Alpine Canada, in partnership with Mackenzie Investments, announced the second year of the ‘Mackenzie Women in Ski Racing Coaching Level Up’ program, which provides female coaches the opportunity to receive financial support to improve their coaching skills.
Last season saw 26 female coaches from seven provinces (ON, QC, NS, NB, AB, BC, SK) and Mackenzie Investments commitment of $10,000 in bursaries this season will continue to support and grow women in ski racing.
Close to 100 coaches, club executives and general members converged in Sun Peaks for a series of informative and thought-provoking meetings, workshops and conversations last weekend. A number of guest speakers stimulated conversations and updated coaches and members, who now aim to kickstart the 2024-25 ski season in a positive way.
And once again the annual awards banquet – “The Goldies” – put a bow on last season by awarding athletes, coaches, volunteers and officials in a heart-felt and memorable evening of cheers, laughs and even a few tears. The legendary skier (Canadian GOAT ski racer) Nancy Greene was on hand to present the awards at the always impressive Sun Peaks Grand Hotel and Conference Centre
“It was an incredible celebration of a great season,” said BC Alpine VP, Johnny Crichton. The dinner and presentations capped a productive three-day Member Summit, which included coach meetings, general member meetings and the official BC Alpine AGM. All said, 26 BC Alpine clubs attended the sessions.
Top photo: A highlight of the awards evening was when Kathy Stahr was presented with the President’s Awards, “for her dedication, tireless work ethic and long-term service to ski racing in British Columbia”.
We hope you will join us in Sun Peaks, October 25-27th, for the always popular annual Member Summit, Coach Meetings and AGM! Again this year we will gather at the beautiful Sun Peaks Grand Hotel and Conference Center. All BC Alpine members are invited and it’s free to attend (excluding transportation and accommodation).
Sunday, October 27 (AM/early afternoon) – AGM and Member Summit (Day 2)
What to Expect from the Meetings
The themes for the 2024 meetings are focussed on Club Support, in these categories:
1. Education
Pierre Ruel, from Alpine Canada, will be in attendance to walk us through the new Snowstars App and the Coach Education Strategic Plan. John Newton and Johnny Crichton will update on Coach Education plans in BC this season.
2. Mountain Relations
How can you strengthen relations with your ski resort management team? As we all know, this is critical to the success of our operations and events. We will hear from the Sun Peaks Resort Management team on some of their thoughts from the resort perspective.
3. Resources
The support mechanism’s that BC Alpine have in place now (that you may not know about!) and plans in the near future for club support: From Safe Sport guidelines to club governance to recruitment and retention strategies. Open discussion, bring your ideas!
Please reserve your hotel accommodations as soon as possible to receive the best rates! If you prefer to call and speak to a reservations team member directly, please call 250-578-6080 between 9 am-7 pm daily. Booking code is GELBCAS24. Info on the hotel accommodations, amenities, dining and other options can be viewed and downloaded here.
“The annual Summit is our best opportunity to meet before the season begins to discuss, learn, collaborate, be inspired and celebrate our community and achievements. We are looking forward to meeting everyone at Sun Peaks to kick off another awesome ski season. See you there!”
Anders Hestdalen, BC Alpine CEO
Please contact Kathy Stahr at kathys@bcalpine.com with any allergy or dietary restrictions.
The election is right around the corner, and we need to make sport a platform priority for each and every candidate.
There are numerous health, social, and economic benefits attributed to sport. It can be a generator of social capital, supporting societal goals such as child and youth development, crime prevention, economic development, environmental sustainability, and social inclusion. Sport has so much to offer – yet, much of its tremendous potential remains untapped.
We’re asking you to use your voice to talk to people in your community – candidates, neighbours and your friends about the important role sport plays in your life. We want to know that the parties and candidates who will form the next provincial government share our commitment to sport, and that they understand how inclusive and accessible sport creates healthy communities.
We’re not just here for the game—we’re here for community, health, wellness, and social inclusion.
We are inviting you to join this campaign. Be a sport champion and use our activist toolkit, which includes social posts, letters and additional resources. To access the toolkit, click here.
For the first three weeks of August, the BC Ski Team experienced a bit of everything in Chile, South America, during an on-snow camp on Caorralco, a dormant volcano inside the Malalcahuello national reserve.
According to head coach Morgan Pridy, the team had some productive moments – mixed with a fair bit of adventure – for the seven skiers and four coaches. “There was a crazy big wind and rain storm that rolled through Chile on the tail end of our travel day. We had power outages everywhere … luckily our accommodations could be run on a couple generators, and the resort – since it is build in a national park – can’t run power lines up direct to the resort so they run all the lifts on diesel on so they were able to operate normally. It made for a crazy long drive, but a fun adventure for the kids.”
The team also had some productive training sessions, focussed on “slowing things down and working to establish – and to reestablish – strong fundamentals,” Pridy said.
Hannah Jensen (left), Jasmine Coubrough
L to R: Morgan Pridy, Oliver Young, Dylan Stevens, Dillon Prophet
L to R: Jasmine Coubrough, Hannah Jensen, Thea Torn, Alexa Brownlie.
The team then transitioned to training at higher volume and a mix of training environments, which included some sublime training days.
“This was our first on-snow camp together as a new team and new staff so it was a very cool experience learning how the athletes understand skiing and seeing the unique things each of them bring to our daily training environment,” Pridy said.
For Dillon Prophet, in his first camp as a coach of the BCST, it was a productive few weeks. “The surface really came together through the second half of the camp after some early storms,” he said. “Working with many of the athletes for the first time on snow, it was great to see how hard everyone works and how they push each other as a team. We spent some time slowing things down to establish a solid individual focus and laying the groundwork for a productive camp and rest of the season.”
Eric Schwenk, also new to the BCST staff, was equally impressed with the focus level. “Due to the storm the surface the first week wasn’t ideal, but the athletes took it in stride and put in lots of effort in their slow skiing and drill. Once the surface came together we got really solid GS and SL training. They were all working hard and capitalized on each day on snow.”
Former BCST member Soleil Patterson was also part of the on-hill staff, under the Jonny Kellock Foundation Interface program. Soleil will be working with the Vancouver Ski Team this season, primarily with U16 and also with the FIS athletes.
Pridy was happy with the overall focus and ability to adapt during the camp.
“Everyone performed admirably, took advantage of the bad days just the same as the good ones,” Pridy said. “Maybe it’s a BC upside, but wet & windy conditions didn’t deter anyone and all of our athletes have done the work and understand where they need to focus technically and have given themselves the opportunity for a productive next camp.”
*All photos and video supplied by Soleil Patterson
