You may have seen a bright blue Rav4 around town with a vanity plate reading “SkiHorse.” During the winter, the car is usually pulling a storage trailer covered in mud and ski stickers. It’s been the home of the BHS Nordic Ski Team for the last 6 years – but not for long. Driving that Subaru is head coach of the Burlington High School Nordic team Kirsten Berggren.
Berggren’s philosophy is all about inclusivity and equity. She makes it a point that anybody can walk onto the team.
“It’s a super nice, supportive group,” Berggren said. “And that’s one of the things that I think has always set Nordic [apart].”
Brynna Swift-Herzog ‘26 joined this past ski season, and ended up racing on the States team. She agrees that the team is super supportive, no matter your ability level.
“Once I realized that trying new things, especially so ‘late’ in my career, wasn’t actually that scary,” Swift-Herzog said. “It really pushed me to start implementing that mindset into other parts of my life and helped me grow a lot!”
Berggren said that Nordic is a unique sport in that you can start learning it late in high school.
“[Some]thing that makes [Nordic] unique is that you can learn it as a senior…and still compete,” Berggren said.
BHS Nordic won the state championship 3 years in a row from 2020-2023. Those Berggren teams also spoke of how they “love each other and have good chemistry”.
“I always feel motivated to do my best and show up, and the coaches know how to make being at practice and races feel incredibly valuable,” Captain Lisa Zhou-Hackett ‘26 said.
Berggren said she’s excited to move all their gear from the trailer into the new BHS building where they’ll have an indoor ski wax room, and a larger weight room to use for dry land training.
The new building will house student common areas, which, for team sports, have an exciting recruitment prospect.
“We’ll be able to have a team meeting in a big public space, and maybe somebody who wasn’t sure about [skiing] will kind of walk by and say, ‘Oh, wait, I know these kids, I could do this,’” Berggren said.
Zhou-Hackett said that “[The new building] will definitely open up more opportunities for skiing at Rock Point, and make it much more comfortable to prep for practices and races, so the skiers don’t freeze while trying to wax.”
Nordic skiing requires cardio (long distance and sprint), full-body strength, balance, uphill endurance, and very specific techniques. In addition, Berggren said the cut off for canceling a race is -4 degrees fahrenheit, otherwise, it’s all-weather, all-terrain.
“It’s no joke,” Berggren said. “It’s definitely [one of] the most physically and mentally demanding sports. You will definitely be in the best shape of your life.”
Still, Berggren said it’s worth it when you finish a race.
“You’re just so proud of yourself for having done a hard thing,” Berggren said.
One of Berggren’s missions is to help skiers motivate themselves to go the extra mile, something she also said is a great life skill.
“My expectation is that people work hard, but it doesn’t matter if you’re working hard to be the best in the state or if you’re working hard to finish a 3k for the first time. As long as you’re willing to push yourself, [Nordic] is the right sport for you,” Berggren said. “It’s also fun – we build jumps!”
