BC ALPINE E-UPDATE FOR 02/05/2002

Odds & Ends

2002 Pontiac Montana Raffle Update
Well, the 2002 Pontiac Montana Raffle is in full flight with 21 clubs participating and 14, 000 tickets in circulation. If you're club is not involved and it should be contact Sue-Lynda. Tickets are only $5 each. The Early Bird Draw is Monday March 4, 2002 and the final Draw date is April 6, 2002.

Important Pontiac Montana Dates & Information
The Early Bird Prize Draw is Monday March 4, 2002 - all tickets and money must be returned to BC Alpine by 5 p.m. Friday March 1, 2002 in order to be included in the draw for a Descente BC Ski Team Jacket. The Final Draw Date is Saturday April 6, 2002 at the Sierra Wireless - Air Canada Whistler Cup. All tickets and money must be received by Tuesday April 2, 2001. Tickets not received by 5 p.m. Tuesday April 2nd are not guaranteed entry into the April 6th draw.

Win a Descente BC Ski Team Jacket
Hundreds of newspaper articles get published every season and we don't see enough of them here at BC Alpine. We need your help! Here's the deal: for every ski-racing article you send in to Sue-Lynda throughout the season, BC Alpine will enter your name into a draw for a Descente BC Ski Team Jacket. Send in 11 articles and you are entered 11 times. The odds are in your favour! Our goal is to have an original copy of every ski-racing article in BC this season - from the results to the front-page news we would like to see it all. Send in your articles today!

Buying or Selling Used Equipment?
Let's face it - ski equipment can cost money. Why not buy top-quality used equipment to help offset the cost and get great gear in the process. Sponsored racers (i.e. on the BC Ski Team and the Canadian Alpine Ski Team) often have great equipment left over at the end of the season and this is your chance to get your hands on some of it. Check out the Buy & Sell section on the web today!

BC Ski Team & Development Team

Men's Field Report - Dusan Grasic
That is a very busy month behind us. I along with Sean Cochrane, Scott Anderson, Scott Hume and Mani Osborne Paradis went to Europe on January 5th. Sean joined National team for a couple of Europe Cup races in Italy and according to Burkhard Schaffer (Canadian Men's Alpine Ski Team) he did some good skiing but the mistake at the bottom of the course cost him a lot of the time and he ended up 68. The rest of the guys went with me to two FIS SL in ITA, where we joined the Ontario ski team.

First race wasn't the best one since everybody finished in the snow and the second race looked better and in the very soft conditions Hume end up 25th and Mani 30 something. It was a good start for the conditions. We moved to Slovenia and picked up Sean on the way. We ran SL there first and it looked good (after the first run Hume was leading and Anderson was sixth) but they both end up talking to me on the side of the second run and I can say I wasn't talking too nice to them. After a day off we had GS where Hume was 8 and Mani 10th not great but still pretty good. Anderson and Cochrane skied the course but didn't really race and finished a bit behind. We had another race in Slovenia, another GS, where Sean had a good crash without injury and Mani and Scott A. went a bit slower. I wasn't a happy camper after those races. The guys were showing some good skiing but not too much good racing. After Slovenia I took Hume to a couple of Europe Cup SLs in Austria where he was skiing really good but couldn't finish in a very soft snow with start positions of around 100.

Meanwhile, back in Canada, the rest of the guys had training with the Alberta and Ontario ski teams. Hume had another SL after that in Westendorf in Austria where he came 40th after starting 87 in the world cup field. There were 3 ex World SL champions at the start of that SL. Hume earned his spot in the World Cup night SL at that race. After that we joined together with the rest of the team and went to Germany to the German Junior Championship. We had a good GS with Hume 6th and Anderson 8th. Sean went again with National team to Europe Cup speed in St. Moritz in SUI where he tested the fence and came home two weeks early to recover.

Anderson and Osborne-Paradis went to two FIS SG in Austria where Mani had
his best results in GS this year with 51 fis points. In the race with 173 racers from 22 countries he was 29. Hume had another race, the highlight of career, with his first World cup race night SL in Schladming. I believe that he did better at that race that I did. He didn't finish but showed some brave skiing on the course where I had rough time to come down just on the side of the course.
So our Europe adventure ended up with a lot of soft snow and tough races. It
was the toughest Europe trip so far.

When we were in Europe the rest of the guys competed in Canada at Pontiac
cup races and you know those results. After Europe we had couple of days off and now we are training in Fairmont and Panorama to get ready for Apex and the World Junior Championships. Hume qualified for WJC and Mani still has a chance to do the same. The rest of the guys are off to Apex and the some of them will go to Nor-ams in Quebec and the Eastern States.

Coach's Corner

Upcoming Level One Courses:
Feb 8-10 Tabour Prince George; Feb 15-17 Silver Star; Mar 8-10 Grouse; Mar 22-24 Whistler; April 19-21 Whistler; May 10-12 Blackcomb; May 31-June 2 Blackcomb.

For more information contact Gordie Bowles or to register contact Keven Dubinsky.

