Beyond the X: Snow schools for Olympic hopefuls

Sugar Bowl Academy (Norden, Calif.) Director of Athletics Bill Hudson got right to the heart and artery of the matter: Bacon.

The former U.S. Ski Team national alpine champion and Olympian applauded 20-something 12th graders for their unyielding commitment to the sport and one another at the expense of, among other things, creature comforts, junk food and mainstream high school activities.

"You gave up pancakes and bacon and eggs at breakfast for Gatorade and health bars," he said while addressing the SBA graduating class of 2013 last spring. "You gave up homecoming dances and proms to travel to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, with other athletes and coaches."

Don't forget about other teen treasures such as sleeping in, pep rallies and Friday night football games.



All are replaced by strength and conditioning workouts, rigorous academic courses and four-hour ski sessions up and down the challenging terrain of Sugar Bowl Resort in the scenic Sierra Nevada on Donner Summit, near Lake Tahoe. Those activities sound tough, but it's a nice break from traveling all over the Western states competing in two- even three-day events.

"There are certainly huge time sacrifices these kids make and we know Sugar Bowl Academy isn't for everyone," said Sugar Bowl headmaster Tracy Keller. "But for competitive kids whose passion is skiing, this is a great place for them."

If you want to be a competitive high school skier, with collegiate, national team and even Olympic aspirations, academies like Sugar Bowl are pretty much the only place. The days when elite skiers like Hudson, who went to public school North Tahoe (Tahoe City, Calif.) in early 80s, are long gone.

Hudson, whose mother Sally Neidlinger competed in the 1952 Olympics, said he was the exception back 30 years ago. Competitive skiers, especially in the winter, didn't have time to attend public school all day then hit the slopes in the middle to late afternoon. Ski academies, with elements of the military peppered with prep school regimens and covered with white powdery snow, were beginning to pop up in ski resort areas, though Sugar Bowl Academy didn't open until 1999.

Somehow Hudson, a 1988 Olympic team member in Calgary, was talented enough to break the mold. Then again, he had pretty good genes. (Ironic Hudson left the skiing world at one point to be a spokesman for another kind of jean, Calvin Klein).

"Most kids either took the GED or attended ski academies back when I was in high school," Hudson said. "But most of the academies were back east."



Of the 50 or so scattered across the country today, most still are located in the northeastern part of the country, especially the prominent ones. That includes perhaps the most accomplished and prestigious, the Stratton Mountain School (Vt.) in southern Vermont.

Established in 1972 by Warren Hellman and Donald Tarinelli, Stratton has produced 102 national team members and 40 Winter Olympians (51 spots), 12 of which are competing in Sochi on this year's Olympics. They even have produced a pair of Summer Olympians.

To see a complete list of SMS Olympians, see Page 7.

Among the alums are 2002 snowboard gold medalist Ross Powers (1997 SMA class), who won bronze in 1998, and 2006 snowboard silver medalist Lindsey Jacobellis (2003), who is back again in 2014.

Also among the current SMA Sochi dozen is three-time nordic Olympian Andy Newell (2002) and 2008 graduate Sophie Caldwell, who Tuesday became the best American nordic female finisher in history by taking sixth in the women's individual Olympic sprint. This was the five-time All-American at Dartmouth's first Olympics and first year on the U.S. Cross Country team.

A group of 20 Stratton students huddled around the TV Wednesday to watch Caldwell make history, including Caldwell's father Sverre, who is also SMS's head alpine coach.



"You know, I would have loved for her to have an Olympic medal, but I'm so proud of her and she did so well," Sverre told WPTZ reporter Stephen Watson. "That's probably the best race of her life and I couldn't be more proud."

Said SMS senior and future Dartmouth skier Jack Elder: "Just to see someone come through the ranks of SMS and go through college and know they are competing on the Olympic stage ... it really makes it seem like everything we do here has a purpose."

That's the whole idea. If not to foster future Olympians, then to get kids to aspire to greatness.

MaxPreps went coast-to-coast two weeks ago to unveil those lessons and aspirations while visiting Stratton Mountain School and Sugar Bowl Academy.

