Our Story
A short history of the Minnesota Youth Ski League as seen through our six skill-level model.
Level One: First Steps
Anne Rykken’s dream was that every kid in the state could ski if they wanted to. So she started a Bill Koch Ski League club (then the youth program of US Ski and Snowboard) at Como Park Golf Course in 1989. The first year, 50 kids showed up - something she was not prepared for. There was no curriculum or guidance about what to do with the kids or what best practices were. Anne shakes her head when she remembers teaching kids to ski by throwing candy out on the trail. Each week, they made up a new activity. The focus was on keeping the kids happy and on skis. It worked, but there had to be a better way.
One day at Finn Sisu, Anne ran into recent Minnesota transplant and former US Ski Team Coach, Steve Gaskill. They shared stories and laughed about the challenges of running Bill Koch clubs. But they also agreed that something could and should be done to change things. The goal that emerged was to erase the idea of "teaching” skiing. At coaches’ training, adults would learn how to play on skis and at club meetings they would lead children in games on skis. It was decided to form an organization, complete with a curriculum, called the Minnesota Youth Ski League. Thus, in 1993, the MYSL was born.
Level Two: Climbing
The first year of the MYSL was a great success. The founding board of directors was Jean Cecil, Jan Fast, Mike Hecker, Bill Hittler, John Hollister, Anne Rykken, and Luke Skinner. By year’s end, they had 9 clubs in the metro area and plans to expand. Steve, Anne, and St. Thomas University health and human performance professor, Bridget Duoos, started writing a curriculum. The set of six skill-leveled, eight-week lesson plans they developed is unique in the ski community - a guide to the art of playing on skis.
Equally important is the MYSL’s open organization. Participation needs to be easy to be fun. Barclay Kruse moved to Minnesota in the early 1990s. Out skiing with his son at Elm Creek, he saw kids skiing in a group. He found a brochure about the MYSL and signed up for the Bunker Hills club. The group had a lot of fun together playing games and learning to ski. Barclay admired the organization and joined the board. He stayed with the organization for over 20 years, making sure everyone has a chance to have the same experience. In his words, "We have learned this business. No youth ski organization in the country has the depth of knowledge and history of meeting the needs of families that MYSL has.”
Level Three: Gliding
Anne remained the executive director of the MYSL for 12 years, growing it to nearly 700 members. At the same time, she ran the club at Como Park and it remained the largest cross-country ski club in the United States for the duration of her leadership. Anne’s simple formula: start in a huge circle and play on skis. She would bring a boombox in a sled and the kids would do the Macarena (remember, this was the early 90s) to warm up. "We taught a lot of kids how to ski, but we really taught a lot of families how to have fun in the winter,” Anne reflects.
In 1996, the MYSL launched Silver Skis, a program for kids who had graduated from Level 6. Skiers met on weekday evenings to further develop skills and build community. They attended events as a group and did some racing. Silver Skis was a huge success, providing a way for young skiers to get involved in the ski community. The Como Silver Skis club even took the mission global and organized a family ski trip to Finland. The program was rebranded as Skiwerx in 2011 and given a more explicit focus.
"You can do more together than you can alone.”
Anne Rykken, founder of the Minnesota Youth Ski League
Level Four: Making Strides
After the winter of 2005, Anne resigned from the MYSL to focus her energy on coaching, and the board hired Amy Cichanowski as director of the MYSL. Amy brought to the organization a different background and perspective on the ski community. She participated in competitive skiing at a very high level. After college, she spent a year training in Finland and moved to Minneapolis to be a member of Steve Gaskill’s newly formed elite Team Birkie, going on to ski in three Olympic Trials. She then earned an MBA and was a small-business consultant while coaching for 15 years before turning her full attention to the MYSL.
Under Amy’s leadership, the MYSL tripled its membership between 2006-2016 and became her full-time job. A key step to getting more kids involved in skiing was adding an equipment rental program in 2008. Amy and the MYSL Board identified equipping youth skiers as a barrier to participation. And the barrier was not just financial; there just wasn’t enough quality youth equipment in the supply chain to meet demand. The MYSL now rents more than 2000 sets of skis directly at the club level and is the largest purchaser of youth equipment in the country.
Along the way, the MYSL has always used the best available research to design its programs. "The goal is to create life-long skiers. There is research available on how to do that and we've built our programs to accomplish it. It sounds simple, but its not as easy as on might think. The right exposure at the right time and the engagement of families and the community are critical" states Amy.
Level Five: Skating Along
Another initiative was starting the Skiwerx Race Series in 2010 and Skiwerx programming the next year. "The research shows that kids need the structure and experience of training and competition through at least age 16, starting at about age 9 or 10, in order to have the skills and confidence to be active adults.” Amy continues, "MYSL’s goal is to create healthy kids and families, and to do this, we need to give kids a ‘skiing as sport’ exposure. The window for skill acquisition is younger than high school, it peaks at 5th/6th grade. So we really needed a program to capture that age-group.” Skiwerx grew a healthy youth racing scene almost from scratch. All the components - races, formats, bibs, coaches, programs, youth-sized suits/jackets, and youth-sized racing equipment - were sourced or modified to fit into an integrated system.
Level Six: New Nordic Norm
In 2019, the MYSL began working with Share Winter Foundation to more consciously give more kids opportunities to join our clubs. That same year, the MYSL became an Aspen Institute Project Play Champion for our work in training volunteer coaches, and a National Youth Sports Strategy Champion. These partnerships allowed MYSL to become the largest and most diverse cross-country ski organization in the country (and probably the world)! These years also overlapped with the rise, on the international level, of Jessie Diggins, our most famous alumni. During this time, which also coincided with COVID and outdoor activities becoming more popular, the MYSL once again saw rapid membership growth and peaked at 4000 kids and 60 clubs!
"When I interviewed for this job, I knew that the key to making the MYSL a success was building community and partnerships. That focus is what has allowed us to reach so many families and be such an important part of the social fabric in the Midwest.”Amy explains.
