Base in Northfield, MN, the St Olaf Nordic Ski Team is growing a reputation with its promising close-knit community and growing success. Although with the Ole’s rapid improvements in the CCSA trails, the St Olaf Team also has a strong legacy at the USCSA National Championships, often being a contender for Individual and National Championships.

St Olaf team members after intervals earlier this winter

One major draw to the program is Head Coach Kevin Brochman. Brochman in a renowned Nordic Skiing coach in the United States, having been a two time U.S. Olympian himself, along with coaching several Olympians. He not only coached the 1984 and 1988 Olympic teams but also was named the 1997 U.S. Ski Team Coach of the Year award.   Brochman is in his 8th year coaching at Olaf, and he has led the athletes to numerous U.S. College Skiing Association National Championships titles, along with coaching both Paige Schember in 2014 and Jake Brown in 2015 to the NCAAs. “The nordic team is a very close group of skiers,” says former Olympian and Head Coach, Kevin Brochman, “They often study together, eat together and still have time to train together. Their cohesiveness makes it easy to coach in many ways”.

Members of the St Olaf Women’s team

Hosting one of the larger rosters in the CCSA, Olaf draws many of its athletes from Minnesota and the team bonds quickly, building a community within the team. “I love my team. Everyone is so supportive of one another which creatures a great team atmosphere. This allows us to have fun where we go while maintaining a high level of competition,” expressed Lucia Wyland. The team not only has the custom of traveling to West Yellowstone every Thanksgiving for a training camp, but Brochman also says the team trains a lot during the summer together, often getting together at cabins in Northern Minnesota and Wisconsin for mini-training camps and bonding time. “One of my favorite traditions that the ski team has is that most years is that around finals time in December, we have a holiday gathering. We watch the movie Elf, and have pasta in the style of the movie (with maple syrup and candy), and follow it up with a gift exchange! It’s a wholesome break to finals stress!” stated Ware-Joncas.

The St Olaf team after a very successful weekend in Rhinelander, WI this season

One of two liberal art schools in the CSSA, Olaf is a great choice for a student who is looking to ski on a college team but also wants to pursue other experiences. “[Skiers] go to college at St Olaf to be well-rounded student-athletes” Brochman states, “Often they are part of the band, the choir, or doing a fall sport before they join the nordic team. In the fall some are on the soccer team and some are on the cross country team”

“St Olaf for me had a little bit of everything I wanted. I chose the school because of its strong background in health sciences, and the focus on study abroad and music” expressed Spencer Ware-Joncas. “I loved that I could truly do a liberal arts experience and study Exercise Science and German. I wasn’t completely certain what I wanted in a college, so I came to St Olaf, partially because I could try so many different things!”

Sadie Peterson and Coach Jeremy Hecker at NCAAs last year

The Green Bay Nordic Ski Team hosted a successful weekend in Rhinelander, Wisconsin this past weekend. While Green Bay is not necessarily known for its annual snowfall (hence having their home meet 2  1/2 hours away), the University of Wisconsin Green Bay allows for student-athletes to succeed in strong academic programs and benefit from the top of the line ski coaching. In his second year of coaching at the university, Jeremy Hecker is taking steps to make the Green Bay Nordic Ski Team stand out. “We are the only collegiate ski program in Wisconsin, and the only fully Division I program in the CCSA. We have the ability to give athletes a Division I school experience which is very unique. We have a very competitive campus, and it is fun to be a part of the Division I culture”. Hecker is familiar with competitive teams, as he formally was an assistant coach at Williams College and Stratton Mountain School, where he worked with some of the most successful juniors and professional skiers in the country.

GB Women training this fall

Last season, Hecker coached Sadie Peterson to the NCAA Championships, and he is hoping to build on that this year. Sam Meyers and Shad Kraftson are on the cusp of qualifying on the men’s season, and Lara Ketterer currently in contention on the women’s side, showing the growth for the Phoenixes. “While I do look at performance and results as a factor in the recruiting process, my biggest focus is on how the athlete will fit in with the team,” said Hecker.