On the day we arrived at SMS, the eastern deep freeze was in full force as temperatures dipped below zero with the wind-chill factor. On the other coast, a welcomed 8 inches of fresh powder dropped upon SBA, putting a small dent in one of the region's longest droughts.


Video by Scott Hargrove and courtesy of Stratton Mountain School/Edited by Scott Hargrove 
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Sugar Bowl doesn't have nearly the track record on the slopes as SMS — who does? — but the philosophies and goals appear on the same track, which makes sense.



Sugar Bowl's founder is Hellman's daughter Tricia Hellman Gibbs, a former member of the U.S. Ski Team whose vision was to develop a world-class ski program and academy on the West Coast. Like Stratton, SBA graduates often go on to some of the top universities in the country — Dartmouth, Bates, Boston College, Colorado and Middlebury — while pursuing their skiing dreams.

The school's new mission statement is: "Sugar Bowl Academy inspires and empowers passionate, highly motivated students, setting the stage for competitive skiers to seek and celebrate challenge with grit, grace and courage."

Asked if Sugar Bowl is carrying the torch for western ski academies, Director of Admissions and head U-16 coach Bryce Hubner said: "We're young compared to our national rivals. It takes a long time to get a school going and the people in place and admitting the right kids. Our kids over the last 4-5 years have been achieving at the very highest level.

"We are competing with schools that have been going for decades longer. It's nice to get in the mix. I wouldn't say by any means we're the standard for the west or rest of the country, but we are among the top ski academies in the country."

With the recent completion of a 10,000-square foot classroom/administrative office building, a nearly completed spacious 33-resident dorm and expanded athletic training center — tabbed the "Sporthaus" — Keller believes Sugar Bowl will soon fill its student body capacity of 75.

Keller actually grew up near Stratton prior to attending Dartmouth, where she was captain of the alpine ski team. She's held about every post at Sugar Bowl, including dean of students, teacher, coach and dorm parent.



"All the recent construction growth is symbolic of how we've evolved over the last 15 years," she said. "We're a school of competitive high school skiers that is going to be one of the premier teaching ski academies in the country and the world.

"We've put kids on the U.S. Ski Team and I'm certain we will have Olympians, whether it's 2018 or 2022. … There's no easy way to get to the Olympics, but if you're looking for a program to put all the pieces together, that's us."
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Senior alpine skier Pieter Weemaes aspires to be SBA's first Olympian. The 17-year-old San Jose, Calif., native will ski next year at Harvard after earning second in the U-16 G5 nationals in Park City, Utah, in November.

Weemaes has unlimited potential, Hubner said, because of a never-ending work ethic.

"Pieter has a blessing and a curse of being good at everything," Hubner said. "He has a lot of options. It wasn't like he was blessed with all this talent. He's just a very hard-working kid. His challenge will be what he wants to pursue."

See the MaxPreps "From Students to Sochi" homepage, with links to more Olympics content

Weemaes said Sugar Bowl Academy has pushed all the right buttons for him both on the mountain and in the classroom.



"Teachers are very accommodating here, as are the coaches and administration," he said. "It's really a collaborative effort. They all work together to make everything flow. You can both ski your best here and get an awesome education. You don't feel like you're doing too much. Everything works perfectly at this academy."

But Weemaes does miss football games. He has plenty of friends back in San Jose who remind him about Friday Night Lights. He noted that some SBA girls are trying to get a prom started.

"We'll see how that all goes," he said.

"I think the sacrifices are all worth it. You have to keep in mind what we're trying to achieve here and just what kind of place this is. It's awesome. … I mean look outside and see how beautiful it is. Where else could you call a place like this home? It's the best place there is."

But there's one condition, Weemaes warned.

"You have to love skiing," he said. "And then you have to put in the effort in conditioning. Every hill during the spring and fall you have to run your hardest. It's the only way to improve."



But for student athletes like Camille Hartley, a 17-year-old senior from Truckee, she admitted that skiing isn't her first love. Music is. This will be her last season on the nordic track. She attended public school as a freshman, but quickly grew tired of "40 students in a classroom."

