Alpine News

This past summer, three Ford Sayre Academy athletes trained on snow in South America.  Proctor Academy, a local private school with a USSA/FIS alpine team of their own, invited FSA athletes to attend their annual summer trip to El Colorado just outside of Santiago, Chile.  For two weeks, the 20+ athletes and 4 coaches stayed at a small, rustic inn called Refugio El Monte, owned and run Christian Montenegro (“Monte”) and his family.  Proctor  Academy has been staying at his place for many many years.

Ford Sayre Academy has a recent history of joining Proctor on their summer trip.  For the past 5+ years, FSA athletes have joined on this trip.  This year, three FSA athletes attended – Courtney Couture, Nils Kingston and Brian Seltzer.

For the first week, the athletes were greeted with great training conditions on snow, however the snow was minimal, and the temperatures were warm.  Then for the second week, they finally were blessed with snow…and lots of it!  Almost 3 meters of snow in a couple of days.  Note the difference in some of the pictures.

A group of Ford Sayre parents put together this great video about the history of the Ford Sayre Ski Program in 1984.  It features videos of Ford Sayre volunteers and parents, interviews with Peggy Sayre, footage of Olympians Jeff Hastings and Michael Holland, and lots of Ford Sayre kids in action!

The next generation of aspiring Olympic skiers from Ford Sayre was well represented at Whiteface Mountain in Lake Placid, N.Y., site of the US Ski Association Eastern Region U16 Alpine Ski Championships. Three Ford Sayre skiers were among the East Coast racers who competed on Olympic-size courses for two days of super-G, two days of giant slalom and one day of slalom competition, beginning March 5 and concluding on March 10.

NH Alpine Racing Association (NHARA) sent the top 18 girls and top 19 boys.  More than 100 boys and girls in NH competed for those top spots through five qualifying races this winter.

In the girls’ contingent, Courtney Couture competed for Ford Sayre.  In the boys’ competition, there were two Ford Sayre skiers: Nils Kingston and Brian Seltzer.

The event at Whiteface was represented by the top athletes in all eastern states.  The 150 boys and 150 girls represented the top racers from all states from North Carolina north.

The event at Whiteface was a qualifier for two more events.  The top few were selected to attend the Park City Development project hosted by USSA.  The next few made qualified to represent the USA at the Can-Am’s races at Mount Tremblant, Quebec.  Brian qualified for the Park City Project. Both Nils and Courtney qualified for the Can-Am event, though only Nils attended.

Congratulations Courtney, Nils and Brian!

Thanks to everyone who stepped up to make our U14 State Championships a success. The program director heard from every program in the state and each one had very positive things to say about the race and our program. Unlike most of the other programs in the state, we’re a SMALL community based organization that only holds a handful of races each year. In contrast, some programs hold up to a dozen races and require parents to “volunteer” to work 6 or more races! To help put this in perspective, our total U14 team only has 24 athletes. Some programs sent many more than this to the State Championships! Although we may have lacked race experience and people power, we clearly made up for it with enthusiasm and community support. Kudos to all!

Special kudos:

• Gerd for his tireless efforts each day. I worked side-by-side each day and after he ran me into the ground, he continued to make sure every detail was accounted for. If it wasn’t done, he got it done. He was often first on the hill and last to get off.
• Jim Healy, Race Coordinator, for helping plan and coordinate the weekend.
• Suzi Curtis for making sure EVERY athlete walked away with a smile and style. Did I mention she also coordinated sweatshirts, goodie bags, logos, etc., for the U12s too?
• Jay Rozzi, Chief of Race, for making sure the training day and race days ran smoothly. He spent many hours in preparation for this race and he executed perfectly.
• Liz Hackett and the registration crew. You handled the masses and kept things running smoothly.
• U14 coaching staff who made sure our kids had positive attitudes while skiing fast!
• Countless other volunteers who stepped up beyond their min worker requirements to help make sure this was a success. Corey, Erzo, Petra, Edie, Karen, and all the other parents who make being part of this organization a joy.

Below are links for champs photos. We hired gameface media as our official champs photographers and they have made all the photos available:

• Saturday
• Sunday

Enjoy!