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Outstanding Volunteer Award Recipient – Grant Hall

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Cross Country Ski Ontario announces that late Grant Hall of Lappe Nordic is the recipient of the XCSO Outstanding Volunteer Award.  Grant began volunteering at Lappe Nordic in the early 2000s.  He was a fixture in race organizing at Lappe for local, regional, provincial and national races.   Read about Grant’s volunteerism HERE.

This award will be presented at the XCSO AGM on Monday, May 9th at ~ 8pm.  Cross Country Ski Ontario will be developing a virtual Hall of Fame on our website for great volunteers in our sport.

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Lifetime Achievement Award – Alan White

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The Cross Country Ski Ontario Board of Directors is pleased to announce that Alan White will be the inaugural recipient of the Cross Country Ski Ontario Lifetime Achievement Award.  This award celebrates outstanding contributions to cross country skiing in Ontario and Canada.  Many of us know Al from being on a timing crew or seeing him in the role of Technical Delegate at an Ontario Cup.  Al has been busy behind the scenes as well.  Al began with Cross Country Ski Ontario (then called Cross Country Ontario) in the 1990s.  Please read more HERE.

Congratulations Al! Thank you for your outstanding achievements in officials development, race organizing, timing and volunteerism! Al will be presented with the award on Monday, May 9th at the XCSO AGM ~ 8pm.

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Team Ontario/Leader Bibs are published

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Ontario Ski Team, Ontario Junior Ski Team, Ontario Cup Leader Bibs and District Teams ranking lists are now published.  Full details are HERE.  Questions?  Please contact Victor Wiltmann.

Introducing XCSO Para-Nordic Lead – Jen Nieson

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Cross Country Ski Ontario is very excited to welcome Jen Nieson as our Para-Nordic Lead.  Jen is an Occupational Therapist and brings a unique and exciting perspective to program development for our para-nordic athletes and participants.  Jen is an active member of Soo Finnish Nordic and most recently was the Volunteer Coordinator at Youth Championships.  This is the first step in implementing the action plan identified in the Program Review & Development Plan.  PN Committee Chair John Cowan, “We look forward to working with Jen with accomplishing the report’s recommendations.”   Jen begins working with XCSO on May 2 and can be reached at [email protected] (pending email setup).

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Bryan Dubeau hired as XCSO Technical Director

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XCSO is pleased to announce the hiring of Bryan Dubeau as XCSO Technical Director. Bryan’s experiences include representing Team Canada at the 2019 & 2021 FISU Games; working with Southern Ontario clubs as SOD’s District Development Coordinator; and coaching the Walden Cross Country race team.  Bryan is a Competition Development Certified Coach as well as Learn to Train, Athletes with a Disability (AWAD) trained.  We are excited to welcome Bryan in this new role.

Jack Sasseville: “On behalf of the High Performance Committee I am excited to announce that Bryan Dubeau has accepted the position of Technical Director of XCSO. Bryan brings a wealth of experience at the club and district level to this role and I believe that he will help XCSO HP continue to grow and prosper going forward.”

Bryan is ready to take on this new challenge: “Ontario has much to celebrate and be proud of!  I am thrilled to build on the great work that has been done over the past several years.  Ontario has benefited greatly from Victor Wiltmann’s leadership. I endeavour to serve our community with the same giving mindset. I feel that a focus on connections and relationships will be Ontario’s path forward to excellence.  I am most excited by the opportunity to support both our Olympic and Para Olympic stream athletes on their path to success. We have a diverse and thriving ski community in Ontario and I am fully committed to working towards our potential.”

XCSO’s Board of Directors, committees and staff thank Victor Wiltmann for his commitment to the Ontario ski community.  Victor will continue with XCSO and manage the CSIO Ontario High Performance Sport Initiative portfolio.

 

XCSO is Hiring! Paranordic Lead – deadline to apply March 21, 2022

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Consider joining XCSO in the role of Paranordic Lead.  This .5 FTE position will help guide our PN program as we continue to grow our programming to all Ontarians.  More information is HERE.  New deadline for applications is March 21, 2022.

2022 Ontario Winter Games Postponed Until 2023

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The Ministry of Heritage, Sport, Tourism & Culture Industries (MHSTCI) along with the host community of the County of Renfrew have announced the postponement of the 2022 Ontario Winter Games to 2023.  Full media release is HERE.

This is a great disappointment to the athletes who have trained throughout this season towards this goal and to the coaches who have supported them.  More information will be provided when/if received.

Rowan’s Law – Phase 2 Implementation

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Phase 2 of Rowan’s Law is effective January 1, 2022 and includes:

  1. Establish Removal-From-Sport and Return-to-Sport Protocols.
  2. Identify a designated person(s) as having specific responsibilities under the Removal/Return-to-Sport protocols
  3. Make their protocols available to designated person(s), and any athlete (and their parent if the athlete is under 18 years of age) who has been removed from training, practice or competition due to a suspected concussion
  4. Each sport organization shall create a retention policy for personal information if one does not exist.

Please refer to The Ministry of Health Sport Tourism & Culture Industries Rowan’s Law webpage for full details as well as sample templates.  Phase 2 Implementation is detailed HERE.

 

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Southern Ontario District

SOD Board of Directors: Call for Nominations

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The Southern Ontario District (SOD) of Cross Country Ski Ontario (XCSO) is seeking nominations
to the Board of Directors. We are looking for volunteers who are interested in participating in
program delivery in southern Ontario.

Click HERE for more details.

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SOD Welcomes Finn Dodgson as the new SOD Team Coach!

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We are thrilled to announce that Finn Dodgson will be the SOD Team coach for the 2021-22 season!

Finn replaces outgoing coach Madison Fraser who we would again like to thank for her dedication and commitment to our district skiers.

Finn is currently a student at the University of Waterloo studying physics. He has been a member of the UW ski team for 4 years and is a former member of the OST (Ontario Ski Team)  and Junior NST (National Ski Team).

When he’s not training or studying, he likes to go camping and to read.