out of there. The next day we were informed that another slide had made its way through the valley so some of us went back up along the higher ground to see the damages. This one clearly would have rolled over us had we been in nature's way that day.  It actually snapped down trees in its path as well as branches over 20' high along the visible sides. Its destructive path could be seen far down into the valley.

Well, it had been quite a week, but it was definitely time to move on to some civil territory. We were certainly lighter and in better shape, at least physically, and definitely thankful for our good fortune. Off to Garmisch we went where we actually got some good training and jumped in a competition that was staged for all of the teams that had been at Mulbach with us. We did pretty well - three in the top ten!  Coach Brisson thought he was on to something, and was already making reservations with Sepp Bradl for next year!  Chuckle!

This happened quite a few years ago, but this is how I remember it. Can any of you other guys, who were there, add to it!

Best regards to all my jumping friends.

All previous stories are archived at

http://usasjstoryproject.blogspot.com/

Time to catch up

The New NYSEF web site is up and running and now its time to fill you in with what went on this summer. Grasshopper camps were another huge hit this summer with the new K20 being fitted with summer plastic and porcelain so the kids could train through the heat. We saw huge improvements from all that attended so that was awesome to see!

We made a great trip out to Norge once again this fall and brought along some new faces to huck off the K70 for the first time and they all killed it! Gabby,Trent,Karl,Landon, and Beckett all had their first jumps and first competition on the K70 and did an excellent job of being confident on the bigger hill. Luke and Miles also came on the trip both put up top 5 finishes the first day with Miles finishing 1st on the second day and Luke 4th. 

The LP events of July 4th, Flaming Leaves and the famous Saturday Series went off without a hitch with Jumpers like Anders Johnson, Mike Glasder, and local celeb Pete Frenette of the USA Ski Jumping team competing in these events. The biggest surprise was Miles Lussi upsetting Andrew "the money maker" Bliss for the overall points leader in the Sat Series. Way to go Miles!

So we are now waiting for snow and doing our best snow dances to help mother nature bring a ton of the white fluffy fun. We are ready to "Suit" up!

Minneapolis

Just a quick update on results from Minneapolis for all you out there.

Junior class
1. Rogan Reid-230.3
2. Josh Maurer-228.1
3.Luke Daniels-226
4.Matthew Soukup-225.8
5.Ben Loomis-225.3
6. Miles Lussi 221.4
7.Matthew Doyle-204
12.Chris rydel-160.6
14.Samuel Shapiro-129.3

Womens class
1.Karin Friberg
2.Elizabeth Wallace
3.Annie Frenette

Overall good day of jumping from team east and as you can see top 6 in the junior class was tight. We are now in Chicago waiting to jump once the warm weather moves out. More complete update will be posted later and also Chicago results to come.

Evan

Jumpers at Andover resting between rounds: Karl Schultz, Landon Liveri, Gabby Armstrong, Matt (Roger) White, Trent White, Scott Scultz, not seen Malcolm Natale

January 8, 2012:

Lake Placid NYSEF Junior Ski Jumpers and Combiners do well at Andover meet!

Results will be posted on the Eastern web site but 6 skiers and Coach Stone made the trip to the Black Water Ski Area at Proctor Academy. Coaches Tim Norris and Jay Daniels had all four hills up and running in an otherwise brown covered New Hampshire.

Gabby Armstrong won the girls events on both the K-18 and K-38 meter hills. Trent White and Landon Liveri won their divisions and Karl Shultz, Scott Schultz, Matt White all garnered medals in their age groups. An informal X-C race was held following the jumping events in two age groups: 12 and under and 13 and up. Scott Schultz posted the fastest time in the younger group and Karl Schultz was the top NYSEF finisher in the older group in 3rd with Gabby Armstrong right behind him.