Cross-country ski season ended a month ago.
So much for the off-season.
After taking the month of April off, Caledonia Nordic Ski Club coach Andrew Casey and his core of 15 young ski racers started their dryland training program this week.
For two or three days every week until September, the group will be working on conditioning, stretching, strength training and practicing their ski technique on foot and on roller skis, trying to hone a competitive edge they believe will pay off when racing begins again next winter.
"They've had a month of rest and we have a core group of 15 biathletes and skiers committed to training and doing what they haven't done before," said Casey. "Usually they don't start training until September, but this is what all the other clubs are doing. It's our way to bring them up to speed and make them more competitive outside the province. Right now, a lot of them are competitive within the province but we want to go bigger."
Casey, who raced as part of Canada's national development cross-country team in 2005 and 2006, is the first full-time salaried coach in the Caledonia club's history. He was hired last year after serving as head coach of the Newfoundland provincial team. As a club coach, Casey now has the advantage of a captive audience, not available to him in Newfoundland.
"The coaching I did there with the provincial team was over the internet -- I would give them training programs starting in May, but they were in isolated communities and they would train on their own," Casey said. "When I raced full-time, we started May 1."
Casey's addition to the local scene at Otway Nordic Centre paid immediate dividends. The Caledonia club captured the B.C. Cup overall team championship for the first time in 20 years and followed that up in March with much-improved results at the national cross-country championships.
"It's been fantastic, it's been a great experience for me and I've only gotten positive feedback from everybody with how things have gone," said Casey. "We went to nationals in Whistler and the team ended up 17th in Canada, a big improvement over last year, when we were 27th."
Six Caledonia club skiers posted results impressive enough to earn spots on summer camps sponsored by Cross-Country B.C. Kaia Andal and Kristian Jensen-Leblanc were nominated to the talent squad, Erica Kreitz, Sage Bialuski and Emily Dickson made the development squad, and Sarah Beaudry is firmly entrenched as a senior B.C. team member. Beaudry, who now lives and trains in Canmore, Alta., ranked third overall in Canada and won the junior women's sprint race at the nationals at Callaghan Valley.
The club handed out its awards this week and Dickson, a biathlete, captured the top female athlete and sharpshooter (prone and standing) award. Bobby Kreitz was picked as top male athletes and his sister Erica won the Rolf Pettersen award as most improved skier overall.
Charlie Williams was selected most improved midget racer and Peter Hoffman nailed down the sharpshooter (prone) award.
