Team Statistics and History
Click here to see Spring Lake Park/St. Anthony statistics from 2993-present
History of Nordic Skiing
Although Nordic Skiing began in 1934 in the state of Minnesota, the Spring Lake Park Ski Team began in the 1993-1994 season. Mike Miller was the coach back then and continues to this day. They started as a girls only team to satisfy gender equity concerns. They continued as girls only until the 2003-2004 season. A boys team skied "unofficially" that year, but was instated as a "nearly" full varsity team the following year. They had no official standing at the school for a couple of years until they finally became fully recognized.
From its beginnings in 1934 until about 1983, skiing was only classic. When skating came along in 1983, it quickly gained favor among skiers and coaches. Nordic Skiing moved away from classic skiing to exclusively skate skiing. There were literally years of high school skiers who did not learn the classic technique. Skate skiing continued to dominate until the relay came into existence in 1991. The relay started as a 3x5k, then went to 4x5k, then 4x3k. Members of the relay team had to have 2 skaters and 2 classic skiers. In an effort to bring back fully the classic discipline, the coaches association went to two separate races in 1996. That meant 2 separate state champions, one classic, one skate. This continued until the 1999 season when the 2 races became pursuit but now with three state champions: one skate, one classic, and one overall pursuit state champ.
In 2007, the coaches went to a full pursuit format with only one state champion - the first one out of the woods in the second race wins. There are currently several proposals to change this so the State Meet of the future could look quite different than it does today.
The SLP Nordic team began skiing in the 4-team North Suburban Conference in 1993. They continued with the North Suburban Conference until 2006. In that year, they went to the Twin Cities Nordic Ski conference. The TCNSC was a 9-team conference then, but increased to 12 teams by the 2013-2014 season. This alliance with the TCNSC lasted until 2013-2014. Beginning with the 2014-2015 season, SLP/St Anthony moved to the North West Suburban Conference. In 2021-2022, the team's cooperative sponsorship grew to include Centennial High School.
During the 2021-2022 season, a two-person sprint relay of 2 x 1.3km was instituted at the Conference, Section and State Meets.