Featuring the largest Nordic Team in the Portland area and one of the largest in the state, St. Mary's Academy and its Nordic Ski Coaches have helped revive the sport in the Mt. Hood area, bringing younger blood to an often televised Olympic sport and bringing added excitement to the Portland area this winter Olympics year.

Bend, Oregon has long been a major center for Nordic performance skiing and racing in Oregon. Since the institution of the Oregon Interscholastic Ski Racing Association (OISRA) Nordic Division in 2000 and creation of a high school racing program, Mt. Hood's own Teacup Lake Nordic ski area has become headquarters for training young racers in the Portland area. There were 19 schools and over 200 high school racers competing in the OISRA Nordic division last season, successfully infusing young blood into the Nordic racing community throughout the state.

In the winter of 2000-01, St. Mary's Academy (SMA) was one of the first Portland high schools to offer Nordic ski racing as a winter sport, and, with 22 members, has grown into one of the largest teams in the state. The only other school in Portland to consistently field a team since 2000 has been the Arts & Communication Magnet Academy (ACMA) in Beaverton. Cleveland High School started a team this year. As awareness and participation have increased, the program has been accepted as a legitimate varsity school sport.

SMA Nordic Team Head Coach Candace Bonner, MD, is assisted by Abbie Harris, a former varsity racer for Bates College, and Matt Frost, who raced for the University of Wisconsin. Both Harris and Frost volunteered to coach after seeing local articles and announcements about the SMA and OISRA programs. In addition, the team is assisted at snow practices by many volunteers of the Teacup Chapter, Oregon Nordic Club, including Mike Bogar, and Jan and Robert Buschman.

Virtually all of the SMA Nordic skiers had never been on Nordic skis or had only toured once or twice before they joined the team. Most of their families were unaware that cross country skiers did anything but tour. The SMA Nordic team has made great inroads training and educating students and their parents, rejuvenating the Nordic racing community in the Portland/Mt. Hood area. For the first time in many years, The Mountain Shop in Portland is providing local Nordic racing gear, and with the help of many volunteers, including the SMA Team, Teacup has built a new Nordic lodge that is the current SMA mountain practice headquarters. The Mountain Shop also lets the SMA team come in after closing once a week to use its ski waxing area to hot wax the racers' skis for each weekend's race.

"One of the fastest skiers on our team, Madeline Wyse, had no competitive sport background at all when she joined last year," says Coach Bonner. "This year's team is a wonderful group of girls, and all our coaches enjoy working with them."

Bonner stresses that Nordic ski racing is one of the most healthy, aerobic sports. In addition to being a "gateway" sport for lifelong cardiovascular fitness, it has the advantages of being low impact, of developing upper body strength and endurance as well as leg strength and endurance, and also of developing coordination and balance. It is an ideal sport for athletes recovering from other sports-related overuse injuries, as well as for newcomers to the arena of competitive sports. The SMA team is a "no cut" winter sport at the school, so anyone from an experienced racer to a complete novice can participate.

Members of the SMA Nordic Team include: Captain Karin Hobson, Madeline Wyse, Bailey Wilcox, Caitlin Weisensee, Christine Sandvold, Laura Turner, Stephanie McCuaig, Kaye Sklar, Kate Moening, Randi Schiller, Kelsey Harris, Risa Reichelt, Ellie Daniels, Laurel Hess, EvanWilcox, Abigail Struxness, Margaret Johnson, Marina Capizzi, Katelyn Price, Elizabeth Dayne, Elysa Melzer, and Maggie Ruble.

The high school League Championship will be held at Hoodoo Mountain Resort on Saturday, February 11 at 11:00 a.m.; the State Championships will be held at Teacup Lake Nordic Club Saturday, February 24 at 1:00 p.m. and Sunday, February 25 at 10:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. For directions or more information, log on to: http://www.oisra.org/xcountry/index.html

Founded in 1859 by the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary, St. Mary’s Academy of Portland, is Oregon’s oldest continuously operating secondary school and one of 716 all-female schools in the country. The student body represents a diverse background of young women from over 30 urban, suburban, and rural communities in Oregon and Southwest Washington. St. Mary’s Academy is distinguished by its development of the whole person, and is the only school in the state to receive three U.S. Department of Education Blue Ribbon Schools awards.