U.S. men make strides at New Zealand camp

By Published On: August 22nd, 2008Comments Off on U.S. men make strides at New Zealand camp

The U.S. men’s alpine tech group is winding down an extended training camp at New Zealand’s Coronet Peak, and head coach Sasha Rearick said he’s been pleased with the hard work and progress shown by his athletes and coaching staff.
    “We’ve had a fantastic camp. Every single one of the guys is making progress. Across the board, everyone is taking steps in a positive direction,” Rearick said. “… The World Cup guys and the Europa Cup guys have just been so focused, charging, getting stuff accomplished. It’s been great.”
     Seven coaches and 12 athletes made the trip to New Zealand on Aug. 7. The majority of the time has been spent training slalom and GS on short, injected ice courses because heavy snow and poor weather has hampered training runs on full-length, top-to-bottom course sets. Rearick said his goal before returning home Aug. 27 is to get in that full-length course work.
THE U.S MEN'S alpine tech group is winding down an extended training camp at New Zealand’s Coronet Peak, and head coach Sasha Rearick said he’s been pleased with the hard work and progress shown by his athletes and coaching staff.
    “We’ve had a fantastic camp. Every single one of the guys is making progress. Across the board, everyone is taking steps in a positive direction,” Rearick said. “… The World Cup guys and the Europa Cup guys have just been so focused, charging, getting stuff accomplished. It’s been great.”
    Seven coaches and 12 athletes made the trip to New Zealand on Aug. 7. The majority of the time has been spent training slalom and GS on short, injected ice courses because heavy snow and poor weather has hampered training runs on full-length, top-to-bottom course sets. Rearick said his goal before returning home Aug. 27 is to get in that full-length course work.
    The group did compete in one FIS giant slalom race on Aug. 19. Erik Schlopy, Jimmy Cochran and Ted Ligety finished 1-2-3 in a race designed more as a run-through for the coaching staff than a competitive setting for the athletes, Rearick said.
    “The staff wanted to see how to work together on the same page, get a very detailed plan on what [the guys] want and don’t want on race day in terms of the start, course reports, inspection,” he said. “I was very pleased, the guys did a great job and the feedback was very positive.”
    Rearick said he’s continuing to adjust to his new head coaching role after serving as an assistant coach on both the World Cup and Europa Cup levels since the 2003 season. Rearick replaced Phil McNichol as head coach in April.
    “The first month was stressful, stepping into some big shoes, trying to figure out what I’m supposed to do,” Rearick said. “But now that the staff is in place and the athletes are in place and we have a really solid plan and support from USSA, it’s been good for me. I’m learning every day, but at the same time I feel I have tremendous support from the guys I’m working with.”
     Rearick touched on a number of athletes and his evaluation of their performance at this camp:
    Ted Ligety: “Ted is very focused, he’s taking care of business. He’s getting some equipment testing done and looks very good on the GS side and we have a few details to work out on the slalom side.”
    Jimmy Cochran: “He’s a different man. He’s standing on his boards different, he’s in a position where all of a sudden we’re not talking about top 10 [finishes on the World Cup], we’re looking top three, maybe more.”
    Erik Schlopy: “He’s really showing the other guys what it takes to be a professional. The level of commitment and the professionalism he’s showing right now I haven’t seen out of him in three, four years.”
    Cody Marshall: “I would say the progress he’s made over the last three camps compared to the progress he made all last year is remarkable. He’s really doing some good things.”
    Will Brandenburg: “He’s skiing confident, controlled, fast slalom right now.”
    Tim Jitloff: “He’s really figured some things out in slalom.”
    Andrew Weibrecht: “He’s making a huge step in his technical skiing right now. He’s not maybe going as fast as he could, but he’s made a step in the right direction where I think in the next two camps he can make a huge jump. It’s really good to see what he’s doing.”

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About the Author: Pete Rugh