The team, both high school and middle school, meets beginning the end of October until the season ends in early March depending on snow. There is an early emphasis on getting kids ready to participate in our conference and state meets in early February. After that, some of the kids will participate in our own races, the Nicolet Norski and possibly the Stump Farm, perhaps participate in the state sprint meet around the Capitol Square in Madison, and finally many will participate in the Kortelopet half marathon race and team sprints as part of the American Birkibeiner in Cable.
A typical week would have kids meeting after school until 5-5:30 Tuesday through Thursday and the weekend days. MS sometimes adds a week day and doesn’t always meet both weekend days. We have to balance the amount of sunlight available in winter with hours needed to ski and the weekends give us a long time of sunlight compared to the hour or so available from the after school practice start time of 3:45 to 5PM. A couple of days per week we will also have a strength session at Bellin XL in Ashwaubenon.
High school practice time is recorded to track progress and to help fulfill the requirements for participating in the state championships. 75% of practices are required if you want to participate along with 50% of strength sessions. Unlike many other sports, nordic skiing does not have qualification for state competition: everybody can participate that is involved with a team.
The Middle school program emphasizes learning to ski and adopting life long sport and activity and has no practice requirements. We want you to ski, but begin to learn at an early age how to fit it into your own life. We do find that if you can’t attend a few practices per week of the 4-5 available, you will not progress very quickly because of the balance and other technique skills the sport demands.
