The NCAA News - News and Features

The NCAA News -- January 18, 1999

Strength in numbers

New skiing association would unify efforts to address common issues

BY MARTY BENSON
STAFF WRITER

Coaches often are among the most opinionated people around -- those in skiing are no exception -- but while most collegiate sports have a coaches association to put those opinions to work in an organized fashion, collegiate skiing does not. Never really has.

The void used to be filled by the National Coaches Association of the United States Ski Association (USSA), to a degree. But that organization's primary concern was to cater to the Olympic athletes who train for national and international skiing success -- many of them right out of high school.

"Not that we aren't for (national success) too," said Terry Aldrich, Nordic skiing coach at Middlebury College, "but those are secondary concerns for us, and collegiate concerns are secondary to them, so we've always taken a back seat."

Aldrich, the secretary-rules editor of the NCAA Men's and Women's Skiing Committee, is one of a group of eight coaches, headed by committee chair George Brooks, Alpine coach at the University of New Mexico, that is trying to establish the United States Collegiate Ski Coaches Association.

Others from NCAA schools include Chip LaCasse of the University of Vermont; Pat Miller of the University of Utah; and Richard Rokos of the University of Colorado, Boulder, three schools that have won every NCAA skiing championship since 1986.

The group also includes two coaches from top collegiate club programs, Ron Bonneau of Albertson College and Tom Olson of Whitman College.

Long overdue

Brooks said the formation of such an organization is overdue after three years of informal discussion, especially since the coaches committee of the USSA disbanded after last season. He hopes that loss will be the catalyst that launches the new group.

"If we want to act like we have a profession and not just a job, we need to have an organization that would treat it as such," he said. "If we want to have influence on anything having to do with skiing, one coach is not going to be listened to."

Skiing has one of the lowest sponsorship figures of any NCAA sport, partly because the weather precludes much of the country from having it. Even so, Brooks said there are about 200 schools that have club programs. Coaches of those teams could possibly stand to gain as much -- if not more -- from belonging to such an organization as those from varsity programs, especially if plans for educational initiatives are realized. Eventually, those educational programs could help the clubs, which are under the umbrella of the National Collegiate Skiing Association (NCSA), ascend to full-fledged NCAA varsity programs. Should that number increase enough, Brooks believes the NCAA Division I Championships/Competition Cabinet might be prompted to add more qualifying slots to the NCAA championships. Brooks sees that as the new organization's No. 1 job.

The number of qualifiers was reduced from 160 to 148 in 1996 by the NCAA Executive Committee after a review of all championships, even though the number of schools sponsoring skiing remained essentially the same.

In addition to providing educational resources, a well-run coaches association would help in other areas, such as providing input to the NCAA Skiing Committee, establishing a code of ethics, assisting skiers who have U.S. national team aspirations after completing college and organizing the all-America program.

"I see this as a sounding board for collegiate skiing," said Miller, who tried to establish a similar organization when he started coaching at Utah in 1974, but did not succeed. "It's nothing mandated by the NCAA but I think the NCAA would like us to have a formal organization. What we have had has been very negligible for a long time."

Building a bridge

Miller said that one of the problems with starting such an organization always has been the potpourri of schools in the two skiing "conferences." The Rocky Mountain Intercollegiate Skiing Association (RMISA) and the Eastern Intercollegiate Skiing Association (EISA) are not multisport conferences and do not have the type of cohesiveness inherent in the Pacific-10 Conference, for instance. This factor, while problematic in an organizational effort, also points out the need for organizing in the first place.

Brooks would like to establish a code of ethics through the organization. He said it most likely would not be any different from that used for the USSA, but it would be important to formalize it as applying specifically to collegiate coaches.

"Not that there are any big ethical problems," he said, "but in order for us to police ourselves, there needs to be something that gives direction."

Aldrich sees the coaches association as building a bridge between collegiate skiing and U.S. national team competition. Right now, even NCAA champion skiers have little incentive to continue skiing competitively after completing their eligibility because they can get no financial assistance or training support until they do well in a USSA race. Aldrich said this is because going into collegiate skiing rather than training with the U.S. team often is unfairly viewed as a step backward.

This ignoring of college graduates wastes a lot of training, and physical and psychological maturity, Aldrich said, perhaps because of a perception that they are too old. He pointed to his team's Chad Giese, who was the top American finisher in the men's 20-kilometer freestyle as a senior last year (and fifth overall), as a prime example of talent that is wasted in this manner.

"To think that a kid is all done once he graduates is a real tragedy," Aldrich said. "It's not uncommon in Europe to see successful Alpine racers in their late 20s and early 30s. Nordic skiers have won in their early 40s.

"Too often US Skiing sends young skiers into international competition and they're not ready," Aldrich said.

Having a coaches association also would give the all-America program administered at the NCAA championships a better structure. Traditionally, coaches associations in each sport recognize all-Americans, not the NCAA itself. Recently, that job has been done by a loosely organized group of representatives from the RMISA and EISA.

A meeting at which issues such as this would be discussed is scheduled to be held at the NCAA championships site at Bates College March 8 at 4:30 p.m. Another meeting is scheduled to be conducted at the NCSA championships.

"Anywhere we have it, there is going to be a problem with travel because a lot of coaches will not be able to get the necessary funds from their school," Brooks said, "so we need to make sure such a meeting is worth everyone's time."

All are admirable goals, but those carrying the banner realize that the organization cannot accomplish any of them until they develop a membership. In order to encourage charter membership, the annual dues are only $10. Interested coaches are urged to call Brooks at 505/277-5423.