Working hard in the rain this fall

The Green Bay Team emphasizes that having similar-minded athletes helps increases the overall team performances, and there are plenty of opportunities to bond at Green Bay’s Training Camps. “I make sure that we spend as much time together as possible and we have at least 1 or 2 camps per year. This fall we had two training camps, one in Door County in late September and another in Cable over Thanksgiving. It is during these training camps that we get closer as a team because we will eat, train, and sleep together. We usually try to get at least 1 or two games of Settlers of Catan going during these camps as well!” Green Bay’s ability to have fun is a big part of them being able to push hard in the workouts. “Whether its intervals, long ODs, or volunteer work the members of the team know how to have a good time!” said redshirt junior Sadie Peterson, “I think my favorite thing about the GB team is our capability to have fun with whatever we are doing.”

GB Team enjoying themselves last winter

The close-knit culture is an important part of the Green Bay Team, senior Cory Rouw explained, “My favorite part about the Green Bay team is the community we have within ourselves. We are a group of different people working together towards a common goal. As they get on their goals in the CCSA, it will only transfer onto the National level. “The thing I like about racing in the CCSA is the competitiveness of the region,” Peterson wrote, “I think it is impressive that the CCSA is competitive on a national level despite not having the opportunity to win a national championship (lacking alpine). It’s fun to be a part of the speedy group of gals and it’s so fun to watch the guys too!”

The NMU Ski team has historically had a lot of success, including 9 past NCAA National Champions, 103 All-Americans and countless Olympians. This success has continued this season when the team claimed the overall College Cup, as the best College Team at the U.S. Cross Country Championships. The Wildcats then followed up that success with strong performances this past weekend in Coleraine, Minnesota, with 3 wins out of four races and 8 podiums out of 12.

The Women’s Team at Mt. Itasca- the NMU Ski team has athletes from the US, Canada, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, Austria, and the Czech Republic

These successes have come out of a huge turnover of the team’s athletes this year- almost have of the team is new, and only one of last year’s six NCAA athletes is competing this season. With these new athletes comes an increase of European athletes.

Men’s Team training earlier this winter

There are many benefits to having such a diverse squad, as evident in Northern’s results this season. European athletes tend to be a bit older when they first start racing collegiately in the US, not only giving them more racing experience than the average collegiate freshman, but the racing experience they have in Europe is typically much more competitive than we see in the Midwest. “In Europe, or at least in Sweden, most races are national, which means that you always compete against the best skiers in the nation,” says Malin Bojesjoe (Umeaa, Sweden). This past weekend at Mt. Itasca, 9 of the 12 of CCSA podium spots were filled with non-American athletes (the other three were from the Tech’s Goble siblings, Sarah and Reid), demonstrating the higher standard these athletes convey to the Midwest racing scene. “I really like having European teammates because they bring so much knowledge,” Freshman Matthew Bourne (Lake Elmo, MN) said, “As the youngest person on the team, both my European and American teammates help me and teach me to become a better skier. They bring in a lot of racing experience, and I have learned so much”.

Members of the women’s team celebrating after a win

Recruiting European athletes is much different than recruiting American athletes, as very few can see the university and team before they arrive on campus, and many times, athletes hear about American collegiate teams through word of mouth. “I first heard about NMU through some friends from home. A former coach of mine was at Michigan Tech and told me that if I wanted to ski on the top level, I should go to NMU. Most importantly was the recommendation from the former Austrian national coach who used to be the Norwegian head coach as well as a good friend of [Sten Fjeldhelm].” Tobias Moosman (Kossen, Austria) wrote, “The biggest difference between Europe and the US in racing is that we are fighting for one team and the university. If somebody has a bad day, your teammates help you get through.” Pauline Forren (Snillfjord, Norway) also commented on the strong team dynamics in Marquette, “What I really like about the team is how we look out each for each other and at the same time, we push each other every day to become better skiers”.

The Men’s podium at PreNationals in Houghton

The NMU ski team plans on building on their successes this season, with the goal of sending a full team (3 men and 3 women) to NCCAs, and they hope to have some All-American worthy performances in Bozeman, Montana at NCAA Championships.  “We are getting stronger together,” says Moosman.