Story by Marc Meyers, sports information director
Photo by Dylan Bishop-Berry '09 (Winter 2008 issue)

The development of a UMF Alpine ski team received a boost this year when the program received a grant from the Libra Foundation, a Maine-based organization that has made significant contributions to worthy initiatives throughout the state.

(Left: UMF competitive ski co-captain Devin Gill '08 puts the hammer down during a practice run through GS gates at nearby Titcomb Mountain.)

“The Libra grant, combined with funds from UMF’s Student Senate, will allow us to launch expansion from a student-led club to a more competitive ski team with increased infrastructure and additional support for coaching,” said UMF Director of Athletics, Fitness and Recreation Julie Davis.

Supported by Student Senate, the Ski Industries Program and volunteer coach Harry Ricker, the team will continue to participate in the United States Collegiate Ski and Snowboard Association in the Reynolds (Alpine) and the Maine (Nordic) divisions.

The Reynolds Division is named after UMF Athletics Hall of Fame inductee Tom Reynolds, a longtime UMF coach and founder of the Ski Industries Program. Ricker helped develop the Reynolds and Maine divisions USCSA.

“We have had a student-led club for a number of years with a volunteer coach,” said Davis. “The grant has helped add more structure and more continuity. The developments of the team have paralleled the creation of the Maine divisions of the USCSA.”

The UMF men’s and women’s ski teams enjoyed much success in 2006-2007, the team’s third season of competition in the USCSA. Both teams won their respective Reynolds Division titles. Each also fared well at the USCSA Eastern Regionals with the men finishing seventh in the giant slalom, eighth in the slalom and qualifying for the Nordic nationals as a four-way team. The women placed eighth in giant slalom, but a crash in the slalom sent the squad to 13th place. Men’s skiers competed as skimeisters at the USCSA Nationals in Winter Park, Colo. In the Alpine competition, Farmington placed 12th at USCSA Nationals.

According to Ron Bonnevie '84, UMF Ski Industries head of coaches education, the Reynolds Division competes in western Maine, thereby reducing travel and providing opportunities for other colleges to access the region.

“UMF’s access to local ski areas is hard to beat,” Bonnevie said. “We have a great slalom hill five minutes from campus (Titcomb Mountain) for day and night training, with Sugarloaf, Saddleback, Black Mountain and Sunday River all less than an hour’s drive.”

The benefits of the ski team are too long to list according to Leigh Breidenbach '83, director of the UMF Ski Industries program. “We are a snow sports ski state and this Libra grant says we value those activities and consider it part of our heritage as Mainers,” she said. “At UMF, skiing is a passion as much as it is a sport. After graduation, the vast majority of our skiers stay in Maine. They are lifelong skiers, guaranteed.”