Greetings NENSA community,

It is a pleasure to welcome Paradis Sport as NENSA’s newest Supporting Sponsor! Please click on the logo to visit their site where you will find thoughtful product design, an environmental mission, and so many familiar faces on their Ambassador list - true testament to the fit with our community. We are so grateful for their support and look forward to partnering on several projects including, of course, Women’s Day in Jackson, NH, January 22, 2022.

In addition to the brilliant displays of mother nature, fall presents so many opportunities for planning and collaboration in our community. We hosted our largest fall coaches education event since pre-pandemic times in Dublin last week. Experiencing the engagement, the contributions, and the teamwork among our New England coaches was inspiring and has us already thinking about a weekend symposium next year. You’ll find more in the realm of winter planning and education here today, alongside recaps and announcements of our fall programming.

In this week’s edition of KickZone

• Eastern Coaches Conference Recap
• YES Clinic Recap
• Climb to the Castle video
• Maine Event on October 23
• Membership renewal
• Fall scenes from the New England community
• US Ski and Snowboard Club Excellence Fall Summit Webinar - registration deadline is today
• SKIDA custom team orders
• Toko team order forms and new products podcast
• Concept2 SkiErg World Sprints

In the news

• FasterSkier: Changing Seasons 2022

Take time to savor the autumn blaze, and I hope you also enjoy some of the beautiful scenes of October skiing in New England below!

All my best,

Heidi

Heidi Lange

Executive Director

New England Nordic Ski Association

heidi@nensa.net

www.NENSA.net

GIVING: DONATE to NENSA today, and thank you!



MEMBERSHIP: RENEW or JOIN today, and thank you!

Memberships directly support ALL of our year-round programming, backing us in our mission to nurture and sustain an active cross country ski community for all ages and levels throughout the East. Thank you for taking a minute to renew or join NENSA, and for the important support your membership provides!

Thank you to all our NENSA Sponsors ~ they are such a HUGE part of our NENSA programming continued success, and we so appreciate their support. I want to be sure we all acknowledge the businesses who support us and cross country skiing!

It was a fun weekend of learning at the Dublin School! Educational offerings included a BKL Coaches Training as well as the US Ski & Snowboard’s L100 and L200 coach practicums. The goal of this weekend was to bring coaches and aspiring coaches together in a welcoming environment so we can learn from each other and better serve the athletes in our respective communities so skiing is a fun and positive experience for them. Our hope is that youth and junior skiers develop many skills through sport and are inspired to be active for life whether they follow a competitive or recreational pathway....read the full story HERE

We were thrilled to make the trip to Boston this past weekend for a sunny morning of fun and games on rollerskis with the Youth Enrichment Services (YES) and Eastern Mass Cross Country! This was the second annual YES rollerski clinic held with the goal of introducing young people in the Boston area to the summer version cross country skiing, building stoke for the winter season, and providing an opportunity for YES participants to get acquainted with the EMXC athletes who assist with coaching YES’s winter ski program.

Working with YES and EMXC is always such a pleasure and in addition to NENSA’s dedicated sponsors and grantors, this event would not be possible without the support of our generous donors, the Weston Ski Track who provided boots and poles for the clinic, and the Massachusetts Department of Conservation & Recreation for the use of their Tenean Beach parking lot. 

We hope you enjoy this clip of the 2022 Climb to the Castle.

There are two Rollerski Competitions left this season. The Maine Event XCX hosted at Pineland Farm, Maine (October 23rd) and the Mt. Greylock Hillclimb in western Massachusetts (November 6th).

As you can see and feel Rollerski Events have such a great vibe, they provide excellent training, yet in a laidback atmosphere they are fun and create shared experiences for all!

We hope to see you before the snow flies.

On Sunday morning October 23rd NENSA will be hosting the fourth Maine Event — the first Rollerski Cross Country Cross event (XCX) in the world. This exciting summer version of Cross Country Cross (XCX) builds on aspects of both sprinting and agility. The event will take place at Pineland Farms in New Gloucester, Maine. Originally designed for local collegiate skiers, we are thrilled to see growth in participation each year from high school, club and masters skiers.  

All event and registration details are HERE. 

