No Snow, No Problem For Sartell Nordic Ski Team

SARTELL (WJON News) -- The lack of snow is not slowing down the Sartell-St. Stephen Nordic Ski team thanks to Assistant Coach Joe Teff. Teff has been making snow at the middle school soccer field so the team can practice this season.

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He says most years he will make snow once to get them started but he has had to make it 3 times so far this winter. Each snow-making session takes two to three days and Teff says he has to continuously monitor the process:

"We use a firehose and a big electric cord with 480 power and you stretch it out as far as you can reach and then you just kind of pull it forward with a, we have a Kabota side by side, so you pull it like 20 feet at a time and let it run. So it does take you know like 24-7 for those two to three days."

Teff says he basically works out of his cab during the entire process. He says the Nordic ski season is fairly short so they are lucky they can make the snow to keep practicing:

"We've been able to pretty much ski, pretty regular this year because, you know, we were able to get that snow down. Otherwise, it would have been all dry land and there are a lot of teams that have been doing that, and I know down in the cities they've skied a lot of the downhill places and other areas so we're kind of, we were lucky to be able to do that I guess."

Teff says all the work is worth it to be able to see the kids get to ski. He says they couldn't make the snow without the help of the Central Minnesota Nordic Ski Club which lets them use their snow-making equipment. Teff has been making snow for over 15 years and has been a Nordic ski coach for 29.

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