{"id":802960,"date":"2020-01-10T19:54:45","date_gmt":"2020-01-11T02:54:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/?p=377137"},"modified":"2020-01-10T19:54:45","modified_gmt":"2020-01-11T02:54:45","slug":"after-team-nearly-folded-breck-locals-eva-hagen-kate-zander-lead-summit-high-school-cross-country-skiing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/local-news\/after-team-nearly-folded-breck-locals-eva-hagen-kate-zander-lead-summit-high-school-cross-country-skiing\/","title":{"rendered":"After team nearly folded, Breck locals Eva Hagen, Kate Zander lead Summit High School cross-country skiing"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Nordic ski coaches Kate Zander, left, and Eva Hagen smile for a photo Friday, Jan. 10, at a team dinner at Summit High School.<\/strong>
Liz Copan \/ ecopan@summitdaily.com<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

BRECKENRIDGE \u2014 It\u2019s a new era for the Summit High School Nordic skiing program. But in a lot of ways, it feels like a rebirth.<\/p>\n

Just two months ago, Tigers skiers like Peter Vos weren\u2019t sure there would even be a team this year. At the start of the winter sports cycle, Summit High didn\u2019t have a coaching staff. With weeks to go before practice, Vos and his fellow cross-country skiers attended a meeting where it was relayed to them that no coach had been found.<\/p>\n

The Tigers Athletics Department did have one last hand to play. Months earlier, Summit High Athletics Director Travis Avery reached out to Breckenridge local, accomplished ski mountaineer and experienced cross-country running and track coach Eva Hagen. Over the summer, Avery asked Hagen if she\u2019d be able to coach the high school Nordic team. Hagen politely declined but told Avery if he reached the point of desperation, she would reconsider.<\/p>\n

She did just that in November. That said, she only signed on after her close Breckenridge friend Kate Zander agreed to be a part-time coach. With two young boys at home, Zander also had declined the coaching responsibility months earlier. But once she found out Hagen would be in charge, Zander \u2014 a 2019 Team USA World Championships ski mountaineer \u2014 knew she\u2019d be able to commit to contributing her time to the Tigers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew this could work,\u201d Zander said. \u201cBecause Eva said, \u2018Kind of pick the days you can coach, and we\u2019ll make it work otherwise.\u2019 So she kind of let me come on in a way it can be sustainable to me and my family.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the combination of Hagen and Zander at the helm, the Tigers Nordic program has gone from left for dead to a high ceiling of potential in mere months.<\/p>\n

In Hagen, the Tigers have a high-level athlete and coach who has experience coaching women\u2019s collegiate cross-country running at the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, New York.<\/p>\n

In Zander, the Tigers can lean on an accomplished Nordic skier and ski mountaineer who can provide the level of cross-country skiing technical expertise that was lacking in recent years. Beyond Zander\u2019s cross-country know-how, she also provides a true full-circle Tigers spirit to which this year\u2019s Summit team can relate.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
The Summit High School cross-country Nordic ski team smiles for a photo Friday, Jan. 10, at a team dinner.<\/strong>
Liz Copan \/ ecopan@summitdaily.com<\/a><\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Sixteen years ago, Zander finished top 10 at state in her lone season racing cross-country for the Tigers. After moving to Summit County from Australia as a freshman at the turn of the century, Zander approached her high school career as one where she\u2019d try out different sports. Till this day, that\u2019s what she thinks is the beauty of being a high school athlete. It\u2019s a time in your life when you can try different things and play three or more sports in a given year, not necessarily specializing year-round in one discipline.<\/p>\n

After playing hockey for a couple of years as a high school student, Zander taught herself how to Nordic ski as a junior before joining legendary coach Gene Dayton\u2019s Tigers team for her 2004 swan song.<\/p>\n

Helping Zander and Hagen coach this year\u2019s team is Gene\u2019s son Matt, who also was a coach when Zander was a student athlete. With this trio leading the way \u2014 and setting a standard at their five-times-a-week practice schedule \u2014 skiers like Vos and his fellow captain Katherine Puc have accelerated their learning curve in a few short weeks ahead of Saturday\u2019s season-opening classic meet in Carbondale.<\/p>\n

And to add to the family feel of this year\u2019s team, Zander has coached several of the athletes previously with the middle school team.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really have a heart for these guys and this sport,\u201d Zander said. \u201c\u2026 There is a lot of heart in this team and a lot of unity. You know, I think there were probably some tears \u2014 a lot of nervousness \u2014 when they thought there might not be a team.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for this year\u2019s Tigers team, Hagen and Zander have set a standard for what it takes to race as a Tiger. In the past, a lot of the program\u2019s best skiers have been club skiers who haven\u2019t attended practice regularly due to other Nordic commitments, which Hagen and Zander both respect. And though the new coaches expect club kids, such as Aubree Confer, to be some of the team\u2019s top skiers this year, they have set a requirement of practicing with the Tigers at least once a week in order to race come the weekend.<\/p>\n

On one hand, Hagen and Zander understand why club skiers might not have practiced with the program in the past. Perhaps the level of instruction, the level of focus, wasn\u2019t always there. Then again, the Tigers team is just that: a team. And the team comes first.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s been the case in recent weeks while Hagen and Zander have devoted practice exclusively to classic skiing, a discipline in which they said team members sorely lacked skill. With attention to detail, the coaches said skiers have gone from, in one case, being afraid to go downhill, to embracing the intricacies of classic. Along the way, the kids have exuded more and more excitement, which then energizes the new coaches further.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a two-way sort of thing,\u201d Hagen said. \u201cI can see they are motivated, so I am motivated, too. They have hugely improved.\u201d<\/p>\n

via:: Summit Daily<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nordic ski coaches Kate Zander, left, and Eva Hagen smile for a photo Friday, Jan. 10, at a team dinner at Summit High School.Liz Copan \/ ecopan@summitdaily.com BRECKENRIDGE \u2014 It\u2019s a new era for the Summit High School Nordic skiing program. But in a lot of ways, it feels like a rebirth. Just two months […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[99],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-802960","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-28 21:51:31","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSMT The Mountain","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/802960","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=802960"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/802960\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=802960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=802960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=802960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}