Our Story - How Newberg HS started its first EVER ski racing team.

I have a daughter and she loves to ski...but had never ski raced. She attended a racing camp with a friend in middle school and was hooked and became excited to race in high school. As I started to check into what was available at Newberg high school I discovered they did not have a team and as far as anyone knew had never had a team, so what to do now...

Growing up in Oregon I knew that there were many high schools that do in fact have very active HS racing teams. So I began calling around to other high schools nearby to find out if it was possible for my daughter to train with them and race as an individual...not ideal but better than not racing at all from her perspective. The West Linn/Willsonville/LaSalle Team was very inviting and would have openly welcomed her, however the location and time of day that they conducted their dryland training made it virtually impossible for us to make work. I started contacting more people and was put in touch with the president of the metro ski league, which is the league that Tigard HS races under. I had a fantastic conversation with her about how Tualatin HS had a handful of racers that were in the same situation as my daughter...No program...No Coaching Staff, that were going to come train with Tigard. She put me in touch with the wonderful coaches at Tigard HS who welcomed my daughter openly into their program.

We were already a little behind the eight ball from a timing perspective. Tigard has a large race team of ~18 racers who had already began to meet and plan for the coming year at the time I was able to sort all this out and was then asked if we should go ahead and try to put up some posters and have an informational meeting at Newberg HS to see if we could interest a few other students to race. The activities director at the high school, Mark Brown, was an amazing help and advocate for getting the word out and helping me to try and coordinate some additional racers. So we put up some posters and had an informational meeting, the meeting ultimately was not well attended and I was a bit discouraged that we would not get other students to join my daughter...then to my surprise the families that were there told other families that they knew skied and all of a sudden we went from maybe having 1-3 Newberg racers to 7 in our very first year! And what a year it turned out to be.

The team consisted of 6 boys (2 seniors, 1 sophomore, and 3 freshmen) and 1 girl (my freshman daughter). None of the individuals had racing experience and a few even had very limited skiing experience before joining the team. I was impressed each weekend with how much each of the racers developed, setting personal goals for improvement and then working to attain them. Two of the racers even qualified for the state race having NEVER raced before!!! The coach nicknamed the team "TNT" (Tigard/Newberg/Tualatin), they do everything together (train, eat, race) the only difference is on race day they are working toward times for their individual schools, but you would not know this based on mere observation, they cheer for each others successes and support each others struggles to the extent that to an outside observer they appear one team. What I discovered over the last year is that ski racing, unlike other team sports I have been involved with is a very familial environment. So much encouragement and camaraderie, not just across the TNT team but extending across all the Metro League racers, coaches, and volunteers.

For me personally, it was a year of learning: what is a gatekeeper, what equipment is needed, how do I coordinate carpools, how many volunteers are required to put on a race, coordinating and communicating with the school, etc. It was an AMAZING first season and I learned an incredible amount about this sport. Now as I embark on preparations to ready the team for next year I am excited about growing the team numbers and have a solid understanding now of how to operate and what needs to be done. We have excellent communication and coordination with the principal and activities director to continue to manage and grow the team in the coming years. There is a great core of returning racers and I'm sure any of them would love to talk to you or your student about their experience....Come join us on the mountain this winter!