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About The nugget. (Sisters, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (July 26, 2017)
8 Wednesday, July 26, 2017 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon Endurance academy draws skiers By Victoria Jacobsen The Bulletin BEND (AP) — Bend has never been much of a college town, but it is a place where college students — especially college athletes — want to spend summer vacation. “Bend has been a go-to place for people to summer train for forever: When I was an athlete, I moved here in the early ’90s because the sum- mer training was so good,” said Ben Husaby, a former Nordic skier who com- peted at the 1992 and 1994 Winter Olympics and is the longtime executive direc- tor of Bend Endurance Academy. “I think late-season snow helps. This year, there was good skiing even into June. The roads used to be not very crowded, so it was good for roller skiing. There’s great mountain biking, I think that’s a big draw now. The dry cli- mate has a lot to do with it. It used to be very affordable, although that’s changed a lit- tle bit. It’s just a good place to train.” After BEA opened in 2009, many local skiers would return home during college breaks and lift weights and train with the younger kids at their former club. Meanwhile, groups of college skiers from across the country trickled into Bend each summer and tried to stay on task without the aid of a coach. “They weren’t always that organized, and they mostly SUMMER’S ALMOST OVER GET YOUR PROJECTS DONE! Skid Steer Tractor Dump Trailer NEED IT, RENT IT! 506 N. Pine St. 541-549-9631 Sales • Service Rentals • Accessories www.sistersrental.com weren’t part of programs,” Husaby said of the visiting college students. “So we just decided that we would market that, and we would go after that group. We’d see these kids come out, and they’d train kind of well for a while, but it was really hard for them to be consistent. People do better when there’s a van waiting for them at the top and the bottom of a hill, and there’s water and instruction.” Since reaching out to vis- iting college skiers, BEA’s summer training group has grown to be one of the larg- est in the country. This sum- mer, the group includes 30 NCAA athletes from colleges on both coasts, as well as 22 local middle school and high school students who have signed up to train alongside the collegians. Zoe Snow, a rising senior at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, said she decided to train in Bend at the recom- mendation of her teammate Emily Hyde, a 2015 Summit High School grad who trained with Bend-based Mt. Bachelor Sports Education Foundation. “(Hyde) really enjoyed the program out here,” Snow said after an afternoon weight training session at the BEA facility last week. “We decided to get a group of girls out here to train.” “I just followed her,” added Cate Brams, a rising senior at Middlebury College in Vermont who has skied with Snow since the two were fifth-graders living in the Boston area. “She’s like, this is our last summer training, so I’m going out to Bend. You should come.” The training group meets eight times a week: Most weekdays start with a morn- ing workout on roller skis, and Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday afternoons are spent in the weight room at BEA’s new headquarters. “The idea is that we do all of the hard work, we do all of the focused training here,” BEA Nordic director Bernie Nelson said during a strength and conditioning ses- sion where the athletes pow- ered through sets of modified pushups, lunges and weighted situps. “But they get to play, too. You know, five-hour hikes, that’s good training for them. I leave their weekends open, and I also leave a cou- ple afternoons open so they can go and enjoy the trails and take part in the Bend life that we all take for granted.” Several of the visiting ski- ers said their favorite part of the summer is the weekend. They are still supposed to do something athletic, but they are allowed to choose the activity and where they would like to explore. “I do a lot of backcoun- try skiing, so I got to South Sister on my birthday in June, which was pretty sweet,” said Bill Harmeyer, who is preparing for his sophomore season at the University of Vermont. “There was so much snow.” Night sky spectacular... PHOTO BY KRIS KRISTOVICH Sisters Country has a lot more than an eclipse to get excited about. Sarah Conroy, Chiropractor Est. 2002 Sisters Owned Prevent • Heal • Feel Better Enjoy Sumertime! Come in for our combo therapy and feel better again. Call 541-588-2213 392 E. Main Ave. | www.sisterschiropractor.com Shena Fields LMT#7439 | Harmony Tracy LMT# 21211
