Being the diehard superfan of the UAA Nordic Ski Team Blog that you are, I know that you are already aware that my old ski team at the University of Wyoming was cut in 1992. But you might not be aware that Grace Erholtz got herself a college degree by researching the events and dynamics surrounding the elimination of the team and writing her master's thesis about it.
Under normal circumstances, us common folk would never be able to get our hands on a research paper such as this one. We'd probably have to enroll in a university and then get a library card and learn how to use the dewey decimal system or figure out how to look things up on microfiche... all of which we'd be pretty unlikely to manage. But since you're all friends of mine, and since I'm friends with Grace Erholtz, you now have access to this fascinating work of literature, by extension, just because you're avid readers of the UAA Nordic Ski Team Blog!
Though the events described in Grace's research happened over thirty years ago, they are nevertheless as timely and relevant now as they were back then. Many NCAA ski teams have been cut during the intervening years, and some of those teams have even have been reinstated. Our UAA Ski Team was almost cut - twice - in recent years. And with the current hijinx playing out in the federal court system surrounding the Dartmouth men's basketball team and the proposal to share revenues with team members of major college football and basketball teams, there's no small amount of trepidation about what's in store in terms of Olympic sport development in the USA, and its reliance on the NCAA athlete development model.
Anyway, let's not worry about all that for now. Let's find a comfortable chair, ease back, maybe pour yourself a glass of your favorite beverage, and read Grace Erholtz' case study about the elimination of an NCAA Division 1 ski team.
And if you want to find Grace out on the ski trails next winter, you can find her with Team Birkie, where she just got herself a new job as their development coach. Congratulations, Grace!
Grace Erholtz' Masters Thesis Can Be Found Here
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| Grace Erholtz |
