Graduate Assistant

We were hanging out at the NCAAs in Steamboat, around the middle of the week, when Andrew suddenly announced, "Mario's going to show up here in a couple days and he's going to help us out."

You may recall that Mario, after graduating from UAA, got himself a job in New York City. But he travels a lot for work, and he just happened to be working in Denver during NCAA week. So he tracked down Andrew and offered to rent a car and drive up from Denver once his work week ended.  We were really grateful at the prospect of Mario's help in Steamboat. But as with any wax tech team, every member of the team has a role that suits them best, and the team develops a work style over the course of a winter that's best not messed with at the big championship. Marine is best out on the skis, on the snow, testing and reporting her observations. Andrew is in the position of having to make the final, big decisions, of course.  And I'm at my best when daydreaming and wishing upon stars. So where was the best place for Mario in this team?  The day before Mario's arrival Andrew pronounced, "It's not a very glamorous job and he's not going to get to see much ski racing and I kind of feel bad suggesting this, but where we REALLY need Mario is in the waxing tent, waxing our test skis, rewaxing test skis for new tests, and waxing the athletes' race skis as soon as we make our waxing decisions." 

Of course Mario was ready, willing and able to do whatever was asked.  I don't think he got a chance to put on a pair of ski boots all day. But those skis just kept coming off that wax bench, all morning long, from early in the morning until moments before the start of the women's (final) race. 

As it turned out, we had a pretty successful day. Apparently, we made good waxing decisions because we had fast skis and that contributed to our success out on the trail. It was a real luxury to have a dedicated wax bench man who just stayed there and pumped out the skis all day long, and we may not have had the same success in finding fast skis had we not had Mario on our team.

Before Mario climbed into his little rental car to drive back to the Denver airport to catch his flight, he said, "You know, next year the NCAA's are going to be in Stowe, which isn't too far from New York City, so just let me know if you want me to come and help."  I'm sure we'll be calling Mario!

Late at night, after everyone else had gone to bed, Mario had his "day job" to attend to... the life of a working man.