(Left to right) Will Spiller, Danny Sundali, Emily Williams, and coaches Chris Mallory and Rick Kapala meet to review the day’s training schedule.
Asked about their experiences with the Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation (SVSEF) Nordic Team, the squad’s brightest stars rarely talk about skiing. They talk instead about challenges, life lessons and character. They talk abstractly, as if struggling to convey in words a mystical experience.
“The program is more than just skiing,” said Mike Sinnott, an alum who went on to an All-American career at Dartmouth College. “It’s having the strength to attack the impossible,” he said.
The team’s teenagers and twentysomethings talk like wizened old-yogis. It may be just a snow sport to some. But invariably, the athletes of the Sun Valley Nordic Team think of cross-country skiing as the defining formative experience in their young lives.
One might look at Morgan Arritola and Mike Sinnott and get the idea that the Foundation’s Nordic Team is an exclusive program to develop elite athletes. But the list of 16 Junior National champions is no gauge for success, said Rick Kapala, Nordic program director and head coach. Focusing on medals or even skiing misses the point. Kapala’s team experience is much more. The Nordic Team and the Foundation it’s a part of exist to serve and develop the Wood River Valley’s youth.
Head Coach Rich Kapala follows Adele Espy and Morgan Arritola as they ascend the South Bench Trail at Lake Creek.
“Sport is sport,” Kapala said. “The fundamentals for making it a positive endeavor remain the same. With our program, we strive to be the best youth sports program in the Valley. The vehicle we’re using is skiing.”
Kapala’s goals are simple: get youngsters outdoors, teach them about healthy lifestyles, commitment, goal setting, teamwork, overcoming daunting challenges and bouncing back from failure.
“Resilient kids go on to be successful adults,” Kapala said.
Beyond the proper V1 technique needed to crest a steep hill, Kapala is conscious about developing character. Like any good coach, he works to develop strengths that will endure throughout an athlete’s lifetime, regardless of what is achieved on-snow or in competitions.
Like any good youth mentor, Kapala takes the long view. “We develop kids into great human beings; along the way we might win a few ski races.”
Kapala is a dynamic and passionate director and is respected by his peers as one of the best cross-country coaches in the country. Hailing from a south-shore Lake Superior town in Michigan, he wasn’t involved in Nordic skiing until college. When it became clear that he wasn’t a top competitor, he started coaching and found a new passion in athletic mentoring.
Kapala worked in Washington State and Alaska before landing at SVSEF as head coach of the Nordic program in 1987. After traveling to meets and races the world over, he thinks Sun Valley is the perfect geographic venue to run a premier cross-country program.
“If you can’t have a good cross-country program in Sun Valley, something’s wrong.”
Great snow, great terrain, great ski and hiking trails (for dryland training), and a community that truly cares about the sport make Sun Valley an enviable location. Numerous former U.S. Ski Team, Olympians and SVSEF alumni call the Wood River Valley home.
These athletes understand and appreciate the values associated with cross-country skiing—endurance and commitment to long-term goals.
Kapala thinks of the Valley and its community as a nurturing backdrop for his athletes. His team is “part of our community.”
The Foundation’s development director, Karoline Droege was a product of the SVSEF alpine program back in the ’80s.
“I feel like it’s made a huge difference in my life, certainly a defining thing,” she said.
After earning a master’s degree from Idaho State University, Droege went on to nine years practicing physical therapy with Koth Sports Physical Therapy in Ketchum. But even while working full-time mending the Valley’s many broken bones and torn ligaments, she stayed involved with the SVSEF. She coached alpine racing part-time and in 2006 became a Foundation board member. In July 2008, she left therapy’s weight rooms and training tables and took a full-time position as the Foundation’s development director.
It’s not all work and no play. Here, coach Chris Mallory and Will Spiller get a break from training and a full face of snow on the team’s Downhill Derby Day.
“I feel I’ve come full circle,” she said. “And I feel very passionate about what this ski foundation does, in terms of the number of kids we are impacting.” Intoning the Foundation’s holistic message, she added, “It’s not just about athletics, but the lessons you learn being on this team.”
