Due to forecasted high winds late afternoon and evening training for all BBSEF programs has been cancelled.  The bus has also been cancelled for today.

BBSEF kids had a busy weekend.  We had kids at three different venues.

The BBSEF hosted the 61^st annual Cranston Cup.  This event is one of the longest standing races in the country.  It has been a race for all ages. It started out in the 50’s as a local event that attracted skiers from as far away as Sun Valley and Mc Call. It was started by a group of local skiers with local auto dealer Walter Cranston as the race benefactor.  To this day, the Cranston Family supports the event.   It was staged as a Downhill, slalom combined event with the Downhill run off Majestic and down the gully to Chair  Three.    Later it was a PNSA elite event. In 1985 Bogus Basin joined the Intermountain Division and the Cup was part of our Intermountain J1.2 series IM Cup.  It remained a DH/SL combo until the late 80’s when it became a GS SL combo. About 2000 the event was turned into a north series event and has found a home there ever since. This year the trophy went to BBSEF skier Caton Langston. Caton had a second Saturday and a third Sunday which was good enough for the combined. Sun Valley’s Pilar Pennell was the girls winner.

The J3’s were at the Sean Nurse Memorial race at Snow King Resort.  This is a J3 qualifier for the WR J3 Championships.  Lance Gary, Stockton Troyer and Dave Heil all made the front page (top 15) with Stockton taking 3^rd in the slalom.  Jessica Kochaver also made the front page at Snow King – 14th in GS.

At Sun Valley the J1 and 2’s were facing some tough competition from some U of Montana FIS kids.  Graham Black had another good GS showing and his brother Garrett showed some spunk riding the ruts to a great finish in the last GS.  Way to go Blaster!!

All in all, the team is healthy and strong.  This is due to the early training we had in Colorado, Sun Valley and Snow King.

This weekend, mist of the team will be at Bogus Basin training.  We all are looking forward to some good skiing and a shot at the new lift.  See all there.

Kenny

Many thanks for your patience and enthusiasm with our start at Tamarack.
You were very instrumental in saving our season. With Bogus Basin fully
open, we will be back in familiar ground. Things will be back to a standard
routine.
I would also like to thank those of you who helped at the Cranston cup in
set up and tear down.  It is difficult at best to host a race at home let
alone away. We brought our entire compliment of event gear to host this
event.  Our Parent crew did an outstanding job as course workers,
gatekeepers, officials. I knew that we were in good shape when, on Saturday
morning, all officials and gatekeepers were in place 15 minutes before the
scheduled start!
Thanks to our race Chairmen, Sam Langston and Brenden Fitzgerald for
organizing that group.  With the job done so well, just think how well it
will go when we host at home.
Thanks always go to Bobby and James Garrison for their timing. Joining them
was IMD’s volunteer of the year Gil Denis at starter, keeping three to 4 on
course at time.
Special thanks go to the crew at Tamarack for their hospitality. We owe them
one!
So goes the season.  I look forward to some powder at Bogus.
Thanks to all
Kenny

BBSEF Mitey Mitey and Devo Home Teams will be training at Tamarack Jan 21st &Jan 22nd

The phones have been ringing off the hook with one question, where will the ADH & MM teams be training this weekend? The answer is…Tamarack! I understand that everyone wants to be skiing at Bogus and the reasons for not wanting to go to Tamarack, believe me I do understand.  I want to be on our home hill just as much as anyone else however I also want the quality of training and skiing to be what it needs to be as we prepare for our first SL race of the season January 28th.

Greetings Parents & Race Fans,

BBSEF will be hosting the 61st Annual Cranston Cup at Tamarack Resort, which is one of the premier double SL’s IMD qualifying races for J5 & J4 racers.  The Cranston Cup is just around the corner, January 21 & 22 , and we desperately need volunteers.

Sam Langston and Brenden Fitzgerald are chairing this year’s event and will be your point of contact for the event.   

