From our CEO-Peter Stokloza

• We are finally getting back to winter.  The mountain has continued to persevere in these difficult weather times and our athletes, coaches and parents have all stayed upbeat and focused.  This was the case with the great job our volunteers and competition staff did with the Alpine race held on Sunday at WV.  Congratulations on a job well done! I want to say a special congratulations to Tim Humphreys who garnered a Bronze medal in the Big Air contest at the World Junior Snowboard Championships in South Korea.  Way to go Tim we are all very proud of you!

• I mentioned the following in last years newsletter but I want to re-state it again this year. Many of the athletes and coaches are traveling and competing away from WV and as listed below continue to make us proud of them and their performances. We are all ambassadors of BBTS, WVA and Waterville Valley ski area when we travel, so others observe how we act on and off the hill. The thing that makes me most proud is when one of our athletes, coaches or parents is complimented on their behavior. Let’s all take that BBTS pride wherever we go!

• We have now reached the middle of the season.  Some of us are getting tired or frustrated, others are having the best season of their careers.  Athletes, coaches and parents have to make sure we are all in this together, having fun and giving it our best.  This is the time to continue to focus on your goals and to refine them if need be.  We are all one team at BBTS, snowboarders and skiers trying to achieve well established, realistic and achievable goals and having fun in the process.

• Let’s remember the ride down the mountain and not only the result.

• BBTS Pride!!!

Pete

From the Desk of the Headmaster-Gary Benedix

• To all, enjoy your February break.  See you next week!

From our Freestyle Director-Nick Preston

WVBBTS ECS and EQS Skiers – 4 Mountains, 600 miles, and 3 Days of Great Competition

• The whirlwind tour started at Killington, where under an inch of rainfall, Dylan Ferguson and Alex Martini went 1 and 2 in the USSA Halfpipe event. After a quick Laundromat stop in West Lebanon to dry out, the team spent a clear and moonlit evening at Whaleback for the Freestyle Friday Rail Jam. Again, Alex Martini took a 2^nd leading the team over numerous rail features, featuring a 450 off ride by Alex and Cam Riley’s 630 off, sparks flying, (but no cash!?).

• On to Loon on Saturday.

• Have I reported that Nessa Dziemian won a Mogul Event yet?? I like the broken record effect on Nessa. She’s a magnificent young mogul skier, again nailing down the mogul win with 21 points at her former home, Loon Mountain. Congratulations Nessa on your 3^rd win this season.

• Congratulations also to Kyle DeGrace for his 3^rd overall, Clayton Vila for his 6^th place, Cody DeGrace 7^th, Tyler Thistle 9^th and Cam Linares 10^th. % in the top 10 suits coach just fine!

• With Loon Air cancelled on Sunday, it was an early morning ride to Mt. Snow for a 3 hit Big Air event. Clayton Vila threw down a switch 5, cab 5 tail, and a misty 5 to take 2^nd overall. Kyle Keating threw 3 360’s with a variety of grabs for 4^th, and Nic Dziemian took 9^th with a series of 3’s.

• Good work team. It was well worth the road time. Congrats to you all.

          Nick Preston

From our Athletic and Alpine Director-Tom Barbeau

• We know WVBBTS has many talented alpine racers. I would like to mention some of the other feats our athletes do. Annie D’Elia and Eliza Cowie were members of the cast of the Musical Seussical. They performed at the Cultural Arts Center in Plymouth and they performed beautifully I might add. Congratulations! Brett Stein is not only a fine alpine racer-it turns out he is the number 1 telemark racer in the USA. At recent World Cup events in Norway, Brett was the top scoring US athlete. He is even a TV star in Europe as he appeared on Eurosport (like our ESPN). I am sure he will give you his autograph.

RESULTS:

• J5 Ladies Waterville Min-gate GS: Grace Glennon 1^st first run, 2^nd second run and 2^nd overall; Macaela Wright 2^nd, 1^st and 1^st; Chole Ewanouski 3^rd, 7^th and 6^th; Teagan Mosenthal 7^th, 6^th and 7^th; Jeanee Crane-Mauzy 8^th, 10^th and 8^th; Elena Tomlinson a 9^th.

• J5 Boys Waterville Min-gate GS: Henry Tomlinson 2^nd, 1^st and 1^st; Alexander Katz 3^rd, 6^th and 4^th; Jay Kraunelis 9^th and 8^th overall; Dan Lannan 10^th, 8^th and 9^th; Ryan Schmidt 9^th and 10^th overall.

• J4 Ladies Waterville Min-gate GS: Kerry Daigle 1^st, 2^nd and 1^st; Eliza Cowie 2^nd, 3^rd and 2^nd; Alice Anaastia 5^th, 8^th and 5^th; Lindsay Todaro 9^th and 9^th overall.

