Snow finally fills the trails which means it ski season. BSM nordic heads into the season hoping for another successful season by sending racers to state and by competing in the tough Metro West Conference.

All four senior captains–Keelan Gorman, Ava Schieffert, Erin Long, and Joe Munkeby–have high expectations for themselves and the rest of the team. “It’ll be nice to go to state as a team, but we’ll focus on individuals, and getting everyone to race, since we have a lot of new kids on the team and watching them race this year will be a great start,” Gorman said.

This year the team lost several key skiers, especially on the girls’ side, so it’s going to take a lot of rebuilding and hard work during the season to get the team where they want to be. “We lost almost half of our girls’ varsity team, which hurts the camaraderie but we have younger skiers that will help build new leadership on the team,” Schieffert said.

One important aspect of an elite team is friendship and a strong bond between both the skiers and the coaches. Every year the Nordic team spends a few days up at Maplelag in Becker County in order to build such relationships. “I’m excited for Maplelag which is a trip we go on as a team where we just ski for fun and it’s a great team bonding experience that I always look forward to,” Gorman said.

Along with building strong bonds, the team will focus on practice and commitment in order to succeed. Since the ski season is so short they really have to take advantage of the little amount of practice time they have before the meets start. “In order to be ready for the season, we will have to train hard and work hard consistently, day in and day out. It may be cliche but it always works,” Gorman said.

The balance of new skiers and experienced veterans will bring this team a long way this season. “It’s going to be a fun year; we have a lot of new skiers that I’m excited to see perform this year and if anyone still wants to join they are more than welcome. #realskierskiuphill,” Schieffert said.