Bill Jennings: Holiday camp gives kids a chance to try out ski racing
The Spokane Ski Racing Association opens its annual Holiday Camp next Tuesday. The SSRA Holiday Camp provides an opportunity for families interested in ski racing to investigate the possibility of running gates in regional competitions.
The program isn’t just for kids, either, according to SSRA Executive Director Dan Henry. “Holiday camp is great for kids who have gone through ski lessons who want to see what training is like,” he said. “But we’ll have skiers of all ages, from kids 5 or 6 years old all the way up to skiers in their 50s. The families have as much fun as the athletes.”
For parents, SSRA’s Holiday Camp gives them a way to learn if their kids will enjoy ski racing. The emphasis is on having fun, as well as developing skills. From Dec. 27-30, from 9 a.m.-2:30 p.m., activities include practicing racing fundamentals intermixed with supervised free skiing on open terrain. The program finale is a giant slalom club race that gives campers a chance to see what it’s like to race through gates and get an official time. Trophies are presented at a barbecue after the event.
Henry is launching his first season as SSRA chief. He took over for former executive director Chuck Holcomb, who stepped down to focus on his career in education after leading the program for 18 years.
“When I was working on making a transition away from the position I talked with Dan about joining the staff,” Holcomb said. “I have a lot of respect for how he goes about working with kids.”
Henry said he wanted to make sure this column was less about him than the kids in the program. He said teaching them life skills such as work ethic, self discipline and time management is more important to SSRA than race results.
“It’s also got to be fun,” he said. “Results are the by-product of what we teach. Our objective is just to develop healthy teenagers with all around life skills. If they end up going to the national team or collegiate, that’s a by-product of giving kids the skills necessary to pursue those routes if they want to.”
Coming from the population-dense west side skiing scene gives Henry perspective about the quality and potential of SSRA as a youth development organization.
“In the Seattle area, we had to cap the numbers in our programs because we couldn’t find the staff to coach them,” he said. “We have people here who are passionate. There’s a lot more commitment and a community feel at this local hill.”
According to Henry, factors such as the training environment, Mount Spokane’s terrain and the level of support from mountain management and staff give SSRA the potential to be on of the top teams in the country. His goals include developing programs that meets the needs of a variety of skiers.
Possibilities include growing the masters program and providing recreational racing for the public. He mentioned the city league at Alpental, in Snoqualmie, Washington, as an example. Alpental’s racing league has up to 80-100 participants four nights a week. But he said programs like that are more likely to happen down the road, when he can make sure they are organized, well-managed and successful.
For developing young ski racers, Henry said Mount Spokane provides SSRA the strongest support in its competitive division – a higher level of support than some very expensive racing academies in the western U.S.. He emphasized that family life is critical for teenagers and traveling away from home to train at an academy is unhealthy. Some sacrifice their education for a number of years. When they go down that path its no longer fun – it becomes work.
“Grass roots programs like ours are where the majority of athletes who end up on the U.S. team come from,” he said. “As long as we keep the focus on developing healthy young kids into young adults rather than trying to get a race result, SSRA will to continue to thrive. It has the potential to produce a number of incredible athletes.”
You can learn more about SSRA Holiday Camp at gossra.org