Following a successful ski waxing gig for the U.S. Ski Team at the Nordic Combined Competition in Midway, UT earlier this winter, Bill Brooker of Old Forge has been invited to wax for the team when it competes in Norway on March 2 and 3.
Brooker’s invitation was extended by the team’s head coach Dave Jarrett following the team’s successful performance in Utah where racers took four of the top 20 spots. Todd Lodwick took first place with Michael Ward taking second, while two others placed 17th and 18th.
Brooker, a 20-plus year ski waxing veteran, said he offered waxing and equipment advice to the competitors during the waxing process. His good rapport with racers and the wax team were attributes Coach Jarrett acknowledged upon offering Brooker the opportunity.
Brooker said that much of what he knows about waxing was learned through experience, but attributes some of the skill to intuition and “thinking outside the box.”
He acknowledged his mentor Roger Weston, a successful ski coach from Fairport, for his guidance. Weston coached skier Bruce Lakely to a spot on the Olympic team at the Sarejevo games.
But Brooker, who once took third place at the Junior Olympics as a Nordic skier, attributes his involvement in the field to former Polar Bear Ski Club President Michele deCamp, who back in 1989 invited him to coach the club’s Nordic racers.
