AMHERST — The snow came early this year, and the Amherst Regional boys and girls Nordic ski teams have already begun their preparation for the upcoming season.

The team won’t start its Berkshire Nordic Ski League season until Dec. 31, but are taking advantage of the early snowfall to get ready to compete.

Amherst coach Steve Bruner, who is co-coaching the Hurricanes with Nat Woodruff, has made sure to keep his team in top shape for the upcoming year. The preparation begins even before the snow falls as Bruner has his team focused on improving their form before they hit the trails.

“Before we have snow we’re working on our general fitness, our core strength, our balance, our stability, and also trying to form some great team culture,” said Bruner.

The Hurricanes use different methods to prepare for the season if there is no snow.

“We just know if we don’t have snow we’re not going to be putting skis on, but we might do drills with our ski poles when they run with our ski poles,” Bruner said. “We also have roller skis so we could go to the rail trail. That’s a good spot for roller skiing and basically simulates skiing on wheels.”

Amherst started practice on Nov. 26, and has already begun dry-land training. When the snow returns, the team will practice at Cherry Hill Golf Course to work on their skiing.

With last season’s top performers Willy Wright and Luke Sedor Protti out of the picture due to graduation, Bruner is focusing on creating an enjoyable environment for his athletes while striving for improvement.

“My expectations are that everyone have fun, enjoy being outside for the winter. Get fit and then simply get better,” Bruner said. “If every person becomes a better skier that’s great. I would rather have a team of skiers that works hard and to have fun together than kids who are really fast skiers but don’t have a lot of fun or enjoy being with the team.”

Stella Wenczel placed 34th at the state championship last season and will lead the girls team. Nor Young (81st) and Walter Tebbetts (83) are the top returning state finishers for the boys.

The Hurricanes have added more youth to their roster this season. After approval from the school, Amherst now has multiple middle schoolers on the team, which has Bruner excited about their potential.

“I find it kind of refreshing to have a number of them,” Bruner said. “Thus far many of them have had positive attitudes, they seem like great kids. It’s fun for me to know that I’m developing them and they’ll have time to get better and better over the course of their seasons.”

Amherst Regional

CO-COACHES: Steve Bruner, second year; Nat Woodruff, 11th year

LEAGUE: Berkshire

LAST YEAR’S RECORD: Boys — third in league, 10th at states; Girls —sixth in league, 13th at states.

BOYS RETURNING SKIERS: Seniors — Timothy Demling, Andrew Zhu, Leif Corp, Samuel Green, William Kowaleski; Juniors — Nor Young, Jesse Barker Plotkin, Alex Fruean, Henry Geffert, Walter Tebbetts, Ian Montgomery-Gehrt, Shane O’Neil, Sean O’Neil.

BOYS NEWCOMERS: Seniors — Oliver Noble, Sean Towse; Freshmen — Tim Barker Plotkin, Geir Hartl; Seventh grade — Soren Heim, Emil Schein, Caiden St. Laurent, Rutesh Jaswal, Miguel Pinero, David Pinero, Cyrus Bouton Donovan.

GIRLS RETURNING SKIERS: Seniors — Stella Wenczel, Callie Pittman; Junior — Violeta Foster.

GIRLS NEWCOMERS: Seniors — Sydney Zobel, Willa Hartl; Juniors — Zada Forde, Zora Dallmann; Sophomores — Jana Murphy, Vivian Jacobs-Townsley, Charlotte Staudenmayer; Freshmen — Francisca Polino, Becky Marshall, Caitlin MacDougall; Eighth grade — Sadie Rogowski, Bevin Montgomery-Gehrt, Sophia Pope; Seventh grade — Anna Burns, Ava Zimmermann, Amrita Rutter.