The education and small class size – average eight per class — appealed to her. Plus she could advance her violin skills (she now plays the fiddle) all while enjoying cross country skiing.

"I don't have a huge passion for skiing and competition, but I still go hard in every race," she said.

Asked if her music and skiing skills ever intertwined, the soft-spoken senior said. "Sometimes when I'm skiing, I think about tempo and rhythm and it helps me get through."
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Xander Guldman wants nothing to calm him down. 

The high-energy 15-year-old sophomore from Truckee is in the freeride program and thrives on any big mountain competition or slope-style terrain.

He was thrilled that the 2014 Olympic Games implemented slopestyle and halfpipe events and must have been doing snow cartwheels Thursday when Joss Christensen, Gus Kenworthy and Nick Goepper swept the slopestyle event at the Rosa Khutor Extreme Park. To that point, USA had won four gold medals, all on the slopes.



"It's really exciting," he said on Jan. 30. "It's not exactly the discipline I do, but it's a step in the right direction. It's giving more recognition to our sport and that's a great thing."

Guldman attended a charter school before transferring to Sugar Bowl.

"This school is completely dedicated to us," he said. "Whereas public school gives you an outlet to ski, this school is centered around skiing. Everything is designed here to make skiing easier. That's cool."

And though it sounds like school is secondary, Guldman said the opposite is true. 

"All this program teaches you is how to be a well-rounded student and not just excel at skiing. The whole physical side helps your mental side."

Third-year Sugar Bowl Academy nordic coach Martin Benes gets it.



Before SBA, he coached and studied on the east coast and was a member of the ski teams at Bates College and Dartmouth. He attended high school in the San Francisco Bay Area at Marin Academy (San Rafael, Calif.), so he's very impressed with how SBA operates. 

View a photo gallery from a day at Sugar Bowl Academy

"The sacrifices are great. Getting up at 5:30 to get to the weight room. No proms or dances," he said. "At the same time, there are pretty unparalleled opportunities. The support system is great. The students get to pursue what they are passionate about and at the same time they have a chance to challenge themselves with a great education.

"If I could go back, I wish I could come to a place like this."

Hudson agrees. He said SBA isn't only developing Olympic dreams, but something much more important.

"Whether these students are nordic skiers or in freeride or alpine, they are going to be skiers for life," Hudson said. "They may not go to the Olympics. They may not be on the U.S. Ski Team. But they're going to live that lifestyle — healthy and mountainous."
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Stratton head U-16 alpine coach Mike Morin said dreaming about the Olympics is where most of the growth takes part. The 10-year U.S. Ski Team coach returned to SMS in 2007.



He coached in three Olympics (1994, 2002 and 2006), his 2002 U.S. team won the Best Overall Team at the World Junior Championships and in 2006 he was selected as the International Coach of the Year.

"That dream and motivation to make it to the Olympics is one thing," Morin said. "The reality is there's a very small number who make it to a very high level. But on their way, the journey and the life skills they learn make it a great experience."

Junior downhill skier Alice Merryweather has big dreams, but considering how much she's accomplished, it's not nearly a long shot.

In December, Merryweather finished first for the U-18 downhill racers in the U.S. National Championships at Copper Mountain, Colo. A few weeks later, she was named to the 2013-14 Eastern Region Team by USSA (U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association), the only prep-aged athlete selected. 

She was thrilled to be accepted into Stratton, she said, even after weighing out the pro and con list to public school. Stratton's reputation on both the athletic (it also offers lacrosse and soccer) and academic ends is renowned.

Of the 125 full- and part-time students, there are 63 alpine athletes, 26 snowboarders, 20 nordic, nine freestyle and seven freeski athletes. The average grade size for the 7-12 school is 19 and average class size is 10. Their current students come from all over the map — literally — including New Zealand, Australia, Chile, England and Japan.



"When we applied I realized it wasn't like a normal public high school and I'd be giving up a normal social life," she said. "But honestly, the list was all pro for Stratton. I have so many more close relationships than I think I would have had I gone to public school. And the time management skills I've learned and how to work independently has been amazing."