• No experience needed
• Lift tickets and Lunch provided for Volunteers
• Positions available;

o   Course workers
o   Gate Keepers
o   Hand timers
o   Scoreboard
o   Bib Collector

Let’s together make this a successful event for our athletes.  Please email Brenden and Sam at cranstoncup@slangston.com and volunteer.

Hello BBSEF Families and Friends, 

BBSEF will host a rededication of the Jason Harper Training Center this
Sunday, January 1st, starting at noon at the Jason Harper Training Center at
Bogus Basin.  Please come up and join us in showing our appreciation to the
Harper family.

The Thin Line

Erik Fisher is a former BBSEF racer and  current US Ski Team athlete as well as a 2010 Olympian. He is a great person and incredible athlete.   This next month he will be competing with all of  the”big boys” at the World Cup Downhills and Super-G’s in Europe, including  the Hahnenhamm and Lauberhorn. Erik needs your help and support in his quest  for a podium spot at the Sochi Olympics. On January 3rd, the movie “The Thin  Line” will be showing at the Egyptian Theatre.  This event is a fundraiser  for Erik Fisher; tickets are just $15.00 and can be purchased at the BBSEF  Office, Greenwoods Ski Haus, McU Sports, The Record Exchange or online at egyptiantheatre.net. Erik will be at the event to sign autographs and have his picture taken with all of the kids.

 Pass the word on to all of your friends who love the sport of ski racing.
 This is going to be a fun event and the money is going towards a great  cause!!

The BBSEF office will be closed December 22-26.  Snow permitting we will be skiing December 31 & Jan 1st. Group lists are posted on the team page.

 Greetings BBSEF Families,

 We are thinking snow and doing our snow dance!  The season will be starting soon. Everybody needs to start wearing shorts, rain jackets or anything that will get the attention of the snow Gods. We have made our improvements to the Jason Harper Training Center and will have a rededication at noon Jan. 1^st.   

The race series for our Mitey Mite and Development home team are scheduled for:

• January 14^th Giant Slalom
• February 19^th Slalom
• March 10^th & 11^th Giant Slalom, Slalom, Jumping and Skier Cross. 

We will also be hosting:

Cranston Cup January 20-21 (North Series Event)
Bolinder Memorial February 24-26 (Varsity J1-3 Boys)
Michael B. Young Big Mountain Event on March 3^rd (All BBSEF Teams) 

We were not scheduled to have training on Christmas weekend. We plan to have training for all programs December 31^st and January 1^st. The BBSEF Office will be closed December 22-26 for the Christmas Holiday.

Welcome to the 2011/12 ski season and thank you for your continued support!  We are looking forward to this coming year being even better than last year.  The BBSEF BOD and staff have been busy in the off season with a few projects and strategic changes with an eye on the future intended to improve the program for many years to come.  With the growth in our membership last year our coaching staff grew considerably.  A key goal of BBSEF is to provide quality coaches to all levels of our program.  With growth comes the need for a more organized approach to communication, staff coordination and infrastructure improvements. 

To support better coordination/communication amongst staff and Bogus Basin the BOD added the duties of Athletic Director to Kenny Corrock’s duties as Head Alpine Coach.  Kenny is a true ski industry veteran with the experience necessary to lead our program for many years to come.  Kenny’s Athletic Director duties are to oversee all aspects related to athletic and equipment needs of our program for both Alpine and Freeride thus providing a single point of contact for Bogus Basin Mountain Resort regarding the on hill needs of our participants.  Kenny will also support Shannon with fundraising needs as well.  Kenny’s years of experience and expertise has afforded him with a direct line of communication with the U.S. Ski Team, therefore he will guide our Alpine program structure and training curriculum to ensure alignment with U.S. Ski Team philosophy.  Kenny will be coordinating the Alpine needs of the program with input from an excellent line up of coaches that includes veteran varsity coaches Brett Troyer and Larry Duke, Aaron Flynn and Katie Sawaya.  Chuck Combs is returning to lead our mitey mite program along with Clint Sparks.  Brian Walp will be leading the North Series Travel Team.  Terry Sevy is returning as our safety coordinator.  We have a large and diverse group of varsity skiers this year thanks in large part to efforts of Brett Troyer over the years.  Brett has been instrumental in setting the foundation for a group of high achieving varsity skiers; we’re looking forward to seeing BBSEF varsity skiers take home some hardware this year.  Please join me in cheering these young men and women on!

