Biz Markie’s, “Just A Friend”, and Tee Grizzley’s, “First Day Out”, are the songs Will Marsh ‘18 and the rest of the boys on the ski team scream at each other on top of the slopes to reach the mindset necessary for a clean, smooth, perfect run.

Marsh has a positive outlook regarding year’s state competition.

“We like to just send it as much as we can for the last race of the year. Regardless whether we beat them or not we are just going to try and have some fun. It is kind of a new experience but it is going to be great to have the whole squad up there at Schuss.”

The near-perfect runs that the team had at regionals are sending them to state competition at Schuss. However, this year will be monumentally different. For the first time in 11 years, the boys and the girls ski team will be competing.

The team dynamic has felt the impact of graduating some powerful seniors, but as Elizabeth Moore said, “this year we got a lot of new talent and talent we have got to perfect over the years, and we have really come together as a team more, supporting each other has made a really good atmosphere for skiing.”

The motivation to have both boys and girls teams at state seems to be factor in the creation of this year’s tight knit team. What can often be perceived as a individual sport, the ski team this year has a different attitude. “We all have our own roles and we have been focusing on more of a team aspect, we also try to be very welcoming to anyone who we think could help out the team,” Murphy Wynsma explains.

The general mentality of the ski team is the importance of working together.

“We are all super supportive. I raced last year as an individual, but it’s so much more fun this year because everyone lifts each other up and are there for eachother. We always are running jackets for each other and are constantly trying to help each other out,”  Annika Lampen said.

The state competition is a weekend long event where the time is filled on the hills, and for the seniors preparing for their last high school ski runs. Moore is excited to, “train Saturday and Sunday on the hills we race on” as well as “hanging out, waxing our skis, and getting ready for the race” with the team for the first and final time.

As the seniors say farewell to their high school skiing careers, freshmen are already looking ahead with excitement and anticipation for what next years will entail.

Anika Lampen is, “excited to grow as a team and next year it will just be freshman and a few sophomores so it’ll be really fun to see us get closer and get better.”

As spring approaches, the time on the slopes dwindles away for the ski team. Seniors wrap up their careers with fond memories of time spent with the close team, and the freshmen and sophomores look ahead to the many more action-packed moments with their teammates.