Welcome back

Hope you’ve all had a great summer. With the wonderful warm weather we’ve been having, it’s been hard to think about or even imagine that in a few short months we’ll be standing alongside a ski trail somewhere watching our kids burning through a string of gates. Yes, we adults will be freezing our buns off standing there and yes, we will have been up until 1:00 AM the night before tuning multiple pairs of skis - but hey, that’s what makes all this so much fun! I guess I better stop there or I’ll be scaring folks off rather than attracting them to the club.

With that said, let’s see how many new families we can get out to Cochran’s this coming year. And let’s start this effort with Dryland Training days this fall. If you know of any families with kids who you think might be interested in being a part of the Cochran’s ski racing program, by all means invite them to one of the Dryland training days, particularly September 29^th, when we’ll have Dryland accompanied by a short parent work day and potluck supper at the lodge (they can come just to the supper unless of course, they want to help out with some projects - which is a great way for parents to get to know one another). We’ll gather for the supper at around 4:00 PM at the lodge. Bring a dish large enough for your family plus two (there’s never much in the way of leftovers!) and remember to bring a friend or another family that you’d like to introduce to the club.

Speaking of work days and parents, let’s not forget that Cochran’s Ski Club and Cochran’s Ski Area for that matter, are both non-profits and function much like a Cooperative where members and friends all lend a helping hand to make things happen and run smoothly. The Area has relied on the Club since the Clubs’ inception to help out with projects that benefit both the area and the club. I fully realize that we can’t always be there to lend a helping hand and certainly don’t want to discourage anyone from being in the Club if you really can’t help out once in awhile but I think you’ll find that we really have a good time during these work days that we plan every so often. There’s always a lot to do at other times as well such as helping out on race days or lending a hand in the lodge if the paid staff are in short supply at any particular time. I can’t even begin to tell you how many great personal friends my family and I have made since becoming a part of Cochran’s.

And don’t forget the Ski Sale - we always need a huge effort by Club members to pull this off - remember, this is where we get our whole operating budget including salaries for the coaches, so if you can make it to the sale to help out - fantastic! There will be sign-up sheet at Dryland training for different tasks at the ski sale so please sign up for something on at least one of the days. More on the ski sale elsewhere in this newsletter.

And speaking of coaches, we are still in the process of finding a new head coach and have some very good prospects for this position either already on staff or from outside of our organization. Most of the other coaches will be coming back with the addition of a couple of new faces (not new to the club, just to coaching). We’ve even talked our club VP and “all around skiing aficionado”, Joe Cutts, into helping out in coaching the J5 - J6 kids - lucky for them. More on the coaching situation will follow as we progress with this effort Well, enough of this for now, and I hope to see you all soon.

Don Tobi

Cochran’s Dryland Camp

The Fourth Annual Cochran’s Dryland Camp was held July 29^th to August 2^nd. Sixteen youngsters attended the camp under the direction of Barbara Ann Cochran. Erik and Karl Johnson returned once again and showed the campers how to train hard, as well as how to play hard. (Erik and Karl learned to ski at Cochran’s and developed into top-notch racers through the Cochran Ski Club. This year they will be attending Dartmouth College. Many of these young skiers were touched by their friendship and will be following their racing careers at the collegiate level, as well as aspiring to follow in their footsteps).

Along with Erik and Karl, the camp was lucky to have Danielle Petter as a counselor. Danielle is one of the “older” Cochran Ski Club members who now races for CVU. Danielle began her day by biking from Williston to Richmond before starting the workouts! Not only is Danielle an athlete who is incredibly fit, she is a caring and nurturing leader who motivated and encouraged all the campers.

Two previous campers returned this year to make the transition from participant to CIT (Counselor-in-Training). George Davis and Jake Tobi did a wonderful job learning that the perspective as a counselor is different from that of a camper. Hopefully, they will return as full-fledged counselors.