Despite all the talk about prioritizing life lessons over athletic performance, the SVSEF Nordic Team consistently produces winners.
“If you attract enough kids and do a good job, ultimately, you’re going to have a fair amount of kids move into the competitive level,” Kapala said.
The program starts kids young. The youngest are 7- to 10-year-olds in an entry-level after-school program. From there, the team progresses through middle school and high school and retains the most competitive collegiate skiers on the Olympic Development Team (ODT).
Last winter, the cross-country program served roughly 80 entry-level skiers; 40 on the middle school prep team; 25 on the high school competitive team; and about a dozen college-age athletes on ODT. In total, Kapala oversaw 150 skiers last season.
“The first priority is to provide development to all kids in the Valley,” Kapala said. “It’s expensive to be a ski racer, but at the younger level, there’s no question any kid can ski.”
The timeframe for skiers to reach peak performance is narrow. Elite cross-country careers rarely begin before an athlete is 22 years old and rarely last past 26. “Very few numbers of kids, even among our very best kids, will choose to continue ski racing in college and beyond,” Kapala said.
Still, he believes the ODT is a crucial element to the Foundation’s efforts.
“Through our program, we’ll raise kids through school and get some high school kids who are some of the best in the country. At that point, why would we stop helping them?”
The ODT is geared toward 18- to 22-year-olds who want to compete at top levels in the United States and internationally. Because skiers who’ve come up through the Foundation need a high-level, competitive training program with equal peers to train with, the ODT also accepts a limited number of top skiers who want to relocate to Sun Valley from other parts of the country. This winter, of 11 skiers on the ODT, five have moved in from “typical Nordic hotbeds” including Vermont, Minnesota and Alaska, Kapala said.
These elite imports are a benefit to the community, Kapala said. They not only contribute to the Valley’s community, but also act as inspiring role models to the younger skiers in the program.
“The other kids who are part of the program go, ‘Wow, I’m part of this thing that’s bigger than any one of us individually.’”
Morgan Arritola, Adele Espy, and coach Rick Kapala distance-training at Lake Creek.
At each level, the program boasts strong community support. At the elementary level, youngsters are introduced to skiing and taught the fundamentals in the after-school program at Quigley Canyon in Hailey. About 10 years ago, private landowners worked with the Foundation to develop the Quigley area, which is easily accessible just east of downtown Hailey. Today, the popular trails are managed by the Blaine County Recreation District (BCRD) and are open to the public. A generous, silent donor also provided the funds for a modular team center at the site for the young Nordic team members. The BCRD also runs a warming yurt for skiers on the Quigley trails.
Middle school and high school skiers train on land owned by the SVSEF at Lake Creek. Donations also provided for a 4,000-square-foot training facility there that houses offices, lockers, workout rooms and a ski-waxing room. In exchange for public access, the BCRD also grooms all of the Lake Creek trails.
Lake Creek and Quigley each offer 10 kilometers of groomed trails. In all, the Valley boasts a large, integrated cross-country trail system—including the Harriman, Sun Valley and Galena trails—totaling over 200 kilometers. It’s an extraordinary system for experienced athletes or novices, and roughly 3,000 people buy annual passes each year.
Meanwhile, in Sun Valley, the Ski Education Foundation was the first nonprofit ski club in the country, according to Kapala. The nonprofit corporate model, which allows the Foundation to raise money and receive charitable gifts, served as an economic model for similar programs in ski towns across the country. From fundraising to dry-land conditioning and on-snow results, the Foundation stands as a venerated model for Nordic skiers everywhere.
