Bluewood Alpine Race Team Gears Up For The 2010 Season

DAYTON - Ownership of Ski Bluewood may have been in question in the past six months, but this didn't affect preparations by ath­letes who represent the mountain in northwest ski racing. The Bluewood Alpine Race Team has named a new head coach for the 2010-2011 season. H a l White, a Walla Walla native who re­turned home to raise his family in 2002, has taken over duties from George Struthers, who re­built

the ailing program over the last six years.

White raced for the Uni­versity of Puget Sound from 1984 through 1986 before spending 12 years as an executive with the Sun Val­ley

ski resort. He joined the BART program as a coach in 2003 and has been a big part of the team's success in recent seasons.

"With George leaving, we felt it was imperative to keep continuity in the coaching staff. Asking Hal to replace him was the first action we took after George stepped down," said Curtis Siess, who has moved from Assistant Program Director to Program Director this year. "The athletes all know him, the other coaches and event staffs all know him, and he has over 20 years of racing and coaching ex­perience.

He is the perfect choice to lead the team on the mountain."

In training for the com­ing season, the athletes and staff of the Bluewood Alpine Race Team had an active summer. Nearly half of the team made what has become a pilgrimage for North Amer­ican skiers and traveled to summer training camps at Mount Hood, Ore. These camps take advantage of the 12-month snow on Palmer Glacier at the Timberline Ski Resort and give skiers the chance to train when most mountains are shut for the off season. Being one of the few northern hemisphere ski destinations, and the only one in North America open year-round, Timberline at­tracts elite skiers from all over the world. Bluewood skiers were able to train side by side with top ath­letes from U.S., Jap­anese and Canadian national teams as well as Shaun White, the snow­boarding superstar. New head coach Hal White says he won't make a lot of changes to the coach­ing the athletes receive this year. "The program is really strong," he said. "There isn't any reason to shake things up. We have a lot of ideas to make small improvements, but for the most part the experience will be the same for our skiers." He admits, though, that the Bluewood ownership had him concerned. "We have always felt Bluewood would survive, but as the summer pro­gressed we weren't sure it would be open this season." Every other team in BART's ski league offered training space to the local team, as did Spout Springs and Anthony lakes, the next two closest ski areas. But in the end, White is certainly glad his athletes won't have to take advantage of that generosity. "BART would have fielded a team this year no matter what, but having your home mountain is definitely the best case for everyone," White said. "We are very excited to work with the new management team and are glad we can continue to represent Blue­wood." The BART athletes begin their fall conditioning Nov. 14 and plan to train on snow starting Dec. 18. Parents interested in enrolling their children in the program can contact Hal White at 509-366-8538 or Curtis Siess at 509-382-7529.