Refreshed

If I am reincarnated as a rich boy, I want to go to the Stratton Mountain School. Wow, that place is the best! Last week I called my friend Mike Morin to ask if we could train a few days with his athletes enroute to US Alpine Championships. He said he'd set everything up for us. Did he ever -- room, board, use of the tuning room, lift tickets and three days of much beeded tech training.

Ski racers can't just compete. Skills are perishable and they periodically need a "tune-up". Due to the addition of a few events by our Region, Scott hasn't trained since Feb 8th. We didn't want to fall into the same trap as least season, so this stop was just what he needed.

But enough about that. Let me talk about the academy. SMS has 120 athletes, divided evenly between alpine, cross country and freestyle. The campus is immaculate and positioned less than 1/2 mile from the slopes. The faculty is top notch. The alpine staff is headed by Mike, a veteran of 9 years coaching the US Team. His assistant is a former CU racer who also coached there. The entire staff is young, highly qualified and very motivated. The feeling is similar to when I'd walk into a well led Army unit. We'd call it "Command Climate", and this place has a good one. It also has a first class facility with a large field house, weight room, therapy rooms and staff, etc The complete package.

Academies aren't for us, but if they were I suspect this would be our choice.