Though her parents were primarily recreational skiers, her older brother Simon is now racing at Harvard. He went the public-school route.

"Seeing the experience I've had, he sort of wishes he'd done the same thing," Merryweather said. "He wishes he could have trained as much as we do. At Stratton it's every day of the week and even weekends. Even if we have to miss some school."

View a photo gallery from a day at Stratton Mountain School

Much like Sugar Bowl, the daily schedule is challenge. At 7:15 a.m. it's breakfast. From 8-11:45 a.m. is on-snow training. Lunch is until 12:25 p.m. The rest of the afternoon until 5:10 p.m. is school.

Of the 125 students, 96 are full-term, 25 are winter-term only and four are short-term. Full-term boarding is $46,200 annually and $33,750 full-term day.
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Two-time national nordic champion Koby Gordon, a 17-year-old junior, grew up 45 minutes from Stratton in Saxton River and was a winter-term student athlete in the ninth grade.



His family eventually moved to London, just 10 miles from school, and now he's a full-term day student athlete. Gordon won the junior nationals in Fairbanks, Alaska in March.

"It's such a focused, caring community," the 5-foot-9, 165-pounder said. "Everyone is so engaged in what they're doing. It's special to be around everyone both in the classroom and on the snow."

The alpiners dominate the enrollment — and the sport — but Gordon said there is definitely mutual respect among the student athletes. Being an Olympic year, the respect and pride is palpable around campus, Gordon said, especially since he's recently trained with four current Sochi athletes, including Newell and Caldwell.

"It's definitely an exciting time at Stratton, particularly for us nordic skiers," he said. "When you train with these athletes and then see them on the ultimate stage, it can only pump you up."

Christopher Kaltsas, Stratton's headmaster, appears always pumped when talking about SMS. Besides the long list of accomplished skiers, the school regularly produces mechanical engineers, computer consultants, physicists and even writers.

That stands to reason considering more than 70 percent of its faculty hold at least a master's degree.



"By and large at the end of the day, (the students) have trained hard, they're well educated, they're highly skilled and they have life skills they carry for the rest of their lives." Kaltsas said.

To see a detailed list of SMS alumni in the Olympics, and info about this year's SMS Olympians, click through to the next page.

Writer/photographer Jim Stout contributed to this report from Vermont.

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A capsule look at Statton's Sochi dozen with interviews conducted by the school's Director of Communication Meredith Morin:

Emily Bamford
Stratton Mountain School class: 2010
Event: Alpine
Hometown: Doreen, Australia
Credentials: A member of the 2010 Australian ski team, Sochi is Bamford's first Olympiad. A three-time winner of the Australia New Zealand Cup overall, she placed 13th in the slalom (SL) in Austria Jan. 18.
Quote: "I'm looking forward to representing my country at the most prestigious sporting event in the world," she said. "That is something that will be part of me forever. Growing up, the Olympics were always my main goal. And now that I know I have reached it, it is just so rewarding. I'm excited to take in every minute of it."

Sophie Caldwell
SMS class: 2008
Event: Nordic
Hometown: Peru, Vt.
Credentials: After skiing to her career-best sixth place finish in the World Cup sprint final in Switzerland on Dec. 31, Caldwell placed seventh in the World Cup spring final in Poland 19 days later and entered the Olympics ranked 10th in the Sprint World Cup points and 25th overall. She was a five-time All-American at Dartmouth. This is her first year on the U.S. Ski Team and first Olympics.
Quote: "I'm trying not to set many outcome goals and really focus on enjoying the experience while setting process goals that will prepare me as best as possible. … As far as the Olympic experience goes, I'm probably the most excited for the opening ceremonies, and as far as the races go, I'm probably the most excited for the skate sprint."

