GORD SALT
PROGRAM COORDINATOR
Gord’s background goes back to the mid 70s when he started coaching in a Toronto high school. He was a runner and when he was approached by two athletes to start a cross country ski team at the school, he thought, “I’m a runner. This skiing doesn’t look too hard. I can do this.” Little did he know.
When he moved to Orangeville in ’85, he had the good fortune to help coach an already successful high school ski team at Orangeville District Secondary School. From ’85 until ’01, when he left, the school had won over 25 provincial (OFSAA) team championships and had 9 OFSAA individual champions. Afterwards, he coached at the University of Guelph for six years.
Gord was awarded the Southern Ontario Division (SOD) of Cross Country Ontario Cum Laude award in 2003, the SOD Coaching award in 2005 and the Heinz Neiderhauser Outstanding Coaching Award in 2022. He is a Level 3 National Coaching Certification Program (NCCP) coach and CANSI level 1 instructor; facilitates cross country ski coaching courses and lead Long Term Athlete Development (LTAD) presentations.
CHRIS SKELTON
LEAD BIATHLON COACH
Chris is a life long sport enthusiast with competitive/coaching experience in biathlon, nordic skiing, rugby and dragonboating/flatwater paddling. He has been involved with biathlon at Highlands for over 15 years as a parent, volunteer and coach. He is NCCP Competition Development Certified. A highpoint of his coaching career was attending Canada Winter Games with Team Ontario in 2019 supporting provincial biathletes including those from HTB. He has supported club and provincial team athletes at local, regional, national and North American events. He is looking forward with excitement to the upcoming season and eager to be working with the Senior Development Team
JM GAMBLE
LEAD CROSS COUNTRY COACH
JM is excited to be the new lead cross-country ski coach for the HTB Race Development Program. He has been an assistant coach for the Junior Devo and Track Attack programs for the past 3 years. JM has been an active cross-country skier for most of his life and raced competitively throughout elementary, high school, and university. He competed at multiple Canadian Junior National Championships for Ontario during the 1990’s. It was during this time that he skied frequently at Highland’s Nordic while racing for Georgian Bay Nordic. He competed at the Ontario Winter Games in 1991 on the Highlands Nordic trails! In 1998, JM moved to Thunder Bay where he was a member of the Lakehead University cross-country ski team and studied biology. In 2001, JM moved to Edmonton to pursue training in Pharmacy and served as the President of the University of Alberta Nordic Ski Club for 2 years. During this time the club focused on attending the Alberta loppet series. JM continued to ski and race recreationally for Edmonton Nordic until 2012 when he and his family moved to St. John’s Newfoundland. In 2017, they moved back to Ontario and currently live in Waterloo where JM works as a professor at the University of Waterloo. In addition to JM, you will see his wife Emily and five children skiing on the trails!