2021-2022 Youth Program/Bill Koch Youth Ski League Information and Sign-Up!
Winter is upon us and we are excited to announce sign-up for our youth ski program!
Youth Ski Program Information:
The Marlboro Nordic Ski Club's youth ski program is called the Bill Koch Youth Ski League and we are a member of the New England Bill Koch Youth Ski League program. The New England Bill Koch Youth Ski League is the largest cross country ski program for young people in the United States and our program available for young skiers through eighth grade and below. The Bill Koch Youth Ski League believes that children should have the opportunity to have fun while learning to cross-country ski while creating a safe and healthy environment where children can develop physically, psychologically, and socially. All Bill Koch Youth Ski League activities and competitions are designed to teach each young athlete to participate to the best of his or her respective abilities and learn a lifelong passion for the sport of cross country skiing. While racing is an element that is available to skiers in our program, it is certainly not required or forced. Our practices are centered around having fun, learning skills to improve our skiing, and enjoying the outdoors with friends and family.
Days We Run Our Program:
This winter we will run our program after school on Tuesday's from 3:30pm-5:00pm and Saturday mornings from 10:30am-12:00pm. If there is interest and volunteer support, we would also like to offer an additional session on Thursdays from 3:30pm-5:00pm as well.
Program Fee:
To participate in our youth ski program there is no additional program fee. However, children and their parents must be members of the Marlboro Nordic Ski Club to participate.
Loaner Equipment for Practice:
The Marlboro Nordic Ski Club has a fleet of about 20 pairs of children's skis, boots, and poles in a variety of sizes. We loan this equipment out on our practice days and occasionally over school breaks. We were hoping to acquire more skis this year and begin a season-long lease program but due to inventory shortages in North America we were unable to purchase more skis. If your children will be needing to borrow equipment for our practices, please indicate so in our sign-up form along with their height, weight, and shoe size.
We are unable to provide adults with equipment but recommend visiting the West Hill Shop in Putney or Burrows Specialized Sports in Brattleboro to see what they have for new and used equipment.
Parent Volunteer Coaches:
This year we are looking for parents to volunteer as age-group coaches for our season. At practice we divide up into groups based on their grade level. The groups are:
Kindergarten/Pre-K
Grades 1-2
Grades 3-5
Grades 6-8
Our hope is that by having volunteer coaches commit to an age group we will be better able to provide improved programming and instruction as well as allow our program director, Spencer Knickerbocker, to work with skiers that want to advance their technical skills and try some racing this winter. Volunteer coaches can team up with another parent/coach to spread out coaching duties over the practices but still have consistency week-to-week. Spencer will work with the volunteer coaches on coordinating practices as well as teaching them skills that they can pass on to their age group. If you are interested, please email Spencer at marlboronordicskiclub@gmail.com!
Important Participation Information:
Our youth ski program is not a substitute for childcare: we expect parents/guardians to be present on skis or snow shoes or have another parent/guardian be responsible for their children while at practice. This allows us to stay organized, safe, and have fun on skis as a family. Thank you for understanding!
Attendance at every practice is not mandatory but is strongly recommended. At young ages, skiers often make quick steps in development and its fun for the entire group to do that so they can enjoy skiing together and not feel left behind.
Start Date:
Our youth program will start the first week of December on Tuesday the 7th. If we have snow we will be on skis and if not we will do some hiking/ski exercises, games, and snow dances to appease the snow gods.