PRODUCTS OF THE PROGRAM
Sun Valley’s Nordic stars in their own worlds
MORGAN ARRITOLA
Born: 5/13/1986, Bend, Oregon
High School: The Community School, ’04
College: some, but currently focused on skiing
Age started with SVSEF: 16
Current Team: U.S. Ski Team Career Highs: Third-ranked woman in the U.S.; three-time U.S. Junior Champion; four-time silver medalist at U.S. Senior Nationals
“Seven years ago, I had no idea what cross-country skiing was—it’s hard to believe how much it means to me now. I owe so much of my success to one person and one organization: Rick Kapala and the SVSEF. A good coach is a dime a dozen, but a great coach, someone who makes you want to be better every day, is one in a million. My first encounter with Rick was similar to every newbie on the ski team: ‘Get your shoes on, let’s go,’ he said. It’s now my job to train and race hard, to push my body to the limits, travel to some of the world’s most amazing venues (and to some of the least desirable ones) and make them my home. It’s not always easy, but I know that Rick would tell me nothing is impossible or impassable. I do this sport because I love it—the need to realize my potential pushes me daily. None of this would be attainable without the support system I have.”
NORDIC NEWS: Morgan Arritola officially named to US Nordic Ski Team.
www.usskiteam.com/crosscountry/new
REID PLETCHER
Born: 09/28/1988, Sun Valley
High School: Wood River High School, ’07
College: University of Colorado Age Joined SVSEF: 9
Current Team: University of Colorado Ski Team
Career Highs: World Junior Championships; skied in first World Cup in 2008
“The SVSEF is the most organized, well-developed team for junior skiers. We train every day and push each other to the limit. The team is very competitive, and each athlete becomes competitive inside and outside the team. You know if you put the work into meeting your goals, you can achieve your dreams. We set high goals and work hard to achieve them.”
ALEXA TURZIAN
Born: 08/13/1988, Sun Valley
High School: Wood River High School, ’07
College: University of Colorado Age Joined SVSEF: 5
Current Team: U.S. Ski Team
Career Highs: Youngest ever U.S. National Champion at age 18, 2006; U.S. Junior Nationals Champion
“SVSEF has been my life since I was young. It has taught me how to live an active life, both physically and mentally. Today I am a member of the U.S. Ski Team and the University of Colorado Ski Team in Boulder. I have traveled to France, Italy and Slovenia to compete internationally for the World Juniors and U23 Championship teams for the past four years. If it wasn’t for the strong foundation that the SVSEF built for me over 13 years, I could never have been who I am today, both as an athlete and a person.”
MAX DURTSCHI
Born: 05/25/1991, Seattle
High School: Wood River High School senior
Age Joined SVSEF: 11
Career Highs: International Scandinavian Series Silver medal;
U.S. Junior Championships
“The Nordic Ski Team builds strong, confident, generous human beings. It goes way beyond sport. I have been on the team for five years. In that time, I have climbed the tallest mountains in North America, hiked across the largest wilderness area in the lower-48, ridden my bike up incredible mountain passes and skied at multiple Olympic venues in both the U.S. and Norway. Rick gets it. I can honestly say that all successes I have had in school and sports have stemmed from lessons and ethics I have learned from the program. It is the greatest thing that has ever happened to me.”
MIKE SINNOT
Born: 01/23/1985, Sun Valley
High School: Wood River High School, ’03
College: Dartmouth, ’07 Age started in SVSEF: 7
Current Team: SVSEF Olympic Development Team
Career Highs: U.S. Junior Champion; four World Cup starts: bronze medal in team sprint, silver medal in 30km; U.S. Nationals, 2008; Noquemanon ski marathon winner, 2009; Won SuperTour, 2009; Boulder Mountain Tour winner; Dartmouth College Ski Team captain, NCAA champion and All-American.
“We have perhaps the finest coach in the nation, world-class trails and a training center that surpasses that of most colleges. But the program is more than just skiing: It’s history, it’s friendship, it’s hard work and the rewards that follow. It’s having the strength to attack the impossible, it’s learning to be a human, it’s learning to have a zeal for life. The ski team was, and continues to be, my world. I believe that is what makes SVSEF both successful in the snow and in the community. The program has a tested reputation and tradition for teaching kids what life is all about, and how to make the most of it. Kids have fun on the team and love it; that just makes them want to ski faster and harder. The personal aspect is what fuels the athletic drive.”