Josh Loubek is returning as Head Coach for Team Shred and we are excited for year number two under Josh’s leadership.   Josh also is on the front lines with the U.S. Ski Team as Josh has been tasked by International Ski Federation to develop the judging criteria for slopestyle events at the 2014 Winter Olympics.  Josh is working on developing a travel circuit for our advancing freeride shredders to take their skills to the next level.  Kenny will coordinate the training needs in alignment with Josh Lubeck’s vision for Team Shred with Bogus Basin management to give our kids the best opportunity to hone their freeriding skills. 

Shannon Carrell will continue to serve as our Administrative Director/Do It All Person.  As Administrative Director, Shannon is in charge of all office and fundraising operations for BBSEF.  Shannon is in charge of the organizing the ski swap.  The ski swap is our largest fundraiser and is critical to our ability to keep our program fees affordable.  The ski swap is a significant undertaking and would not be possible without all those who volunteer to make this event a success.  This event not only supports BBSEF financially but it also serves the community by enabling people to gear up for skiing and snowboarding in an affordable manner.  Thanks to all who volunteered this year! 

In addition to a commitment to a low overhead structure we are fortunate to have many volunteers helping us along the way.  Key among those volunteers are Brett Troyer and Craig Naylor who volunteer their time as varsity coaches, Bobby Garrison who volunteers his time and equipment to perform timing at all our events, a dedicated BOD group and of course the parents of all the kids in the program.  Thank you to everyone who volunteers for this program; your efforts make a huge difference!    

To address our infrastructure needs we initiated several projects.  First among them was to expand our coaches room at the Harper training center.  With the growth in our coaching staff last year we outgrew our coach’s room.  In order to retain and attract quality coaches we’ve expanded the coach’s room in the Harper Training Center.  Thanks to the generous donations of the Winsauer family the new coach’s room will be named in their son Mack’s name.  In addition to expanding the coach’s room the plumbing in the bathrooms has been fixed complete with new sinks.  These improvements will yield an overall more efficient and organized facility allowing us to serve our customers better.  The final improvement is for the kids; kids involved with the travel programs will have use of a boot dryer capable of handling up to 60 pairs of boots and the lockers in their locker rooms are being redone to better accommodate their equipment storage needs.  Kenny Corrock and Katie Sawaya did much of the labor for these improvements along with many members from our varsity program.  Come check these improvements out and join me in thanking Kenny and Katie for all their hard work.

In addition to the training center improvements we’ve been busy redoing our website.  Brian Walp and Kathleen Brady have been working with a company so our website can be maintained and updated more efficiently.  Our goal is to make this a more informative tool for our membership, staff and prospective new members.  The website got up a running in September.  The staff has been busy updating the site with content.  If you have suggestions or comments, please contact Shannon, Kenny or Brian Walp.

Our last project is more behind the scenes but something we needed to do with the growth in our program.  As our overall program has grown we needed to invest in the technology necessary to track and keep up with that growth so we’re implementing a new accounting system.  This new system will help us manage our dollars to the best of our ability while keeping our overhead staff to a minimum so we can reinvest the majority of our dollars into programs and coaches that will benefit our membership.

In closing I had the great opportunity to meet the Harper family at our first brush cutting event.  In speaking with them and explaining to them the current state of the program and the investments we were making in this program for the future, their gratitude was clearly evident.  Our number one goal at BBSEF is to provide your child with a platform to experience the thrill of competitive skiing and along the way create some great memories for you and your child to share for a lifetime.  After meeting the Harper family I am convinced more than ever that if we achieve that goal, we’ve done our job as an organization and that BBSEF will be teaching kids to race, shred, and have fun on snow for another 44 years.  I can’t wait to see you all again … it’s ski time! 

Sincerely,

Mike Sabin

President, BOD