The week was filled with Ultimate Frisbee, Swedish, calisthenics, circuit training, lots of biking, some hiking, and lots of swimming at a new hole introduced to us by Max Ebenstein---a place with great ledges from which to jump and enough space to play “Sharks and Minnows”.

Barbara Ann led the group through mental exercises to “gain the mental edge”. Jen Botzojorns invented a new game called “Liquid Wax” to work on team building, as well as took care of the logistics for a canoe outing on Friday from the Bolton Canoe Access to the Richmond/Cochran Road Canoe Access. Many thanks, Jen for your help and also to Chuck Courcy who lent us several canoes, rack, and truck to transport them. The highlight of the trip (besides a couple of capsized canoes) was a stop at the rope swing in Jonesville. Former counselor, Tim Kelley, who paddled the Winooski in a kayak, also joined us. Glad you could join us, Tim!

The “Ironboy and Irongirl Triathlon” consisting of a bike ride from the entrance to the walking trail along the river to the canoe access, a swim across the river, and a run along the walking trail was won by Robby Kelley (boy) and Grace Cutts (girl) and Caitlin Siegle, Leif Botzojorns, and Emily Tobi (team).

Thursday night was the traditional cookout and sleepover. Tents were set up in the soccer field. Everyone with the exception of George (who slept in the first-aid room) slept in the tents.  After dusk, the kids filled the evening with S’Mores, flashlight tag, and an entertaining, creative show of Karaoke MC’d by Caitlin Siegle, who demonstrated she could have a future as a DJ.

To find out how the kids felt about their week, ask the participants:

 Caitlin and Ryan Siegle, Robby Kelley, Harrison and Emily Tobi, Uli and Leif Botzojorns, Tim Davis, Grace and Lilly Cutts, David and Alan Schmidt, Andrew Freeman, Will and Daniel Hibbs, and Max Ebenstein.

As Ryan said, “This camp is my favorite camp of the summer!”

                     B. A. Cochran

Ski Club Work Days

As mentioned above, we’ll be planning a workday on Sunday, September 15^th, which coincides with the first Dryland training session.  Usually we’ve had one or more work sessions by that time so there will be lots to do on this day.   Lets plan on getting started at around 10:00 AM or so and working until around 4:00 PM. If you can’t make it for the whole time, no problem, just give us what you can.   We’ll have another short work session as mentioned above on September 29^th to hopefully finish up any leftover projects.  It is possible that we’ll need another session on October 13^th or the Sunday just prior to the ski sale especially if we decide we need more racks built or something, but we’ll use the e-mail list to get this info out when the time grows closer. A list of what we’d like to accomplish follows (not necessarily in order of importance) but we’ll reserve the right to change things around as time and attendance allows or due to my mental capacity in trying to remember all of these things as I write this.

·          Clean out a section of the old lodge (lower lodge) for storage of all of the racks, signs, etc. that we use for the ski sale. At present, all of this stuff is stored in Marilyn Johnson’s garage as she has graciously allowed us to do for the last decade or so. After the sale, we’ll just move everything back to Cochran’s.

·          Fill in low spots on the lift line under both the T-bar and rope tow with wood chips from the piles in the upper parking lot.

·          Possibly install one or more drainage pipes on the “lift line” trail.

·          Cut some trees along the lift line and near the lodge - Dave Michaels and I will do this possibly at another time, but we’ll need volunteer help to pull branches into the woods perhaps.

·          Mow certain areas - we’ll work with Dave Michaels on this as well to have him direct us to where he’d like this work done.

·          We need to rake and seed a small portion of the race trail that we re-graded last year because of some erosion that occurred during all the rain we got this spring and early summer.

·          Finish putting railings on the new start ramp on the race trail (Dan P. and Steve K. will be in charge of this).

·          Work on a couple other “trail improvement” projects that I’ve been working on with Ginny and others - see me for details on this.

