01/25/2008
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Staff photo by Andy Molloyfrom the Kennebec Journal
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Attached to the body of the wide-track utility snowmobile is something called a Ginzu groomer, presumably for its ability to cut through snow and ice like the knife of the same name. Nordic coach Steve DeAngelis is in the driver's seat, getting trails ready for the next day's practice or an upcoming meet.
When he's through grooming the five kilometer trail, DeAngelis is sometimes joined by a few friends who strap on the skis for a late night skate. If there's no full moon, they use headlamps to glide along the 15-foot-wide trail.
"You're out in the woods," DeAngelis said. "I like it."
DeAngelis has coached the team since 1983 and for him there's nothing like grooming trails. Oh, he's enjoys it OK, but grooming means there's snow, and there hasn't been much the past few seasons.
"Last year we hardly used it at all, this year almost perpetually," DeAngelis said of the trail groomer. "I have kids who have skied more this year than the last two years altogether. Last year, we were running in the middle of January."
When it comes to grooming trails, timing is everything.
"Yesterday, I misjudged it a little bit," DeAngelis said last week. "I got out there and it turned to rain."
As in years past, the course is getting rave reviews this season. Three hundred and thirty skiers from 23 high schools participated in the Maranacook Wave Race last weekend. The race hadn't been held in five years due to lack of snow.
"It went amazingly well," DeAngelis said of the race. "We groomed it as just the right time."
The 33 members of the Maranacook Nordic team are not the only beneficiaries of DeAngelis' work. He's always been willing to share. Winthrop's high school team uses the trails as do many members of surrounding communities.
"I have people coming all the time from Farmingdale, Hallowell, Augusta because the trails are so good," he said.
The team, of course, benefits the most. DeAngelis rarely if ever talks about winning, but the Black Bears win often. Between the boys and girls teams they've won nearly 25 state championship under DeAngelis. The boys are the defending Class B state champs while the girls have finished second the past two years.
"He has the ability to help everybody find their place on the team," said Andy Hunter, a three-rime state champ from Maranacook who later skied at Dartmouth.
Hunter is coaching the middle school team along with Laura Gardner and both help DeAngelis with the high school team. DeAngelis is even breaking in Hunter on the groomer.
"There's . . . an art to the timing, when you need to groom to get the desired effect," Hunter said.
DeAngelis is even better at grooming skiers, many of whom like Hunter, have gone on to compete in college. He studies the sport to keep up on coaching techniques and equipment changes and passes that on to his team.
"Skiing is far more technical than people know," DeAngelis said "It just takes time."
The classic style, where skiers ski in the same track is easier to learn but harder to perfect, DeAngelis said. Skating technique is harder at first but much easier to master. All of this, of course, is enhanced by challenging well-groomed trails, and that begins with Mother Nature.
"When we have good snow it's really a fun trail," DeAngelis said, "because it has a couple of technical turns, but it's not really hilly."
DeAngelis said nearly all the parents of his team take part in the program and help officiate at meets. He even has a couple of parents in training for the grooming job.
"One of the cool things about skiing is everybody chips in," he said.
Gary Hawkins -- 621-5638
ghawkins@centralmaine.com
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