Stratton Winter Sports Club Athletes, Parents & Coaches:

Opening weekend is upon us! It’s hammering snow right now (Tuesday – 12+ inches), it’s cold, the stoke meter is at 100 and we are days away from kicking off our programing with the Stratton Winter Sports Club. Coaches are locked and we have the most extensive coaching roster anywhere. We can’t wait to deliver a world class program to you as the mountain ops team has been hard at work with aggressive terrain expansion and the natural snow is a blessing. This is most definitely shaping up for another early December to remember! Our programs are kicking off this Saturday, December 6th! Below we highlight some very important details so you can have awesome weekends ahead!

Program Dates of Operation start this Saturday, December 6 and run every Saturday & Sunday, until March 29. Other days of operation include December 26-31; January 19; February 16. This will provide 40 days of formal programing. Please note we are not running on December 25 or January 1. We will also host some value added “Mini Camps” for $99 per day for SWSC program participants on the following days... December 22-24, January 2; February 17-20. Sign-ups for these mini camps will be announced on Team App via a digital form, as we get closer to the dates, but please be sure to mark them in your calendars for now.

Daily Schedule
8:25am Meet at the Allegro, Freeskiing, or Freestyle Flags between the Base Lodge & Mountain Sports School.
8:30am Group assignments and depart for the morning session.
11:30am Return to flags & wrap up morning session. (Parents please be 5 minutes early if you are picking up your athlete.)
There will be a one-hour lunch break (On your own, parents please develop a plan of what your child is to do and inform coaches that morning. Will you pick them up at the flag, or do you have a meeting place in the base lodge, or club? Etc.)
12:25pm Meet at the Allegro, Freeskiing or Freestyle Flags.
12:30pm Regroup and depart for afternoon session.
3:00pm Return to flags for end of day wrap up. (Parents please be 5 minutes early if you are picking up your athlete.)

Before we get started, I wanted to outline a few important details, so everyone knows where to go and what to do and when.

Meeting Place
We meet between the Main Base Lodge and Mountain Sports School at the Flags. Please look for the corresponding flag based on the program they're signed up for. From left to right, as you are looking at the mountain, we have in order, Freeskiing A, Freeskiing B, Allegro, Freestyle B, and Freestyle A.

Group Assignments
We are utilizing age-based learning, this provides us with the ability to offer age-appropriate instruction in a meaningful way. Please be sure to review the age groups, it will make for faster start times.

Our Allegro groups will be as follows:
U9 – Birth Years 2017 and later
U11 – Birth Years 2015 & 2016
U13 – Birth Years 2013 & 2014
U15/17 – Birth Years 2012 and earlier

Our Freestyle B Team groups will be as follows:
B11 – Birth Year 2015 and later
B13 – Birth Year 2013 & 2014
B15/17 – Birth Year 2012 and earlier

Our Freestyle A Team skis all together and will break into groups as needed with coaches.

Our Freeskiing B Team skis all together and will break into groups as needed with coaches.

Our Freeskiing A Team skis all together and will break into groups as needed with coaches.

Looking forward to this Saturday our program kicks off where we will be focusing on getting reacquainted with our equipment. Time on the flats is imperative before we get rockin’ in the moguls and terrain parks, especially for our younger Allegro athletes. Our favorite drill the T-Bone Pancake will be front and center as we get into our balanced athletic position. If you are balanced, skiing gets easy, with ease, comes comfort and trust to try new things.

Please use the diagram above to know where to stand upon arrival. We will have some blue lines painted on the snow for visuals as we break into groups. Groups will lap the Amex Lift for the first couple of runs while we iron out the groups and skiing abilities and catch any late arrivals. Establishing groups is more art than science and can take a weekend or two to get completely ironed out. For your first few weekends, PLEASE communicate with your child's coach directly if they have any known learning or behavioral items. This will allow our coaches to connect faster and deliver more meaningful programing.

We will host a very important SWSC Parent Après & Presentation with Q & A from 4:00-6:00pm on Saturday at the Black Bear Lodge. From 4:00-5:00pm enjoy complementary apps from the tasty Table 43.1 menu and a cash bar. This is a great opportunity to meet coaches in a warm relaxed setting and also network with other parents. From 5:00-6:00pm we will host a presentation and Q&A session. If you are new to the program or have questions, you will not want to miss this. This is a SWSC wide event with breakout in the Green Mountain Ball Room for the Freestyle/Freeskiing team. Alpine breakout in the Wentworth room, and Snowboard in the Yoga Studio, all at the Black Bear Lodge.

Last but not least, please be patient on our first day, December 6th, we organize 180+ fun loving, excited kids in about 15 minutes. It might seem rather busy, but don’t worry, your athlete is going to be having their best ski days ahead. They will be meeting some of their lifelong friends for the first time or reunited with them! B-)

Thank you very much for joining us this season and travel safe! Your Winter home awaits.

Best,

Tim Massucco
Freestyle/Freeskiing Program Director
Email: tmassucco@stratton.com
Text & Direct: (802) 297-7920