Thread Tools

**truebluefan** · 08-08-2008, 08:18 PM

If it were up to Jennifer VanWagner (Traverse City, MI), all athletes would have to stack 10 tons of hay before being named to the U.S. Alpine Ski Team. As part of a summer training and Team building camp, the women's Development Team hauled and stacked 330 bales of hay at the farm of National Development Director Walt Evans.

"My arms are still itching," said VanWagner, who now shares hay rashes with Teammates Julia Ford (Plymouth, NH), Felicia Byers (Sandy, UT), Alice McInnis (New Castle, CO) and Kayla Fry (Reno, NV). "But it was completely awesome. Just being together and working as a team, no matter how hard the task, is so much fun. This is such a great Team because we all will do anything to succeed at ski racing, but we're also in it for the fun."

As Evans explains, the goal was to establish a solid Team environment that motivates the athletes to push and pull on each other. So far, he says, so good.

Much of the success is thanks to the creative training methods of Development Team Conditioning Coach, Shaun Goodwin, who also updates the Women's D Team blog.

The current post reads "We Ski, We Kayak and We are Cowgirls."

In addition to baling hay, Goodwin taught the crew whitewater kayaking at the nearby Weber River, a program he started with the Team while training at Mt. Hood in the spring.

"I've never had so much fun training," said Julia Ford, also a second year Development Team member and recent winner of the Golden Ski Award as the 2008 top junior female Eastern amateur ski racer. "It's weird to think that baling hay could be fun, but with this crew, anything is fun - painful - but still fun."

Ford and Co. made the commitment to living in Utah in order to train with the Team and take advantage of the training facilities. Whitewater is just a bonus.

"We're all mostly living in Utah now, so it's a really tight group. We all love to laugh and have a good time, but when it comes to workouts and learning we're all business, especially in the river. Shaun used to be a pro kayaker when he was younger, so he's been a great teacher. None of us have a solid roll, but we're getting it," she said.

To cap the recent Park City training camp, Evans rewarded the Team, for a successful camp and for stuffing his hayloft, with a horseback ride, bar-b-que and cowgirl photo shoot in Deer Valley. Entertainment provided by Evan's own cowboy band, Detour Utah.

The complimentary dinner ride, thanks to Gibb Kerr of Boulder Mountain Ranch originates near the Silver Lake Lodge at Deer Valley and weaves it way up the Deer Ski Resort to the dinner site perched high on Bald Mountain overlooking the Jordanelle Reservoir and the Provo River Valley. At the summit, the Team participated in a cowgirl photo shoot complete with chuck wagon and cowgirl regalia.

"We all dressed up in cowboy duds from Walt's tack room," said Ford. "They had Western food and Walt's band was tearing it up. I was working the dance floor - probably not very well - but I was into it. It was such a fun way to end the camp."

The Team now has a few weeks off before reconvening at Mt. Hood in early August for another on-snow camp, cowboy hats required.

Check out more shots from the Deer Valley photo shoot here, and follow the adventures of the U.S. Women's Alpine Development Team on their blog.

Thread Tools

View more Skiing photos