Vancouver (BC), Canada – The Canadian Freestyle Ski Association (CFSA) on Tuesday announced its national team coaching lineup for the upcoming season. The Association has added four new coaches to augment its roster of mogul, aerial and halfpipe coaches.
Moguls
For 2011-12, the men’s and women’s Canadian National mogul teams will be consolidated under the direction of Program Leader Rob Kober, who will oversee training camps and direct philosophy for the entire mogul program. Kober has been coaching the Canadian men’s team for the past nine years and, in addition to his management responsibilities, will continue to be the primary coach for the men’s training group along with Coach Adrian Taggart.
The women’s training group will be coached by two new hires who are familiar to the Canadian freestyle world: Marc-André Moreau and Jean-Paul Richard. Moreau represented the Canadian mogul team at the 2006 Olympics and coached the Québec provincial mogul team from 2007-2009. Richard also coached the very successful Québec program, from 2003-2008. Most recently he was head coach of the Swedish National Mogul Team.
The Canadians will also be supported by veteran Air Coach Darcy Downs and Strength and Conditioning Coach Adrian King.
High Performance Program Director David Mirota said that consolidation of the mogul specialists will provide the athletes with a larger pool of coaching knowledge to draw upon, and will give the team a consistent approach and philosophy. At the same time, he said, “we have recognized there is some difference in the way men and women compete with respect to factors such as speed, jumping and the mental processes each sex uses under stress. For that reason the men’s and women’s teams will work in separate training groups.”
Halfpipe
Ski halfpipe is the newest winter Olympic discipline and will make its debut at the Sochi Games in 2014. The CFSA was one of the first countries to launch into action and create an official National Halfpipe Ski Team, a move mimicked by the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association this month.
The team will be run under the direction of Head Coach Trennon Paynter, a highly experienced halfpipe coach and former Olympian who has worked with most of the members of the newly formed team on a private-basis. Paynter will be supported by Assistant Coach Marc McDonnel. McDonnel coached the Whistler Blackcomb Freestyle Ski Club for 14 years and most recently was working with the CFSA as a mogul development coach.
Aerials
On the aerials side, the CFSA has opted to maintain the coaching staff that has found success for the last few years. Daniel Murphy will remain head coach, with Dennis Capicik supporting him as the World Cup coach.
Development Coach Caroline Franc runs the trampoline program for the aerial team and will coach on-snow at the NorAm level.
Four-time FIS World Cup Aerial Champion Nicolas Fontaine is taking a somewhat new role with the team as manager and head coach of the Aerials Development and Recruitment Program. He will be assisted in this endeavor by Quebec Team Coach Alain Morin and Club Acrobatx Water Ramp Coach Genevieve Tougas.
Mirota said that he is very excited about the coaching lineup for next season and expects this group of talented experts to bring the team success for the next few years. “With less than three years before the Sochi Games, we are very excited to have this kind of quality coaching staff, it certainly puts Canada in a very competitive position.”