The following was posted recently by the Chairperson of Eastern Freestyle and is something all parents of competitive athletes — of all ages and levels — should read, just to keep everything in perspective!!

How to be a Winning Parent…

This document is a favorite of mine. Let your kids own their sport – be a supporter, a fan and the bill payer!! We can’t thank you enough for all that you do to support our athletes – but, please, just do that. No need to solve the world’s problems at the bottom of the course/venue. Nothing will ever be perfect in freestyle or the world – except your child!!

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This weekend we have our second race on Saturday.  We’ll meet at the Sugar House at 9 am, head over to the Nastar course, inspect and then begin the race at 10 am.  The race should take about an hour, each athlete will get two runs.  We’ll break for lunch and then meet at the Sugar House at noon for afternoon training.  Results and awards will take place at the Sugar House at 2 pm.

Saturday 1/9 is our first race of the year.  We will be meeting as usual at the Sugar House at 9 am.  Each team will proceed to the Nastar course on Black Out where we will inspect the race course.  The race will begin at 10 am (give or take a few ski racing minutes).  Each athlete will do 2 runs. After the race we will break for lunch directly from the bottom of the race trail.  We will re-group again at 12 noon for our afternoon session.  We’d love to have lots of spectators so please come out to cheer the Hopefuls on.

At 2 pm we’ll have printed results which will also be posted on the OMARA webpage.

Don’t forget to sign up for the OMARA social on 1/16!

This Saturday, 1/2, we will have a Hopeful Parent meeting at Okemo Mountain School from 5:00 to 6:30.  Okemo Mountain School is located at 53 Main St., to the right of Sports Odessey.  This is an informational meeting , questions and answers, and meet other parents.  Hope you can join us, adults only, please.

Hopefuls will be meeting this Saturday 12/26 at 9-11 and then 12-2, departing and returning to the Sugar House.  If you can’t make the morning session on Saturday, please join us for the afternoon.  During the holiday week we’ll be meeting Tues 12/29, Thurs 12/31 and Sat 1/2.  We tentatively have a parent social/information evening planned for Saturday 1/2 but we’ll have more information on that in a day or two.  See you on the hill and have a great holiday!

This past weekend we had screenings for 50 new Hopefuls.  Wow, we saw some great skiing and many kids joined teams for Saturday afternoon. It was also great to see familiar faces from last year ready to go.  This Saturday 12/19 we’ll meet at the Sugar House at 9 am returning at 11 am, we’ll then re-group at 12 – 2 pm for more skiing.  For those who haven’t joined a team yet we will take care of that Saturday morning.  We will also be doing screenings at 9 am for those who are new to the program.  Looking forward to seeing everyone on Saturday.

Saturday 12/12 is our first day.  If all goes well we’ll meet in front of the Sugar House at 9 am.  Stay tuned for an alternate meeting location if mother nature doesn’t accomodate us this week.  Screenings will also take place at 9 am on Saturday and Sunday, please pre-register with the Eric in the Competition Center.  See you on Saturday.

**Screening Update**

We have a good size group coming out for Hopefuls Screenings this weekend.  As a result, we have split the Saturday screenings into two groups.

We will be meeting at the Sugar House for screenings; look and ask around for Pam Trainer or Jim Whalen to get with your groups for screenings.  If you have any questions before you get on the mountain, please call the Competitions Center at 802-228-1483.

Screening Schedule:

Saturday 9:00 – Last Names beginning with A-L

Saturday 10:00 – Last Names beginning with M-Z

Sunday 9:00  – All screenings

Just a note to all who were planning on having a screening this weekend:

We have postponed all screenings until next weekend, December 12th or 13th.

If you were signed up for Saturday, you are moved to the following Saturday; same for those scheduled on Sunday.

If this re-schedule does not work for you, please contact myself, Eric Evans, in the Competitions Center to coordinate alternatives.

802-228-1483

eevans@okemo.com

To all Coaches, Parents and Athletes

          Okemo will be open for Skiing and Riding this Saturday December 5 at 9:00 AM. The mountain will have very limited terrain on the upper mountain with access from the Glade lift. With this limited terrain, it will be very important for our safety and the other skiers and riders to stay in control and be aware of others on the trail.

          The competition center will have skiing and riding for some groups as well as dry-land training and waxing clinics. Also on Saturday Nite at 7:00PM in the Sitting Bull we will have the OMARA Social. This is the annual meeting of OMARA and is a great opportunity to meet the coaches and families in the club.

          The meeting will have our most current information regarding Okemo MT, Competition center, OMS and OMARA. We will also have an important presentation introducing the new OMARA wed site go2omara.com.

Hope to see everyone

Competition Center Staff

www.go2omara.com

The season is getting off to a slow start but it’s that time again, time to start thinking about volunteering to gate keep. The schedule is out and we need volunteers. The race departments needs every family in the program to volunteer for two races. Volunteers receive, for a day of gate keeping, two transferable vouchers good for a lift ticket at another time.

The upcoming race dates in December, January and the beginning of February are:

December 20th, Sunday – J1/2 SL

December 29th, Tuesday – J3/4/5 End of Year Open

January 3rd, Sunday – Council GS

January 11th, Monday – J1/2 GS

January 12th, Tuesday – J1/2 GS

January 13th, Wednesday – J1/2 SG

January 14th, Thursday – J1/2 SG

January 17th, Sunday – J3 GS

January 23rd, Saturday – J3 GS

January 24th, Sunday – J3 SG

January 31st, Sunday – J4 SG

February 1st, Sunday – J3 SG

February 7th, Sunday – Ross GS

Please email Karen Gullotti with your availability.

Thank you in Advance – praying for snow,

Karen Gullotti / gullottijk@comcast.net / cell 781-929-4977