A New Era

Next year is going to be a big change for me.  I'm leaving the Quebec Training Centre and will be training full time back home in the Yukon!  For years we've had a solid group of skiers around my age from the Yukon but we were spread out training in difference locations around Canada and the US.  This year we decided to all come back home and start our own team. There will be six of us, Knute Johnsgaard, John Parry, Colin Abbott, Ray Sabo, Fabian Brook and myself, a solid group of talented and motivated individuals.  We won't be an official training centre and we won't be getting any funding from Cross Country Canada, we'll just be training by ourselves as part of the Yukon Ski Team.  We've always thought that Whitehorse would be a great place for a ski team as we have endless running, mountain biking trails, lots of mountains to hike and ski bound and good roads to roller ski and road bike.  I think it's about time that we start using what we have to our full potential.  We're in the final stages of nailing down our training plans, strength plans, training camps etc... My decision to leave Quebec wasn't easy.  The CNEPH has a solid team of athletes and knowledgeable staff that work well together and over the years I've learnt a lot from them and am very grateful.  The main reason for my leaving is that I felt I needed a change, and the timing was right to make our own team up north.  I feel like our new team has great potential and the possibilities are endless.  I'm very excited to be a part of this new chapter in Yukon skiing and I'm confident in our team's ability to perform next year!