 That’s it for now, except for one last thing. We had hoped to get a new small shed built for the base of the T-bar much like the one we built two years ago for the “Mighty-Mite”, but it never happened this year - time just flew by I guess. We are attempting to get another donation of the lumber for this project like we did last time (Lamell Lumber of Essex donated all of the wood last time). The plan will be to store the wood in the lower lodge (or somewhere dry) and do this very important project next spring and summer. Hope to see you all out at one or more of these workdays - they really are fun.  Honest.         

Don Tobi

Cochran Ski Club Alumni Shine in 2002

All the major ski academies in Vermont (BMA, GMVS, Stratton, etc.) would envy the year that Cochran Ski Club alumni had in 2002.  Where did the NCAA male skier of the year start his racing career? How about the first Vermonter to ever get a medal at the World Junior Championships? What’s the only program to have 2 Alumni finish in the top 10 at the U. S. National Championship’s slalom event?  The answer to these questions is...Cochran’s Ski Club!!

Here is a brief look at how some of our former racers excelled in 2002:

 Roger Brown, age 20, was selected by Ski Racing as the College skier of the year! Roger, a sophomore at Dartmouth College, won the NCAA Slalom National Championship.  He also won 4 straight carnival slalom races and finished the year by placing 7^th in slalom at the U.S.National Championships.

Jessica Kelley, age 19 and a member of the U.S. Ski Team, placed second in the giant slalom at the World Junior Championships (1^st Vermonter to ever podium). Jessica also won a NorAm slalom race at Hunter Mountain and placed 6^th in giant slalom and 9^th in slalom at the U.S. National Championships.

Jimmy Cochran, age 21 and a member of the Middlebury College Ski team (has transferred to UVM for next year) won the Williams Carnival giant slalom race.  Jim had numerous podium finishes for Middlebury College and topped off the year by placing 6^th in slalom at the U.S. National Championships.

Lea Davison, age 18 and a freshman at Middlebury College, won the Eastern College Slalom Championship and skied in the NCAA National Championships where she placed 13^th in slalom. Lea is also one of the top mountain bikers in the country and represented the U.S. at the World Mountain Biking Championships where she finished in the top ten.

Karl Johnson, age 18 and attending Dartmouth College this fall, suffered a severe broken arm at a NorAm race that cut his season short.  Karl had qualified for the U.S. National Championships (for the 1^st time!), but was unable to attend due to the injury.

At the regional level the following former Cochran racers had great results at the Junior Olympics: Erik Johnson, age 18 and soon to be member of the Dartmouth Ski Team, placed 1^st in slalom. Pat Quiet, age 18 and member of the MMSC, placed 3^rd in the downhill. Amy Cochran, age 18 and soon to be member of the UVM Ski Team, placed 1^st in the Super G. Anna Furney, age 16 and member of the MMSC, placed 6^th in the slalom.

Our younger alumni showed they would be reckoned with in the near future. Hannah Allen, age 14 and member of MMSC won the J III giant slalom State Championship. Tim Kelley, age 16 and Erik Gilbert, age 15, both members of the MMSC qualified for regional FIS races (where they raced against college and U.S. Ski Team racers).

Former Cochran racers also excelled in High School racing. Chuck Mumford, MMU, David Gutman, Burlington High, Holly Mumford, MMU, Annie Williams, Harwood High, Danielle Petter, CVU, Lydia Paquette, CVU Allison Foust, MMU and Zack Lance, MMU all had top results for their schools through out the season. Chuck Mumford also qualified for the Eastern High School Championships.

As you can clearly see 2002 was an outstanding year for our former racers. So the next time the snow is scant and the hill is icy, don’t feel you’re at a disadvantage with the other race programs.  Just remember that all these former racers learned on these very same conditions and are now some of the top racers in the State, Country and World!!

 Steve Kelley

Fall Dryland Training

Dryland training starts Sunday, September 15, 2-4 p.m. at the Cochran’s Ski Hill. Dryland runs every Sunday up until the Ski Sale. The schedule of Dryland activities will be announced via e-mail and will be available at the Lodge.

Cochran Ski Club Membership Form

see  the Application forms page

Sunday River Preseason Training Camp