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About

The Cornell Alpine Ski Team is a club sport that is open to all students at the University. The team provides a format for competitive competition as well as development of new racers. We train on-snow at Song Mountain, which is conveniently located about 45 mins from campus.

Team History

The Cornell Alpine Ski Team has been active since 1933! For most of its history, the team was a Varsity organization racing in the Eastern NCAA Conference. As a result of funding cuts at Cornell and NCAA rules, the team left the NCAA Eastern Conference for the USCSA Mideast Conference as a club sport in 1993. USCSA promotes unfettered collegiate ski racing competition at the local and national level. Teams may or may not be offical Varsity programs, and some participate in both NCAA and USCSA leagues. USCSA provides a format for high level national competition with several programs attracting former World or Europa Cup athletes. At the same time, USCSA encourages small programs and new racer development.

Team Format

True to the goals of USCSA, we provide something for competitors of all levels, from sub 50 point FIS/USSA athletes to first time racers. The team provides the opportunity to race and train at a high level through your college career. Both the Men's and Women's Varsity teams are very competitive within our league and conference and we have competed in USCSA Nationals 11 out of the last 12 years. Even if you aren't a super competitive USSA racer, or if you have never raced, our development program provides a means of improvement for skiers and racers at any level.

Our "Varsity" Men's and Women's teams are competitive with 8 slots on each team. We also field a JV squad that gives everyone and anyone on the team the opportunity to race in several Slalom and Giant Slalom races throughout the season. The entire team trains and socializes together, so you'll have the opportunity to learn skills from more experienced members, on and off the hill.

We invite anyone at Cornell to join the team! If you have never raced, come try it out you'll love it!

Training

Our training schedule encompasses the majority of the school year. We begin dryland training in September and continue through December. Dryland involves general conditioning (stadiums anyone?), plyometrics, balance drills, and fun activities like Ultimate or Soccer. Weather permitting, we coordinate early season on-snow training in November, and try to coordinate any training or racing opportunities that we can over break. In January, we have a two-week on-snow training camp before classes start to get prepared for the season. Most team members agree this is the best part of being on the team! In-season we train on-snow 3 nights a week. We're all busy students so races and training are in general not mandatory, although varsity racers are held to standards of attendance in order to compete. We are a self-governed team yet employ several race coaches for training. Transportation throughout the season is done by coordinating carpools.

Racing

We compete in the Mideast division of the United States Collegiate Ski/Snowboard Association (USCSA). There are five regular season varsity races, as well as regional and national championships. We send 8 men and 8 women to varsity races, which consist of a Giant Slalom on Saturday and Slalom on Sunday. In addition, there is a JV circuit which guarantees everyone on the team an opportunity to race.

Funding

As a club sport, we are partially sponsored by the University. We also draw a large portion of our funding from sponsorships and the support of our generous alumni. We also charge dues for team members. Team dues for the 2007-2008 season are $260 and our season passes to Song are $159. Dues pay for your training expenses and social events. Anyone familiar with ski racing programs will agree that this is a tremendous deal, especially because USCSA race entry fees, lodging and transportation are paid for by the University.

Equipment

We have the ability to order equipment for about half retail price directly from the manufacturer. This should be done in the fall.