posted Feb 21st, 2006 - Several observers of the SSL Valentine's Meet 2006 action, including teams and competitors on site in Eloy, were wondering why the Golden Knights did not show up for the meet. It was the first time in many years that the Golden Knights did not interrupt the team's winter training in Arizona to compete at the Valentine's Meet.

The Golden Knights are currently training in Yuma, which is located approx. 200 miles from Eloy. Brian Krause, the new team captain, made the effort to travel from Yuma to Eloy, together with team videographer Larry Miller, and met with the NSL News on Saturday to explain why the Golden Knights decided to skip the Valentine's Meet this year.

Brian "BK" Krause spent quite a while in the judging room to chat with Omniskore's Tim Wagner and provide information for the NSL News. Tim Wagner mentioned at the Omniskore event page that the 3-way with German roots, Herr Wagner, Herr Krause and Herr Gaebel were "gabbing it up" Saturday afternoon. However, German beer never became a factor...

BK Krause reported that former team captain John Hoover was sent back to Afghanistan for another stretch of army duty. His 2005 team mate Brooks Weiner is still on active duty at the same location.

The Golden Knights' training camp with the new line-up in Yuma began on February 6 and will be completed on March 8. BK Krause explained that his new team simply did not get enough training jumps completed to be ready for the first competition of the 2006 season in Eloy.

The NSL News mentioned that the lack of competition practice last year might have cost the 2005 line-up the first place at the USPA Nationals 2005 and asked the Army team's leader whether the tactic for the 2006 season will be changed. BK Krause honestly confirmed that the team made a mistake last year by not competing often enough:

"We should have attended more meets to avoid the high pressure at the end. However, our plans for the 2006 season are much different. There is a good chance that we will once again compete at the FSL Shamrock Showdown 2006. We will not stop competing after that event as we did last year. We plan to attend each of the five Carolina Skydiving League meets."

The Golden Knights will also attend an international event this year and travel to Russia for the CISM competition. The new Point, Angela Nichols, will help out for the US Women's team at this event. Eric Heinsheimer, former Tail of the Golden Knights until 2003 who is now the head coach at West Point, will fill the slot in Russia. BK Krause mentioned that his team will also try to get permission and support for the Malevsky Cup 2006.

BK Krause has a more difficult year ahead for the new team compared to his own experience with the Golden Knights in the past: "We will have to cover much more demo and promotional duties than ever before. The Golden Knights are short of members for demo and competition due to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The Demo Team is the most important part of the Golden Knights and cannot be left short-handed. So we have to fill in whenever there is a need. This will make it more difficult for our team to train and compete."

The promotional duties of the Golden Knights include the actual demo jumps at sports and other events. The Army team members also have to visit schools and colleges where they support the Army's recruiting efforts.

The new team captain still expects his team to complete approx. 800 to 1000 jumps this year. The Golden Knights 2005 line-up made approx. 1200 jumps last year. The 2006 line-up has not trained in the Army's wind tunnel in Ft. Bragg yet. BK Krause is excited to see the progression after the first tunnel sessions later this year.

The Golden Knights did not attend the SSL Valentine's Meet 2006 for the reasons explained above. The team did not try to keep their status of progression as a secret. In fact, BK Krause openly offered an insight when he mentioned that his team went through the whole dive pool for the first time during the winter camp:

"We jumped the competition draw of the USPA Nationals 2005, and we finished with a 14.4 average. This does not sound like a lot at this point. However, I think that we can already get to the 20.0 average this year if we get all the training that we have planned."

BK Krause moved from Point position last year to Center Outside in 2006. He will fly the front piece with Angela Nichols. BK joined the Golden Knights in 1998 and made it into the Black team at the end of the 2003 season. He spent some of the time in Skydive Arizona's judging room to watch the competition jumps, and he had some comments for the NSL News:

"It was interesting to see only two teams in serious contention for gold medals at the USPA Nationals last year. Most people had expected five or six teams very close to each other. Airspeed Odyssey is obviously the top contender this year. DeLand Fire will probably win the World Championship, despite the injury problems. Fire, Fastrax and Velocity will try to make it difficult for Odyssey. It will be interesting to see how far DeLand Fire will be after only one week of training with Natasha before the Shamrock."

BK Krause and Larry Miller drove the 200 miles back to Yuma the same day and did not leave without mentioning the great leadership he had experienced with his former team captain John Hoover, who currently serves in Afghanistan. BK Krause seems to adopt Hoovman's leadership style, even though he applies a different approach to competition practice. The NSL News looks forward to future updates from the Golden Knights headquarters and many exciting scores on the board this year.