Danny Davis
SMS class: 2006
Event: Snowboarding (halfpipe)
Hometown: Truckee, Calif.
Credentials: A member of the U.S. Snowboarding team from 2005-09, Davis took the X Games halfpipe gold in his first finals appearance on Jan. 26. Nine days earlier, he clinched an Olympic-team spot by placing first in Mammoth, Calif. Two days later, he played second at the Mammoth HP Grand Prix. Davis took a two-year hiatus from the sport starting in 2013 recovering from a back injury in an ATV accident that ended his 2010 Olympic bid. He was the Snowboarder Magazine 2006 Rookie of the Year.

Alex Deibold
SMS class: 2004
Event: Snowboarding (snowboardcross)
Hometown: Manchester, Vt.
Credentials: Placed third at the Lake Louise Word Cup on Dec. 10 and 10th at the Vallnord Arcalis, Andorra World Cup on Jan. 11. He took second in the 2013 Sochi World Cup and made the finals at four out of five World Cup starts in 2013. Deibold attended the 2010 Olympics as a wax tech for the U.S. Snowboard team, but not as a competitor.
Quote: "Making the team as an athlete is a dream cometrue. I'm so excited to experience all the things I got to watch my teammates get to do last time that I had to miss out on. I think the thing I'm most looking forward to is walking in opening ceremonies and getting to be part of that amazing moment."

Jessie Diggin
SMS class: Elite Team
Event: Nordic
Hometown: Afton, Minn.
Credentials: The first-time Olympian is a five-time U.S. champion and teamed with Kikkan Randall to win USA's first World Championship gold medal in the team sprint of 2013. Diggin is ranked 16th overall in the World Cup points and 17th in sprint. She spends much of her offseason training and working alongside current SMS student athletes.
Quote: "I'm looking forward to the relay the most."



Alexandra Duckworth
SMS class: 2005
Event: Snowboarding (halfpipe)
Hometown: Kingsbury, Nova Scotia, Canada
Credentials: The first-time Canadian Olympic Team member finished ninth in the Stoneham, Canada World Cup HP on Jan. 18, a month after she took sixth in the Ruka, Finland HP World Cup.
Quote: "I'm really looking forward to seeing the rest of the Stratton Mountain School alumni, watching as many other sports as I can, and putting down a good run for Canada."

Kris Freeman
SMS class: 1999
Event: Nordic
Hometown: Andover, N.H.
Credentials: A four-time Olympic qualifier, Freeman won the 15-km FIS race at Black Mountain, Maine after taking fourth in the Sprint National Championships in Soldier Hollow, Utah on Jan. 10. He also took third in the 30-km on Jan. 8. A former winter-term student at SMS, he has earned top-10 finishes in more than a dozen World Cup events.

Simi Hamilton
SMS class: 2013
Event: Nordic
Hometown: Aspen, Colo.
Credentials: A second-time Olympian, Hamilton won World Cup gold in the men's sprint in Lenzerheide, Switzerland on Dec. 31. Two weeks later, Hamilton was fifth in the Team Sprint and 20th in the individual Sprint in Nove Mesto, Czech Republic.
Quote: "I'm really looking forward to the type of excitement that is exhibited by all of the other competitors there (at the Olympics). When I went to The Games in Vancouver, I remember being awe-struck by how psyched everyone was. It's just such a unique atmosphere in the athletes' village and at the venue. And even though you get some of the same energy on the World Cup circuit, the amount of intensity of it at the Olympics is absolutely amazing."

Jackie Hernandez
SMS class: 2010
Event: Snowboarding (snowboardcross)
Hometown: Londonderry, Vt.
Credentials: The first-time Olympian won the SBX World Cup in Valmalenco, Italy in March 2012 and was eighth in the Blue Mountain, Canada World Cup last February. She is coming back from injury and clinched her Olympic spot on Jan. 25.
Quote: "It has been a crazy ride, but I'm so happy. I can't wait to walk into opening ceremonies with Team USA and so proud to represent our country, then get on the course and do what I love. I want to bring home a medal, preferably gold."

