NORDIC SKIING
2010-2011 State Awardees
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NORDIC SKIING2010-2011 State Awardees |
Click on Awardees names to read their nomination letter
Coach Of the Year Chris Torvi, Irondale
Assistant Coach Of the Year Doug White, Roseville
Volunteer of the Year Greg Minerich, Duluth
Coach of the Year for the 2010-2011 Season
Mike Smith and I (Co-Head Coaches of Mounds View Nordic) would like to nominate
Chris Torvi, the Head Coach of Irondale's Nordic Team. In recent years, Coach
Torvi has built a remarkable 3k trail system behind Irondale High School.
Furthermore, he has garnered the support of many volunteers and continues to
build the Irondale Nordic program. This has been no small feat, requiring many
hours of cutting back over-growth and smoothing the system in the off-season,
plus countless hours of early morning and late night grooming to keep the trails
beautiful.
Chris is also very helpful to other coaches and skiers, offering to help out new
skiers and coaches alike. One of the ways he does this is by being a member of
the Victor C Dunder committee, helping to provide equipment to needy skiers. In
addition, Chris elevates skiing in the area by putting on a classic meet on the
trail system at Irondale. For coaches, Chris spends many hours doing all the
scoring for the TCNS ski conference meets. He devised a googledoc for the
conference and all coaches send their team results to him. He then does the
scoring. Great for the other coaches because we often get a file with the
results posted after midnight that he has had to tabulate. We sleep while he is
doing this! Chris' skiers are lucky to have this charismatic dynamo as their
coach!
Assistant Coach of the Year for the 2010-2011 Season
I would like to nominate Doug White as Assistant Nordic Ski Coach of the Year. For the past twelve years, Doug has helped coach the highly successful Roseville Area High School Nordic Ski Team. He started coaching when his daughter was on the team, and has been an integral part of the coaching staff ever since. Doug has many strengths that have been tremendously helpful to Roseville’s ski team. He is very knowledgeable in the wax room, helping kids apply wax and getting skis ready to be “fast” for races and practices. Doug records times at all the races, and often has split times and results before the “official” results come out. The skiers always gravitate towards him to find out how they did. Doug is an experienced skier and quite fit (he biked across the United States this summer!). Instruction is another strong point, especially teaching the fundamentals of skiing, to the new or younger skiers. Doug has been involved in the Minnesota Youth Ski League for many years where countless youth skiers have benefited from his help. He relates well to all ages and all levels of skiers.
Doug has been a big part of Roseville’s success over the years and is very deserving of being selected as Assistant Coach of the Year.
submitted by Fred Kueffer, Roseville
Volunteer of the Year for the 2010-2011 Season
Greg Minerich lives in Bend, Oregon but spends his winters in Duluth. For the
past five years Greg has been a daily volunteer for the Duluth East X-C ski
team.
Every day at practice Greg helps wherever needed. If we are glide waxing skis
he arrives early and sets up all the wax benches. He gets the irons and wax
out, sharpens the scrapers and helps iron on the wax. He stays until the very
end of the waxing session and then helps clean up. This can be a very long
evening as our maximum is 120 pairs of skis to be waxed. On our classic days,
Greg is in the wax room helping new skiers wax their skis.
Greg goes to every race to help in any way he can, waxing skis, putting capes on
skiers or helping new skiers get to their start on time.
Greg is a kind, quiet person that the coaches and skiers rely on and love to have around.
We are lucky to have Greg back helping the team this winter. Last summer he was
diagnosed with bladder cancer. After surgery, chemo and in the process of a
long recovery Greg transferred his care to doctors in Duluth. Greg did this so
he could spend the winter helping the team. After our ski team banquet, Greg
will be heading back to Bend, Oregon.
We will be looking forward to Greg's help again next winter.
Submitted by Bonnie Fuller Kask, Duluth East Head Nordic Coach
