SSH has decided to take her coaching game to another level - to the junior level. After three years bestowing her knowledge on us here at UAA, Sara will be leaving on a road trip this week, towing a trailer down the Alcan to Midway, Utah where she'll be showing young aspiring skiers the tricks of the trade. Sara's really excited to take what she's learned working with Andrew and UAA's college athletes, and work with kids who are closer to the wellspring, so to speak. At the NCAA level, there's pressure to perform at a high level, immediately, and there's somewhat less time for experimentation and skill development. But now she will be working with younger skiers, and she'll have the time and the freedom to help them develop the basic skills that they'll need as they grow older and try to compete at higher levels. My advice: I hope she will direct her young team to follow her around like a family of ducklings and learn to skate exactly like Sara during practice. Because if those kids can learn to imitate Sara's skating technique, there will be a bunch of crazy-good skate skiers coming out of Utah soon!
We're really going to miss Sara around here. There were a couple of tears shed down at the park the other night when we got together to say goodbye and wish her well. But of course we'll be seeing her from time to time on the road at ski races. So it's not goodbye forever.
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| Here's the whole gang on a Friday night, hanging out at the Air Force base. |
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| On my drive home past the Big Boy on Muldoon, I caught this sign out of the corner of my eye, and had to swing a U-turn and go back to get a photo of it for this blog. |
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| The team is sending Sara off to the Lower 48 with a personalized wax apron. |
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| I included this picture because it looks like a promo poster for a traveling rock band. I'll let you guess who plays what. |