• J4 Boys Waterville Min-gate GS: Sam Macomber 1^st, 2^nd and 1^st; Garrett Quimby 2d, 5th and 4^th; Brian Mc Laughlin 4^th, 1^st and 3^rd; Peter French 5^th, 9^th and 7^th; Chase Ennis 6^th, 8^th and 8^th; Mike Sampson 7^th, 6^th and 6^th.

• J3
• Wildcat State SG – Nika Mosenthal 2^nd, Jayme Gough 3^rd, Kate Todaro 8^th, Flash Fallon 7^th, Ian Harris 8^th.

• Wildact Regional SG – Abby Fucigan 1^st, Jamie Crane-Mauzy 3^rd, Brennan Smith 1^st.

• Wildact State GS – Nika Mosenthal a 1st, Jayme Gough a 3^rd, Kate Finnocchiaro 14^th overall, Ian Harris 5^th, 7^th and 3^rd overall, Flash Fallon a 10^th, Will Glennon a 6^th and 8^th overall.

• Loon One Run GS – Abby Fucigna 2^nd

• ERS J3 Series – Abby Fucigan 5^th Slalom (with a fall and hike), 3^rd GS and 3^rd SG; Brennan Smith 10^th GS and 8^th SG (2^nd in the first run of the SL)

• J1/2

• Tec Cup SL Cannon – Mike Bresnahan 8th and Thomas Lampert 10^th.

• Mac Cup SL Loon – Kia Mosenthal 2^nd, Ashley Hawes 4^th, Ali Ewanouski 5^th, Maddy Packard 6^th and Katy Belanger 10^th

• Mac Cup SL Pats Peak - Ali Ewanouski 2^nd, Erin Fucigna 5^th, Maddy Packard 7^th and Katy Belanger 8^th,  and Ashley Hawes 9^th.     

A Few Words from our Head Moguls Coach Mike Macomber

• First I would like to start this letter off by expressing my apologies for having to cancel this weekend's Phil's Hill competition.  Some of you have seen the weather we have been receiving over the last week and personally I feel that the course we have now is unsafe for our athletes and we don't have enough snow to remake a new one in time. That being said your coaches are doing everything in their limited power to make the best of a rotten situation.

• With the bad news out of the way, time to get in to the good news!  Waterville had great success up in Mt. St. Anne this weekend with Tim Preston earning his third NOR AM win this year in Singles, and Kayla Snyderman earned her own place by cinching her second NOR AM win in Duals.  With these two results these great competitors are leading the NOR AM Grand Prix in Singles for the Men and Duals for the women.  In addition the rest of our team extends their finals streak with Kenna Nash qualifying for finals on Saturday, and Allie 'My Back Flip was too Big' Lee making her second finals in Duals.

• Regionally our athletes completed a wonderful weekend at Killington, despite some rain, and managed to finish with some personal bests!  Reed Snyderman finished 4^th on Saturday with a new personal best score of 22.8   and Henry Worobec finished 6^th with his personal best of a 22.5   In duals the ladies held their own against some stiff competition with Kiki Adams conceding 8^th after a disastrous fall on top air.  The Men Reed battled his way into 3^rd place losing only one dual all day!  Henry Worobec laid down a handful of successful runs but was beat out on the last few to finish 8^th place as well. 

• All in all the weekend was a great success, as most of them are, and the team is looking forward to some adventurous plans for the weekend.  We will keep you posted as to the plans and travels of our athletes and are doing everything in our power to ensure a safe and productive weekend next weekend at home! 

          Hope to see you soon!

          Michael Macomber

          Head Mogul Coach

A Few Words from our Head Freestyle Coach Jeremy Gasowski

WV Freeride Team at Breckenridge

• After a ridiculous travel day from Denver to Breck, the boys were set to compete in the Paul Mitchell AFT tour on the world famous Breckenridge Freeway Terrain Park.  Saturday was slopestyle and in their first day in the park the boys jumped well changing their runs to match the outrageous speed issues.  Coming out on top for WV was Andrew Hathaway who qualified for finals and ended up 6th ($500) right after TJ Schiller.
   

• Andrew's run:  Urail fs switch up 270out, cork 9 oppmute, cab 7 mute, cab cork nine mute.  All off 60+ foot jumps!!  Chuck Norris couldn't have done better.
   

• Sunday was halfpipe, and Mike Clarke didn't let 7 inches of snow and gusty winds distract him from reaching finals and placing 7th and winning $400 (he took Gaza out for dinner)!  The pipe was awesome and even with the lack of pipe training this year, Mike's skiing got better and better each run.  His first hit cork 9 opp mute was measured in at 10+ feet.
   

