May 04, 2011 (Canmore, AB) – The Alberta World Cup Academy (AWCA) is pleased to announce that Chris Jeffries will be the new Head Coach for the 2011-12 season. Chris will be taking over from Mike Cavaliere, who will continue to act as Program Director.

After a successful first year with the team, we are excited to see Chris’ role continue to expand, providing the opportunity to lead and implement the core programming for athletes in the Learning to Compete stage of Canada’s Long Term Athlete Development framework. In addition to AWCA athletes, Chris will also lead the integration of the Alberta Ski Team and the National Talent Squad.

The Alberta World Cup Academy is also pleased to announce that Stefan Kuhn will also be joining the coaching staff for the 2011-12 season. Stefan, a regular World Cup Skier for the past few seasons and 15th in the sprint race at the 2010 Olympics will pass on his knowledge and expertise to our next generation of skiers. The AWCA is fortunate to have Stefan as a coach and mentor for our developing team. In addition to applying his tremendous practical coaching knowledge, Stefan will study the theory of coaching through courses offered at National Coaching Institute in Calgary.

Eric Groeneveld will also be returning to the AWCA for his third year and will have a strong leadership role working with our Alberta Ski Team/National Talent squad athletes. We have been very pleased with Eric’s continued growth and development as a coach and we expect him to continue to develop in a strong leader.

Mike Cavaliere is very pleased with the AWCA program’s progress during the first three years of operation. “This is an exciting time for athlete development in Western Canada, and we are proud to be at the forefront of these efforts. Our goal, from the start, was to create a very positive environment, which encourages athletes to work hard and to dream big dreams. The 2011/12 Academy coaching and support team is allowing us to take further steps in achieving our program goals and continuing to produce superb results.

The AWCA remains loyal to it objectives of athlete development and will continue to use the very best professionals to help us achieve our goals. Continuing with our resource team in 2011/12:

– Rob Soffer – Strength training
– Dr. Jean Armstrong – Medical support
– Hugh Simpson – Physiotherapy support – www.activemotionphysio.ca
– Patrick Moore – Technical Services