Enjoy this short video from last year's event:

Plans and preparations are well underway for the approaching winter season and it is time for membership renewals. Renew U.S. Ski & Snowboard memberships by October 15th to avoid late fees. 

It is also the perfect time to renew NENSA memberships. NENSA membership is required for attendance at the BKL Festival, Eastern Cup, U16 and EHS Championship events, as well as for Junior National, Zak, and Club Cup rankings. Memberships also directly support ALL of our year-round programming, backing us in our mission to nurture and sustain an active cross country ski community for all ages and levels throughout the East. Thank you for taking a minute to tend to these renewals, and for the important support your membership provides!

THANK YOU TO OUR NENSA CONTRIBUTING SPONSORS:

THANK YOU TO OUR NENSA SUPPORTING SPONSORS:

Friendly reminder that today is the last day to register!

Please join us for our four-part Club Excellence Fall Summit Webinar Series - 5:00 PM - 6:30 PM MDT 

Each of these 4 sessions will provide content for coaches, administrators, parents, and volunteers to further their understanding of best principles and practices that are the foundation of a culture of continued improvement. 

• Session 1 - October 12th - Cody Royle - “Performance Lessons from Coaching the World's Top Coaches”
• Session 2 - October 19^th - Kristen Dieffenbach -“Effective Coaching: Investing in yourself to support your athletes”
• Session 3 - October 26th - Per Lundstam - “Youth Athletic Development and Skills Quest Fitness”
• Session 4 - November 2nd - Dylan Hale Thornton - "DEI: Barriers, benefits, and solutions to help create opportunities and supported program culture for underrepresented youth” 

Toko Team Night Program

From Toko: We are continuing with our popular team night program. The purpose of this program is to facilitate team orders from team members through Toko dealers. We offer this program using two order forms: one for gloves and bags and the other for waxes and tools. Please get together as a team and decide as a team that you will make a team order. The coach or a volunteer distributes the forms to the team members and assigns a deadline date by which all order forms have to be filled out and returned. That person then contacts a local ski shop (hopefully a Toko dealer) and sends them the orders. The shop would then place a special order to us (at a special price). We would send the product to the ski shop. Team members would then go to the local ski shop and pick up and pay for the items that they ordered. We have pretty much everything in stock now so the turnaround would be quick.

2022/23 Winter New Products Preview

Ian Harvey gives a quick 10 minute summary of new exciting products that we will be offering this winter. Highlights include a new vastly improved Structure tool, Soelden 15 Powder, Rotobrushes, and a Ski Holder/Rack. Ian also reports on our inventory status which is very positive. (Audio only).

Changing Seasons 2022

October 12, 2022 | by John Teaford

We just can’t wait . . . for winter in the air, for the cold in our breath, for fluffy flakes falling from the sky, for snow on the ground. Seasons turn, leaves surrender, days shorten, and our imaginations turn to tracks on the hills and corduroy on the trails. Winter is coming . . . and we just can’t wait.

Youth Sport autumn leagues are winding down—soccer, mountain biking, cross country running, all the wonderful sports offered through programs and schools—and young ski-athletes are beginning to imagine winter. Throughout the world’s skiing nations, kids and coaches, teams and programs begin gathering on playing fields and running trails and parking lots. SKIERS are beginning to gather! Programs supporting young skiers stage workouts and meetings, combine games and skills with ski-specific challenges and opportunities. This is the season of trying on new boots, of sizing up taller poles, of shopping skis at the ski swap. This is the season of bounding and striding, of strength-building and core-testing: we re-start the process of building young skiers in preparation for the season we love.

In youth programs around the skiing world, kids are rolling tentatively across parking lots, re-learning the skills of roller skiing: the pushing and the gliding, the slowing and the stopping, the weight shift and the body posture. In every skiing community, young skiers are taking first steps onto paved paths and suitable roadways, learning techniques that allow wheels to imitate skis and pavement to imitate snow...read more at FasterSkier

THANK YOU TO OUR NENSA OFFICIAL SUPPLIERS:

Designed by NENSA's very own Youth & Introductory Program Director. Cost is $25 per hat (includes shipping and handling). All proceeds go to supporting NENSA's community-based programming and events.