Retired Fort Kent coach familiar face at U.S. trials

loading...

FORT KENT – The tall, bearded, bespectacled volunteer working at the U.S. Olympic biathlon trials at the 10th Mountain Ski Center might not look familiar to the athletes competing for spots on the Olympic team, but Ben Paradis is no stranger to this area.

The former Fort Kent Community High skiing coach, who retired after 24 years of coaching the Warriors – or the Green Beans, as they’re better known – has been a frequent contributor during the four-day event. Paradis helped hand out flowers during the awards ceremony Monday. Last week he helped out on the clock.

“I fill in where they need me,” the 62-year-old Frenchville native said. “I like to stay involved. And I like it in the arena because you can see what’s going on.”

This is Paradis’ first winter away from the high school team, although he still helps out new head coach John Kaleta occasionally. Kaleta served as Paradis’ assistant coach in 1994, when the boys won the Class A state title.

“John’s a very capable person,” Paradis said. “I’ve known him for a long time. He’s got a son on the team, so that’s part of his motivation.”

Kaleta is keeping up a ski coach tradition – he teaches science at the high school, as did Paradis.

Paradis was teaching physics at the high school in 1981 when coach Bruce Freeman resigned at the last minute to take over a family business. The school was having trouble finding a new coach and approached Paradis because he happened to have purchased eight pairs of skis for his five sons when the team had a sale to get rid of its old wood skis.

“They thought, Ben must know skiing, he bought all those skis,” said Paradis, who taught for 38 years and has also taught classes at the University of Maine-Fort Kent and UM-Presque Isle. “So they talked me into taking it over.”

He didn’t really know much about coaching skiing but learned quickly. He also learned to hand the program over to the skiers themselves.

“We never cut anybody and we got the best skiers to help the beginning skiers,” Paradis said. “I didn’t do it, they did. They built it up and helped each other.”

The system worked – Fort Kent’s boys and girls teams won four Class A state championships and a boys Class C crown in 2004.

Another legacy Paradis contributed to was the Green Bean Ski Club. About 10 years ago, he said, when the school funding was cut a bit, he bought some skis for the team. The parents were upset that Paradis was spending his own money, so they formed the club. It’s now internationally recognized because the team sometimes races in Canada.

The Green Beans maintain a recycling shed outside of the local Paradis Family Supermarket – no relation to Ben – which was an idea he picked up from a coach in Winthrop.

The shed generates about $100 a month.

“We’ve got a whole bunch of people in town who are very generous to us,” Paradis said.

Doping tests on tap

U.S. biathlon team leader Tracy Lamb, a former coach and the operations manager of the Olympic training center in Lake Placid, is in town for the trial and reminded coaches of a crucial aspect of the Olympic Games.

The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, the committee that regulates drug testing, will test the top six women and five men immediately after the athletes meet with the press this morning. Lamb made the announcement at the daily 4 p.m. team captain’s meeting.

Lamb said the USADA will test more athletes than will be on the team because one woman and one man will serve as an alternate.

The team leader serves as liaison between the athletes and the organizational aspects of the Olympics. The team leader is also in charge of discipline.

Biathlon to basketball

It might seem minor compared to the thrill of being named to an Olympic team, but the U.S. biathlon representatives to the Turin, Italy, Winter Games will get an unusual honor Wednesday evening.

Once the team has been decided – actually, at that point the team members will only be considered nominees because the U.S. Olympic Committee has final say in the rosters – they’ll be introduced at a Celtics game Wednesday night in Boston.

Maine Winter Sports Center president Andy Shepard said the team will head to southern Maine Wednesday to be introduced to the media there, and then it’s on to Boston for the game. The Celtics are hosting the Charlotte Bobcats at 7:30 p.m. at TD Banknorth Garden. Portland-based TD Banknorth is the title sponsor for the U.S. Biathlon Association.

Grandma has solid shooting day

The self-anointed grandma of biathlon, 43-year-old Deborah Nordyke, had only two shooting penalties in Monday’s four-stage pursuit race, which tied with three other women for the best day on the range.

“Wow! Two, huh?” she said a few minutes after she crossed the finish line.

Nordyke, a 1998 Olympian, hasn’t had much time to train. Her husband, three-time Olympic biathlete Curtis Schreiner, returned two weeks ago from an 18-month stint in Iraq with the National Guard. The couple has three children.

“I pretty much decided to start training six months ago,” she said. “So that’s not really conducive to racing. But I think training is overrated. I’ve continued to ski race, but it’s like, I just go race and I don’t train, but I go and I’m fast and I feel good. But here, I train and I feel slow.”

Nordyke is currently ranked 16th overall with 183.60 percentage points and likely out of the hunt.

Nordyke, Schreiner, and children Jon, 6, Erik, 4, and Katrin, who will be 2 in February, are all in Fort Kent this week. Nordyke sometimes wheels Katrin up and down the hall at the Northern Door Inn.

“That’s my workout,” she said with a laugh.

Good experience for Currier

Stockholm native Russell Currier has relished his experience at the Olympic trials, even if he’s out of the picture for the U.S. team.

“This is an experience to the maximum right here,” he said after Monday’s pursuit. “To deal with bad races and good races, obviously there’s more competition, and you know, I expect to be at a much higher level in four years. So doing the Olympic trials is a good experience.”

Currier, a senior at Caribou High School, finished 12th in Monday’s race, 4:35.20 behind winner Tim Burke. He had seven shooting penalties.

But he felt like he was more in this race than Friday’s sprint, in which he was 13th.

“Everybody was right there with me,” he said. “The past couple of races, I’d been there by myself. At least this time there was someone with me on each lap.”

After three events, Currier is 13th overall. He will compete in the world junior championships at the Nordic Heritage Ski Center in Presque Isle Jan. 28-Feb. 3.