Lindsey Jacobellis
SMS class: 2003
Event: Snowboarding (snowboardcross)
Hometown: Stratton Mountain, Vt.
Credentials: Jacobellis became the most decorated female snowboardcross athlete in X Games history by winning her eighth gold medal in Aspen, Colo., Jan. 24. She is one of five SMS alumni who have made three Olympic teams. She won silver at the 2006 Winter Olympic Games and has won 27 World Cups. She has overcome two knee operations since January of 2012.
Quote: "The last two years, what I've been through, this is like the icing on the cake," she told reporters after the X Games gold medal in Aspen. "This is the best confidence I could get going into Sochi."

Klara Krizova
SMS class: 2007
Event: Alpine
Hometown: Zlin, Czech Republic
Credentials: A member of the Czech Republic team, Krizova is ranked 46th in the world for downhill. This is her second trip to the Olympics after placing 29th in the super G at the 2010 Games in Vancouver.



Andy Newell
SMS class: 2002
Event: Nordic
Hometown: Shaftsbury, Vt.
Credentials: Another three-time Olympian from SMS, Newell is ranked 10th in the World Cup sprint points and 33rd overall. He finished fifth in the world in 2013 for sprint distances, including six top-10 World Cup finishes.
Quote: "It's going to be amazing to head to Sochi for my third Olympics. This time around feels different because we have a cross country team that's more competitive than ever before, and we have strong medal potential on both the men's and women's side. I'm personally looking to redeem myself after crashing out of the Vancouver sprint. … This time around, I'm confident that I can be as fast as anyone else in the sprint, and I'm going to make sure I have a lot of fun out there."


1976 — Innsbruck, Austria
Abbi Fisher, alpine (1975 class)

1980 – Lake Placid, N.Y.
Abbi Fisher, alpine (1975)
Heidi Preuss, alpine (1979)

1984 — Sarajevo, Yugoslavia
Chaiki Ishoka, alpine (1978)
Sue Long, nordic (1978)
Gale "Tiger" Shaw, alpine (1979)

1988 — Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Ingrid Langell Butts, nordic (1981)
Pam Fletcher, alpine (1981)
Joe Galanas, nordic (1983)
Nobu Mori, alpine (1983)
Kristen Petty, nordic (1982)
Gale "Tiger" Shaw, alpine, (1979)
Leslie Thompson, nordic (1981)
Heidi Voelker, alpine (1987)

1992 — Albertville, France
Ingrid Langell Butts, nordic (1981)
Ben Husaby, nordic (1985)
Krista Schmidinger, alpine (1988)
Leslie Thompson, nordic (1981)
Heidi Voelker, alpine (1987)



1994 — Lillehammer, Norway
Ingrid Langell Butts, nordic (1981)
Gaku Hirasawa, alpine (1991)
Ben Husaby, nordic (1985)
Kerrin Petty, nordic (1987)
Krista Schmidinger, alpine (1988)
Carrie Sheinberg, alpine (1990)
Leslie Thompson, nordic (1981)
Heidi Voelker, alpine (1987)

1998 — Nagano, Japan
Gaku Hirasawa, alpine (1991)
Tasha Nelson, alpine (1995)
Kerrin Petty, nordic (1987)
Ross Powers, snowboard (1997)
Patrick Weaver, nordic (1988)
Stacey Wooley, biathlon (1986)

2002 – Salt Lake City, Utah
Tessa Benoit, nordic (1995)
Kris Freeman, nordic (1999)
Kristina Joder, nordic (1997)
Alexandra Munteanu, alpine (1999)
Tasha Nelson, alpine (1995)
Ross Powers, snowboard (1997)
Pete Thorndike, snowboard (1996)
Patrick Weaver, nordic (1988)

2006 — Torino, Italy
Kendall Brown, snowboarding (2008)
Kris Freeman, nordic (1999)
Lindsey Jacobellis, snowboard (2003)
Andy Newel, nordic (2002)

2010 — Vancouver, BC, Canada
Kendall Brown, snowboard (2008)
Kris Freeman, nordic (1999)
Simi Hamilton, nordic (SMST2)
Lindsey Jacobellis, snowboarding (2003)
Klara Krizova, alpine (2007)
Andy Newell, nordic (2002)
Louie Vito, snowboarding (2006)