Kris... "the ham" Hopkins

Angie Lucian 1st J2

Downhill Racers

Today was the Vermont State Downhill Championship. Angie Lucian was the J2 women's champion and Kris Hopkins was the J2 Men's Champion. Both of them skied real well hitting speeds of 65 mph +. The J1 men swept the championship DH. Chad Hedlund 1st, Mike Mitchell 2nd and Pete Calhoun 3rd. Some of our other guys skied fast as well. Tim Spangler was 7th overall for Vermont and 4th J1. Rob Visconti was 10th overall for Vermont and 6th for J1's. The coaches are very pleased with the improvement and effort. We look forward to another good day tomorrow.

News From Killington

Hello All,

Training has been unbelievable here at Killington! Yesterday the group had full length GS on Skye Lark and today we trained SG on Super Star. Starting right off the top of Super Star, the first few turns were challenging to say the least. As soon as the athletes skied off of the first pitch they were confronted with the work road bump, which all of them handled very well. The guys made improvements today across the board.
The schedule for the next few days will be as follows:

Friday: Morning Sport - OFF
8:45 am - Leave for the mountain, GS skis
Afternoon Sport- Free Period (workout on the board)

Saturday: 6:50 am Depart KMS for Stratton GS (lifts open at 8:30 am)

Sunday: 7:30 am Depart KMS for Pico Sl

Monday: Day OFF

Good luck to the guys up at Sugarloaf!

Coaches

Sugarloaf Day 1 Super-G

Cold DAY at the loaf! It was crazy today, at one point they shut down the lifts due to high winds and the kids had to ride up the hill in snow cats for inspection. Luckily after that the winds died down and the mountain re-opened the lifts. We all thought the race was going to be canceled. The guys kept their heads in the game. Chad Hedlund walked away with another win by about 7 tenths of a second. Jim Ryan was first J2 and 3rd overall. Pete C. 8th, Rob V. 10th, Tim S. 12th, Mark G. 14th, Danny M. 16th, Matt B. 17, Shane H. 18, Pat S. 20th, Sam S. 21, Tyler F. 24, Riley O. 28. Mike, Kris and Chad Naro went out and are fine, just some pilot error in the key sections. They are ready for DH tomorrow. Hope everyone is great back home stay tuned for more info. I would have posted a picture of jimmy but he missed awards... Ahh Jim!

Upcoming Departures

Winter is back! And from what I hear the thermometer will be dropping below the 0 mark soon.
Sunday will be off for the entire team.
Monday:
Sugarbush GS- Depart KMS at 6:40 am
Sugarloaf DH - Load Vans/Trailer at 9:30 am
Depart KMS after Lunch

Hope everyone is doing well.

Go Pats!!!

Coaches

Fun day at the races

I went to Stratton today with the J1 boys. Chad Hedlund walked away with a win, putting two good runs together. Tim Spangler was Fourth and Rob Visconti finished 13th. The other three boys had some trouble in the first run and will fight another day. Torey took the J2 boys to Stowe for a slalom; Danny Moore finished 13th and teammates Chad Naro, Shane Hedlund finished 20th and 24th. Great day for the KMS guys. Jimmy and Kris are headed up to Sugarloaf for the Eastern Cup GS races, good luck and Kick... ah... Butt! Congrats to Chad Hedlund for winning the first IRON WOLF sticker... well deserved!
Communication lines got a bit tangled with coaches going in different directions. Training tomorrow is OPTIONAL, No morning Sport and we will be free skiing on GS skis... We leave at 8:45 for those who want to go... Keep in mind the next day off is not until Sunday the 20th. Be honest with yourselves. Take the day off if you need it. HYDRATE!!!

Sunday Races

The plan for tomorrow: J1's are going to Stratton GS, van leaves 6:15 am. J2's are going to Stowe SL, van leaves 6:15am.

Today we had some great GS training on Bunny. The snow was nice and hard for a change. This week was a little screwy with the weather being so warm. One day going bowling and yesterday having to stay inside due to a big ice storm. The pics are from Thursday training on ungroomed ice moguls on lower skylark... a rough ride!

