• What is Nordic skiing?

           

            Wallkill HS Nordic Ski Team

    Guidelines and team expectations:


    Nordic skiing is an exciting sport for everyone both young and old. The mountain trails at Mohonk and Minnewaska parks are perfect for X-Country skiing. Nordic skiing is a great life sport to learn especially in an area like the Hudson Valley with the Shawangunk Mountains at our door step. When we have snow these groomed trails are the best trails on the East Coast to ski on.

    Nordic skiing is a varsity sport in Section 9 with three Schools participating in 6 to 8 races throughout the season. All three schools, Wallkill, New Paltz, and Monticello, compete at each race. We have a Sectional Championship race in mid- February where skiers can qualify to race at the State Meet which is at the end of February.

    Nordic skiing is an endurance sport where students are expected to ski 5 to 6 miles in these races. When we are training on snow they need to be able to ski as much as 6 to 8 miles on weekend practices. Therefore attendance at practice and keeping up with the training we do to achieve this level of fitness is very important. Any student who will not be able to make practice needs to notify coach Mancuso by e-mail. All practices and workout are listed on our team web site. Parents and skiers can contact the coach at mancusonicholasp@yahoo.com

     Weekend practices are very important. We usually practice on Saturdays and will even practice on Sundays when we have snow. These practices are a vital part of our program. Therefore a major commitment from parents is needed as well. It’s important for parents to drive their children up to the mountain for these practices.  We need to run and ski on the mountain where we have most of our races, because just running and roller skiing around the High School is not enough.

     Students who are not keeping up with training and endurance will fall way behind when we ski on the   mountain. This can be dangerous in cold winter conditions and could cause major problems for themselves and the rest of the team.

    Therefore by the second week in December all participants are expected to have shown marked improvement in their overall fitness.  All girls must be able to run a mile in less than 9 minutes, and all boys must be able to run a mile in less than 8 minutes. We do weekly time trials on the track to prepare for the mile test. Both boys and girls also need to master the basic skills of roller skiing at this point. Any student who has not made a commitment to attending practice and any student that has not achieved these basic levels of fitness will be asked to come back next year. This way they can be more prepared physically for an endurance sport like Nordic Skiing.

     Coach:                 Nick Mancuso

    Assistant Coach: Steve Dabroski

    Date:_________

    Parent Signature: _____________________

     

     

    rdic Skiing?