Ski Room Dedication: The Man Behind the “good, better, best” Speech

Friday evening two hundred and fifty people convened in Alumni gymnasium for the dedication of the Alpine and Nordic Ski Rooms to Coach Bob Flynn (Affectionately known as ‘Coach’).  Members of the Bates community (past and present), athletic department, and ski world applauded as Clayton Spencer, Steve Fuller, and Coach himself spoke. A common thread connected each person in the room: Coach had impacted everyone there in one way or another.  

As current members of the team, we know Coach only in the capacity and role that he has recently played on the Nordic team. Coach has a rich history of enhancing Bates Athletics; his initiative and dedication have been instrumental for taking many sports programs at Bates to the next level.  On Friday night we listened to the stories and successes recounted from his time as Head Ski Coach, yet some of those same things still hold true today. When Steve Fuller said “I can safely assume that every person in this room has had a Bob “talk” at some point in their lives,” I could hear all current and former skiers chuckle to themselves because, whether or not we realized before that moment, Coach has impacted us all as skiers. 

In a team meeting on Monday, Becky pointed out that whenever we come into the office to see her, Coach is in there. Often his back is to us- facing his computer, doing work or making a phone call. Yet, whether or not it appears so, he is listening to and observing each conversation. Sometimes he may not say anything; sometimes he may chime in with his opinion, but either way he is always listening: Always listening because he cares about us –as athletes, students and individuals in the greater picture.  

Coach cares so much that he will tromp out through the snow with two ski poles in hand and watch us do intervals, cheering and providing the classic Coach phrases of encouragement: “ya look good”, “glide”, or providing us with a chuckle of inspiration by telling us we “need to get it together.” Although Coach has left the head ski coach position behind, his support is unwavering and his passion for and impact on the sport, especially at Bates, has been tremendous. From silently listening in the office, to cheering on the trails, offering valued words of wax wisdom or his presence at EVERY carnival weekend, Coach leaves an impact that each of us feels. Although much of the dedication on Friday focused on what some may deem “ the glory days”, the Bobcats of the present feel that the glory days of Bobcat skiing have continued, and Coach’s prime has yet to pass. Coach Bob Flynn has shaped Bates skiing into the successful program(s) (Nordic & Alpine) that we are lucky enough to be a part of, and one thing is for certain: he isn’t done yet. 

So, Coach- we thank you. For everything you have done and everything you will continue to do for the future generations that pass through your office everyday. If you haven’t been fortunate enough to have a conversation with Coach, do it. Whether you’re swinging by to check out the new ski rooms (believe us, you should do that), or just on campus, go say hi to the man in the ski office. If you’re lucky enough, you may even get a quote at the end of your talk.

Coach
(photo: Josh Kuckens/Bates College)

Bates Nordic '15-'16
(photo: Sandy Gray)

- Maddy, Sadie, and Halie

Yelling at Kids to Get their Hips Forward and What it Taught Me

Saturday at 6:30 in the morning we drive down a one and a half lane road with no guard rail. The boys are smashed into the backseat of my mom’s Subaru Forester talking about rollerskiing up this road, or even worse, down it. As we navigate the cracks and bumps, Trace launches into a discussion of GoPros and chickens. Chicken’s have incredibly stable heads, he tells us, therefore strapping a GoPro onto a chicken would be your best bet for catching any sort of bumpy ride on video. This is the kid that duck hunts on the weekends, has (finally) chosen Nordic over football, and has been known to wear full camouflage long underwear as his race suit. Connor eats a Cliff bar and laughs along, his hair sticking straight up from oversleeping and almost missing the workout. Earlier in the summer, he considered dying his hair blue (we luckily talked him out of it). Calvin sits in the middle, ever prepared, but not prepared for the bonk awaiting him several hours down the trail. I can’t stop laughing and I exchange a glance with my mom, knowing it’s going to be another one of “those days”.

We met up with the younger group at the trailhead and split up- Nancy and Laurel with the older boys and Bryce with the U16s. Our day would consist of a run/hike loop that we had been preparing for all summer. It ended up being a success for both groups. I finished the day with the realization that I only have one more week left of the best job ever.

When people ask me what I’ve been doing this summer for work I respond, “Yelling at kids to get their hips forward,” which is basically my summer job in a nutshell. In reality, it’s more complicated.

Two summers ago, I got an assistant coaching job through our local club working with my mom and Bryce, one of her former athletes. It was great, so this summer I decided to try it again, but with a little more vigor. I wanted to be more involved in the planning and execution of the workouts than before, which was a little nerve racking as many of our athletes aren’t much younger than I am. With some confidence and careful planning, I earned the respect of our athletes and continued to have the best summer of my life.

Mammoth Lakes, California is known for its alpine and snowboard culture. Nordic skiing is very small here. All of the junior programs were initiated by my mom, including our small club team that operates separately from the high school program. Our club had eight athletes in it this summer with a very wide range of abilities, personalities, and levels of dedication. High school is challenging, at least it was for me. In the midst of going to three different schools, skiing was the one thing that was always there. Although our athletes are very different, they are friends and have enormous respect for each other. Skiing is there for them too.