KMS Cup Standings

Scroll all the way to the bottom of the page to see the individual point standing towards the KMS Cup. Coaches will try and keep an up to date posting through the season. So far it's a close race. At the end of the season we will take the top 25 races for each athlete to determine the winner. Ties will be broken by going to the next best race. Later on we will post the rules so you can see how it is scored.
Today the boys focused on some hand eye coordination. Jake Mason was the only one to get 3 strikes in a row at Bowlerama in Rutland. I think Torey walked away with the best score, 158. The weather was terrible today, pouring rain. We figured it was best to stay inside to keep from catching cold...Hopefully! Tomorrow we are going to train SL on lower Skylark. Morning sport is at 7am... Anders:)

January thaw

Well we knew it was coming so here it is 50-60 degree weather. I don't like it too much that's for sure. We had Super-G training scheduled for tomorrow but it looks like the rain is going to come in strong. We'll see. We will not train SG tomorrow, we have told the boys to plan on SL. With the soft snow and no grooming tonight it would be unsafe to train at high speed in those conditions. Hopefully the rain will hold off so we can get some SL in. Today we free skied on Bear Mountain, the boys took a lot of runs making slalom turns though moguls... kinda like what they might see in a race. The focus was on making a strong pole plant and finding the flow of balance though the bumps. As the afternoon progressed more focus was directed to keeping snow contact... Hard to balance when you are in the air half the time. And then we let them ski the terrain park at the very end. We ask that everyone come to breakfast tomorrow so we can make our plans for training. We just want to see what the weather brings us. Plan on Slalom... Breakfast at 8

The curse of course setting

We had a great weekend of racing, Chad Hedlund was first after run one yesterday. I set the second run and he blew out and hiked on the bottom section. Such as life for a ski racer... and coach. Mike Mitchell was 5th yesterday in the GS, Chad Naro was 11th. On Saturday here at killington Chad H was 5th overall chasing after the Dartmouth boys. Danny Moore finished a strong 12th and Mike mitchell was 15th. All things considered the coaches were pretty please with the results. Tomorrow Morning sport starts at 7 am and we are training SL in the afternoon.

Waterville Valley Report

Hello From the Granite State.
Today was the first of four Entry League FIS races here at Waterville Valley. The guys raced Sl on Waterville's World Cup Hill. I can remember my father telling me about watching Alberto Tomba racing on the same hill in the 80's. The hill was in good shape, however, a little different than the steep-icy High Line that we hurried off of yesterday afternoon. The guys skied solid, getting after the rolly terrain. With a few mistakes each, there is improvement to be had, they are ready to attack tomorrow. Results for the day were Danny Moore- 31, Jim Ryan-38, and Rob Visconti- 66.
On another note, with all the Hilary, Obama, and Romney signs around, driving through town is similar to navigating a slalom course. New Hampshire's Primary is Tuesday and you can feel the tension building. It is all the talk wherever you go, very good for the guys to see and here. Stay tuned for Tomorrow!

Coaches

Cold Day on the Mountain

It was a bitter cold day on High Line. The group trained full length sl, using the ATC about every run to stay warm. With steep and varied terrain from start to finish, training was challenging for the whole group.
Tomorrow we will start our day with morning sport at 7:30 am in the gym. For training we will head back to High Line for our first "Team KMS Cup" race of the year. The race will be two runs of sl, scoring will be done by "New World Cup Points". Check back in for pictures tomorrow.
Hope everyone is staying warm out there!

Sincerely,

Coaches

January 2

We had a good day of GS training on Bunny. The guys were able to get a lot of runs in working on getting their timing back. The snow was real soft from the last storm but they still got a lot out of it. Tomorrow we are training SL on highline to get ready for the race this Saturday. We have a mandatory team meeting after training tomorrow we should be done by 5:30. Plan accordingly. The boys are supposed to do morning sport on their own. Warm up on the bikes then stretch and 250 core reps. Boys keep in mind that the J3s have Gym time starting at 7:30 so you have to get in the gym early so you can be finished by the time they get in. I strongly encourage you to get there early so you get your body moving before classes. Instead of rolling out of bed and being lethargic for class. If you must though use a free period. See you in the AM!