Come Fly With Me

Norge Ski Club's 111th Winter Tournament

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story by Lisa Stamos | Photo by Paolo Cascio

For a small riverside town without an airport or even a landing strip—save for the frozen Fox River during winter—Fox River Grove has regularly scheduled take-offs and landings. There are even international flights that come through a few times each year.

But it’s not aircraft that are flying in the blue and then making smooth or sometimes bumpy landings—rather it is people on long skis who are doing the flying. The Norge Ski Training Center sees to that. It teaches ski jumpers of all ages how to fly.

Founded in 1905 by Chicago ski jumpers who needed a deep and long landing hill for their Nordic skiing pursuits, Norge attracts international ski jump competitors, sources jumpers for tournaments in and beyond the Midwest, and prepares Olympic hopefuls. It’s the southern-most ski jump in the Midwest and has a modest facility as compared to other larger ski jump venues Up North. But that has never slowed Norge Ski Club or the crowds who have watched tournaments there since 1906. In fact, crowds surpassing 10,000 have attended at times during the last 11 decades.

Norge Ski Club takes care of the property and its board members cast votes to direct the future of the 111-year-old ski jumping operation, many-sized jumps, and nonprofit entity.

Norge Ski Training Center does the teaching. The coaches say that children age 5 and up can learn to ski jump. Norge provides small and shorter jumps and often has the specialized skis handy for young trainees. Jumps range in size from 2 to 64 metres, and youngsters have the opportunity to compete in the Junior programs and travel to events at other clubs and hills.

Norge Ski Club recently hosted its 111th Winter Tournament on January 30-31. A few raindrops didn’t dampen spirits at the family- friendly attraction which drew a large crowd from the greater metropolitan Chicago area.

Fasten your seat belt before turning the page to watch Norge Winter Tournament skiers perch from atop the daunting ski jump, signal OK and push off for top speed and air time while striving for the judges’ technical points, make their landings, and meet the crowds at the bottom of the hill with relief and a round of applause.

To learn more about Norge Ski Club and the Norge Ski Training Center, visit www.norgeskiclub.com. Norge holds international ski jumping tournaments in October and January.

Cary’s Glasder Aims for 2018 Olympics

Long-time Norge Ski Club member Mike Glasder recently won first place in the U.S. Men’s Ski Jumping Championship in Lake Placid, N.Y. His goal is now to qualify for the 2018 Olympics to be held in Pyeongchang, South Korea. But there was a time when Glasder almost gave up the sport after missing the Olympics by one spot for the second time, in 2014. His win in New York has inspired him to push again toward the next Olympic Winter Games.

Other Norge Ski Jump Club members placed at the recent U.S. Men’s Championships. Kevin Bickner of Wauconda finished in second place. Casey Larson and A.J. Brown of Fox River Grove were sixth and seventh. Hunter Smith from Cary grabbed 11th place, and Crystal Lake’s Ben Kaiser and Patrick Gasienica tied for 16th place.

Scott Smith, a Norge coach and its club president, said that these wins were important for Norge, which is the southern-most ski jumping club in the Midwest, and one without the advantages of the larger facilities of the northern clubs.