Gordie Bowles - Programs Update

BC WINTER GAMES UPDATE - WILLIAMS LAKE 2002
All systems are go and we are ready for the Alpine events at Mt Timothy and the Timberland Alpine Ski Society Feb. 21-24. All 88 athletes, 16 coaches/managers, and 9 officials that were registered should have already received the booklet called “Guide to the Games”. This covers all details involved between now and the completion of the Games. Please review this carefully.For more information on the Games visit the official website at www.bcgames.org
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K2 NATIONAL TIME TRIALS RACE NOTICE:
*Please note entry deadline - Friday, Feb. 8 at 4:00 pm - entries from Coach Zone Reps to Gordie Bowles. Home hill advantage restored. We’ve move the K2 National Time Trials back to Panorama. The time trials, to determine the group to represent BC at the K2 nationals, will consist of one day of Super-G trials, one day of GS trials and one day of Slalom trials at Panorama, on the race track used at the nationals.
DATE: Feb. 22-24, 2002
DAY 1 (Fri, Feb. 22) - SG Time Trials
DAY 2 (Sat, Feb. 23) - GS Time Trials
DAY 3 (Sun, Feb. 24) - SL Time Trials
VENUE: Panorama, Run - "Showoff"
ELIGIB: According to zone quota (see below), 40 athletes (even gender split + or - 1) will be selected for time trials.
RACE ENTRY: Forward participation requests through club head coach and they will in turn submit names to the Coach Zone K2 Reps (Brent Kehl, Coast; Sean Valentine, Kootenay; Trevor Haaheim, Okanagan; Brett Zagezewski, North).
FORMAT: 2 runs of Super-G (one course for all athletes), 4 runs of GS (one course for all athletes), 4 runs Slalom (one course for all athletes).
SEEDING: Random draw per gender first run, then staggered to equalize start positions over the 4 runs.
MEETING: Thursday, Feb. 21, 2002, 8:30 p.m. Panorama, location TBD
ZONE QUOTA: Zone allotment for the trials according to registration numbers. Communicate with your head coach to submit names. Kootenay - 10, Okanagan - 10, Coast - 18, North - 2.

"TEAM BC" K2 NATIONAL SELECTION:
- 23 (12 male, 11 female) athletes will be selected on the basis of the total of their best SG, 2 GS and best 2 Slalom results using race points. Ties, if any will be broken using the athletes’ 5th best or if necessary 6th best result.
- Each athlete will be given a K2 Nationals “Trip Sheet” with all information pertaining to the nationals event in Panorama.
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SIERRA WIRELESS, AIR CANADA WHISTLER CUP 2002
The rules and selection criteria for the 2002 Whistler Cup is available on www.bcalpine.com Please review this document carefully.
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CANARIE PROJECT UPDATE - from BC SportMed, SportHealth
The Team BC Medical Monitoring Program for the 2003 Canada Winter Games (to be held in New Brunswick) has been initiated. SportMedBC is also working to develop an online athlete training diary (as part of the SportWeb http://sportweb.cancoach.com/ project that aims to help make Canada a leader in using the Internet as a means of sharing data and promoting education in the sport community. With funding assistance from CANARIE, the project involves private and public sector organizations from across Canada and is being led by the Vancouver based Nortia Learning Systems www.nortialearning.com

Alcan Nancy Greene Ski League

ALCAN NGSL Bursary Deadline EXTENDED
Now is the time to nominate a deserving Alcan NGSL skier to receive a $100 Bursary. Coaches/Club Coordinators are asked to fax in the application (page 109 in the Green Book) to Gordie Bowles at 604.738.7191. One athlete will be chosen from each zone. The deadline has been extended & applications will now be accepted until noon on Tuesday February 12, 2002.

Oceans Officials

Who's Going to Salt Lake City?
Well, quite a collection of athletes, many officials and volunteers are heading to Salt Lake to volunteer their alpine skiing knowledge and expertise at the Games . Amoung the distinguished Olympic list Utah bound: Robin Macfarlane, Sandie Hales, Bob Miller, Gerry Rinaldi, Amanda Shaw, Dave Pym, Owen Carney and the entire crew of Weasel Workers, Don Appelle, Roy Bissett, Mike Giannelli, Joan Giannelli, Brian Humphrey, Bob Jamieson, Merry Maruno, Jim Mikolash, Patrick O'Connell, Karl Ricker, George Robinson, Franco Serraglio, Dave Shefley, Gordie Stone, Gary Taylor, Roger Tremblay, Jason Vanzella, Valerie Ward, Bob Waters, Murray Wood and Christine Yanisiw.

Gold Medals & Face Plants

DOUBLE GOLD MEDAL to Bruce Holliday and his entire crew for setting up an excellent Okanagan speed camp at Apex. The first day of the camp was fantastic!

GOLD MEDAL to the SAM Coordinators who have diligently reported their club information to BC Alpine. Thank you to: Al Fisher (Apex), Denise LeMaster Rose (WVSC), Pierrette Beaton & Murray Crawford (Sun Peaks), Carol Cohen (Kimberley), Jim Fisher (MWSC), Beth Webb (Golden), Mark McKee (Revelstoke) & Chris Hubscher (Salmo). Please keep those photos and newspaper articles coming!

GOLD MEDAL to Brent Wisehart and the Mt Seymour club for an outstanding Alcan NGSL event January 16th. Lot's of smiling faces on the mountain that day!

GOLD MEDAL to Merrill Lynch Zone Reps - Steve Hilts, Mary-Ann Lee, Colin Flick and Rod Pridy - for their prompt entry for their respective zones for the upcoming BC Winter Games in Williams Lake.

GOLD MEDAL to Sead Causevic of the Whistler Mtn Ski Club for getting the BC Games registrations to BC Alpine and the BC Games office first - even with the four Coast zones!

GOLD MEDAL to Peter Chapman and the Cypress Ski Club for a tremendous newsletter. It looks great!

FACEPLANT to the K1 Okanagan zone rep Trevor Haaheim for eleventh hour entries for the BC Games. Don't fret Trev, we still made it on time, barely.

FACE PLANT to Women's Head Coach Ryan Jazic for letting Dusan handily out-write him in the BC Ski Team reports for the newsletter.