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Club skiers traverse over another season |
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Thursday, 21 February 2008 |
 Freshman accounting major Ben McCracken flies down the slalom course at Sugar Mountain during the Appalachian ski team’s practice Monday. Photo by Holt Menzies
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by CORY WATSON
Intern Sports Reporter
Junior biology major Brian S. Dye never really learned the concept of skiing slowly; he was always racing.
The same has been true for the rest of the Appalachian State University club ski team, which is nearing the end of another season as warm weather begins its slow trek back to the High Country.
The Appalachian men’s A-team finished a respectable fifth place in Southeastern Conference, thus making them eligible for an invite to the United States Collegiate Ski and Snowboard Association Mid-Atlantic regional tournament at the Blue Mountain Ski Area in Palmerton, Pa.
The
women’s A-team, which finished the season with an even higher standing
in conference by placing second overall, will soon make a trip to the
regional tournament.
Dye, who began skiing competitively at his high school in Maine, praised the progress the women’s team made this season.
“There’s been a lot of growth this year,” he said. “We went from having two [women] to eight.”
Dye, the club’s vice-president, said the women’s team usually finished between first and third place in races this season.
One of the reasons for the success of both teams this year has been the
teams’ proximity to a variety of ski slopes – a luxury not afforded to
some of the larger schools in the conference.
The Southeastern Conference is home to schools such as Duke University,
the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Virginia Polytechnic
Institute and State University, University of Virginia, North Carolina
State University and the University of Tennessee.
“We can practice four days a week,” said senior industrial design major
and club president Jamison R. Evans. “People at Duke would be lucky to
practice once or twice in a week.”
The closeness of ski resorts in the area also helps to level the
playing field, Dye said, as larger, better-funded universities also
generally have the benefit of an upper tier coach.
Virginia, an example of one of the larger universities, is often
regarded as one of the tougher teams to race against because of the
large number of people that try to ski for the team.
“It seems like they have 100 people to choose from for their team,” Dye said. “We have 21. You just love to beat UVA.”
Despite Appalachian’s proximity to local ski slopes, the club team does travel for three away races.
The away races, too, benefit the Mountaineers.
Junior communication disorders major Brian C. Hurley, who has been
skiing since the age of five, credited the frequently crowded van trips
to other slopes for having created a stronger bond within the team.
The team will compete in the Mid-Atlantic regional tournament Friday
and Saturday. The top two teams in the tournament will advance to the
national tournament to be held March 3-8 at Sunday River Resort in
Maine.
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