TA News

Guest post by TA Alpine Ski Coaches Paul Dixon and Amy Huyffer

Thetford Academy’s Alpine Ski team really hit their stride during the second half of the season. The team’s top skiers continued their early climb up the leaderboards, notching some top 10 and top 15 finishes both during the regular season and at the District Championship. Other athletes saw their practice and hard work pay off, seeming to find another gear and earning spots on the roster for the States team.

For the second year in a row, both the Ladies and Men’s teams qualified for the Alpine State Championships at Burke held on March 3rd and 4th. Representing the Ladies were: Captain Maya Dixon (12), Bianca Pulaski (12), Ella Harvey (12), Willow Slayton (12), Sofia Harvey (11), Reagan Ekegren (10), Alice Stirling (10) – and on the sidelines with an injury Captain Heidi Hewes (12). On the Men’s side skiers included: Captain Isaac Yukica (12), Captain Oliver Ransom (12), Hardy Payson (12), Connor Gaine (12), Elijah Renner (11), and Tanner Hardy (10).

The team pulled down many strong performances across the two days at Burke. A few were able to shed the Slalom course demons that had haunted them in previous years, and a few that had those same demons visit them again. Ski racing is hard – and with the long steep, icy courses at Burke – it’s really hard at Burke. The average race times are about a minute, similar to a 400 meter run but on a track that changes every time, with surprise obstacles around every corner. Sounds fun right?

In these tough conditions, TA athletes persevered. Scored skiers on the Ladies side were, Maya Dixon (22), Bianca Pulaski (37), Sofia Harvey (45) and Ella Harvey (53). On the Men’s side: Hardy Payson (47), Isaac Yukica (48), Connor Gaine (52) and Tanner Hardy (59).

The second day of racing brought milder temps, but also some tired racers – they’d had a long day on the slopes and a lot of fun and laughs at the team ski house. The Slalom course at Burke is just as grueling as the Giant Slalom course and it’s an accomplishment just to finish it once…only to have to do it again. Many of TA’s top skiers had great runs going, only to falter down the stretch.

Scoring for the Ladies were: Alice Stirling (48), Willow Slayton (49), Sophia Harvey (50). On the Men’s side both Isaac and Hardy had great first runs but struggled on their second. The top scoring athletes for the Men were Elijah Renner (39), Tanner Hardy (43), Oliver Ransom (45), Isaac Yukica (47). The Thetford Ladies finished 9th out of 11 teams which is very respectable as most all of the other schools are Division I and II schools. The Men finished 12 out of 14 teams in a very strong field of division I and II schools.

It’s hard to believe another year is in the books. With 32 skiers on the high school and middle school teams, it was the largest team in recent history. The team trained 22 days at Storrs Hill, and raced a total of 10 days at 5 different mountains. We hosted and enjoyed the best Flannel Classic yet, consumed two giant bags of Sour Patch Kids, and had enough freshly baked cookies and milk from Amy fill our bellies every Thursday and at every race. It was a great year!

On a personal note, it’s been great to see so many underclassmen having fun and progressing, as they have big shoes to fill. Nine seniors will graduate from the Alpine Ski team this year. When they joined, these seniors inherited old ski team traditions (for example, the bus playlist has remained the same for nine years, with “Take on Me” by A-ha played every time we roll off the interstate and head up the hill to the Academy) but they’ve also made some new traditions to pass on to the next generation.

The team has kept the team’s “fun first” attitude and “skiing to the last chair on race day” traditions alive and made them stronger than ever. As coaches, it has been such a privilege to coach the Thetford Academy Alpine Ski team again this year, and although we will miss the graduating class of 2025, we are excited to support the next generation of skiers.

Coach Amy and Paul