Crested Butte Academy hires Casner, McKenna

Crested Butte Academy has hired Carter Casner and Sean McKenna to round out the alpine coaching staff. Recent graduates of Bates College, both Casner and McKenna come from a strong racing and coaching background.

CRESTED BUTTE ACADEMY has hired Carter Casner and Sean McKenna to round out the alpine coaching staff. Recent graduates of Bates College, both Casner and McKenna come from a strong racing and coaching background.
    “Casner and McKenna both raced with much success on the tough Eastern FIS U tour,” said Andrew Cesati, CBA’s alpine director.  
    The FIS U tour is the race series that pits Dartmouth, UVM, UNH and many other NCAA Division 1 ski programs against one another. In recent years, it has not only been a proving ground for collegiate teams, but also has served as a feeder system for the U.S. national teams.
    “These boys were skiing among the top skiers in the country and consistently bringing home points for their school,” Cesati said.
    Both Casner and McKenna also have some great coaching experience.  
    “Throughout their years in college, they spent a lot of time working for Mount Hood summer ski camps and getting their coaching chops down too,” Cesati added.  
    Casner began coaching on Oct. 22 and McKenna is slated to join the CBA coaching ranks Nov. 2.  
    “They are young, motivated and successful racers. I think they are going to be great role models and coaches our athletes will gravitate toward and look up to,” Cesati said.
    Cesati also expressed his excitement toward the rehiring of Tyler Johnson. “Tyler offers a strong sense of continuity to the program and has already demonstrated a great rapport with the athletes. He also brings a wealth of equipment knowledge to the program. Overall, we’re in a great spot right now with our staffing.”

CBA turns to Dartfish
    Crested Butte Academy also announced that the alpine ski racing team will use Dartfish trainer for the 2007-08 season.  
    Swiss made Dartfish Pro Suite is a video analysis program that allows coaches to view video in a myriad of ways to help train and analyze an athlete’s movement patterns.  
    “We will use Dartfish in the weight room, on the snow and just about everywhere we need to make changes to an athlete’s movements,” Cesati said.  
    “I was first introduced to this program with the national ski team where we used it constantly for video analysis. One of my goals when joining Crested Butte Academy was to bring in this high-end tool, and now we have it.”
    Canada’s Olympic committee recently entered a partnership with Dartfish for Canada’s Quest to Vancouver in 2010 journey.  
    Cesati commented, “Just about every elite sports program looking to break down the manner in which an athlete creates power uses this computer program. The athletes at CBA are going to benefit tremendously from this sort of appraisal. It’s going to be fun!”