July 07, 2011 – During the 2005 National XC Coaches’ Education Symposium, the attending coaches created a mission statement: U.S. Cross Country Ski Coaches are committed to a system that prepares skiers at all levels to become Olympic and World Champions.

At the bottom, you will find a link to National Performance Goals.  These goals define a path forward for the United States in our effort to become a successful cross country ski racing nation.  The goals were created this past May by the USSA Cross Country Sport Committee, which is comprised of the regional coordinators, active club coaches, program directors, officials, and the staff of the U.S. Ski Team.

These are performance goals; they describe the potential end result of a lot of work.  If we have any hope of achieving these goals, we are all going to have to push harder than we have ever pushed before.  We will all need to contribute to the process of attaining these goals.  We need everyone (athletes, parents, coaches, officials, program directors) to work together.

If you are interested, we would like you to participate in this process by identifying what you can do at your school, club, division, and/or region to support putting U.S .athletes on the podium.

What steps are you taking to “raise the bar” of excellence for the athletes that you work with? What are the next steps? Would you mind sharing these steps with your Divisional or Regional Coordinator and/or me? We can share our ideas and our best practices. Our contacts are below.

Our hope is that you find these goals inspirational and that you will work with us, your local club, and your division/region to attain them. If you are interested in working with us, but don’t know where to start, please contact your regional coordinator or me.

Sincerely,
Chris Grover
USST Head Cross Country Coach

Alaska Region	Central Region
Joey Caterinichio	Yuriy Gusev
joeycat@pobox.alaska.net	yuriy.gusev@cxcskiing.org
Eastern Region	Pacific Region
Janice Sibilia	Ben Grasseschi
janice@nensa.net	skubsnax@sbcglobal.net
Intermountain Division	Rocky Mountain  Division
Rick Kapala	Mike Elliott
xcolaf@mindspring.com	teamelliott@frontier.net
Chair, USSA Cross-Country Sport Committee	U.S. Ski Team Head Coach
Jon Engen	Chris Grover
jonengen@cox.net	cgrover@ussa.org