Locals soaring at 107th Norge Ski Jump Tournament
By Mike Danahey mdanahey@stmedianetwork.com January 26, 2012 10:08PM
Algonquin residents Shane Kocher, 8, and Faith Kocher, 11, relax Thursday at the Norge Ski Club in Fox River Grove. | Dave Shields~For Sun-Times Media
Article Extras
Maps
Updated: January 27, 2012 11:08AM
FOX RIVER GROVE — One of the seasonal highlights of any winter in the Fox Valley takes place this weekend with the 107th Norge Ski Jump Tournament here.
The event happens at the Norge Ski Club, 100 Ski Hill Road, which was founded in 1905 by Norwegian immigrants and is one of the oldest continuously operated ski clubs in the country.
Among the participants will be Faith and Shane Kocher of Algonquin, who are learning the sport through the club’s training center. The two have been jumping for just three winters but already have been winning titles in their respective age groups. Shane, 8, said he’s landed a jump of 21.5 meters, while Faith, 11, has gone 16.5 meters through the air on skis.
Beginners don’t head straight off the Norge Clubs’s biggest jump, a 70-meter hill that stands 160 feet tall. About seven years ago, Norge purchased that tower from the town of Ely, Minn, to replace its aging 60-meter jump. In 2011, the club also rebuilt its 10- and 20-meter jumps, and is planning to install plastic on these hills this spring. All of this has been accomplished with the volunteer effort of Norge’s 100-plus members.
What draws youngsters such as the Kochers to the sport is the thrill of soaring it offers. Shane also enjoys that his unique talent seems to bring attention from the girls in his classes at Neubert Elementary, his mother, Sherry kidded.
“Not a lot of people do this, so it’s cool that I do,” said the Kochers’ neighbor, Jesi Gessner, 12, who has been jumping for six years. Fellow Algonquin residents Stefani Chesek and her brother Peter, 6, also take part in the Norge program.
One of the tricks to the sport is “the pop to jump,” Shane explained — that is, the power burst it takes to go from the crouching starting position to a full extension of the body leaning forward with skis off the ground.
Attracting youth
More girls are taking to the sport, particularly since women now can compete in it in the Olympics, said Scott Immens of Fox River Grove, who has been coaching the Norge Ski Club team for eight years.
Immens said that about 30 youths take part in the training program, and half are young women. Their numbers include Emily Schladt, 12, who came to a Norge open house with her father, Greg, four years ago.
“She liked what she saw and said, ‘Sign me up.’ And she was jumping that night,” said Greg, who serves as the group’s secretary.
There also is a Nordic combined event, which involves jumping and cross country skiing. Guy Larson of Barrington, who is vocational coordinator at the Larkin Home in Elgin, oversees that part of the Norge program. His children Casey, 13, and Cara 11, are on the team, too.
That team goes to five other events in the Upper Midwest. At its tournament this weekend, club member Molly Sedevic said, “We expect a small gathering for the Saturday competition. However, if the weather cooperates, we would not be surprised to see between 5,000 and 7,500 spectators on Sunday for the international meet. Typically, we will have between 40 and 60 jumpers competing. This year’s meet will include competitors from the USA, Canada, Finland and Norway.”
The jumping runs from noon until 4 p.m. both days. Tickets are $15 at the gate.
Thrill of the jump
While a good many of the novices taking part this weekend barely have the training wheels off their bicycles, Ruth Winick, 45, of Lake Forest, took to ski jumping within the last year.
Winick hails from Minnesota, so skiing is in her blood, but jumping is way harder, she said. Still, her interest was piqued through the website SheJumps.org, which led her to the Norge Ski Club and its training center. Her sons, William, 13 and Mark, 10, also jump now, too.
What’s helped Winick in her training is her experience with the martial art Taekwondo, which she said taught her to shut off her fear.
What makes the training worth the effort is that the experience of ski jumping is such that it’s “pure joy. It’s like God coming down,” Winick said.
And if you think what you might see this weekend is loftily impressive, the club has offered some other thrilling events, too.
According to the club’s website, it once rented space on Navy Pier in Chicago to set up a jump where the jumpers landed in the water.
On another occasion, the club rented Soldier Field, built a huge scaffolding and used crushed ice instead of snow for the base. Getting tackled by Brian Urlacher to the contrary, the caption for the photo duly notes, “This is the most dangerous sporting event ever held in Soldier Field.”
More information is online at www.norgeskiclub.com.
Comments Click here to view or make a comment