NEW PROGRAM

It seems to me every one has all the complaints about the results of the US on the world level. It's like everyone thought our country would dominate like they did in the early days of inlines. Well the sad truth is the rest of the world got really good really quick. The opportunities in the US dried up quickly, and we lost all of the funding for the world team.

Well fortunately for us Spanky took over as executive director for USARS. Since then things have drastically improved. Suddenly we've gotten a lot of the funding back. Spanky also started having 2 "National Team Clinics" a year, which gives a lot of younger kids a chance to learn tons. We also now have apprentice managers and coaches for the World Team , giving more coaches experience at worlds. Which brings us to the next advancement for US skating, and hopefully another step towards getting us back to the top spot at the world championships.

Starting basically immediately, Spanky arranged for the first short term residency program at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs. Basically what that means is that for 3 or 4 months, starting June 1st, 4 athletes will be allowed to live on campus and have full access to the complex(including the gym, track, recovery center, sports med, etc). The program is fully funded and a huge step for inline skating and it's relationship with the USOC. Hopefully this program will be successful and get larger in the near future. Think how much the world team would benifit if 10 members lived togather for a summer of nothing but training. I know there will be bumps in the road, but i honestly think in the long run this will help get the US stronger on the world level.

I know there's prolly gonna be complaints about who gets to go and who doesn't. But right now we're just getting our foot in the door. This is a first for our sport and hopefully it won't be short lived. I'll let you guys know for certain who's going to be involved in the program for sure, but I want to make sure everything is official first(I know myself and Mantia for sure).

I hope everyones training hard for regionals, trials, and indoor nat's. Talk to you guys soon