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S TA N L E Y • FA I R F I E L D • S H O S H O N E • P I C A B O
SVSEF skiers to represent Virgin Islands at the Olympics
7th Annual Idaho Pond Hockey Classic
PAGE 3
Student Spotlight
READ ABOUT IT ON PAGE 14
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Habitat for Non-Humanity PAGE 14
J a n u a r y 1 5 , 2 0 1 4 • V o l . 7 • N o . 3 • w w w .T h e W e e k l y S u n . c o m
A Smooth Transition BY CHRIS MILLSPAUGH
A
few new changes at this paper at the start of the New Year necessitated new members of the staff to learn and adopt new methods quickly in order to get the January 8th issue out on time. What could go wrong? Starting on Monday, the sixth, the new staff discovered that they had to set up new e-mail accounts, passwords and log-ins first before they could even attempt to begin the process of putting together the new edition. Part time graphic artist, Mandi Iverson, who has worked off and on at the paper for the past three –and-a- half- years suddenly found herself advising the new professional of how things were done in the “old days” and pointing out where files were located. New graphics coordinator, Carson Johnston, spent his first day processing images, locating elements, building ads and asking a myriad of questions of coworkers who didn’t know the answers because they were never involved in the steps imperative to complete the process. Then, old archives of the old system had to be updated to the new system on the spot. When the web page went down all the forms for e-mails and classified ads were lost momentarily. After a few more minor glitches, Robin Leahy and Andy Hawley, newspaper lay out specialists hired for January to accomplish the transition, sent off the 16 pages at 6:30 pm to Idaho Falls to print, some five hours after deadline. They all rejoiced and went home to sleep confidant that everything was all right. But, nooooooo! Meanwhile back at the printing plant, it was discovered that two page fifteens were sent in error with no back page in sight. It had to be resubmitted in the middle of the night. (Our bad) But the printing plant was having their own problems. They had recently switched over to Kodak Technology and Kodak Hardware because it offered the ability to use plates without chemicals. In the early morning, Kodak had issued an update in the system which caused electronic components to blow out. All printing was down for the next six hours. Finally, at 8:00 am on Wednesday, the presses rolled and the daily papers under contract were underway leaving The Weekly Sun ready for print. Everything was going to be all right. But, noooooo! On route to Idaho Falls to pick up the paper for delivery was the distribution van from Carey barreling along at 55 miles per hour at the crack of dawn on this Wednesday morning. Suddenly, without warning, a major snow storm erupted and the driver, Tracy, was enveloped in a total white out causing him to decelerate to 10 mph. After limping into the printing plant, the January 8th edition was loaded into the van which sped off to Bellevue arriving at 2:30 pm, Hailey at 3:00 pm and eventually Ketchum at 4:00 pm and finally delivered by 5:00 pm. The nightmare was over. Thus, ended the saga of the smooth transition and “late paper” last Wednesday. If you are reading this Wednesday, January the fifteenth edition this morning, you’ll realize and appreciate that the glitches are gone and the paper is back to normalcy. If not, I’ll have another article to write next week. But then, what could go wrong? tws
Jon Engen: Rocky on Skis BY KAREN BOSSICK
J
on Engen was a pull-himself-up-byhis-bootstraps kind of guy when he competed in three Olympics. Since then, the biathlete and cross-country ski racer has been trying to make training easier and more efficient for other Olympians as cross-country chairman for the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association, vice-president of Idaho Olympians and Nordic athletic advisor for Rossignol Ski Company. And he’s used his engineering background, his laser-like focus on biomechanics and state-of-the-art training techniques such as a computerized Athletic Imaging System to help other Nordic skiers and bicyclists become more efficient. AIM, for instance, can overlay the video of one athlete over that of another as they ski the same section of trail to help skiers understand how to correct body position and technique. “Engen’s knowledge of the sport is encyclopedic, his eye for technique is eagle sharp and he is able to explain technique and design illustrative drills in ways that directly and immediately impact a student’s skiing,” said Lennard Zinn, a former bicyclist with the U.S. national racing team who attended a technique-intensive Masters cross-country ski retreat that Engen taught. Engen will be honored for his contributions to the sport of Nordic skiing when he’s inducted into the Sun Valley Ski Hall of Fame on Jan. 29. The free ceremony will be held at 5 p.m. at the nexStage Theatre in Ketchum. Sporting a chiseled jaw, turned-up nose, short blond hair and the ruddy face of someone who has spent a lifetime outdoors, the 56-year-old Engen grew up in Norway, the birthplace of Nordic skiing. His father managed the travel service for the University of Oslo. His mother was an accountant for Norway’s version of the Internal Revenue Service. Like every other Norwegian kid, Engen grew up cross-country skiing with his family. He started competing in ski jumping at age 4 and cross-country skiing at age 9, in addition to orienteering. “My dad was a ski jumper,” he recalled. “I remember going past a 60-meter hill and watching him take his coat off, climb all those steps and jump on his touring skis. That was pretty special—all those young jumpers and, here, my dad was one of them.” Called to mandatory military service in the Norwegian Army at age 20, Engen participated in a sports platoon when he wasn’t guarding the king. “Athletically, it was an eye opener because I was there with the very best
(SV Artist Series) 18-20: Jon Engen provides personalized analysis and instruction through xcskicoach. com.
past, current and future champions of the games,” he recalled. “And I got to train every day in the Army.” Engen raced in Norway’s Junior Championships. He was a national-level Nordic racer while attending college in Oslo—always coming in “one short tier away from the World Cup deck.” SUBHED “Rocky” on skis In 1980 Engen followed former Kansas City field goal kicker Jan Stenerud—and a host of “National Geographic” pictures of Montana—to Montana State University in Bozeman where he completed his engineering degree. There, he challenged himself to pair shooting skills he’d learned in the Army with skiing. “I always see a tunnel and I’ve got to go through the tunnel. I’m better in shooting than cross-country,” he said. He went on to post top 20 World Cup finishes in both biathlon and Nordic racing, along with wins at the U.S. Olympic trials and North American championships. But it didn’t come easy. Everything went wrong at his first attempt to make the U.S. biathlon team. So Engen set up targets and classical cross-country tracks in the backcountry around his house—his solitary efforts
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earning him a berth as an outsider on he team at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary. “We’re talking ‘Rocky’ the movie,” he recalled. “It was an exhausting winter but I learned a lot.” When the next Olympics rolled around, he was working full time as an engineer in Bozeman. “I figured out: I’ve got to get the best job I can get so I can make money to train,” he said. “I also figured out different ways to train. I’d tell myself: ‘I have 15 minutes. How can I use 15 minutes?’ I’d climb 28 floors at the Sheraton Hotel where I was doing seminars, skipping steps. I’d do parallel jumps. I’d do pushups on the landings. “And I’d study the other racers. If you can see them, you can figure out how you’re going to beat them.” With that strategy, Engen made it to the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville, France, and the 1994 Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway. He even made the 1994 team despite suffering a whiplash in a car accident during trials. “To me it was such a blast to be out there with the people, the community
CONTINUED, PAGE 6
Friday and Saturday January 17 & 18
HEY LADIES...BIG WINTER SALE!
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