OT: Olde Coach...Warren...Mikaela..skiing!

[Blakeon18]

I don't know if there is a link out there but the current edition of Sports Illustrated [March] has a picture on the
cover of one Mikaela Shiffrin with an interesting article inside. Many Boneyarders remember Warren Witherell...aka
Olde Coach...for his love of all things Huskies and for his knowledge and wisdom of the elite skiing world.
Mikaela attended Warren's ski/academic high school at Burke Mountain in Vermont...she is now 24...already has achieved historic numbers and is on
pace to be the most dominant skier in the world...ever.

Her dad passed away very recently and the article reveals how Mikaela is dealing with that and with her self-doubts about her place in the world she resides.
It's a great read. She has won 66 world cup races [17 in the past year] and Stenmark [retired] is currently #1 with 86. Stenmark himself thinks Shiffrin
will top 100 before she is done. The article makes it darn easy to be a fan of her.

I remember having a conversation with Olde Coach about her. Maybe when she was around 13 or so and newly enrolled in Warren's academy a coach asked Warren to step into his office and watch a tape of a new kid. Warren went in...watched Mikaela zoom down the slope and ...stunned by her artistry and technique even at that tender age..told me he was in tears at the end of the tape. He kept an eye on her during her stay there and said that she was as great off the skis as she was on...always having time for those students who idolized her.

I am sure Olde Coach is somehow rooting her on. He passed away about 5 or 6 years ago and I miss his UConn posts and chats.


BTW: Apparently Sports Illustrated is now a monthly publication....yikes! No more weekly editions. The March edition
is bigger and slicker than in past copies.

 

[meyers7]

Olde Coach spoke of her a few times here on the BY. I don't follow skiing all that much, but thanks to Olde Coach I do remember her name.

 

[schmendrick]

Here's a link to the story referenced in Blakeon18's post.

(Many thanks for drawing attention to this.)

Mikaela Shiffrin's View From the Top

 

[Tonyc]

Thanks Blake. I sure do miss Olde Coach. Alot of great discussions with him an other Boneyarders at half time of UConn games and over lunch.

I remember a bunch of us(22)having lunch at City Steam on a very warm day. That day was the last game UConn played against Tenn. A group of LV girls came in and asked for me. Olde Coach said thats Tonyc and introduced me to them. It was then I realized they were there for information to take down UConn. Although we already knew what was going on it was there that they announced that UConn and Geno would be under investigation for recruiting violations and who was behind it all and it wasnt Pat. It was 70 degrees on that beautitful day before the LVs beat UConn.

 

[msf22b]

Olde Coach invited me for lunch several times in his last year as he was giving me tips
in the way I was transforming my skiing into the manner he pioneered.
And of course we met on the board, speaking of the team.
I was shocked when he had his first stroke a month or two later

Burke Mt is our regular hang out during the season...and as you go up the lift. you can see the Academy kids practicing their giant slalom turns on the appropriately named "Warrens Way" a wonderful steep racing trail.

A couple of weeks ago, the Academy was on break and the trail was ours...one of the younger girls (no more than 13), had obviously hung around and was skiing with her family

Wowsa...such precise, elegant turns, inside a virtually zero radius...haven't seen anything like that since Mikaela was here.

I'm sure Warren is looking down with approval.

 

[HuskyNan]

I don't know if there is a link out there but the current edition of Sports Illustrated [March] has a picture on the
cover of one Mikaela Shiffrin with an interesting article inside. Many Boneyarders remember Warren Witherell...aka
Olde Coach...for his love of all things Huskies and for his knowledge and wisdom of the elite skiing world.
Mikaela attended Warren's ski/academic high school at Burke Mountain in Vermont...she is now 24...already has achieved historic numbers and is on
pace to be the most dominant skier in the world...ever.

Her dad passed away very recently and the article reveals how Mikaela is dealing with that and with her self-doubts about her place in the world she resides.
It's a great read. She has won 66 world cup races [17 in the past year] and Stenmark [retired] is currently #1 with 86. Stenmark himself thinks Shiffrin
will top 100 before she is done. The article makes it darn easy to be a fan of her.

I remember having a conversation with Olde Coach about her. Maybe when she was around 13 or so and newly enrolled in Warren's academy a coach asked Warren to step into his office and watch a tape of a new kid. Warren went in...watched Mikaela zoom down the slope and ...stunned by her artistry and technique even at that tender age..told me he was in tears at the end of the tape. He kept an eye on her during her stay there and said that she was as great off the skis as she was on...always having time for those students who idolized her.

I am sure Olde Coach is somehow rooting her on. He passed away about 5 or 6 years ago and I miss his UConn posts and chats.


BTW: Apparently Sports Illustrated is now a monthly publication....yikes! No more weekly editions. The March edition
is bigger and slicker than in past copies.

Warren coached Bode Miller, too

Warren also helped design the modern water ski. At one point, he coached the Russian water ski team. Fascinating guy.

WARREN WITHERELL Obituary (2014) - Middlebury, VT - The Burlington Free Press

View WARREN WITHERELL's obituary, send flowers and sign the guestbook.

www.legacy.com

 

[msf22b]

One of only three in two Halls of Fame (Snow and Water skiing)
The Babe, Jim Brown and our own Warren
And he was mighty proud of that accomplishment

 

[MilfordHusky]

I recall he was in 2 Halls of Fame. That's other worldly! And Olde Coach was a very classy guy.

For those who are newbies, he wrote a treatise on free throw shooting. Someone should dig it up for Aubrey and Liv.

Our great 2015-16 team led the NCAA in free throw shooting at 80.0%. Olde Coach would have been very proud.

 

[DaddyChoc]

 

[meyers7]

I recall he was in 2 Halls of Fame. That's other worldly! And Olde Coach was a very classy guy.

For those who are newbies, he wrote a treatise on free throw shooting. Someone should dig it up for Aubrey and Liv.

Let's just remember him for the skiing. Nobody needs to dig that FT stuff up.

 

[DaddyChoc]

Let's just remember him for the skiing. Nobody needs to dig that FT stuff up.

can we mention footwear?

 

[meyers7]

can we mention footwear?

Or that.

 

[Fore!]

When I saw Mikaela's TV commercial the first person I thought of was Olde Coach. No disrespect to the many fine posters here but Olde Coach's posts were the only ones I considered a must read.

 

[winlots]

Blake on 18: Wife and I knew of bits and pieces about Olde Coach gathered over our years on the BY, but nothing as rich and moving as the information you initiated here. Our thanks, to Warren and to you.