High school athletes are at a pivotal moment in their skiing careers. They are starting more intense strength programs, learning nuances in technique, figuring out how to pace, and generally training harder. Amidst all of this, they are realizing that dedication pays off. They are learning how to be a team. They are starting to grow into the people they will become. And coaches? They do their best to teach, laugh along with the hilarity of it all, and enjoy the ride. 

Yes, I did spend a lot of time on the side of the road yelling at kids to get their hips forward. I also taught them how to navigate the mountains. I watched them make technique breakthroughs. I saw them blow up in intervals and learn the hard lesson. I tried to motivate and push them through hard strength and interval workouts. It paid off seeing how much they have all grown. One of our younger athletes who weighs 95 pounds, wears glasses, and will have his AA degree when he graduates high school, completed four hill repeats last week, smiling. At the beginning of the summer, he could barely run a mile and complained on a daily basis. That alone is reason to celebrate.

People often ask my mom, a two time Olympian and fourteen time national champion, why she no longer really competes. She responds that she loves coaching and hanging out with teenagers. While I am very much still in my own college career and am still trying to figure the whole darn sport out, coaching has done something special for my own skiing. Teaching technique has allowed me to work on fine tuning my own in order to demonstrate and better explain. Sometimes I have to suck up my ego and do the right thing when I am doing a long ski or intervals with them in order to lead by example. More than anything, coaching has given me the opportunity to give back to a sport and lifestyle that has taught and given me so much. Watching our athletes undergo that same process leaves me inspired. Their smiles when they have PR’d or finally kicked at the right time in classic reminds me of something familiar.

I am looking forward to going back to my own team and coaches at Bates. As our team’s season approaches, I will wish my team back in Mammoth the best for their own season. I know the hard work will pay off in more ways than they can imagine.

Happy training!
-Laurel 

Roll/hike overdistance

Post ski walking intervals aways called for rope swinging (and capes apparently?)

Adventuring with the older boys

The dysfunction of a typical day

Trace on top of the world

going home

The other day, I got really excited to go back to Bates.

If you’ve talked to me this summer about school, you know I’m happy to have a break from Bates right now. Short Term was tough– I was sick, my track season wasn’t what I wanted it to be, my best friends weren’t on campus, my mind was constantly in worry-mode, and I was taking a tough class. When May 29^th rolled around, I was ready to leave Lewiston. I figured homesickness for Bates would set in within the month of June, but it didn’t. And it didn’t in July.

Don’t get me wrong – I love Bates with all of my heart; it’s home to me. But sometimes, you need a break from home. I definitely needed that break.

Now we’re in August. If you had asked me a week ago if I was excited to go back to Bates, I would say “I’m not quite ready yet.” I would’ve told you the same thing on Friday. On Saturday, though, I would’ve given you a completely different answer.

I was supposed to hike the Bridger Range on Saturday with one of my roommates (Sarah, a skier for Williams), but Mother Nature won and we ended up doing a distance classic ski. Luckily, this meant I was able to cheer Amy on while she did intervals (we’ve somehow lived together for the entire summer but with work schedules/vacations, we haven’t done many workouts together).

Before Amy started her first interval, I asked her what she was going to focus on – something I like to call “pulling a Becky.” After she told me, she was off. I was able to watch a couple minutes of her first interval and then didn’t see her until the last one.  Then I did something I call “pulling a James” – I started yelling, “tempo, tempo, use your gears!” Her technique and power instantly transformed after she appropriately adjusted to climbing a hill.

As Sarah and I skied up to Amy, Sarah told me how cool she thinks it is that Amy’s and my relationship is strong enough that I can give her something to work on and vice versa. She told me it’s not something she sees often– friends, but also teammates that are so comfortable that they can coach each other during workouts because they have the same overall goal: become better skiers.

I thought a lot about that conversation after that ski. It’s something I’ve taken for granted, but is one of my favorite things about being a part of the Bates women’s team: we train together, coach each other, and make each other better skiers because we want to accomplish goals both as individuals, but also as a team.

For the rest of the ski, Amy and I talked about the awesome fall workouts we can’t wait to do once we get back to campus: Lost Valley intervals, Sunday morning rollerskis with the New England fall foliage as our backdrop, intervals in West Auburn, ODs where Becky feeds us donuts halfway through, Rangeley and Thanksgiving camp, and strength session where everyone in the gym turns when they hear us yelling at each other to push harder and do one more pull-up, one more dip, or one more rep.

This morning I did my last workout with Amy for the summer: 2x20 steady state intervals.  I was worried about them. My heart rate while skate skiing hasn’t settled after coming to altitude, and I didn’t know how I would do with these intervals. I followed Amy, and then Amy followed me. She asked me what my heart rate was every few minutes to make sure I was staying in L3, and I was.

Today was, by far, the best interval session I’ve had all summer.

We, as the Bates Nordic ski team, have something special. And it’s those special things that make the team what it is. It’s those special things that make me so excited to go back home in less than a month.

Happy final weeks of summer,

Sadie