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State ski coaches association recognizes longtime Ely mentor
Paula Anderson brought Ely’s Nordic Skiing program to an elite level, and now she’s in elite company.
The former Timberwolves head coach was inducted over the weekend into Minnesota High School Nordic Skiing’s hall of fame.
That recognition came Saturday,when state coaches gathered at Mora and placed Anderson into the hall and gave her a spot on a “wall of fame” in the chalet there.
Anderson, who led Ely’s Nordic Wolves for nearly 20 years, is one of about 30-to-40 hall of fame honorees.
“It meant a lot,” Anderson said this week. “There were only up to this point, one other woman on this wall, and I went in with (Duluth East Head Coach) Bonnie Fuller-Kask and that’s really great as we coached together all of that time and she’s still at it. We’ve both seen a lot and shared a lot of the process and all the ups and downs.”
Nominated earlier in the year, Anderson learned about a month ago of the honor and she was flanked by her husband Scott and daughter Ellen, a former Nordic Wolves standout, for the ceremony.
“I still feel very connected to all of the coaches in the state through the organization,” said Anderson. “I had been president of the association years back so I’ve gotten to know a lot of the coaches. Skiing is such a small sport and the coaches really support each other. You do get closer than you do in other sports, so I really appreciate this coming from there. I feel very honored.”
Anderson retired after the 2021-22 school year, after a career in which she helped lift the program to new heights.
She was instrumental in the late-1990s in helping to start the Ely program from scratch and was initially an assistant coach.
Anderson later became head coach and by then the Ely program had taken off.
Despite its standing as a small school and competing against Twin Cities behemoths in the single-enrollment division of Nordic Skiing, Ely built a state powerhouse in the 2000s, regularly sending both individuals and teams to the state meet.
Anderson coached the Ely boys to a state title in 2010 and the girls finished third the same year, and the Wolves piled up countless section championships and runner-up finishes as well as high finishes at state, in both boys and girls.
Anderson also coached an individual state champion in Erin Bianco and numerous others who placed highly in the state meet and earned all-state status.
She cited the physical, fundraising and administrative demands of the job when retiring in 2022 but remains involved in the Ely program as a volunteer coach.
“I miss the kids and I miss the coaches,” Anderson said. “I don’t miss standing out in the cold. I don’t miss all the paperwork and the computer time that was starting to become more and more of the job... But I worked with the kids in the summer a little bit and I’m going to be helping out one day a week (during the winter) working with skiers on technique.”
Anderson said her experience in skiing is largely self-taught, after she became enamored with the sport in high school.
She competed at Bemidji State University in both tennis and swimming, but started skiing in citizen races at that time and continued to do so for decades.
Anderson was inducted into the hall of fame by way of an introduction from longtime Ely assistant coach Tyler Fish.
