Glacier Nordic welcomes new coach

Robin Brooks always wanted to live in a

quintessential ski town. A place in the mountains where snow falls

deep and where she can strap on her Nordic skis and shush to the

trails from her back door. After touring through the Lower 48 on

bicycle this summer — making an unexpected stop in Whitefish — she

thinks she might have found her dream town at the base of Big

Mountain.

Brooks, 25, recently moved here after

accepting the position as Glacier Nordic Club’s newest head coach

for the competition team. She replaces Ben Morley who moved back to

Jackson, Wyo., this summer after one season with the team.

The Seattle native stumbled onto both

Whitefish and the Nordic coaching opportunity in a “perfect storm”

of coincidences.

Near the end of her 16,184-mile long

tour of the country on bicycle, Brooks met with a friend in Jasper

National Park in Canada. The duo decided to bike together from

there to Glacier National Park. The plan was to part ways at the

West Glacier train station.

“But he couldn’t put his bike on the

train in Glacier, so I rode the few extra miles with him to

Whitefish,” Brooks said. “I was planning on leaving from Glacier

and heading down to Missoula. I wasn’t originally coming here

(Whitefish).”

Turns out, that stop over in Whitefish

might have changed the course of her life. That evening, the two

spent the day walking around town and through a bustling mid-summer

farmers market. They discussed the possibility of living in the

perfect ski town and how Whitefish could be that kind of place.

“I’m a mountain person, and I love how

Whitefish is surrounded by mountains but still is in a valley,”

Brooks said. “I’ve always wanted to live in a ski town. Growing up

in Seattle, we had to drive an hour to ski. I’ve always wanted

something right out my back door. I think the farmers market is

what really did it for me, though. That night, Whitefish just

seemed like such a great community.”

After sending her friend off on the

train that evening, she set up camp at Whitefish Lake State Park.

There, she called her family to check in and tell them about the

past week of her bike tour. Her father, Don Brooks, happened to be

browsing Nordic coaching jobs posted on fastskier.com and noticed

an opening at Glacier Nordic.

“The next day I went to the library and

looked up the job and set up an interview,” Brooks said. “Linda

Engh-Grady was able to meet me that afternoon. Then they invited me

to stay with her family.”

That weekend, Brooks helped put on the

club’s annual fundraising race up Big Mountain. She was

unofficially offered the coaching job before she pedaled west

toward Seattle.

BROOKS was raised on skis and the

passion for Nordic runs deep in her family.

“My parents put my siblings and me on

skis when we were two years old,” she said. “We have a cabin up on

Snoqualmie Pass that you have to ski into, and as little kids,

that’s what we did every weekend in the winter. Then as we got

older, my dad wanted us to have others to ski and train with, so he

coached all of us.”

Of the five kids on the ski team, four

of them were part of the Brooks family. Racing in the Pacific

Northwest division, Brooks went to Junior Nationals five times.

She and her sister, Holly Brooks,

eventually raced Nordic at the collegiate level. Robin skied for

St. Lawrence University in New York for four seasons in the

Division 1 Eastern Circuit. She was “competitive” her freshman and

senior seasons, she said. Her sophomore and junior years were spent

abroad, so her training regime was limited, but she always whipped

herself into good enough shape to make the squad.

Holly skied for Whitman College in

Walla Walla, Wash., and went on to make the U.S. Olympic team. Most

recently, she raced in the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver,

Canada. She is currently a Nordic coach in Alaska.

THE SEVEN members of Glacier Nordic’s

competition team are already feeling the wrath of Brooks’ intense

training schedule. The team is practicing twice a day and focusing

on endurance and strength. Last week for their afternoon workout,

they skied from the high school to the top of Iron Horse on roller

skis.

Brooks says it’s important for racers

with lofty aspirations to put in the hard work now before the snow

flies.

“A bunch of the kids have really big

goals this year, and I want to help them achieve them,” she said.

“Stella Holt and Jack Steele want to make the Scandinavian Cup, so

I’ll be working those two really hard to get them ready.”

Whitefish seniors Holt and Steele both

competed at Junior Nationals last winter, and Holt already has a

national title under her belt as a J2 skier.

While the training will be tough,

Brooks hopes to help the young skiers from burning out on the

sport.

“You have to have a balance, and you

can’t just think about skiing,” she said. “Having these kids run

cross country and play soccer does hurt their skiing, but it’s fun

for them to be with their friends and play team sports. I think

it’s good to encourage other activities so they’re not too focused

on skiing.”

She says skiing is a lifestyle but one

that shouldn’t be completely dominated by training and racing.

“Particularly at a young age,” she

noted in her application letter. “Being on the ski team means being

part of a community, having fun while exercising and learning a

lifelong skill that encourages a healthy and balanced lifestyle. I

hope to help show young skiers the wealth of opportunity and

enjoyment that Nordic can provide.”

This year’s competition team includes

J1 racers Stella Holt, Jack Steele, Carl Talsma and Fischer

Gangemi, and J2 racers Henry Holt, Connor Gray and Madison

Grady.

Visit www.glaciernordicclub.com to

learn more about the team and how to join.