• Mike's run:  cork 9 oppmute, mute, 5 mute, allyoup 5 mute, 7 mute.  Again Chuck has nothing on Mike.
   

• Thanks, and good luck to all BBTS athletes!!

Gaza

From our Snowboard Director-Bill Enos

USASA RACE CRANMORE

• Two words for this weekend – Mackenzie Joyce -- aka Mac won both GS races at Cranmore this past weekend in the highly contested youth men age group (14-15). Mac had obviously turned his board into a lethal turning weapon that may have to be registered with the Government soon if he continues his winning ways. According to Anton, “there was a section of the course you could have kayaked down”

• USASA SLOPESTYLE CRANMORE

With over a 130 competitors, Saturday’s slopestyle turned into a long day on the slopes. Parents lined the sides of the course to watch what turned into a good event on a perfect day. Thank god! Our team had an awesome day winning in almost every division and even sweeping some. Nick Doucete – known to most as captian caveman finally came out of his cave for a win. Brandon Reiss tore up the field with a grand prix worthy run. Even when it started to get dark at the end of the day, Brett Pogoda’s outfit lit up the course so we could find our way home.

• For all the USASA race and slopestyle results check out usasa.org.

• WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS KOREA

Timmy Humphreys took home a bronze medal in the big air this weekend at Junior Worlds in Korea. Timmy continues a dream season.

• FORUM YOUNGBLOOD WV - SAT

The Forum youngblood at WV on Sat. had Cam Egan and Tanner Pendleton duping it out for the free trip to finals in California at the end of March. Tanner qualified first with Cam squeaking into finals. In the finals both boys had winning runs with Cam coming out on top for the win.

• BOARDING FOR BREAST CANCER – SUN.

• More rain- we really need it; the grass is starting to burn. This was a super low-key event for a good cause. Even though it poured we all had a really good time.

INJURED RESERVE:

Chrissy Corelli – fractured pelvis

Matt Conaty – out for 4 weeks bx crash

Get well soon guys – we miss you

WEEKS SCHEDULE

Tuesday-

-Sam will be taking a group of riders to the Aspen Open for the week. This event serves as a qualifier for the x-games.

-Riders not going to Aspen will be training at WV Tuesday and Wednesday

Thursday and Friday are days off for Academy school break.

·         Sat. Feb. 11^th – BX @ Ragged

Riders will meet between 8 and 8:30 in the loft of the base lodge for registration- The BX coach will be Anton and Adam Johnson with Chris as the GROMS coach. GROMS can ride right till 3 with coach Chris. There will be no official race coach at WV for the day, but if you are not racing we will still be able to put you in a group.

·         Sat. @ WV – Transworld event –please check wv web site for more info- this event serves as a qualifier for super park – older riders

Registration in base lodge

·         Sat. @ Loon Forum Youngblood event – please check Loon Mountain Web site for more info.  All riders

·         Sun. Feb 12^th  - GS and SL at Ragged

Riders will meet between 8 and 8:30 in the loft of the base lodge for registration- Anton and Glen will be there for inspection. If GROMS are racing please let one of the coaches know so they can run you through inspection. There will be no official race coach at WV for the day, but if you are not racing we will still be able to put you in a group.

• Sun. at Waterville there will be training in the Park all day

• Have a good week – please check our web site at wvbbts.org   Forum and Photos

Bill

Student Corner

• Clayton Vila is a second year member of the freestyle team at WVA.  He lives on Block Island in Rhode Island where he is a freshman at the Block Island School. 

• “Clayton, how big is the Block Island School?”

• “It’s a K-12 school with 140 students.”

• “So coming to Waterville Valley Academy with about 80 students at any one time is comparable size to attending your home school?”

• “Yes, it is a small school, but the class size is different.  At Block Island School there are nine students in my freshman English class.  At WVA, I am 1-on-1 in class with most of my teachers.  I am the only one in my English class with my teacher Mark Flynn.”

• “Do you find that helpful?”

• “I have a better understanding of the subject because I can ask my teacher right away when I have a question.  It’s a dialogue between my teacher and me.”

• “Clayton, to change the subject since we are sitting in Study Hall and smelling the lunch our new chef Susan Brunvand is preparing in the kitchen, how do you like the food in the WVA cafeteria? “

• “It’s a lot better than last year, a better variety and taste.  I like the beef and chicken burritos Susan makes and the lasagna, too.  She uses lots of fresh vegetables and meats in her cooking.”

• P$ interjects, “Susan is a great chef, isn’t she?  Everything she cooks turns out to be delicious.”

• “Clayton, have you participated in any exciting competitions this year?”

• “The J-April Cup was fun this year.  I competed in Big Air and Aerials.”